Photoshop CS6 De-activation.

[Rob Heber]

I bought Photoshop CS6 back in 2013 while I was attending college to get my degree in photography. Since then, I have upgraded computers a couple of times. Each time I upgraded my computer, I completely wiped the old system, so there were no copies of Photoshop left on an old computer. My most recent upgrade was about a year ago. When I installed Photoshop on the new computer I had no problems with the registration / install serial key. It has worked just fine up until about a week ago when windows did an update. Ever since the update Photoshop started saying it was not a valid copy and that my license key had reached the limit of computers. When I called Adobe, they told my I should have de-activated Photoshop on the old computer before installing it on the new one. I had no idea I was supposed to "de-activate" it, and still don't even know how I would have done that. Like I said, I formatted the HDD, and everything was wiped from the old computer when I upgraded. I informed them of the situation, and they basically said, sorry, nothing you can do about it. REALLY? It's not even a matter of having to pay for a subscription, I am currently paying for a subscription, but I am a creature of habit and just really like my old CS6, and I paid good money for it. It's rediculous that I can pay for software that was supposed to be licensed for lifetime, yet the company decides they want to make more money and lock me out of something I fully purchased. That is criminal in my opinion. Sorry, I just soooo loved Lightroom and Photoshop, but now I suppose I have to try and find something else because I just can't see giving my business to a company that has no problem with stealing from their customers and being rude about it on top of it all.

[eatyourglory]

That's very strange. When I had that issue it just deactivated on the other computers automatically (mind you that these were separate computers in my sistuation).

[D Fosse]

@eatyourglory CS never deactivated automatically. But you had two allowed activations, so the second one would just activate. A third wouldn't work unless you deactivated one of the others.

[Rob Heber]

I doubt that even if there was a process for automatically deactivating that it would have done it. As stated, I merely wiped the old computer, OS and all, and I don't see how the software would "know" that had been done. I just assumed that since they could tell it had been activated on a previous computer, that they could also tell that it was no longer in use once it was erased, but that's what I get for assuming.

[D Fosse]

@Rob Heber  There was a "Deactivate" option in the Help menu, which is what you used to free up the activation so that it could be activated on another machine. This was never a secret and it was well published and well known.

[Rob Heber]

I don't doubt that it was not a secret, nor that it was well published, but it was not "well known" to me. I am old, and was always used to just formatting my HDD on an old machine to remove any duplicate copies of software when upgrading.  Maybe I was foolish for not knowing about de-activating, maybe not as informed as I should have been, but that doesn't change the fact that I mistakingly did not de-activate when upgrading computers, and don't deserve to have software that I paid for be taken away from me because I missed a step in a process I didn't even know exists. The part that really gets me is the company just saying, nothing you can do about it.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Rob Heber you can resolve your issue using your account page on Adobe.com:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/activation-limit-reached-creative-cloud.html

[D Fosse]

That's for Creative Cloud, where you can sign out remotely.

The OP has CS6, where you couldn't.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@D Fosse Whoops sorry wrong link. Adobe supplied two - one for CC and one for Perpetual licenses like CS6:

https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/error-activation-limit-reached-sign.html

[davescm]

That link is still no help if you no longer have the old PC to reinstall the app then de-activate it. If the old PC crashed and is replaced, or has had a MB/OS replacement then the advised steps cannot be carried out.

Dave

[Rob Heber]

I appreciate the attempt to help, but davescm is right, this doesn't help because the old computer is long gone, that's kinda the point of upgrading. I do appreciate you trying to be helpful though, thanks.

[Ged_Traynor]

Adobe have stopped staff from been able to reset the activation count, so if you can't deactivate it on the old PC you're out of luck, it's goodbye to your expensive purchase.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-bugs/how-can-i-de-license-an-installed-copy-if-th...

[D Fosse]

I have to be honest. What has always surprised me is how some people take the term "perpetual" at face value, literally; refuse to update further, even after twelve years! and still expect the software to run forever as if nothing ever happened.

Back when we all had "perpetual" licenses, it was understood that you had to purchase the upgrade licenses along the way, just to keep afloat in the business. OK, you could skip one upgrade, but not two.

So there was never any such thing as a "perpetual" license. It lasted until everybody else had upgraded, leaving you behind. Then you had to pay up to stay in the game.

[Rob Heber]

So, according to your logic, if you purchase a car, and are still driving it 20 years later, the manufacturer should be able to come along and remove the engine since you should have bought a newer, more fuel efficient, safer, etc... model by now? I think there's a name for that ... oh, yeah, communism.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Rob Heber In the end, we are trying to get answers for these kinds of situations especially when the original computer is no longer accessible. Adobe has been changing policies faster than we can keep up and it's a fluid situation at best. Hopefully we'll have some solutions for you soon.

[Rob Heber]

Thank you Kevin, I appreciate that!