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Natalie
By Level 7 Flexeran
Level 7 Flexeran

We STRONGLY recommend a full audit of your Adobe licenses and applications after applying the November 29, 2019, content update. Please read this ENTIRE post for details.

In May 2019, Adobe marked specific older versions of some products as not authorized for use. https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/kb/remove-unauthorized-versions.html

Flexera will be releasing FlexNet Manager content libraries containing updated Adobe ARL, SLDP, SKU, PURL, and bundle content to support this change on November 29, 2019.

Also, Flexera previously released ARL changes on September 13, 2019, updating the publisher name in the ARL from “Adobe Systems” to “Adobe.”

What’s changed?

If you have Adobe licenses or applications in your environment, you'll notice the following changes in your environment:

  • Affected Adobe application versions now include the word “UNAUTHORIZED” to indicate that Adobe no longer provides a valid license for all the included third-party content in these applications
  • We have also updated the old name “Adobe Systems” to the current publisher name of “Adobe”
  • Adobe licenses newly created from SKUs and PURL templates will no longer include unauthorized applications. (NOTE 26 Nov. 2019: Some customers are currently experiencing difficulty creating Adobe licenses directly from PURL templates without SKUs. We're working separately on this issue)
  • Recommended License Changes will be generated against affected existing licenses; however, a FlexNet Manager issue is preventing these Recommended License Changes from updating the licenses. We’ve provided remediation guidance in the next section

What actions do I need to take to keep my Adobe licenses working?

When changes to FlexNet Manager content are required to keep up with publisher activity, we always strive to prevent unintended changes to license positions. However, that wasn't possible in this case due to the current limitations of FlexNet Manager. In order to provide our customers with protection against Adobe or third-party audit, we'll release these content updates in spite of these issues.

You should be watching for three specific issues:

1. You may have unauthorized Adobe applications (i.e. with the word “UNAUTHORIZED” in their name) linked to licenses

REMEDIATION: Delete the unauthorized applications from the licenses (this can be done by manually editing either the applications or the licenses to remove the association).

2. You may have Adobe licenses with missing upgrade or downgrade application versions

REMEDIATION: Toggle the upgrade and downgrade rights off and then back on to repopulate the upgrade and downgrade versions.

Natalie_0-1574787446890.png

3. You may have unauthorized Adobe applications deployed, with or without a previously valid license

REMEDIATION: Remove the applications as soon as possible from your environment.

Questions?

Ask them in the comments. For specific requests, you may need a Support ticket.

Happy licensing, and stay safe out there!

(15) Comments
kathy_allen
By
Level 7

I noticed some Adobe products have the word 'unauthorized' behind their name but they are not on the list Adobe provided in their link.    The link specifically says "If a product is not listed in the table below, all versions continue to be authorized" so I'm curious if these should be marked 'unauthorized'.

After Effects CC 2015, 2017, 2017 Pro

After Effects for Mac 2015, 2017

Audition CC 2014, 2015, 2017

Audition for Mac CC 2014, 2015, 2017

Bridge CC 2014, 2015, 2017

Bridge for Mac CC 2015, 2017

Media Encoder CC 2014, 2015, 2017

Media Encoder for Mac CC 2014, 2015, 2017

Prelude CC 2014, 2015, 2017

Prelude for Mac CC 2014, 2015, 2017

Premier Pro CC 2014, 2015, 2017

Premier Pro for Mac CC 2014, 2015, 2017

SpeedGrade CC 2015 - FAQs as of March 2019 say it can still be used by existing customers

Reshmadevadiga
By Level 4 Flexeran
Level 4 Flexeran

@kathy_allen ,

 

It's tricky because of the "actual versions vs released year" of these products.

 

If I take example of After effects CC 2015, in 2015 they have released 13.5 version and that's the actual version. As per the above provided link, CC 13 is unauthorized version hence we have marked it as Unauthorized in the application name.

 

https://helpx.adobe.com/in/after-effects/kb/what-s-new-and-changed-in-after-effects-cc-2015--13-5-.html

https://theblog.adobe.com/opening-after-effects-projects-from-previous-versions-and-saving-back-to-previous-versions/

 

This logic is same for other products as well,

 

https://helpx.adobe.com/in/bridge/release-note/release-notes-bridge-cc-2015.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/bridge/bridge-releasenotes.html

 

Hope this answered your question.

 

Thanks,

Reshma

kathy_allen
By
Level 7

Thanks @Reshmadevadiga.  I didn't realize CC 2015 was actually v13.5.  Trickery!

mslassen
By
Level 2

I am doing SAMaaS for a customer, who has a classic mix of Creative Cloud and perpetual CS entitlements.
The engangement is relatively new, and I am still adding older entiltements to FNMS. They run the cloud version, so ARL and PURL are up to date.
Just yesterday I was creating and processing a number of InDesign CS6 purchases using SKU 65161586AC02A00.
When processing, FNMS automatically links to application "InDesign CS6 - UNAUTHORIZED" (no other alternative), which I find really odd.

So either something has gone wrong when updating the application, or I need for someone to explain, how a product purchased as a perpetual license can become unauthorized.

It seems to be the same with Photoshop CS6 (SKU 65158382AC02A00), which links to an unauthorized application as well.

What did I miss? Please help 🙂

Mette

Reshmadevadiga
By Level 4 Flexeran
Level 4 Flexeran

Hi @mslassen,

Thanks for reaching out to us!!

Here, If we refer the release notes of Indesign, the 8.0/8.1 version is fall under Indesign CS6 and 8 is a Unauthorized version. That's the reason we have added it as  "InDesign CS6 - UNAUTHORIZED".

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/indesign-releasenotes.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/release-note/indesign-cs6-8-1-0-release-notes.html

Let me know If you have any queries on the same.

Thanks,

Reshma

mslassen
By
Level 2

Thanks @Reshmadevadiga . I guess it does explain why the application is marked as unauthorized.

However, if the issue came up in an audit situation, I would challenge it - especially given the fact that the customers license entitlements were purchased before the first version of Creative Cloud was even released. But let's hope it will not come to that 🙂

Thanks,

Mette

kclausen
By
Flexera Alumni

My understanding is that this change from Adobe is strictly for an Adobe Cloud subscription.  When Adobe initially made this shift, they allowed Adobe Cloud subscriptions to have downgrade rights to the legacy CS6 versions of products.  With this Adobe announcement and the change to the FNMS ARL, we are representing that CS6 is no longer authorized to be entitled with an Adobe Cloud subscription.

In your case, where you have a legacy, perpetual, device based license for CS6, that should be OK.

Kirk

INgrid
By
Level 5

I disconnected the applications from the licenses yesterday but after reconciliation some of the applications were licensed again. It seems likely that is due to the downgrade rights in the suite components of the license. Now, I have limited the downgrade rights of the relevant components and that "sticks" after a manual reconciliation at least.  Will make the final verdict tomorrow 🙂

It would be great to get a verification of that by Flexera that this is a better approach than "...manually editing either the applications..." as the main article says. 

(we run on-prem 2019R2)

 

kathy_allen
By
Level 7

We recently did  an Adobe true up and I tested processing 2 of the new purchases to  new licenses with the SKUs and noticed that downgrade rights still included some unauthorized versions of applications.  Ex.  65274430 and 65274430FA for Adobe Creative Cloud.  I thought newly created licenses would not include the unauthorized versions.

INgrid
By
Level 5

Same as for @kathy_allen , SKU 65274430 includes downgrade rights to unauthorized versions so I suppose we will have to manually edit that?

Reshmadevadiga
By Level 4 Flexeran
Level 4 Flexeran

@kathy_allen  and @INgrid , We are looking into this and will get back to you.

ianphischer
By
Level 3

>>In your case, where you have a legacy, perpetual, device based license for CS6, that should be OK.

 

As this is the case (we have CS6 perpetual licences), we have to assign these to an application that has been named as UNAUTHORIZED. This is highly confusing. Surely the circumstances as to whether the application is unauthorised or not is dependent on each customers' licence entitlements. therefore the applications should not be tagged in the name as unauthorised, but rather this should be set at the customer level as their licence entitlement dictates

 

 

ChrisG
By Community Manager Community Manager
Community Manager

I'm hearing conflicting views on if and when older Adobe application versions can continue to be used. If you have any definite knowledge if this, it would be interesting to hear.

Here are some references that I have found or been sent:

Does anybody else have concrete information to help demystify if and when using older Adobe versions is still allowed?

JosephKaufman
By
Level 3

I no longer see the word Unauthorized in Adobe Applications that are unauthorized. Will this be changed back to include the word Unauthorized? It was very helpful.

 

not unauthorized.png

shuduguru
By Level 7 Flexeran
Level 7 Flexeran

Yes @JosephKaufman , Adobe's 'unauthorized' applications have been added back to ARL and will be included in this week's ARL release on October 13th, 2023. Thank you for your patience, we apologize for the inconvenience.