TechNote (Archived)

Troubleshoot activation problems (Acrobat 7.0, Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 on Mac OS X)

What's covered

Reactivation

Transfer Activation

Beginning and intermediate troubleshooting

Advanced troubleshooting

Adobe requires that you activate your copy of Adobe Creative Suite 2.0, Adobe Acrobat 7.0, Adobe GoLive CS2, Adobe Illustrator CS2, Adobe InDesign CS2, and Adobe Photoshop CS2 within 30 days of installation. This document can help you resolve problems that occur when you try to activate your Adobe application.

Once activated, the application continually verifies activation. Activation problems can manifest themselves in different ways.

-- If your Adobe application prompts you to activate again, proceed to the Reactivation section of this document.

-- If your Adobe applications are slow to start, fail to start, or return the error "The license configuration data for Adobe Creative Suite is long longer usable." proceed to the Beginning and intermediate troubleshooting section of this document.

-- If your Adobe application returns the error, "Current user account does not have the privileges to perform Product Activation," proceed to the Advanced troubleshooting section.

For more information on activation, visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/activation . For a list of phone numbers for the 24-hour automated Activation Voice Response system, visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/activation/phonenumbers.html .

Reactivation

You may be prompted to reactivate in the following circumstances:

-- You used the Archive and Install function of OS X to upgrade from one version of OS X to another. For example from Mac OS X v10.3.x to v10.4.

-- The DAT files in /Library/Preferences/Adobe Systems/Product_Licenses_120/ were deleted.

-- You installed Creative Suite 2 on a dual-boot computer. (If each operating system is installed on a separate hard disk, it counts as two machines and will cause reactivation.)

-- You reinstalled OS X or reformatted the hard disk.*

-- You transferred the activation of your software license to another computer.

Follow the on-screen instructions to reactivate your Adobe application. For more information on how to reactivate your application, see the How To Install ReadMe on the product CD.

*In this instance, you can either call the 24-hour automated Activation Voice Response system to reactivate, or you can follow the standard activation instructions when you start the application (an internet connection is required). For a list of phone activation numbers, visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/activation/phonenumbers.html .

Transfer Activation

In order to run an Adobe application on a computer other than the one that the software was originally installed on, you must transfer the activation. To transfer activation, choose Help > Transfer Activation and click the Transfer button. Transferring the activation disables the use of the product on the computer that you transfer the activation from and allows you to use the application on the other machine. In order to run the software on the first machine, you must transfer the activation again.

If you do not transfer the activation and then try to activate the Adobe application on multiple computers concurrently, you will see the following alert:

"Too Many Activations. The maximum number of activations allowed for this copy of [product] has already been reached. Please do one of the following:

-- Transfer your activation from another computer that has a previously installed and activated copy of [product]. To do this, launch [product] on the other computer and choose Help > Transfer Activation to deactivate the software so that it can be activated on this one.

-- Click the Phone Activation button to speak with one of our Customer Care representatives.

Beginning and intermediatetroubleshooting

The tasks in this section can help you resolve the most common activation problems. Some of the tasks in this section require that you log in to the computer as an administrator.

1. Repair hard disks.

Activation problems can occur if hard disks contain damaged sectors. Repair hard disks either by using Disk Utility included with Mac OS X or by using a third-party disk utility (for example, Alsoft Disk Warrior). Run such utilities on each hard disk or partition. For more information about a third-party disk utility, refer to the documentation for the utility.

2. Clear up hard drive space.

If there is not enough hard drive space for the Adobe LM Service to run then Creative Suite 2.0 products will be unable to start.

3. Restart the Adobe LM Service.

If you quit the Adobe LM Service, then Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 applications will not run. To restart this service, start an Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 application.

Advanced troubleshooting

If the tasks in the previous sections don't resolve the problem, you may be able to resolve the problem by reformatting your hard disk and then reinstalling only Windows and Creative Suite 2. All of the tasks in this section require that you log in to the computer as an administrator.

4. Set the permissions on the *dat files back to their defaults.

Incorrect permissions applied to the *dat files located in /Library/Preferences/Adobe Systems/Product_Licenses_120/ will prevent Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 applications from launching. The default permissions are:

You can:Read & Write

Owner:system

Access: Read & Write

Group: admin

Access: Read & Write

Others: Read & Write

5. Reformat the hard disk, and then reinstall only Mac OS X and Creative Suite 2.0.

In some cases, activation data becomes corrupted or written to a damaged sector on the hard disk, causing activation errors. Reformatting the hard disk, and then installing only Mac OS X and Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 from the original installation media, may resolve the problem. Reformatting a disk erases all files it contains, so be sure to back up all personal files first. Also, make sure that you have all application and system disks.

Note: Don't install additional software or hardware until you're sure that the problem is resolved. Don't back up the hard disk and restore Mac OS X and Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 instead of reinstalling them. If the problem is caused by Mac OS X and Adobe Creative Suite 2.0, and either one is restored instead of reinstalled, the problem may recur.

After you reformat the hard disk and reinstall Mac OS X and Adobe Creative Suite 2.0, try to re-create the problem:

-- If the problem no longer occurs, install other applications one at a time and try to re-create the problem after each installation. If the problem occurs after an installation, the recently installed application may be the cause.

-- If the problem occurs when only Mac OS X and Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 are installed, the cause is hardware related (most likely the system disk), and you should contact the hardware manufacturer or an authorized reseller for assistance.