CS5 de-activation

[juz8099]

I'm installing CS5 on my new pc and got error, activation limit. PS is already activated on 2 other devices. Those pc's are long gone, formatted and sold.

I'm looking for advice on support, they point me to forum. I read forum, they point you to support. I'm being balled around. Support says 

"I would like to inform you that we don't manage activations as well as deactivations of the perpetual Licenses from our end. Being an owner of your perpetual licenses you only can manage deactivations and activations from your end"

How the heck am I supposed to de-activate them my self? I dont have access to those pc's anymore. Support don't have ability to deactivate my old product? I'm not buying that. They're saying no-can-do and are trying to sell me their new subsriptions too on the same breath. Every time on chat.

Am I screwed now and forced to buy new photoshop? (certainly not any kind of subs.based software!) Is this how support is treating their customers nowadays?

[D Fosse · Accepted solution]

Adobe will no longer reset activation counts. This means that if you can't deactivate on the old machines yourself, there's nothing you can do, and the license is for all intents and purposes expired.

Sorry, not my decision, this is just how it is now.

(To be fair, this is fifteen year old software. I don't think I have anything fifteen years old that still works).

[juz8099]

(To be fair, this is fifteen year old software. I don't think I have anything fifteen years old that still works).

By @D Fosse

So what? It's perfectly good version and nothing wrong with it. See, this is what's wrong with software/game/any modern tech industry. If it's more than few years old, trash it and stop support, force people buy new stuff. Most ridiculous and obvious scam is that everything is turning into subscription based. Software and games should Not be like that! Its like having music CD on my shelf and paying rent for it every month. Sounds reasonable? Most shameless and obvious cash-grab scam there is. I'd rather install my good ol Photoshop 7.  Only reason I upgraded to cs5 was that I wanted to have content-fill tool. I guess It's time to go back.... Until I find something that's not made by adobe... I'm done.

Thank you for answer.

[Ged_Traynor]

@juz8099 there's plenty of free/paid for Photoshop alternatives out there, just do a Google search

[claus16B8]

I totally agree with you. It is NOT right that we have to consume as much as possible every day and products that we have paid for is no longer ours to use.

It`s a sad world.

[mikev14392618]

Hello to this group.  I think I have backed myself into a corner with the 'help' of the Customer Support line.  The tech support were very nice people but referred me here as they are 'not trained to help' on no longer supported software.  My partner is 76, disabled, and spends his day taking pictures and editting them in Photoshop CS5 (and really enjoys the content aware feature).  He is cognitively impaired, not able to learn new software, and barely hanging on to his knowledge of CS5.  Our XP hard drive crashed recently, was not recoverable, and had a copy of CS5 that was not used.  He used the version on Windows 10 machine.  So bought a Windows 11 machine, had Windows 10 hard drive copied to Windows 11, installed from CS5 .exe and thought all was great.  Then got the activation error messages.  So called Customer Care, who explained CS5 no longer supported, could not help, told to go to Adobe Community, suggested problem was the XP copy making number 3, so needed to remove deactivate uninstall CS5 from Windows 10 machine.  I uninstalled, but that did not register and activation on Windows 11 still failed.  I reached end of activation tries on Windows 11, which then tells me I have to de-activate the other copy by running CS5, clicking Help, then De-activate.  A bit too late for that info as already had uninstalled from Windows 10.  So I look at the forum and find "If you can’t access your old computer, you can deactivate your apps from your Adobe account."  So I call Customer Care, they help me get into my partner's Adobe Account, which shows NO ACTIVATED DEVICES.  So I cannot delete the association to allow installation of Windows 11 to persist.  Can anyone help with this situation.  I have destroyed the one thing my partner enjoys doing unless I can salvage our 'perpetual' license or can find a workable CS5 out on internet to purchase.  I wonder if CS5 Extended is similar enough to CS5 for him to be able to navigate it.  Thanks for any help toward resolving my situation.  Regards, Mike's partner Laura

[davescm]

@mikev14392618 As you found uninstalling is not the same as deactivating. You could try re-installing on your old machine and see if that allows you to deactivate. If not, unfortunately, there is nothing anyone here can do.
You mention CS5 Extended, that has not been on sale since 2012. Any copies on the internet are likely to be pirated and full of malware. I would avoid them at all costs.

 
Dave