Photoshop CS6 Subscription Activation Question

[Dentrassi42]

Hi,

I was wondering if it is standard behaviour for my PS CS6 subscription to require me to log in to Activate the licence EVERY time I use it? I thought that one it was activated, PS only checks the Activation every 30 days. Once I log in the activation works fine, however if for any reason my internet connection was not available, it would seem that I would not be able to use my copy of PS.

I realise that that would happen even if the check was every 30 days, but that would only be a possible issue once a month, not every day!

Thanks,

Mark

[Guest]

Yes we are different people. I am Alan Boyle in the UK and have had an ongoing activation problem with CS6 for over 3 months. I happened across this thread and thought I would point out that the issue is now being looked at by adobe engineering. While the community might come up with a solution, my experience is that they won't and those of us affected need to wait for adobe to sort it out.

Alan

[Guest]

I got this in an email from adobe on Tuesday 18 Sep: "They say the issue may be with the WMI process. So would request you to check the WMI service." I asked by return  how I should  check the WMI service, but have had no response. Any ideas here?

Alan

[d_swiger]

Alan,

Don't know what the WMI process is but will investigate.

I still have an open chat ticket with them but not really interested in purseuing the tack they have been taking.

Looked up WMI process, means Windows Management Instrumentation.

No clue if I need to halt the process during entry of security key or what.

Thanks for the update

[Noel Carboni]

WMI == Windows Management Instrumentation.

Something to check:

• Click Start and type services.msc in the search box and press Enter.

• When the Services window opens, expand it as needed, and scroll down to the Windows Management Instrumentation entry.

• What is the Status for that service?  It's normally Started.

-Noel

[d_swiger]

Yep, mine is started. I found it earlier in Task Manager as well.

Dan Swiger Photography

www.danswigerphotography.wordpress.com

www.danswigerphotography.com

[Guest]

Noel & Dan

Mine is started. I just thought there might be something more than that to check than that…

Thanks

Alan

[d_swiger]

Been living with my CS5 for a while just to get work done but getting ready out of frustration to try an Admin install as the chat-support has recommended.

Then I came across this on  http://indesignsecrets.com/indesign-cs6-trials-and-tribulations-with-licensing.php  , dated from early July.

"I’ve actually been talking to Adobe about this. It has to do with having multiple versions of Adobe apps on your system. Each time I launch a CS5 licensed product, it will reset my CS6 license. It’s a pain and they are aware of it and are working for a solution."

Sot this means Adobe KNOWS about this licensing mess & still choses to make users go through the trial & error nonsense with there help line.  So this is the second indication that their engineering teams are "aware of something" but still nothing being done about this.

I have on my system, both CS3 & CS5. When I chose to install CS6, I uninstalled the CS3 but thought it prudent to leave CS5 in place for a variety of reasons.  I find it very hard to believe that Adobe didn't take in to account that users would have a earlier licensed version on the same computer.  That certainly wasn't part of any installation instructions!

Now, since I have Acronis images of whatever flavor of my system I want, I uninstall all my CSx apps, losing of course my plug-ins, and setups, to try this out. Just seems to be more than annoying that the customer is having to vett & test their new licensing scheme.

End of rant... I will probably do just that & try to see if I can get it to work with a CS6 alone installed.

Dan

[Guest]

"I will probably do just that & try to see if I can get it to work with a CS6 alone installed."

Dan, that was one of the things I tried - scorched earth policy. I reformatted my hard drive, reinstalled windows 7 64 bit, reinstalled CS6. It worked fine....

until the following morning. Give it a go yourself and see what happens. Maybe it will work for you.

BTW, I have had no replies to my last 3 emails over the last 10 days to the contact at adobe dealing with my case.

Alan

[SG...]

Hi Dan,

First my apologies to you and Alan that this hasn't been resolved for you yet. I'm not directly involved with licensing so my knowledge and direct help only goes so far.

Concerning the indesignsecrets post, that talks directly to the problem discussed in the link I posted in #4: http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/trial--1-launch.html

There was a bug in the AAM application that was fixed, and should make CS5 and CS6 subscription licensing coexist.

I'm going to forward this thread to see if I can get you better assistance. Is the case number you gave earlier still open? Or do you have any open cases covering this problem?

regards,

steve

[SG...]

Hi Alan,

Again, sorry for your ongoing problems. Can you send me a private message with the contact information of who you're working with at Adobe? Also include your case number so we don't have to ask you the same background questions again.

Do you recall, if after the scorched method, whether you updated the AAM application?

regards,

steve

[Peter_Neate]

I have had this problem for several months and Adobe staff seem unable to resolve the issue completely.

Repeated requests for entry of the license number.

Was resolved a couple of times but keeps re-occuring and I am totally fed up with it.

Frankly I consider the CS6 software IS NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE and Adobe should do something about it.

I am back to using CS5 which runs perfectly well.

It's a great pity as CS6 is excellent but If I have to repeatedly enter the  '#$?@$#'  license number every time I hit the CS6 button I consider it unsuitable.

Sofware companies like Adobe don't really care about their customers they just want money that is why the have opted for cloud systems - they do not value us ordinary mortals who cannot afford to use the cloud.

Custome of about 30 years and very dissilusioned and unhappy about paying the upgrade.

Peter Neate

[PikesPeakLiveView]

I had the exact same problem CS6 (not extended). I have a new system with 16GB of memory, Win7 Ultimate, etc. No previous versions of Ps. I have the retail version on DVD and installed only the 64 Bit version. I used the suggestion from Noel of starting Ps from the Start/Program List as administrator. Now Ps works perfectly, at least so far. What it was doing in my case was starting up as CS6 Extended, then showing a screen regarding a trial version, I had to enter the serial number each time. Not anymore.

[R3MIX]

Excuse me pikes, but how did you fix your problem?  I too have a new system Dell XPS8500 with no previous versions of Ps.  I purchased the Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium and when I click on Ps extended within the suite, I get that screen regarding a trial version and have to enter the serial key everytime.   It works for a bit but after I shut down and return the next day,  that trial version screen pops up again.  What did you do to fix the problem?  I re-read your post and tried starting Ps from the start menu and I still get that screen.  I have talked to nine tech people and now they said I could get a refund but I dont really want one.  I just want the same product but one that works..Any help?

[d_swiger]

R3MIX,

He suggest what others have, that you right click on the start menu selection and use "run as administrator"

I have tried that but it doesn't work for me

[R3MIX]

Thank you for your reply.  That didn't work for me either.  This is ridiculous.  I am so frustrated right now.  Thanks

[SG...]

Hi,

Please try to run all the updates via Help> Updates first. Then go to the link in post #4 and run that AAM update (sorry I don't have version handy to check if that particular update gets pushed with first set now). Then restart your system, launch and license Ps, and quit.  Hopefully the next day you won't get the trial license behavior.

I've also escalated this post to the attention of some that should be able to help more.

regards,

steve

[PikesPeakLiveView]

Wow! I have a new XPS 8500 with Win 7 Ultimate. No previous versions of Ps.

The only difference that I can see is that you bought CS6 Design and Web

Premium. I bought the retail boxed version of CS6 from Amazon. Also, on my

system, there is only 1 user account and that is administrator and has no

password. I have no other accounts on the machine. Before I installed, I did

a complete windows update to get the latest patches. I had the same behavior

you had until I started it as administrator. Hope this helps. If it works,

give me a reply.

PPLV

[PikesPeakLiveView]

More thoughts - I installed 32 bit MS Office 2003 professional on my new

system. The number of files on the system went up to almost 1MM. I noticed

that when I logged on, there was a quick flash screen about loading Windows

XP. So I uninstalled MS Office, reverted the system back to the factory

original with Dell DataSafe, did all the updates, etc. The number of files

was drastically cut down. Then I installed Ps. I installed only the 64 bit

version. This would be a lot of work with a system that has been used for

awhile. My thoughts are that this could be a 32 bit/64bit conflict with Ps.

PPLV

[d_swiger]

Yea, that would be a ton of work.

I am hoping my current contact w/customer support will yield a more specific fix.

I am running CS6 now & just suffering the security key requirements.

Dan

[Guest]

To cap it all, my adobe ID died today. Won't accept my password or a new reset password. Best part of an hour with chat support got that case escalated. I am promised it will be back tomorrow....

I have been told before by adobe support that the activation problem may be 64bit/32bit related.

Alan

Message Sent with BlackBerry

[d_swiger]

Alan,

Was this just your Adobe ID for forum access or the Security Key no longer works to allow use of your CS6?

[Guest]

My adobe ID used to register my adobe products.

Alan

Message Sent with BlackBerry

[d_swiger]

OK, current behavior is slightly better, but still not quite right.

First, I reverted to an earlier Acronis image of my Win7 system to start new w/o having to try an un-install.

After installing CS6 again, I ran updates as I did before. This was on Friday.

So it's possible there were new updates since the last time I did it.

I should note that on the previous installation, on the help pulldown, Deactivate was always grayed out.

This meant that it was never in an activated state. So the repetitive requests for the Security Keys made sense.

Now on this installation, the first time I use CS6 or AFTER I have run CS5, the Deactivate is also greyed out.

However, after running other apps, like Canon's DPP (not sure 100%) or just applying the Security Keys,

the Deactivate selection is available & there is no request for activation.

Also, CS5 now works w/o asking validation but of course messes up CS6 for a few iterations.\

This is presently the state the system is in & it survives a Restart.

So, I am not fully satisfied with the results, but this is progress and perhaps useful for Adobe in the debug.

I am now going to try the other programs in the suite-package to see if they remain activated.

Dan

[d_swiger]

Small update.

Tried launching the rest of the packages (Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium) applications.

Got about 2/3 through & went back to old/bad behavior. Re-launched CS6, same old issue.

Then I activated w/keys and now its back to behaving properly.

Dan

[d_swiger]

So what seems to work are the non-64bit apps, although tentatively.

The same trick noted two posts-ago, doesn't apply to CS6 64bit.