P: Unusual Account Activity Detected popup in Photoshop

[Darrell Stokes]

My partner is getting this modal popup blocking her activity in Photoshop v 25.5—but not in any other CC apps. It feels like a phishing scam, but could just be a bad design. She didn't follow the links (Learn more and Sign out) in the modal. She has deactivated access on other machines, and deleted and reinstalled Photoshop. The message still appears.

Has anyone else seen this before?

[JadeDuhKiss]

I ran through the solution and every possible "IT Crowd" solution in between and ...Unfortunately, I am still getting the red bar of death, I guess I'll wait the 24-hour span, but this is discouraging. 

I understand that there might be folx out there who abuse and password share but, I've always used my Adobe Access App/2-step verification, because sometimes it's just easier to snag from my cloud, than cycle through my Mac Mini, picking it back up on my Windows Desktop and then back to my Laptop.  I've never had any issues and have always deactivated one (usually my Laptop).  In a world right now where freelance is hard to come by, passing up on some projects because Adobe hasn't resolved this issue has me seeing Red. Literally. 

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@JadeDuhKiss the explanation I got was people were getting flagged because they have multiple instances active/running at the same time. It could be that one of your instances was still up when you switched machines. The situation should resolve within 24 hours if you signed out of all three installs , removed the devices in your account on Adobe.com, then changed your password.

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Thanks @Kevin Stohlmeyer !

@Darrell Stokes , @JadeDuhKiss and others please see our new featured post in the Download and Install Community at https://community.adobe.com/t5/download-install-discussions/sharing-your-individual-adobe-membership... where the topic of sharing an individual membership is discussed.

My apologies for any confusion that this has caused. Please see the section titled, "Why did Adobe notify me of unusual account activity?," in Understanding Adobe's policy on account sharing for more information about the error message in the original post of this discussion.

[DavidLloydImageworks]

Look... I cannot speak for others, but I over the last week I have heard others state the same experience that I have had. This has absolutely NOT been the case for many of us that we are attempting to share, attempting to use more than 2 computers at a time. 

I exclusively use adobe account app to log in to my subscription. I am careful to log out a subscription in the VERY rare case I need to use a 3rd computer (only when I am testing adobe beta software on my PC laptop) I had not logged into my subscription on ANY other computer than my studio Mac for well over a month when this started happening. This only happened in Photoshop. I have a subscription to full CC, Substance and Stock. 

I have been a legal customer since 1992 and I was made to feel like a criminal by adobe staff when I contacted customer support to deal with this. I immediately logged out all instances through the adobe account page and changed my password (which I never use because I use the Adobe account app) and still had this countdown of being cut off for another 5 days. This pop up came up all the time during the day including during client work sessions and caused issues with my clients trust. 

The 2 links that you state address people that are doing suspicious things. Most of the people here in this tread were to my knowledge, like me, NOT doing suspicious things... Accidentally or on purpose. 

The continuing lack of addressing the trauma that has been caused by Adobe in this and pass it on to our behavior is unconscionable. 

[Lumigraphics]

Bit dramatic, don't you think? Its all just ones and zeros. And for the record I'm a working pro who uses Photoshop for hours each day so I get it.

[DavidLloydImageworks]

um... dramatic? Tell me, what is it that you get? This did not effect you. This did not come up in front of your client. you were not made to feel like a criminal by Adobe staff and then told that it is your problem for A WEEK while notices informed you that you would be cut off, on deadline.

Why are you even here? Why are you casting ablist judgments on things that in your words "you are one of the lucky ones"? As a professional, You will understand that the 1's and 0's are in the dollar signs for the many unbillable hours that I have spent dealing with this and being told that it is my problem and must be because I am sharing my account.

[Darrell Stokes]

I appreciate the information, but it's not actually helpful. My partner and, it seems, most people here who are experiencing this problem, have never shared their accounts with anyone else, and have worked within Adobe's policies for computer activations. Yet this problem has been interrupting their work for weeks now. This appears to be a bug on Adobe's end, not user error.

[K D S]

Yes ive gone through that process.

[gener7]

It sure is an unusually complicated issue and one thing I'm learning is that some earlier versions are not affected by this bug. Is that the case and can you fall back on those?

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Darrell Stokes its not that users are "sharing" their accounts - apparently what triggered this was your account was installed on more than one machine and PS was launched while still open on another machine...

It has to do more with what was actively running rather than just installed.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Darrell Stokes did you get the same message 24 hours after you compelted the process?

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

@DavidLloydImageworks we were trying to reach you about case ADB-33515493-T0H1. The case has closed because we did not receive a response. Please bookmark https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/customer-support-portal.html which provides information on how you can review and interact with your recent support cases.

@DavidLloydImageworks please click on https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?rghtup=autoOpen to begin a secure new support case with a member of our support team per the advice under the section, "Why did Adobe notify me of unusual account activity?," so we can continue to work with us directly to resolve any licensing errors. 

I would also recommend checking your spam folder, the most recent message was sent on March 11th.

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

@Darrell Stokes I am sorry for any inconvenience this has caused for you and your partner. Please click on https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?rghtup=autoOpen to begin a secure chat session with a member of our support team.

For more information on why you are encountering this error message, please see the section titled, Why did Adobe notify me of unusual account activity? inhttps://helpx.adobe.com/manage-account/using/policy-account-sharing.html#notification.

[Darrell Stokes]

When the problem began, Photoshop wasn't running on the other computer associated with her account. Perhaps the last time she quit Photoshop she didn’t have an internet connection, so the server thought it was still running? Not sure.

But once she’d checked the other machine and made sure it was not running, and the server got the message that it wasn’t running, the warning should have ceased. She was on the phone with Adobe for 2 hours and they couldn’t solve the problem. Only later did they announce this workaround.

I call it a workaround because it isn’t a solution. The user experience: I’m allowed to activate Photoshop on two machines, but if I forget to quit it on one machine (which is shut down or asleep when I open Photoshop on the other) I’m required to change my password, open the other machine, and not just quit Photoshop but sign out of my Adobe account—and the warning I get doesn’t tell me any of this. In my opinion, that's user-hostile and should be fixed.