Photoshop Elements 14 purchased in 2015 - no longer usable

[premkallat]

I decided to reinstall PSE14 after giving up the subscription based plan (Photography). The installation rejected my serial  number and said to contact customer support.

Customer Support guy checked my records and says the product is no longer supported. I said I do not  need support. Why can't I use a product I purchased only 6 years ago. He advised me to upgrade. I just cancelled my plan as I seldom use it. I just need some basic photo editing. 

I think this is totally dishonest of Adobe if it is a policy. 

I've given my mobile number so their senior can call me. I'm not holding my breath.

Totally disappointed.

[Peru Bob]

What, exactly, did the message that it was rejected say?

[kglad]

not supported isn't the same as it won't work.  it just means adobe won't help you find the problem.

however, if you have a valid serial number (6 groups of 4 numbers) and compatible hard ware, you can still install and activate.

if that doesn't help you, answer @Peru Bob and specify your os.

[premkallat]

Thanks for your reply. I've answered Peru Bob. My os is windows 10.

My frustration is that my account portal shows that the software is registered to me and states the serial number.

Customer support does not dispute that.  Their reply was that it is no longer supported and that was the reason the activation failed. Not a wrong serial number, not that too many computers are running the same serial number...... just that they don't support it....... doesn't make sense to me.

Thanks for listening to my rant.  

[premkallat]

That's precisely my frustration. I re-downloaded it from my account portal. It had my original serial number there too.

My original error was that I had too many machines activated to use it.  So I went back to my account to see which machines were activated so that I could deactivate some. Only 1 other machine was shown so I deactivated that one. So now no machines are activated. Problem solved? Nope.  So I try to re-enter the same serial number. This time the error message is that it failed to activate it and I was to contact customer support. 

That's when I contacted customer support. The guy over there said to wait and to let him check into my account. He came back shortly and said that they don't support this version anymore. I said I don't want support. I just want to activate my software that I own! He said that the only way was to upgrade my software! I was furious and said that this was dishonest and that I wanted to speak to his superior. He asked for my contact number and I gave it to him.

Hope you understand my frustration. 

[John T Smith]

Maybe this problem?

TLS 1.2 is now required to connect https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/multi/eol-tls-support.html
-http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-network-issues.html

[premkallat]

Thanks John. I'm using the latest version of Microsoft Edge as suggested in the article.  I'll re-look into the article tomorrow. It's now 1.30am in Singapore. 🙂

Goodnight from Singapore John!

[premkallat]

OK folks, its official. Reply from their helpdesk...

Adobe Systems Incorporated
2:35 AM (6 minutes ago)
to me

Thank you for the information.

We would like to inform you that Photoshop Elements 14 is too old and no longer available and supported with Windows 10 64 Bit and Secondly Photoshop Elements 14 servers have been shut down. So, we can do is we provide you the Photoshop Elements 2022. So, you can able to start your work in a proper way.

This sucks.

[kglad]

i have to agree with you, that does suck.  but the future is clear (as far as adobe products that require activation are concerned), all the activation servers are going to shut down with no (voluntary) compensation from adobe.

[premkallat]

Ah well.....

Thank you and to all those that tried to help. I appreciate it a lot.

For the amount of photo editing I require, it's not worth purchasing another license for the current version.... 

I'll just resort to the free alternatives.

Thanks again all and have a Healthy and Happy New Year!

[premkallat · Accepted solution]

Good news (for me!). 

Got a follow up email from the helpdesk to ask the help chat people to reset my device activation counter. I don't know why the 2 groups can't talk to each other but whatever.

The they have reset the device activation counter and all is good. 

I have many questions... didn't they know that was the problem? not that the activation server was no longer active.... was it just an attempt for me to upgrade?

Doesn't matter....... thank God its fixed.

[kglad]

wait a minute.

that's why @Peru Bob question was important.  if you saw an excess activation count message, that would have changed everyone's response.  

we all know you just to ask support for an activation count reset.  ask for anything else and you'll be told they can't help.

you mislead us.

[premkallat]

Hi kglad,

I'm sorry if you think I mislead you, but if you look at my original post I said in my first line:

"My original error was that I had too many machines activated to use it.  So I went back to my account to see which machines were activated so that I could deactivate some. Only 1 other machine was shown so I deactivated that one. So now no machines are activated. Problem solved? Nope.  So I try to re-enter the same serial number. This time the error message is that it failed to activate it and I was to contact customer support. 

Sorry if I did mislead you but I really thought I had documented precisely what had happened.

Cheers.

[kglad]

this is what i saw in your original post that was misleading "I decided to reinstall PSE14 after giving up the subscription based plan (Photography). The installation rejected my serial  number and said to contact customer support."

in a subsequent message i see you mention excess activations, but that does not square with your original post and caused more confusion (for me).

ie, your serial number was never rejected, and saying it was mislead everyone (i think) except @Peru Bob who asked the salient question.

in any case, it's not important now.  congrats on getting your software up and running.

in the future, it's always most helpful to quote the error message (including error numbers, if there are any).  even if quoted in a language we don't understand, quoting leads to the quickest resolution.  (hopefully, this paragraph is superfluous for you, but for others it may help.)

[premkallat]

I see. Thank you for pointing that out.  Good tips. I'll try to remember that next time.  

I guess I was quite frustrated with the way things had initially unfolded.

Once again, thank you and have a good day and a great new year!

[kglad]

thank you very  much.

and happy holidays to you and your family!

[petern66049119]

Have the exact same issue now in 2024. My old computer motherboard died. I bought new computer. Log into my adobe account, went to my registered apps PS Elements 14, downloaded and installed and its say sorry you need to deactivate on the old computer. So I am thinking such registration will be on my account and their is zero. So;ution - subscribe and pay up!!!

[kglad]

@petern66049119 

unfortunately using one of the two computers that have/had activated copies is the only way to deactivate.

[petern66049119]

I actually upgraded twice over the last tens years when both computers died. Hence two dead computers have the registration. Please check you will see not activity on those registrations. If only I knew I had to do this when these computer were on the way out. So why can't adobe de-register my two old dead computers like so many other apps in this industry and allow me to continue to use what I have purchased.  Please help.

[petern66049119]

Also it would be good to list these registrations on my account in adobe where I can de-activate so not to do this on my computer seconds before it crashes for the last time.

[kglad]

i'm not an adobe employee so i can't see your account just like you can't see mine.

if it's impossible to to use the conputers with activations, it's impossible to deactivate. there's no work-around.

[frank_3337]

I too have a problem today with activating PSE14 - I bought a new PC and downloaded PSE14 no problem until I was asked to enter my serial number and it came up with a message that the serial number was counterfeit. I checked this out with remote Adobe technician who agreed that the serial number is genuine but he just couldnt solve the problem. Is there another way of contacting Adobe to ssort this out

[kglad]

try offline activation.

[frank_3337]

willing to give it a try - how do I do that if its not a stupid question please

[frank_3337]

when I log into Adobe I can clearly see my PSE14 product there and I can download from there but only get to the activation with the same serial number as on my Adobe account.