CS3 to CS4 Upgrade?

<p>Greetings, I have CS3 registered and loaded on my photography computer, upstairs, with no Internet connection. Can I download the CS4 upgrade from Adobe's site, burn it to a CD or flash drive, and then install it and use it without having to go online to register or anything else like that? Or when I install the CS4 update will they ask me to go online before I can use it? Thankyou.</p>

I'm going off of memory here, but I believe you have 30 days to register the product with Adobe after you've installed it.

One of the options should be to register the product over the phone.

<p>Thankyou kindly TM. If you're 100% sure about being able to register over the phone I'll be all set. Can anyone confirm this? Thanks.</p>

Well, to make up for the nagging, remaining 2% of doubt...

 

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/contact.html

 

I called the Customer Service Line (largely for my own curiosity), and made specific mention that the software would be

installed on a machine without internet access. The rep said yes, you can activate the software via phone.

 

That said, in my ever-mistrusting nature of things like that, I would suggest downloading and installing the 30 day demo

first, then calling Adobe's sales line to purchase your license/product key. Since you don't have to download the software

itself again (just enter the product key to remove the nag screen), you may just be able to get the product key and do the

activation all in one shot. Basically, just be really persistent that you won't have internet access, and of course get

people's names in case you need to do the "well Susan Jones said I could" thing.

 

I'm going to be upgrading InDesign to CS4 here shortly. If I don't hear anything else from you or another member here, I'll

activate by phone and see how it goes.

 

Lemme know how it goes!

<p>Thankyou, TM, for making that effort. I actually called Adobe's customer support as well. After the customary being put on hold, the women returned and told me that I could install it and use on my offline computer. She never mentioned anything about activating by phone and I forgot to ask.</p>

<p>With that being said, I like your suggestion about installing the 30 day demo first and then calling Adobe to purchase license/ product key. I'm a mistrusting soul as well. :)</p>

<p>I'll probably download my demo copy tomorrow, but if you have an update on how your conversion went I'd love to hear. Thankyou kindly for your effort and good luck with your update.</p>

<p>Make sure you have a method to get all of the recent updates plus any necessary updates in the future. I don't know if you can just download those to a flash drive and use them that way or not.</p>

<p>Doug, I've already updated CS3 downloading to a flash drive and installing, so I'm assuming it will be the same with CS4. Thanks.</p>

<p>For the heck of it, I chatted with an Adobe rep, on online chat, and he said I need to go online to activate which is what I've been trying to avoid. So now I have two different versions from two different Adobe reps. Arrrgh.</p>

<p>See this page for Activation options:<br>

<a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/activation/tour.html">http://www.adobe.com/products/activation/tour.html</a></p>

<p>Thanks John, but apparently the phone option is for older Adobe products. I found this on the page you linked me to:</p>

<p>"Please note: This tour is for earlier versions of Adobe software. Starting with Adobe® Acrobat® 9 software, the process is automatic and transparent in most cases."</p>

<p>Then on this page it makes it relatively clear that Internet activation is the only option for CS4.</p>

<p><a href="http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb403235">http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb403235</a></p>

<p>It this is a PC and your not connected to the Internet, then windows updates haven't been installed (unless you did this manually) leaving your computer open to the bad guys. <br /> So the first thing I would do after connecting to the Internet is to run Windows automatic updates.</p>

<p>you dont have to go online..you can call them and get a activation key by phone..done that last year when i was traveling on another part of the globe and have no internet conection</p>

<p>Thankyou for the replies Bill, Patrick. I'm frustrated by this so I'm just going to stay with CS3 until I absolutely have to upgrade to a later version. The way I understand it is that you can register by phone but you need to go online to activate. With the older versions of Adobe software you could just register by phone, but now you need to go online to activate as well, unless I'm misunderstanding Adobe's obtuse online literature.</p>

<p>A little side note. If you bought Photoshop as part of a Creative Suite, you cannot (as I found out $200 later) upgrade just one product; you have to upgrade the whole suite! Oops! Not sure if that's common knowledge or not, though I must say that is not made very clear on Adobe's site. </p>

<p>So, after about 3 transfers, 2 "call backs" and the most horrendous hold music on earth, I have to apologize. I did not ask if I could activate by phone, and when I plugged my serials in, it pretty much took over it activated all on it's own no other interaction from me. </p>

<p>Judging by what I just went through, I wouldn't hold my breath on the phone activation thing. I love Adobe's products, but am left rather unimpressed with their customer service! </p>

<blockquote>

<p>am left rather unimpressed with their customer service!</p>

</blockquote>

<p>They have what must be the worst customer service in the technology business. It is painful dealing with them, their policies were invented in the Middle Ages (their Customer Service should be called Sales Prevention) and their systems don't seem to have been upgraded since 1995. They can't even connect a phone order to your online account, even though they can give you all the information over the phone. Pathetic...</p>

<p>Downloads are a "pain"... In Ur shoes I would upgrade from a disc. Though with Adobe's weird installation/activation policies they might still prompt U to do 'things' online. That co. is so paranoid <em><strong>making a profit</strong> </em> that every time U go for a different HD, U have to register anew. As to their "Customer Service", I can only underline what Jeff Spirer voiced in his comment... Now that U're forwarned, go for Ur own experience. Might even turn out<em> roses</em> ...</p>

<p>Well, being the "glass half full" guy that I am, even for everything I just described, it's still better than trying to deal with QuarkXPress. Though it seems that they work the customer service by shuffling you around with the hope that you'll just give up (not uncommon), mostly evidenced by the awful, loud and horribly EQ'd hold music. </p>

<p>I'll be dealing with them AGAIN this afternoon to try and return my useless InDesign upgrade. Should be just oodles of fun! Did I mention the Hold music? </p>

<p>In all fairness, though, Photoshop, with the possible exception of Microsoft Office, has got to be the most pirated software in the world (speaking of which I'm glad that other dude's posts got deleted), so I can understand them being kinda paranoid about illegal copies of their software. I have no problem letting 'em know that I'm legit. I was mostly really irked about the fact that it is not made clear ANYWHERE that you can't upgrade individual titles if you own a Suite license, and more that they were vehement about not helping me resolve it. </p>

<p>TM, not to worry, you almost have to be Sherlock Holmes to crack this case, and my question is so simple all it requires is either a "yes" or a "no," and from Adobe I received a yes and a no. Anyway, my previous post I believe is the correct information about upgrading from regular CS3 to CS4. Thanks for your effort.</p>

<p>Yup Jeff.</p>

<p>Wolf, thanks for the heads up! Will do.</p>