Possible to still run Photoshop CC 2018?

[gentile2976]

I have an old Mac (OS X) with Photoshop CC 2018. It won't let me open the program anymore. Application Manager tells me I'm at the end of my free trial and won't connect me to my current paid subscription. I've had no problem running it until 2 weeks ago for some reason. Any fixes?

[Jeff Arola]

What version of Mac OS X are you using?

Do you have the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop application installed?

Applications/Adobe Creative Cloud/Adobe Creative Cloud

[gentile2976]

OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan. And yes I have the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop application installed.

[Jeff Arola]

Have you tried opening the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop application and Signing Out/In?

[gentile2976]

Yes I tried that. Didn't work. It still thinks my copy is an expired trial version. Is there a hack to disable the Application Manager that generates that message?

[Jeff Arola]

Does the Application Manager dialog have a License This Software button and if so what happens when clicking on that?

[gentile2976]

Yes the License This Software button shows up. When I click on it, it asks me to Sign In using my Adobe ID (my email address) which I do. Then it gives me a dialoge box saying it couldn't find a subscription associated with that ID, even though I do have a current paid subscription using that ID, but somehow it doesn't recognize it. It then forces me to QUIT. An option to purchase a new subscription leads to an inactive Adobe web page.

[Jeff Arola]

Try renaming the opm.db file by going to:

Macintosh HD/User/UserName/Library/Application Support/Adobe/OOBE folder

and rename the opm.db file to opm_old.db

then check and see if your able to license Photoshop CC 2018.

[gentile2976]

The OOBE folder doesn't have a opm.db file, only an alias for PDApp which links to Adobe Application Manager.

[gentile2976]

In the Adobe Application Manager folder, there is a pim.db file. I renamed it pim_old.db, but when I tried to launch Photoshop CC, I got a message that my Adobe Application Manager was corrupted.

[jane-e]

@gentile2976 

Try these four steps in Adobe Help:

https://helpx.adobe.com/manage-account/kb/stop-creative-cloud-trial-mode-after-purchase.html

Jane

[gentile2976]

Yes I tried those steps. No luck. The old Adobe Application Manager is unable to recognize my current paid subscription. I was on the phone with Adobe Tech Support and they didn't have an answer how to fix it. They did recommend asking you nice folks on this forum if there's a solution.

[jane-e]

@gentile2976 

Adobe uses Adobe Customer Care, not Adobe Tech Support. If you didn't reach out to them by live chat or X (twitter), they may not have been Adobe, so be sure you are using one of these two methods:

Try the link to auto-open the Chat:
https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?rghtup=autoOpen  
Type "agent"

You can also send a post through X (formerly Twitter) to @AdobeCare.

Do not reply to PMs, which are likely to be scammers.

Jane

[Jeff Arola]

You want the OOBE folder in your User Library.

Click on your desktop, then while clicking on the Go menu press the Option key and you'll see Library listed, that's your User Library.

[gentile2976]

OK I found the opm.db file, changed it to opm_old.db, but when I try to launch Photoshop CC, a new opm.db file is created and I get the same Adobe Application Manager dialog box saying no subscription found.

[Jeff Arola]

Are you using your subscription on other Macs with newer Adobe applications?

[gentile2976]

Yes I've used my subscription on a M1 MacBook Pro where I'm able to open the latest versions.

[gentile2976]

The MacBook is used for work. My home Mac Desktop from 2008 is where I'm trying to use Photoshop CC, which was allowing me to do so until 2 weeks ago, around the same time I renewed my subscription. Then the program  began recognizing itself as a trial version.

[gentile2976]

I haven't used the MacBook or the newer Adobe app versions since August 2024. It's been shut down and stored away since then.

[Jeff Arola]

It might be worth checking your M1 MacBook Pro and see if the subscription still works on that or checking your Adobe account and making sure your subscription is still active with no issues.

[gentile2976]

I checked my M1 MacBook Pro and the subscription still work OK. I tried signing in and out on both machines. Still no luck on launching Photoshop CC from my old Mac. Still thinks it's an expired Trial Version, but my Creative Cloud app still shows the old versions. 

[gentile2976]

I think the only way to get it to work is somehow disabling the Adobe Application Manager because it doesn't want to recognize the new subscription.

[Jeff Arola]

See if anything on this Adobe KB works:

https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-network-issues.html

[gentile2976]

Tried them all. Nothing worked.