Adobe Application Manager "unable to contact Adobe"

[ejwn]

Hi,

Adobe Application Manager was working just fine, but a recent update stopped it connecting to the Internet. Starting it up, I get the "Please sign in with your Adobe ID" message. I enter my details, and get the error "Unable to contact Adobe. Please connect to the internet and try again".

I have Creative Suite CS6 activated and installed and am in a corporate proxy environment. IT do not allow exceptions. Other applications prompt for the proxy user credentials and have no problems accessing the Internet. Strangely, AAM also prompts for credentials, but cannot access the Internet. It was able to download updates just fine until this latest update.

Any suggestions? Or is this just another example of Adobe's patchy support for corporate proxy environments?

Many thanks in advance

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Edit - I should specify I was trying to download Edge Animate and the link appears to fire up a slightly different instance of AAM - one that requires signing in with my Adobe ID first.

[Santhosh__J]

Please check the Host files, and search for  127.0.0.1 activate.adobe.com and delete it.
Please disable the Firewall and Anti-virus.

[ejwn]

Thanks for your suggestions, but the Host file has no entries (can I ask how that line would appear in the host file?).

Disabling Windows firewall and the antivirus had no effect. Any other suggestions most appreciated.

[lauraspainuk]

I'm having the same problem. Did you find a solution? I just spent two hours with a Adobe tech in live chat and went through everything with no solution. He/She said they would refer it to a senior level and i would be contacted via email.

[Jeff A Wright]

Lauraspainuk please see Sign in or activation errors | CS6, CS5.5 Subscriptions, CS6 Perpetual - http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-network-issues.html.  Beyond that are you on a managed network or are you a home user?

[ejwn]

I did find a solution, actually, but you aren't going to like it. The only way I could install Edge Animate was to physically move my desktop computer out of the corporate authenticated proxy environment. I had to take it home.

Jeff, that link might be useful for some, but wasn't for me. There were no network issues, and the product was activated (though I had to activated it offline as the activation software, too, can't deal with an authenticated proxy environment).

I find it really odd that most of the Adobe software quite happily prompts for credentials and accesses the Internet just fine, but certain critical components STILL fail miserably. These corporate environments are hardly a new thing!

[Jeff A Wright]

Ejwn from your latest post it appears you are in managed environment.  Please contact your I.T. department to make sure they aware of the issues you faced.  It may be that they need to update the applications which are allowed to access the Internet through the proxy server.

[ejwn]

I am in a large managed environment - you're right. Exceptions are not allowed. I guess it really comes down to this - why is 90% of the Adobe software able to correctly handle this environment, but AAM and activation cannot?

[Jeff A Wright]

It depends on how your environment is secured.  It would appear that currently the Adobe Application Manager is not allowed access.  This will cause issues with any subscriptions you attempt to use as well as activating the perpetual versions of our software.

Proxy servers not only allow certain credentials to be given access to certain sites but they can also only allow authorized applications to access the Internet as well.  It is even possible that your environment can be locked down to allow only certain type of requests to the Internet to be authorized.  You may be able to download updates for example but might still face problems when trying to activate the software.

We do have a solution for volume license customers who are in secured environment.  It is possible to deploy a volume license pre-activated into the secured environment.  This option though is only available for volume license customers using our perpetual products.

[ejwn]

Activation isn't really an issue for us, since the offline activation method offers us a workaround.

Thanks for this explanation, Jeff. It is very unlikely AAM would specifically be blocked (other very obscure applications can connect just fine), but I'll follow up with IT just on the off-chance.

[lauraspainuk]

I am using it from home but thank you for the reply and am pleased you found a solution

[rob_ashcroft]

I just experienced this problem when trying to install CC. It turned out to be a copy of MacAfee Anti Virus Scanner that just seems to have loaded itself. I wouldn't have loaded it as I laready have Norton. I removed MacAfee and I can now access the AAM