Activating older Adobe CS versions

[WebHead]

With activation servers retired for Adobe Creative Suite 4 and below, is anyone aware of any workarounds for activating the older versions? Will they run in "unactivated" mode?

And how much longer can we expect CS 5 to be supported?

 

[dwig]

I'd suggest calling Adobe's customer support. In some cases they can use your old serial number to generate a new number that doesn't rely on the activation/serialization server.

 

[MBAir2010]

in September, I called Adobe™ and discovered they have an option for older CS support, just press 4...
after a 20m minutes I gave in and hung up
they are not supporting anything older!

I tried getting my CS4 DVDs to install on a MacBook Pro 2012 using Mojave.
the key code would not register while the same day that worked on a MacBook Air 2010 using El Capitan
with an external dvd player, a generic one. Then I time machined that to an external drive.

then I "Migrated" that from this external drive with a Time Machine back up and CS4 installed on that MBP'12 Mojave.
kinda a suckee workaround but that did the trick!

 

[pmiles]

Basically all of the non-cloud Adobe products have been phased out. That means, as long as you never have to do a fresh install of the application, it will continue to run as long as your system runs. Fresh install means you wiped the target system drive prior to reinstalling. Reinstalling over an existing install is not a fresh install... the system remembers activation/serialization information.


The activation servers really have been decommissioned. There is no way to get activation information from them. Your system may still contain the required keys internally, but it is not verifying anything with a remote server at all. Hence why it is important NOT to wipe any system drive in which these products were previously installed.

Adobe is all about subscription based software now. Unlees you have a real need to save content in Adobe proprietary formats, consider some of the other alternatives out there that are not subscription based or free. Interface may be different, toolsets a little different but the base function is usually the same.

 

[WebHead]

Thanks for the tips all!

 

[MBAir2010]

Thanks for the tips all!

if you need anymore help, I can try, or others here have better ideas
im currently using CS4 on 2 MacBooks quite often.

 

[bogdanw]

Anyone tried Offline Activation https://exception.licenses.adobe.com/aoes/aoes/v1/t1?locale=en

 

[ThunderSkunk]

With activation servers retired for Adobe Creative Suite 4 and below, is anyone aware of any workarounds for activating the older versions? Will they run in "unactivated" mode? And how much longer can we expect CS 5 to be supported?

20 years ago Autodesk started putting somevery unreliable authentication systems in their software that made it unstable and cost us a lot in productivity. Thankfully the worlds privateers made cracks which allowed us to install and run all this software that we’d paid thousands per seat for. To this day, whenever I purchase software from a company I’m going to use for work, I also scour the internet for cracked versions, test them, and use those instead. Eventually these big A companies always drop the ball, but I can still whip up that old VM & reliable cracked version to access our old files from the archives with period correct fidelity. Lawsuits, insurance, records inquiries, all of this requires the correct version of software for the particular version of data in the file. Tip your friendly Swedish pirates.

 

[WebHead]

Anyone tried Offline Activation https://exception.licenses.adobe.com/aoes/aoes/v1/t1?locale=en

Interesting idea. I wonder if it would still work if you subsequently connected to the internet?

Only one way to find out I guess...

 

[bogdanw]

I wonder if it would still work if you subsequently connected to the internet?

Revoking licenses for CS4 and earlier versions was probably managed by the same “aging activation servers”, that “had to be retired”. I guess no servers – no revocation.

Another idea: according to Adobe, the licensing information is stored in /Library/Application Support/Adobe/SLStore. That folder can be recovered from backups or saved in order to move the license to a new macOS installation.

https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/kb/resolve-trial-and-license-expired-errors.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/activation-deactivation-help.html

 

[WebHead]

Revoking licenses for CS4 and earlier versions was probably managed by the same “aging activation servers”, that “had to be retired”. I guess no servers – no revocation.

Another idea: according to Adobe, the licensing information is stored in /Library/Application Support/Adobe/SLStore. That folder can be recovered from backups or saved in order to move the license to a new macOS installation.

https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/kb/resolve-trial-and-license-expired-errors.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/activation-deactivation-help.html

Sadly it'll be a fresh install for me, but good to know for others!