7 Replies Latest reply: Sep 8, 2014 2:46 AM by Test Screen Name RSS

    Valid Acrobat Pro XI says Activation Required after 30 days

    eirikb Community Member

      Hello!

      We have made an enterprise deployment of Acrobat Pro XI using the Adobe Customization Wizard XI. Since our environment is 100% offline, we added the Serial Number (that we in advance validated online) during the Customization Wizard, so that the application can install silently without any online validation needed.

      Our problem now is that Acrobat still after 30 days says that it is not activated. Can this problem have come from the fact that at one time, after the deployment configuration was made, we remade/edited the configuration with the Customization Wizard, and used the same serial code as before?

      Bottom line: Do we need to revalidate online and get a new serial number every time we make a change with the Customization Wizard?

      If not, what else can cause Acrobat to believe that it is not activated, even though we are using a valid key?

       

       

      Error message:

      Activation Required.

      Please connect to the internet. Activating Acrobat XI Pro is required today otherwise it will stop working.

       

       

      Thank you in advance!

        • 1. Re: Valid Acrobat Pro XI says Activation Required after 30 days
          Test Screen Name CommunityMVP

          I don't know anything about enterprise deployment (there's a separate forum for that) but it might be worth noting this.


          "Activation" is not the process of getting a serial number. It's the process of checking that the serial number is valid AND THEN adding it to the current user's activations, so the number cannot be shared. So if you just replace the prompt for serial number it isn't replacing activation UNLESS the documents say so... I thought it always needed activation. Just a thought.

          • 2. Re: Valid Acrobat Pro XI says Activation Required after 30 days
            eirikb Community Member

            I see. It might be because we have been using the mst file wrong. Is there a way to confirm that Acrobat is activated without having to wait 30 days? Is there some registry key or a command to run that verifies this?

            • 3. Re: Valid Acrobat Pro XI says Activation Required after 30 days
              Test Screen Name CommunityMVP

              I can only recommend the enterprise deployment forum.

              • 4. Re: Valid Acrobat Pro XI says Activation Required after 30 days
                Sabian Zildjian Community Member

                Using the MST wrong?? How have you been using the MST file?  How did you install??

                • 5. Re: Valid Acrobat Pro XI says Activation Required after 30 days
                  Vikrantt Singh Employee Hosts

                  Hi eirikb ,

                   

                  Thank you for posting on the Adobe forums, is it a subscription of Acrobat that you are trying to deploy (Part of Creative cloud)?

                   

                   

                  Thanks,

                  Vikrantt Singh

                  • 6. Re: Valid Acrobat Pro XI says Activation Required after 30 days
                    eirikb Community Member

                    No, it's not a part of Creative Cloud. It's just a standalone Acrobat Pro XI.

                    What I meant about "using the mst wrong" was that we run setup.exe, which i guess uses setup.ini. and in setup.ini under [product] "CmdLine=TRANSFORMS="AcroPro.mst" is added (the mst includes the ISX_SERIALNUMBER), but maybe we should try running the AcroPro.msi directly and apply the transform directly in the command line.

                     

                    I know we could just try this, but it's essential that we are 100% sure that our solution works before sending it out to thousands of users.

                    I was in contact with someone from Adobe Support earlier who said to run this command: msiexec /i acropro.msi TRANSFORMS=AcroPro.mst /qn and "then you can check in TASK manager , you will see 4 MSiexec processes running."

                    That was kind of confusing. Exactly which processes they meant and how that proves that the activation was successful, I don't know.

                     

                    The support guy told me that the only thing needed for the offline activation to work was to add the ISX_SERIALNUMBER to the mst, which we have. But then what does the "Grant Offline Exception" button in the Adobe Customization Wizard XI do? There must be some kind of magic that this button does that i can verify in the mst.

                     

                    Also, I see the recommendations about posting this in the enterprise deployment forum, and I guess it could've been moved there, but I don't think it would make much difference since this problem remains the same whether it's deployed to lots of users or just one.

                     

                    Thank you so much for any further help.

                    • 7. Re: Valid Acrobat Pro XI says Activation Required after 30 days
                      Test Screen Name CommunityMVP

                      The point about enterprise deployment is that it uses transforms and MSIs in a way that ordinary users do not. That's where the experts (if any) on this sort of thing will be found. So, whether installing for one or installing for many, you really should have posted there a week ago! I assume you have been reading the enterprise deployment documents, but if not, they are posted there.