Bypass a request for phone number

[morph2-21]

I can't find a suitable group to post this question. I have Elements 2020 and legacy Lightroom v6 in my adobe account. Lately I can't sign into my account because Adobe wants a phone number now. There's no way I can bypass this step:

Does anyone know how to bypass the request for a phone number?

[Peru Bob]

Can you click Continue without entering a phone number?

[morph2-21]

I can click Continue but it tells me "Invalid phone number" (not the exact words) and takes me nowhere. I can't sign in without giving Adobe a phone number. I've also tried some random digits, random countries, trying to crash the prompt. Nothing works. It did send a text message once to Afghanistan phone number that I picked at random (don't know what the digits are).

[Greg_S.]

Try contacting Elements support. You can start a chat session by clicking on the blue Contact Us button under the Help & Support menu at Adobe.com.

[morph2-21]

It's useless. I did that in December 2022. They can't disable the request for a phone number.

Don't ask my how but every now and then I can sign into my account. I was able to sign in without seeing the prompt for a phone number yesterday. Trying to sign back in today and I can't get anywhere. It's very annoying to be held at ransom when I want to see my account. I just want this crap disabled forever. They have nothing to bill me every month because I paid both licenses in full.

[Greg_S.]

Are you saying that you can't sign into Elements or are you only talking about signing into your Adobe.com account?  If the latter, have you tried with a different browser?

[morph2-21]

Both. I did an OS reinstall (upgrade from Windows 7 to 10) and reinstalled Elements and Lightroom. I got stuck at sign-in but managed to sign in with my Google account instead of Adobe account. I also got stuck signing in at adobe.com with Firefox and Edge browsers. Have not tried Chrome but I doubt browsers are the source of the problem. It's Adobe forcing us to give them our phone number.

[hatstead]

I suspect that this is to coerce you to transition to two-step verification. I had a similar experience yesterday with a vendor that I have used for years. Please review this tech note:

Secure your Adobe account by using 2FA or two-step verification

It is probably a good thing to do. My Facebook account was hacked, and now eveything is in Chinese when I access the site, and I can't read the script to delete the account.

[morph2-21]

I understand many companies are encouraging users to use their phone number as 2FA. They got my email address already and I've been getting single use code emailed to me when I clear my browsers cache. That's a 2FA protection. There's no need to force us to give them our phone number. What else do they want? SSN? Birth certificate? Driver License?

[Greg_S.]

The problem may be using two different sign-ins (Google and Adobe account).

There is nothing further I can add.  But if you are having problems signing in to Elements, I suggest trying Adobe Support again.  If necessary, ask to speak with a supervisor.

[Greg_S.]

There are a number of possible trouble-shooting steps you can take.  See the FAQs here, here and here.

And since you have changed OS, it is possible that you need to reset the activations for your license.  Make this the first request when you contact Adobe Support.

[morph2-21]

I found a workaround. I go directly to https://account.adobe.com/ and sign in. It doesn't ask me for a phone number. I don't know if this is one of those time they "allow" me to get into my account and will prompt me for a phone number the next time I sign in and block me from going further without a number.

I'll try again later today from home PC. If I can still get in, consider this as a possible workaround.

[Greg_S.]

How else were you trying to sign in?

[morph2-21]

That takes me to https://auth.services.adobe.com/ where they harass me with phone number request.

[morph2-21]

Reinstalling Elements also took me some place where I can't proceed without giving a phone number. I ended up signing in with my gmail account and that worked.