Silent install and activation of 50x copies of PhotoShop Elements 12 TLP

Report · Oct 06, 2013

I am trying to deploy a 50-user TLP licence of PSE12 to 50 PCs without having to visit each PC, as was possible with previous versions.

I have the silent install completing without error but the product is not activated, and needs me to sign in with an Adobe ID on each PC. Even once per PC, this is not acceptable for a network install.

Also I note that end users can Sign Out of the Adobe ID thereby deactivatingthe software for all users of the PC, until I revisit and sign in again. And no, we are not going to give all users the Adobe ID credentials. Even before events of the past week

The PSE12 install logs shows "Override files does not exist . Overwrite the value of Override dir to be a blank string" - it is not finding application.xml.override, even though the file is definitely accessible in the right places and is in UTF-8 format.

(In addition, therefore, updates are not suppressed.)

My hunch is that the application.xml.override mechanism has been removed from PSE12 because of the new Adobe ID sign-in requirement?

I'm aware that AMEE is not application to PSE deployment.

I'd be grateful for assistance on this.

Regards

William

Report · Oct 17, 2013

I am having the same problem and as far I as I have been able to read the installation log files etc. it really seems that there has been a big change with the installation / registration procedures between Photoshop Elements 11 and version 12. Still, there doesn't seem to be any documentation available that would explain the chances.

I have used several hours with Adobe support but with zero luck.

Is it really mandatory to use Adobe ID to register the product - even when the product is volume licensed?

What has changed with application.xml.override?

The documentation is rather old: http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements/kb/silent-install-instructions-premiere-elements-4.html

Is there anything that would be related to version 12?

Btw, there is the same problem with Adobe Premiere Elements 12. I have been able to deploy previous versions, but now I am stuck with these registration problems. It is not an option to deploy software to large number of people and ask them to create Adobe ID and register the product - a product that is purchased by the company.

Report · Oct 20, 2013

HI William,

You need to licensse Photoshop elements 12 through adobe provisioning toolkit enterprise edition. You can go to below link for the instructions.

http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/creativesuite/pdfs/AdobeProvisioningToolkitEnterpri...

Please use APTEE 6.2 to serialize PE 12. It would not prompt the sign in window.

Let me know if it works.

Regards,

Ashish

Report · Oct 21, 2013

Licensing Identifiers (LEID): http://www.adobe.com/devnet/creativesuite/enterprisedeployment/licensing-identifiers.html

There is no mention of Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 nor Adobe Premiere Elements 11 on that site.

I tried with several different syntaxes to run the serialization / volumeserialization / regsuppress but I got error 14 everytime (Unknown error).

Does APTEE 6.2 really support Adobe Premiere Elements 12 + Adobe Photoshop Elements 12?

Quote from the APTEE 6.2 manual:

"The Adobe Provisioning Tookit Enterprise Edition is a command-line tool for supported platforms that helps you track and manage serialization of Adobe® products that you have deployed using the Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition."

Can you even use AAMEE to handle the deployment of Photoshop / Premiere Elements 12?

Report · Oct 21, 2013

Hi William,

Please provide me with your contact number via private message so that I can assist you with this.

Regards,

Ashish

Report · Dec 08, 2013

Hello!

I did all required steps, as you mentioned above to serialize Adobe Elements 12, but it was not successfull. I had an return code=14 in oobelib.log.

What I did:

1) Installed "Adobe Photoshop Elements 12" on the machine

2) It has been successfully installed.

3) I opened "Command-line" cmd.exe as administrator (I have an administrative privileges on that machine)

4) Run following command:

adobe_prtk.exe --tool=VolumeSerialize --generate --serial="my_serial_number" --leid="V7{}PhotoshopElements-EMT12-Win-GM" --regsuppress=ss

where my_serial_number is my actually serial number with dashes.

5) After few seconds I got following:

Return Code = 14

6) oobelib.log says following:

2013-12-09 10:48:05 [34556] Adobe PRTK: __OOBELIB_LOG_FILE__

2013-12-09 10:48:05 [34556] Adobe PRTK: *** Adobe PRTK tool START ***

2013-12-09 10:48:05 [34556] Adobe PRTK: Adobe PRTK tool VolumeSerialize invoked

2013-12-09 10:48:05 [34556] Adobe PRTK: .

2013-12-09 10:48:05 [34556] Adobe PRTK: creating .\prov.xml

2013-12-09 10:48:05 [34556] OOBELib: *************OOBELib Session Starts*************

2013-12-09 10:48:05 [34556] OOBELib: Version 6.2.0.43,6.2

2013-12-09 10:48:05 [34556] PCDService: PCD Service in non-threaded mode

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] OPMWrapper: Failed in getting value for key in OPMGetValueForKey

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] OOBELib: Failed to get Proxy username in OPM DB

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] AXFBLicensing: Failed to load axlib.dll, trying again

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] AXFBLicensing: Failed to load axlib.dll, trying again with axlib in ACF

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] AXFBLicensing: All function pointers successfully retrieved

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] OOBELib: Received Params for Online Validation : Driver : ”V7{}PhotoshopElements-EMT12-Win-GM”, Caller : 3

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] OOBELib: received LEID : ”V7{}PhotoshopElements-EMT12-Win-GM”

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] OOBELib: Supported Locales : ALL

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] OOBELib: OOBELib ValidateSerialOnline

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] OOBELib: Invalid licensing leid passed-[”V7{}PhotoshopElements-EMT12-Win-GM”].

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] OOBELib: IAL Failed to set the LicensingLEID, falling back to GM

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] OOBELib: Validate using Driver LEID : ”V7{}PhotoshopElements-EMT12-Win-GM”, App LEID : <blank>, SN : *******************************************

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] OOBELib: Failed to get system default proxy in setProxyCredentialsForIALSession

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] OOBELib: Failed to set proxy credentials for IAL session while validating serial number

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] OOBELib: HTTPCommunicationAgent::processMessage is https://lm.licenses.adobe.com/aes/aes/v1/serialInfo (extURL=)

2013-12-09 10:48:06 [34556] OOBELib: Using proxy server.

2013-12-09 10:48:07 [34556] OOBELib: HTTP Request Status code 200.

2013-12-09 10:48:07 [34556] OOBELib: HTTPCommunicationAgent- Return Code:[0] response size-[232] time taken-[1599.47]ms.

2013-12-09 10:48:07 [34556] OOBELib: Got error from server-[9].

2013-12-09 10:48:07 [34556] OOBELib: ErrDesc from server: Some unknown error has occurred. : No associated Driver LEID is present in the database..

2013-12-09 10:48:07 [34556] OOBELib: Validate Serial status-[521] took-[1620.81]ms.

2013-12-09 10:48:07 [34556] OOBELib: OOBELib IAL VSN unknown error occured

2013-12-09 10:48:07 [34556] OOBELib: OOBELib IAL ValidateSerial call has failed : 521

2013-12-09 10:48:07 [34556] OOBELib: Using Driver/ALL combination for offline/invalid SNs scenario

2013-12-09 10:48:07 [34556] OOBELib: SN validated for AAMEE mode

2013-12-09 10:48:08 [34556] OOBELib: OOBELib stat = 257

2013-12-09 10:48:08 [34556] Adobe PRTK: Failed to validate the serial number

2013-12-09 10:48:08 [34556] Adobe PRTK: Return code 14

2013-12-09 10:48:08 [34556] Adobe PRTK: *** Adobe PRTK tool END ***

where SN : ******************************************* - is my serial number, I think. I changed it to * due to the security reasons.

PS. I have an internet connection.

What I do wrong? Can somebody help me?

Report · Dec 19, 2013

I had to remove the quotation marks around the leid name to get rid of the return code 14, now I'm getting a return code 0. I used this:

adobe_prtk.exe --tool=VolumeSerialize --generate --serial="xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx" --leid=V7{}PhotoshopElements-EMT12-Win-GM --regsuppress=ss

It's still popping up and asking me to sign in with an Adobe ID though, but now I'm able to close that window and use the photo editor. Before it wouldn't even let me use it if I didn't sign in.

Report · Mar 12, 2014

Eric_D, did you manage to get rid of the login screen? I'm facing the same issue.. I've tried to set DISABLEOLSFEATURES=1 in setup.ini, but that didn't do the trick.

Report · Mar 25, 2014

I have the exact same problem with, sign in form poping up, but the program can be used?

Have you found any solution to supress the sign in form once and for all?

/ Anders

Report · Mar 27, 2014

I found a decent work around for the time being until Adobe gives a solution.

I used this tip here:

http://www.itninja.com/software/adobe/photoshop-elements/12-1001

"I found a quick & dirty way to get rid of the log-in prompt that appears when starting PSE12, which many people find annoying:

1. Rename %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Common Files\Adobe\OOBE\PDApp\core\PDapp.exe to PDapp.old (or something)

2. Copy notepad.exe to the path above and rename it to PDapp.exe"

But found I get an error when you open Elements. To get around that I used nop.exe http://joenord.com/apps/nop/ and replaced PDapp.exe with it.

Now i get a clean open of Elements. No asking for sign in information.

Hope this helps!

Report · Mar 28, 2014

I have not seen any issue with a sign in form popping up.

Did you make sure to add the --regsuppress=ss parameter when you generated your prov.xml file?
Did you create the application.xml.override file and save it in both locations as documented here?

One more thing I should mention: make sure that if you are copying and pasting any commands from this thread that the quotation marks (") haven't gotten converted to typographic quotes (”). Particularly, this has happened in the comment from Romsinha above.

Report · Apr 01, 2014

Hi all,

Anyone facing activation issue with PSE/PRE please send an e-mail to me at romsinha@adobe.com so that we may work towards a possible resolution.

Regards,

Romit Sinha

Report · Apr 01, 2014

Hi Romsinha,

Rather than have everybody who is having trouble send you an email, wouldn't it be better to update the documentation at http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/photoshop-element-12-silent-install.html so that it actually has the correct information?

Also, can I suggest you update your comment at http://forums.adobe.com/message/6260649#5781206 to remove the typographic quotes and replace them with straight quotes? I think that would help resolve the issues some people are facing.

Report · Apr 01, 2014

Hi RyanGSteele,

I will work upon to get the document updated for silent installation for Elements.

Regards,

Romit Sinha

Report · Apr 01, 2014

Hi All,

Please follow the below mentioned steps:

Step 1: Command to install PSE 12:

Start /wait "path to Setup.exe" /UL%LangCode% /V“SERIALNUMBER=%AOO volume license serial number%"

Or

cd “path to setup.exe” (enter) following with the command:

start /w setup.exe /UL%LangCode% /V“SERIALNUMBER=%AOO volume license serial number%"

e.g. start /w setup.exe /UL1033 /V”SERIALNUMBER=1111-1111-1111-1111-1111-1111”

Step 2: Command to Serialize PSE:

(a). Generate prov.xml:

Download adobe prtk from: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/creativesuite/enterprisedeployment.html.
Use the command to generate prov.xml:

adobe_prtk --tool=VolumeSerialize --generate --serial=<Serial Num> --leid=V7{}PhotoshopElements-EMT12-Win-GM –regsuppress=ss

(b). Serialize using the below mentioned command:

adobe_prtk --tool=VolumeSerialize --stream --provfile=”path to prov.xml” (--stream is optional)

Kindly let me know in case of any further issues.

Regards,

Romit Sinha

Report · Apr 01, 2014

Hi Romit,

Both of the command lines you posted have typographic quotes rather than straight quotes between the /V and SERIALNUMBER=. This will cause problems for anyone who tries to copy and paste these commands into their installation script.

Also, you may want to clarify that the command to create the prov.xml just needs to be run once, and that the prov.xml file can be saved in the same location as the installation media. It's just the VolumeSerialize command that needs to be run on each machine as part of the installation process.

Report · Oct 22, 2013

Hi HMwkr,

Please try the below mentioned steps to serialize Elements:

1. Generate prov.xml usng the command:

adobe_prtk.exe --tool=VolumeSerialize --generate --serial=<<Volume SN>> --leid=V7{}PhotoshopElements-EMT12-Win-GM --regsuppress=ss

2. Serialize using the command:

adobe_prtk --tool=VolumeSerialize --provfile="absolute path to prov.xml"

Please let us know whether it worked.

Regards,

Romit Sinha

Report · Oct 23, 2013

Thank you Romsinha!

This leid information was extremely useful.

The LEID's listed on Adobe website don't tell anything about Elements ver. 12. And that V7{} is something that I was missing. Correct LEID was visible in MSI file of Adobe Premiere Elements / Photoshop Elements (Property value named LEID), but it was something that I did not look at in the first place.

Prov.xml was now generated correctly with that LEID. I am now able to activate / deactivate installations correctly. I also added EULA parameters to the command:

adobe_prtk.exe --tool=VolumeSerialize --generate --serial="XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX" --leid="V7{}PremiereElements-EMT12-Win-GM" --regsuppress=ss --eulasuppress --eulaaccept

I would have two more questions:

1) Is there a simple way to disable Update functions and Adobe Product Improvement program with GPO / registry value / some configuration file?

Application.xml.override does not work as it did with version 11...

2) What happens if software gets online-activated to a computer that goes to offline state for a very long time - for years? Will the software remain activated until it is deactivated? Or does Elements 12 need an internet connection to maintain the activation of Elements 12?

Report · Nov 15, 2013

I am also searching for a way to mass deploy this software on a lab of 40 iMacs. The pkg maker tool does not work with PS Elements 12. How do you mas deploy?

With over 9 hours of hold time, waiting for call backs that never happen, online chats that never happen, and a tech that messed up my machine, I have no faith in the bumbling idiots in the Vol Lic support center.

Mark

Report · Nov 12, 2013

Hi Romsinha,

using the command from step 1 I am still getting "Return Code = 14" = Unknown error

I'd be grateful for more help.

Regards,

Vojtech

Report · Nov 12, 2013

Please refer the kb: http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/packager/preparing-deploy.html for list of error codes.

Report · Nov 13, 2013

Hi Romsinha,

thank you for the link. So code 14 means "Failed due to insufficient privileges"

But I am running same command as member Qbicle, also tried on 2 different machines as administrator, still same error.

Would you know for which there are insufficient privileges?

Regards,

Vojtech

Report · Nov 13, 2013

The linked document is not correct, as it applies to installation error codes, and I assume that the error code 14 you are refering to is generated by the provisioning toolkit.

If so, the oobelib.log file may give an indication why the error appears.

Report · Nov 19, 2013

Hi Hawz,

yes the error code 14 is generated by the Adobe Provisioning Toolkit Enterprise Edition for CS6 (Windows).

But there is no oobelib.log file generated.

Regards,

Vojtech

Report · Dec 03, 2013

Hi

I have the same issue. Each time i try to use adobe_prtk.exe i received an error 14.

I try on 2 different computer with admin rights.

What can i do ?

Rgds

Stéphane

Adobe Community

Silent install and activation of 50x copies of PhotoShop Elements 12 TLP

1 Correct answer