All activations used

[RobertWA]

I have been using Elements 9 for several years, initially installed on a PC which I replaced after a few years.  The hard drive of that PC was wiped. I installed PSE 9 on my new PC and used it for a number of years. I recently reset that PC to factory settings (without first deactivating PSE 9 - in hindsight clearly a mistake on my part). Now I cannot use PSE 9 because Adobe's records show that it is already activated on two computers. It is not currently activated on any computers.  I contacted Adobe help via chat.  90 minutes later the result was that they couldn't help.  On multiple occasions they said I must first deactivate it from one of the PCs, despite being told that that would be impossible. Their suggestion was to contact the forum for help with a "work-around".  I fail to see what sort of work-around could possibly allow me to reactivate PSE 9.  However I am happy to be proven wrong if someone here can help.  

[Glenn 8675309]

it's bad news.   You can  forget about using that version-- Adobe no longer rests activations.   Some may point you in a direction of installing it offline but I do not know of a single user that that has worked for. 

[RobertWA]

Thanks Glenn.

I expected that might be the case.  Unfortunate because PSE 2024 is not as good (for my purposes) as PSE9 was.  It may have superior editing capabilities but the organiser has gone seriously downhill.

[Glenn 8675309]

I find the organizer in particular, to be comically bad- it's something that too many people waste time on.   Adobe bridge is free, and I think it does a better job anyway.     

[RobertWA]

Thanks Glenn,

I'll try Bridge.