MS Windows 11 CS5 cannot be re-activated

[Norbert36303055srrg]

I have updated my computer with Windows 10 and installed CS5 to windows 11. Now it shows that CS5 must be re-activated because there is an existing activation on another computer.

[dj_paige]

Wrong forum. This is the Lightroom Classic forum.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Hi @Norbert36303055srrg the only option you have with CS5 now is to deactivate prior to reinstalling CS5.

You can try doing the steps outlined in this page, but if it fails or notes you've exceeded your activation limit, there is nothing we or Adobe can do for such old software:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/start-installer-downloading.html

[sebastian_2780]

Have you found a solution for this? I cannot activate my CS5 on a new computer too. Activation limit has reached, and support says that the activation servers for this software have been shut down. So deactivation on old computers and activation on new ones do not work...

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

If you have an Activation limit message you are out of luck. As you found out Cust Care will no longer extend activation or remote deactivate CS5.

[JeaninesCS5]

I may have already asked this...but, should I do Suspend Activation or Deactivate Permanently.   When I went in to 'Activate' and entered my serial number it said the serial number was already in use.  I concerned if I 'deactivate permanently' it'll be gone forever; but, I guess it already is if I can't print from my CS5.  

I would appreciate a confirmation to 'deactivate permanently' before I do that though.  

Thanks SO MUCH....

Jeanine

[lprs]

I am pretty sure "deactivate permanently" will kill your activation (s). Only do that if you have only activated cs5 on 1 device, and ever had on that device, and have not changed hardware of that device.

Support told me to deactivate on my laptop, to be able to install cs5 on my desktop after upgrading hardware without deactivating first.

I followed that advice from the support but after that could neither activate cs5 on my updated desktop, nor on my laptop. So the activation counter is broken and Adobe states support is end of life for cs5.

So I started a fight with them, because even after I could not use cs5 anymore AT ALL because of what support told me, they still wanted to only grant me CC within a couple of months free of charge.

In the end after a long debate, always telling the same Blabla, they finally gave me a new serial!

You need next level support in that case, tier 1 support only tries to sell CC to you, no matter your problem.

Look at my profile, unfortunately I could not reply to my other comments anymore.

[JeaninesCS5]

Well, I did the Deactivate Permanently; and, it won't install at all now.  Has the 'runtime' error.  When I go into 'Register a Product' is says my serial number is already in use.  But, when I go to another site it says I have no activated devices.  

Any ideas....or...SOL

Thanks,

Jeanine

[lprs]

Bad luck.

U can either start an unnerving fight, where they tell U 100 times it's out of live and in exchange offer a discount on CC for a couple of month (Adobe REALLY wants you to go CC) but nevertheless continue the fight and repeat what you want over and over as if talking to some stubborn child.

I personally think I was lucky a support member told me to deactivate my cs5 on my laptop to be able to activate it on in my upgraded desktop after which activation did not work at all anymore. But I am not sure.

Oh, I just bought Affinity suite on black Friday, gonna check that out.

[D Fosse]

@JeaninesCS5 

The runtime error is unrelated, it has nothing to do with activation. It may be because it's 14-year old software on a modern operating system-?

Likewise, registration is unrelated to activation. Those are different things. If it's already registered, there's no need to do it again - and in any case there's no point since all support has ended long ago. Even if it could be registered now, which is not certain.

In short - this is ancient software. All kinds of glitches can happen. If you want to freeze software at an old version, you also need to freeze the whole environment. Otherwise it moves on.

[Ged_Traynor]

@Norbert36303055srrg sounds like you have reached your activation count limit, if you didn't deactivate CS5 before installing it on Windows 11 you're out of luck, Adobe no longer resets activation counts for older perpetual products

[Tomasz6C12]

This is not true. I have exactly the same problem, the same error The activation limit for Adobe Creative Suite 5 web premium has been reached on windows 11. But this message lies as much as Adobe support. I installed Adobe Creative Suite 5 web premium on the Windows 7 operating system, there is no error message. I can work with this program without any problems. So this is not true with this number of activated licenses. . .

[Ged_Traynor]

@Tomasz6C12 if you got it to work, consider yourself lucky, Photoshop CS5 has been out of support for many years, we as forum volunteers can only report what we know about the current situation!

[D Fosse]

I have no idea how that was possible, it shouldn't be. Maybe it was previously installed on the same hardware.

In any case, the two allowed activations was always a hard limit. There were no exception to that, ever. But previously it was possible to reset activation counts in case of crashed drives etc. That is no longer possible, so the only way now is to deactivate one to activate another.

[Tomasz6C12]

This is a different computer. I will add something even better, the second activated copy works on the Windows 7 virtual machine, of course, when the computer is turned off, the virtual machine works. In Windows 7, if I click the deactivate option in CS5, the copy is deactivated, but I still cannot activate it in Windows 11. In the case of Windows 7 CS5, it works without any problems, but in Windows 10 and Windows 11 it does not. I suspect this is a standard Adobe procedure or a way to force you to purchase a subscription. Even when I contacted support, the consultant did not want to reset my activation. I had the impression that he wanted to sell me subscriptions. It seems that consultants do not want or cannot help in activating old versions of Adobe CS

[lprs]

After changing mainboard and other components I also could not activate my cs5 anymore. I just found out I had to log out. But now I even can not open the software anyway after end of life.

Now trying to install on my old laptop, with a lot of luck that still counts as one of those devices I had the software installed on.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@lprs doubtful - old activation services don't indentify machines, etc. they just know counts of activations.

[lprs]

yeah... https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/cs5-activation-serial-number-error/m-...

[lprs]

I still had cs5 installed and activated on the old laptop, now I haven´t anymore, lol.