Christopher Mackay’s Blog

I’ve had many opportunities over the last few months to speak with the nice folks at Adobe Support. They’re unfailingly polite and helpful.

Maybe they should work on Adobe’s Software Installer team.

I upgraded from Adobe Contribute 4 to Adobe Contribute CS3 yesterday. Not, you know, because I wanted to; but because out of the blue, when trying to administer a Dreamweaver-based web site with Adobe Contribute 4, like always, it suddenly told me I needed a newer version of Contribute. Then it would quit.

I fiddled with it for a bit, then decided to just give in and upgrade. It’s not that much money.

1. I download it (it’s over 300 MB!): success.
2. I install it: success.
3. It asks for the serial number. I give it the serial number: success.
4. It asks for the serial number of the version I’m upgrading from. I give it the serial number: rejection. WHAT?!? I’ve copied the serial number from the email Adobe sent me in 2006, when I bought version 4…
5. I copy the serial number from version 3, bought from Macromedia (in 2003, if memory serves): rejection. This is ridiculous.
6. I call Adobe, and 10 minutes later they walk me through a procedure that gets it to work.

This is the same thing I went through with Photoshop CS3, and twice with Dreamweaver CS3.

It used to be that you could rely on an installer to find your previous version on your hard drive, and it could figure everything out from there. Not any more.

It used to be that you could COPY AND PASTE the serial numbers from their own email and expect that to be recognized (it worked when I needed it originally, after all). Not any more.

Will Adobe ever figure this shit out? Seems unlikely.