Photographer Tim Grey ran into problems when he got a popup window that he had an Adobe application that was not genuine … even though all of his were.
Adobe support offered this solution - https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html
Tim says it was a lengthy process, but preferences and settings were preserved.
This also happened to me a few months ago directly after a kernel panic on my Mac Pro running CS6. I was in a rush to get back to working on a project so didn’t take a screenshot of the warning, but the gist was that Adobe found my serial number on a dark web site so was shutting down my access to Photoshop because I wasn’t the legitimate owner. I was angry because that was untrue, and I still have the original installation box etc., plus a letter from Adobe from several years ago warning me that they had had a data breach and my info had been compromised, offering me a years worth of credit protection, yada yada. In other words, if my serial number had been shared to the dark web, Adobe was the party responsible.
However, other than not rebooting for a month or two, and leaving Photoshop running, I did nothing, and the error has not returned (knock on wood).
¯_(ツ)_/¯
Tim’s details, quoted from his email Q&A —
“I ran into a (very frustrating) experience last week where several of the Adobe applications I have installed were flagged as non-genuine, and I got repeated threats that the applications would be disabled soon.
A button in the alert leads to a page offering you the opportunity to buy Adobe software, but without any real information on how to resolve the issue when the software you have installed is genuine.
… Despite having installed the applications in the usual (and legitimate) way, they were somehow flagged as being non-genuine. Customer support was not able to provide any information on how the applications could have been flagged when they were legitimate.
While customer support was able to provide a solution, that solution involved using their Creative Cloud Cleaner tool, which requires uninstalling all Adobe Creative Cloud applications. That meant I then had to spend considerable time installing multiple Adobe applications again.
The only saving grace was that I did not lose my preferences or other settings as part of this process.”
I have this going on with my legitimate installation of CS6 apps on my Mac Pro. I believe the problem was introduced by a recently downloaded CS6 update from Adobe. I believe that update was what installed the Adobe CC Application Manager, which then “managed” my CS6 Photoshop by telling me it was not legitimate and that my software was disabled. Had a rather testy text conversation with Adobe “support” who recommended running the cleaner and reinstalling my software. I explained that I have NO Creative Cloud apps, and that there was no reason for any Creative Cloud presence on my computer. Their only solution is evidently to just run the cleaner.
I haven’t had time or inclination to waste a chunk of a day on reinstalling everything after running the “cleaner”. Photoshop continued to function after I clicked on the warning screen, which took me to Adobe. My most recent attempt to get that to stop was to use AppDelete to remove the Application Manger and everything associated with it. This mostly worked. I still get a far less obtrusive warning, that does not require a trip to Adobe’s site to dismiss, and Photoshop continues to work. If all else fails, I can reinstall a CCC backup of this drive what dates to before the CC intrusion. If anyone knows how to find and eradicate whatever nasty little CC remnant is throwing up that message, I’d love to get that info.
I have another legitimate installation of PS CS6 on another computer, and the problem has never occurred there. I think the difference may be that it was installed using the original installer which is dated 2013, and has not been updated at all. You can still download CS6 installers from Adobe, but I suspect the versions now available for download are what install this Creative Cloud spy crap.