Stop Adobe Creative Cloud from opening in trial mode after purchase

Learn how to stop error messages indicating that you’re still in trial mode (or that your trial has expired) even though you’ve already purchased a Creative Cloud subscription.

Note:

It can take up to one hour for your purchase to process. Until it is processed, the apps continue to show the options for a free membership. You may need to wait a little longer if you completed your purchase within the past hour.

Clear your browser cache and cookies

View instructions for the web browsers listed below to learn how to clear their cache and cookies.

Make sure your subscription is active

On Adobe.com, sign in to your Adobe account with your Adobe ID (usually your email) and password.

If you’re already signed in, click your profile image in the top navigation bar.

Note:

If you have more than one Adobe ID, check that you are logged into your account with the correct ID.

In the pop-up pane, click Manage Account. You may be prompted to enter your password to verify your identity.

Your Adobe ID account management screen opens.

In Plans & Products, click Manage plan.

In the Manage Account section, check to make sure that your subscription is active. If it’s expired, that’s likely why you’re seeing messaging that indicates you are in trial mode or that your trial has expired.

If your subscription is showing as active, then an out-of-date payment method may be the issue.

To see if your payment information is current, in Plans & Products, select Edit payment details.

If your payment method isn’t current, update your credit card information in the pop-up window and click Save.

Your new payment method will take effect in the next billing cycle.

Check for Creative Cloud desktop app updates

Click the Creative Cloud icon, located in the taskbar (Windows) or Apple menu bar (Mac OS), to open the Creative Cloud desktop app.

In your profile menu, click Sign out.

To sign in again, enter your Adobe ID (usually your email) and password, and click Sign in.

Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner.

Choose Check for App Updates from the pop-up menu. You can also press Ctrl+Alt+R (Windows) or Command+Option+R (Mac OS) to refresh the Creative Cloud desktop app and check for updates.

If you aren’t using the latest version of the Creative Cloud desktop app, a prompt to update appears. Click Update.

Remove Adobe-related entries in the hosts file

If the previous solutions do not work, your computer could have trouble connecting to Adobe's activation servers. This could be because of an incorrectly configured Operating System hosts file (Operating system hosts files map host names to IP addresses).

To solve this issue, try removing Adobe-related entires from the hosts file. You can remove the Adobe-related entires from the hosts file in two ways:

Automatically repair the hosts file using the Limited Access Repair tool Repair the hosts file using the Limited Access Repair tool. With this method, you do not have to manually edit the hosts file -- the tool automatically repairs the file.

Reset the hosts file manually If the issue is not fixed even after you run the Limited Access Repair tool, reset the hosts file manually.

If the solutions above aren't working, try the steps in Advanced Connectivity Troubleshooting or contact us

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Stop Creative Cloud from showing trial mode after purchase

Clear your browser cache and cookies

Make sure your subscription is active

Check for Creative Cloud desktop app updates

Remove Adobe-related entries in the hosts file

Still having Problems?

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Contact Us

Clear your browser cache and cookies

Make sure your subscription is active

Check for Creative Cloud desktop app updates

Remove Adobe-related entries in the hosts file

Still having Problems?

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