Unable to validate serial number of LR6

[Samstru]

Hello, 

I need to reinstall my softwares on another Mac running MacOS Mojave and I am hitting troubles validating my paid version of LR6. I kept the installers of all my versions of LR (3.0, 5.0, 5.7, 6.0) and started from there. The installation process runs smoothly until it asks to check my product key. I enter it and it then says "please connect to the internet and retry". I am connected to the internet, that is not the issue. If I hit "connect later", it pretends installation is successful, but then when I try to launch LR6, it simultaneously launches Adobe Application Manager and display a "Sign in required" window. I sign in, accept the licence terms, and then comes back the "please connect to the internet to validate your serial number", and LR6 never launches. So it's circular.

I was advised to try the Offline Activation to generate a Request Code, but at no time during the installation process I see the link "I cannot connect to internet" or "Having trouble connecting to the internet", so I am stuck on that side too, I cannot register offline... 

Of course my licence is registered on the Adobe website (and LR6 is installed on another of my laptops), this is not the issue either.

Since I also have older versions of LR, I tried to install those and both LR5.0 and LR5.7 installed correctly. Thus the problem is specific to LR6.0.

Could you please help me with this issue? 

Thanks

[dj_paige]

Check to make sure your firewall is not blocking LR 6.

[Samstru]

Thanks dj_paige, but how do I check that? 

[dj_paige]

I can't answer more specifically, I don't have a Mac.

[mikecanonbury]

Did Samstru ever get beyond the problem of not being able to validate LR6? I am having an identical issue. I have been happily using my perpetual licence bersion of LR6 on my Macbook Pro until today. Suddenly I am asked to validate by entering my product key. No problem - I have the key in front of me. But it says 'Please connect to the internet to validate your serial number' when I AM connected to the internet! I just can't get beyond this window. At no point do I have an opportunity to enter the code. So I am locked out of LR6. What's going on and how do I get beyond this nonsense?

[dj_paige]

As stated above, please make sure your Firewall is not blocking Lightroom 6 or the Creative Cloud Application.

[mikecanonbury]

I have no idea what you mean by making sure my firewal isn't blocking LR6. I was using LR6 an hour ago. Stopped to eat, and now can't get back to LR6 because of this 'connect to the internet' issue to validate the serial number. I AM connected to the internet and I haven't changed any settings on my Mac that might have erected a firewall between me an LR6.

[dj_paige]

Something changed that should not have changed, and for which there is no obvious explanation. You can investigate. Or not.

[Samstru]

Hi Mike, 

No, I have never been able to solve it and apparently no one could really help me here. I tried to install, uninstall, reinstall, etc. it never worked. It looks like it has something to do with Adobe Application Manager because every time I tried to launch LR6, AAM would launch simultaneously and block the process... In my case, which is different that yours of course, I could re-install my older LR5 without problem, probably because it is not as tightly linked to AAM as LR6 is. I would have accepted to go back to LR5 in last resort, but I then discovered a LR6 catalog cannot be saved in a way that would be compatible with an earlier version of LR (even Acrobat files can be saved with compatibility options, so it's ridiculous that LR can't). So at the end I said enough, I purchased ON1 Photo Raw 2022, and said goodbye to Adobe...

Did you upgrade your OS recently? Some people report that after an upgrade to Catalina or Big Sur, LR6 would stop working after a little while. Hope you'll find a solution because if you didn't upgrade your OS, your issue seems even more ridiculous than mine and really ressembles planned obsolescence...   

[DdeGannes]

See if the following info can assist in receiving your issue.

Lightroom 6, license key application had a unique registration procedure, which was not used in earlier versions 1-5, it was mandated that you had to register and activate with the license key.

Two units could be activated at any point in time, exiting or closing the application did not deactivate.

To deactivate a unit you had to sign in to your Adobe a/c via the Internet. If a unit crashed, got lost, sold or stolen it would still show as activated in your Adobe a/c and it would necessitate contacting Adobe to deactivate.

If you are going to uninstall a unit you need to deactivate first as it will still show as activated in your a/c if has not been deactivated.

It is possible to have multiple installations of Lr 6 but only two concurrent activations.

Adobe discontinued official support around the end of 2018 and the last update to the application was December 2017.

Just some general info.

[DdeGannes]

I am thinking out of the box here, check which version of Lightroom is running on your computer. Make sure it shows as Lightroom 6.xx and not Lightroom 2015 CC. Both versions had the same installation package and could be activated as a subscription or as a perpetual license key.

What you are experiencing appears to suggest that Adobe is trying to validate the subscription.

Did you ever run a trial version of syncing to the Cloud with Lightroom 2015 CC?

You can also check your applications folder to see if you have more than one Lightroom applications installed.

[DdeGannes]

Have you by chance created more than one Adobe ID with different e-mail addresses?

The e-mail address you used to register and activate your license key for Lr 6 will be the user name you will need to use to validate the key.