Adobe CC “Shared” Package Error - “This Device Was Not Activated Properly”

[Carter]

We were very close to implementing a full Federated Sync Tool setup this week between the college and Adobe until we started getting reports that users we had already setup manually with access to the 2019 version were getting the error you see attached below.

 

 

At first we thought this was due to a user account issue and we spent the better part of two days trying to troubleshoot and fix this issue but now we’ve been told this is an issue that’s been reported to Adobe by many clients. Turns out something was pushed out by Adobe but they’re unsure what.

 

Even though this window points us to the “Learn More” link which is here https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/kb/sdl-launch-error.html I believe this is an internal Adobe Cloud issue and not something that we did in terms of imaging and here is why.

 

We tested the hell out of our Windows and Mac images and had no issues. We’ve deployed them, imaged many machines and tested multiple accounts without any issues. All of a sudden yesterday machines that have already been imaged with a “Shared” license image was getting this message if we logged into the suite using federated access. Also, today I took 7 PC’s and imaged them with the identical image that was already out in the wild being used and it too was dead on the water and would give us this message.

 

It almost seems that some sort of handshake/checkin with Adobe has pretty much pouched the “Shared” install.

 

Right now the fix from Adobe is to re-deploy a “Share” package with no software in it and just the license file as they look into the reason behind this issue. I’m purposely leaving a few machines with the broken image to see if they will self correct once Adobe pushes out a fix. My worry is that right now they’re unsure what the root cause is other than to say it could have been an update that went out from Adobe though I can’t see this because we’ve disabled updated to the Adobe software unless we use Adobe RUM. This tells me the issue stems from a checkin with Adobe when the user logs into the software when using a “Shared” install. It’s checking with Adobe then having an issue with the checkin then corrupting the activation of the “Share” License.

 

Anyways, a bit long winded but curious if anyone else has run into the issue? Adobe says they started getting reports a few days ago. I’m just glad we were not already into the start of the new school year or we would have had hundreds/thousands of computers with Adobe dead in the water and students without the ability to use the software.

[free780]

It would be helpful if Adobe said you can't put these packages within an image, if that's the case. SDL needs to be bullet proof but its quite worrying for the Autumn if it doesn't work.

[Carter]

We spent the better part of two full days troubleshooting this. I imaged 14 PC's with named and shred licensing to track down the issue to either "Imaging", "Windows Updates", "Adobe Updates" or a "Corrupt Adobe Package Install". We've confirmed "Named" licensing has nothing wrong with it and that it affected "Named" licensing. The short of it is that it has nothing to do with imaging as everything work with the deployments after they were completed. Adobe has confirmed that the issue started mid week and that it has been reported by other clients that push on "Shared" license packages and that it seems to be related to some form of of update or something in that field. That's why IMO it relates to a checkin/handshake the computers/software does when a user logs into the suite. Even non federated account (so personal or freshly created adobe accounts) are affected.

[mitchell1981]

Hi, has anyone come up with a solution to this? We've just noticed it today. Has been working fine for several months until now. We are using 41 of 100 licences according to the admin console, but getting 'The device was not activated properly'.

 

Adobe's implementation of Shared Licences is absolutely horrendous!

[KrampusCat]

You probably won't like this, but the workaround I found was to uninstall every Adobe program; delete any Adobe folders found in a file search; and because I'm doing this in a Mac lab, deleting all Adobe related folders in the ~/Library and /Library directories; and finally reinstalling.

 

From what I am guessing, it's doing this because the first computer/master image was activated THEN used to image/clone. I never had this problem in the first lab where I cloned and later activated Adobe.

[ICMP-KS]

I can verify the fix -- make a new “Share” package with no software in it and just the license file and of course it needs to add Adobe desktop App (who cares)as well you have no chose on that.

Push the package it is about 430MB and reboot the issue is gone.

Adobe Please……21 years of agony to admin your product is enough.

[RawleJ]

Yep we're encountering the same issue. We have about 44 Shared Device License users but the fix mentioned above did work for us. Likewise we will wait a bit to see if Adobe corrects the issue before we begin touching the other machines. The one upside that in spite of the message the apps continue to work, so it's more of an annoyance for our users.

 

Appreciate those that shared the fix and the feedback.

[mlw123]

Can confirm that making a new package with only the SDL license (and Desktop App) and deploying to clients fixes this issue.

[free780]

I've not seen it. However I did get a different issue and support said you must keep the Creative Cloud App up to date.

[Carter]

You probably won't like this, but the workaround I found was to uninstall every Adobe program; delete any Adobe folders found in a file search; and because I'm doing this in a Mac lab, deleting all Adobe related folders in the ~/Library and /Library directories; and finally reinstalling.

 

From what I am guessing, it's doing this because the first computer/master image was activated THEN used to image/clone. I never had this problem in the first lab where I cloned and later activated Adobe.

 

 

I can verify the fix -- make a new “Share” package with no software in it and just the license file and of course it needs to add Adobe desktop App (who cares)as well you have no chose on that.

Push the package it is about 430MB and reboot the issue is gone.

Adobe Please……21 years of agony to admin your product is enough.

 

We're still working with this issue. I know above I mentioned about making an install package with the license file by itself which gets packaged up with the CC App itself and for the most part this does work but we've still seen issues after the fact.

 

For our latest round of testing we have the latest license package which was built today (Tuesday July 16th, 2019) and setup to install after the machines have been imaged.

 

The issue we're having today is that some of our computers are getting a new "400" error as seen here:

 

 

If you lookup this error you will find yourself here https://helpx.adobe.com/in/x-productkb/policy-pricing/tshoot-fed-id.html#ErrorquotThecurrenttimeisbeforethetimerangespecifiedintheassertionconditionsquot

This article talks about a “SAML” issue. If we watch the adobe logs on the website we can see these logs as

 

 

"Inbound SAML login failed with message: The current time is before the time-range specified in the Assertion Conditions"

 

 

We’ve gone over our sync tool settings and everything looks fine and if we talk to Adobe they reference this same article once again.

 

The part that we found odd is the steps you take to produce the error is dependent on which application you open first.

 

If we log into the computer and we now see the Adobe CC App popping up right away because it’s no longer suppressed as it was installed after imaging. So acting as if we don’t know better we put in our credentials to log into the Adobe CC App at which point we get the 400 error. If we close the window it shows the CC App but still not logged in. If you try again it’s the same 400 error will come up. If you look back to the “Events” window in the Adobe Admin console you can see a log of the error and then the computer/software being successful.

 

The next step we launched any of the Adobe CC Suite Apps (in our case testing with multiple computers we tried PS, DW & Ill) and when it asked for our Adobe ID/Fed ID we put it in and Adobe authenticated without an issue. If we close or quit the application we can now see that the Adobe CC App is now logged into our account.

 

If we use an application from the suite first we can get in. If we use the Adobe CC App first we get the 400 error. For a quick test if I logged out of the suite and apps and quit everything then tried to log into the CC App again I would get the same 400 error once again.

 

Along with these new quirks we’re now seeing a new random windows (always seems to be random with Adobe as it may or may not show up from one time to another) anyway we now randomly see this new message if a user has ran the software once before, logged out of the computer then back into it.

 

 

Once we hit continue it logs in without an issue and if we select sign out it signs out. We never had this prompt from our pervious image. Just another window users need to get prompted with.

 

My personal favorite popup that we randomly see is “Sorry, something went wrong …… This is likely an issue at our end……”

 

The short of it is that yes creating a package with the license only “fixes” it but so far we’re seeing changes in the users experience with more popups and how some applications run.

 

As it sits right now we just started to image a lab of 30 PC's and tomorrow we will continue to troubleshoot and test different ways of starting applications. We're also requesting another meeting with Adobe to go over everything we've come across today.

 

Thank you everyone for your input and feedback. Everything helps in finding a resolution!

 

©

Edited July 16, 2019 by Carter

[ICMP-KS]

I have seen this before in our labs , and it is indeed normal workflow in the shared device licensing.

 

This is from Adobe:

 

This is expected behavior for Shared Device Licensing since it is intended for a classroom environment, the confirmation is needed every 90 minutes.

For more information please read the 'End User Experience' section here: Shared Device Licensing | Deployment guide

 

Cheers,

[Carter]

Thanks @ICMP-KS

 

Had a read over and yes you’re correct that the “Account Confirmation” is normal. Odd we were not noticing it u TIL now.

 

Tks

[saida]

Any update on this thread. Are you guys still having issues. I had the popup this morning. Going to try the license package fix.

[k-strider]

mines broken too “This Device Was Not Activated Properly” but ive not looked into it as photoshop still lets me edit stuff

[rivardma]

I fixed this problem on my side by deleting the following folder: C:\ProgramData\Adobe\OperatingConfigs

 

I found this after coming here and finding that only shared packages caused this. On my side, we had a few technicians install shared package on computers needing named packages, but even after unsintalling shared and installing named, the error still showed. However, when installing named correctly when starting, the error wasn't there.

 

It had to be files added by shared and not by named that caused the issue, so I parsed the system for any Adobe related files, manually deleting them bit by bit until I found the culprit. I now remove that folder on my deployments, shared and named, and both work perfectly after.

 

Registered just to leave the answer on the web for other people to find.

 

Cheers

[saida]

Tested this on photoshop and it worked like a charm. Will try out on some other apps. Thank you Rivardma. "I fixed this problem on my side by deleting the following folder: C:\ProgramData\Adobe\OperatingConfigs"

[saida]

Mines works now after deleting this folder. C:\ProgramData\Adobe\OperatingConfigs

 

Thank you Rivardma and everyone here.