5 Replies Latest reply: Oct 24, 2014 2:33 PM by jwermont RSS

    How to deactivate a FrameMaker license?

    jwermont Community Member
    jwermont Oct 23, 2014 5:40 PM

      Hi,

       

      I have two licenses for FrameMaker 8. One of them is for the copy I have installed on my PC at work, which I use every day. I have no idea where the other license is. I'm on my third PC since I've been working here, so for all I know, the license was activated on one of those PCs and I didn't think to deactivate it before IT came and hauled away the old one.

       

      I called Adobe customer support and the guy I spoke to told me that Adobe can't deactivate licenses, only I can. So I asked him to explain how I can do that. He said that I had to do it from the PC where I had activated it. I explained that the old PC was gone and I had no access to it. Tech support guy says, "We already gave you an extra license back in 2010, so I can't give you any more." What? Who's asking for extra licenses? I simply want to deactivate one of the ones that seems to be in use (but in reality, it is not) so I can install FrameMaker on another machine. A trial license isn't an option - I want to be able to use this indefinitely.

       

      I can't believe this kind of situation hasn't happened before with an Adobe product. Do they really have no procedure for deactivating a license when the customer has lost track of where it was activated, or no longer has access to it? I can't be the only person who has forgotten to deactivate a license when upgrading PCs.

       

      Can anyone help?

       

      Thanks!

        • 1. Re: How to deactivate a FrameMaker license?
          Jeff_Coatsworth CommunityMVP
          Jeff_Coatsworth Oct 24, 2014 5:23 AM (in response to jwermont)

          Have you already tried installing the second copy on another machine? The support guy was right in that they can’t deactivate licenses, but they can reset the counter to account for machines that were taken out of commission without deactivating.

          • 2. Re: How to deactivate a FrameMaker license?
            Jeff_Coatsworth CommunityMVP
            Jeff_Coatsworth Oct 24, 2014 5:25 AM (in response to jwermont)

            Also, every FM install has 2 licenses within it – they just can’t be used at the same time. The theory is that you can use the same serial number at the office & one at home.

            • 3. Re: How to deactivate a FrameMaker license?
              jwermont Community Member
              jwermont Oct 24, 2014 11:11 AM (in response to Jeff_Coatsworth)

              To be honest, no, I haven't tried to install FM at home. But someone in my office who wanted to learn FM tried to install it on her machine a few months ago, but the s/w didn't allow it because there were no more licenses available. So I've been assuming the same thing would happen if I tried to install it on my home PC.

               

              When you say that Adobe can reset the counter, do you mean by decrementing or incrementing it? I ask because customer support told me that they have already given us (my company) an extra license on two occasions, for the same problem. At this point, neither of these two are being used, so why can't they just bring down the counter to 1 (which would allow me to activate one more)? What's the counter called? I'm going to call support again to see if they can do that.

               

              This doesn't make sense to me. Why would Adobe construct the system so that they can't deactivate licenses? This seems really counterproductive to me, but I guess I don't know the whole story.

               

              Thanks!

               

              Joyce

              • 4. Re: How to deactivate a FrameMaker license?
                Jeff_Coatsworth CommunityMVP
                Jeff_Coatsworth Oct 24, 2014 11:40 AM (in response to jwermont)

                I suspect that they got hung up on the literal expression of “deactivate” – you want to talk to TCS support prepared with the serial numbers and machine names of your instances of FM.

                • 5. Re: How to deactivate a FrameMaker license?
                  jwermont Community Member
                  jwermont Oct 24, 2014 2:33 PM (in response to Jeff_Coatsworth)

                  Thank  you - I called back, didn't mention the word "deactivate," and they took care of the problem immediately.   And I did not need to give them machine names of previous instances. (Which was lucky, because I don't remember them anymore!)

                   

                  Thanks,

                  Joyce