Adobe CS6 perpetual licensing issue

[andreas_5824]

Hi,

When moving CS6 to a new computer I deactivated the software before uninstalling. I then installed the software on the new computer and it worked. Now, after the summer, InDesign says on startup that my trial has ended.

When I try to attach the license it says:

"The serial number you entered has been revoked. This product cannot be licensed. Pleas contact Customer Support".

I did contact customer support by chat.

They started by trying to sell discounted creative cloud subscription based licensed. Maybe a good offer, but for the moment I'm good with the product we own. They then asked for my serial number which I gave to them and they confimed that the serial number was good. I asked why the Adobe software reports it has been revoked. They refused to answer any questins about CS6 because it is end off support and rI was referred to the community forum where they said many experts are available to help.

I did everything I could find on the comnunity forum and help pages. Uniinstalled, used Adobe clean tool, installed the software downloade from my account product page, installed from the original disc, enetered serial number when installing, installing trial and then entering serial number.

Nothing worked.

Contacted customer support again. Same thing played out as the first chat. And again they said that the community has many expoerts which can help on old software.

So, here I am. Anyone know how to resolve this issue?

The license does show on my adobe account. The acitvation menu says that no activations exists. I have the box and the disc on my desk.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks

[BobLevine]

Getting support for 12 year old software is going to be very difficult. You can contact Adobe again and insist on the case being elevated but I'd put the chances of getting this fixed at close to zero. I am assuming your new computer is not running Windows 7 which is the last version of Windows to have official support.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

CS6 works perfectly fine on Win10. 

If the S/N has been "blacklisted" / deactivated - I don't think anyone at Adobe will manually unlock it...

[andreas_5824]

Thanks for you respones.

Windows 10 is fine. I have used CS6 on windows 10 without any issues for many years. It works. The installation worked fins before the summer break.

About "blacklisted". I don't know what to believe. Installation says S/N is revoked. Adobe customer supports says S/N is good and the refuses to say anything more than that, and points to the community.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

By "is good" they probably mean that it's genuine. 

The fact that server refuses to accept it - for some unspecified reason - is a different story. 

[andreas_5824]

Okay, that's interesting. Do you think I can get more info out of support with a more specific question?

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Okay, that's interesting. Do you think I can get more info out of support with a more specific question?

By @andreas_5824

Don't think so. 

If you were a big corporation with 1000s of licenses - maybe... 

But then they would probably gave you a sweet deal on CC.

[leo.r]

When moving CS6 to a new computer I deactivated the software before uninstalling. I then installed the software on the new computer and it worked. Now, after the summer, InDesign says on startup that my trial has ended.

When I try to attach the license it says:

"The serial number you entered has been revoked..."

By @andreas_5824

I don't have any solution. But such a situation is common when you attempt to make any changes to license activations of software that's been unsupported for years. The licensing servers have been taken off life support, and their actions are unpredictable. I remember seeing workarounds posted by other users on how to revive CS6 installations, but there's also a chance you won't be able to do this.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

One of the workarounds - change date on the machine - to when software was still "supported". 

[BradCan]

Robert, I tried that as I have the same issue.  Sadly it still gave me the revoked message. I have the latest version of PS but a couple plugins only worked with CS6. Also CS6 had all the Pantone colors. Adobe used to have good customer service. GRRRR

[Scott Falkner]

Adobe’s customer service is us bozos with the “Community Expert” tag. It means we get a free license but have to show up here regularly to answer questions. It costs Adobe nothing and as a bonus, if we’re rude it’s not an Adobe employee so they don’t have to apologize.

[andreas_5824]

Oh, okay. Thanks for being upfront.

[leo.r]

 I have the latest version of PS but a couple plugins only worked with CS6. Also CS6 had all the Pantone colors. Adobe used to have good customer service. GRRRR

By @BradCan

I'm not sure if you're referring to InDesign or Photoshop plug-ins here, but are you sure there are no replacements or upgrades for those, or other solutions that replicate the plug-in functionality?

Also, there are workarounds to use Pantone in the current InDesign version. There are multiple discussions and other sources on this, for example:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/missing-pantone-coated-and-uncoated-colors-in-in...

[BradCan]

The company that made the plugins are no longer in business. I only use them rarely so not interested in purchasing again even if they were available. I do have CS6 still installed on a laptop so can access in that way, at least currently. Just very annoying. I understand not continuing updating old software but screwing people that purchased and denying them usage, is irritating. 

[Peter Spier]

I do have CS6 still installed on a laptop so can access in that way, at least currently.

By @BradCan

The only thing I can suggest is that you try imaging the other installation that is working and use it to overwrite the new install (which also happens to be the only way you can get the patches).

[andreas_5824]

Somehow I find it hard to believe that Adobe has licensing servers that they don't support.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Somehow I find it hard to believe that Adobe has licensing servers that they don't support.

By @andreas_5824

Why? They got their money for CS6 once - with CC they get their money every month... 

It's a new world - it has its pros and cons... 

You pay more - but you get more apps and updates are more frequent. 

They have to do more work - but get paid regularly. 

Servers for CS2 has been disconnected long time ago. 

[Peter Spier]

I've done some additional research and reached out to Adobe staff to see what the official word is on installing CS6.

A message that the serial number has been revoked most likely means that software was obtained (perhaps unknowingly) through some sort of fraud, typically by an online reseller who was selling volume license keys or out-of-region keys at deep discount.

IF you have a valid individual license for CS6 it should still work if the number of activations has not been exceeded.

PLease see this post by Adobe employee @Jeffrey_A_Wright : https://community.adobe.com/t5/download-install-discussions/activation-limit-reached-for-non-subscri...

and https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/invalid-revoked-serial-numbers.html

[Peter Spier]

If you are getting a revoked serial number message and believe it is in error you should go to the second link above and click on the chat icon which is supposed to connect you to a team that can resolve the issue. Good luck.

[kglad]

if you see an invalid serial number you either made an error when entering the number OR you have the wrong installer.  details:

assuming you're using a valid adobe serial number (6 groups of 4 numbers), you have a mismatch between your installation file and serial number. ie, you can have a valid serial number, but if it's for program A and your installation file is for program B, you will see an invalid serial number message.

common mismatches are language/region (eg, serial number is for western europe and installation file is eastern europe), platform (eg, serial number is for a mac and installation file is win), license type (eg, education vs enterprise vs individual). and one of the most common is using a program installation file with a suite's serial number. eg, using a cs6 suite serial number with a photoshop cs6 installation file. that won't work even though photoshop is included in that suite.

you must use the (correct) suite's installation file (and you can choose to only install one program from the suite). here's official info about that error, http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/error-serial-number-valid-product.html