Adobe Updater screwed up my Photoshop install

[Rick Popham]

About a week ago the Adobe Update program notified me that there were updates available. I knew that Camera Raw 7.3 had been released, so I let it run and install the updates.  Since I've mostly been using LR these days, I never got back into Photoshop until today.   It took an unusually long time to open, and when it did I was presented with a window that said my Photoshop EXTENDED trial had 0 more days until expiration -- did I want to buy a license?

WTF?!  Apparently the Update overwrote my existing installation.  The "Help/About..." window says that I'm using Photoshop CS6 Extended Trial version, instead of Photoshop CS6 Standard that I've been using for months.  I closed the program to see if Adobe had a bulletin about -- no luck.  Now I can't get into Photoshop without entering a serial number.  Now I have a serial number for the standard version but even if this works, does this count against my activation limit?

I tried "Chatting" with an Adobe agent, but  he said it was a "Tech" issue -- not in his area of expertise -- and those guys don't work weekends, so very sorry.  It's likely that I'll be unable to access PS until after Christmas. 

I had trouble with the same update for Lightroom.  The exe. file didn't do anything when I tried to run it.  I found the answer here on the Lightroom Q & A section. 

Never had trouble with that Adobe Update window before, but I figured I'd pass the warning to be careful about what it's actually doing.

[Tom Montgomery]

Yep, I had that too. I wound up agreeing to the "trial version", then closed PS and restarted it. This brought up the "You have 30 days left in your trial period." dialog box, plus the option to enter a serial number. I re-entered my serial number and everything (PS, Illustrator, etc.) has worked fine since then.

[langier]

Did two upgrades in two weeks...first time, my "trial version" would end in 32,765 days. I entered my SN and that solved it. It happened again during the next fix about a week later with another 89+ year trial period and I think I used the same fix.

So far with the two upgrade "undocumented" features, all is working fine now. It did get me a few laughs on Facebook, though!

[Redcrown]

This story, in various forms, is showing up in many forums now. The lessons learned by old veterans many years ago are:

Never, never auto update.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Even it it is broke, avoid virgin updates. Wait until an update has been "in the wild" for a few weeks before applying.

But hats off and a big thanks to those on the bleeding edge who share their pain and thus help others avoid it.

[hokuahi]

I'm also having consistent issues with the upgrades to PSCS6 (Creative Suite version) via both the automatic updater, and the update option inside PS. It seems that the slightest change to anything other than preferences will corrupt an update. I changed my PS icon and now, every time I want to update, I have to uninstall/reinstall PS, then update.

[kers]

I find it always a bit frustrating to find that illegal software usually gives less problems than the legal bought ones

[mdijb]

About a week ago the Adobe Update program notified me that there were updates available. I knew that Camera Raw 7.3 had been released, so I let it run and install the updates.  Since I've mostly been using LR these days, I never got back into Photoshop until today.   It took an unusually long time to open, and when it did I was presented with a window that said my Photoshop EXTENDED trial had 0 more days until expiration -- did I want to buy a license?

WTF?!  Apparently the Update overwrote my existing installation.  The "Help/About..." window says that I'm using Photoshop CS6 Extended Trial version, instead of Photoshop CS6 Standard that I've been using for months.  I closed the program to see if Adobe had a bulletin about -- no luck.  Now I can't get into Photoshop without entering a serial number.  Now I have a serial number for the standard version but even if this works, does this count against my activation limit?

I had exactly the same problem and Adobe showed me how to fix this on MY MAC

Navigate to The Library or the USER Library on  MAC->Application Support->Adobe Folder->AdobePCD folder->Cache Folder-> See file  Cache.db-> copy this to the desktop-> move the file from the folder to the trash-> empty trash.-> restart CS6.

the restart replaces this corrupted file and CS6 Worked properly and "extended" problem solved

It must be an Adobe problem because it happened to me on two different machines.

IF THE FILE IS LOCATED IN THE LIBRARY , NOT IN THE USER LIBRARY--BE CAREFULL!!  YOU ARE WORKING ON THE ROOT LEVEL OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM.

Hope this helps

IF you need to get to an Adobe person to help, get a beer and a sandwich--the wait may be very LONG.

MDIJB

[duane_bolland]

I had the same problem.  I just re-entered my CS6 license number and it reverted back to the non-extended version.  Others have had to uninstall and reinstall PS. 

[Josh-H]

See this thread over at Adobe.

They are aware of the issue and are working on a fix.