How to Transfer an Adobe Software License (CS5.5) Between Parties

We’ve previously covered here how to transfer Adobe software products (like CS5.5, Photo­shop, Lightroom, Elements, or Acrobat) between two computers, including from PC to Mac or vice versa. In this article we’re going to focus on transferring the actual legal license from one person or company to another, like transferring the title to a car or home between two people.

Getting the software moved is mostly a technical task, but doesn’t cover what happens if the recipient has problems, needs customer support or updates, wants to be registered with Adobe, and be recognized as the new legal owner of the software. So this is what you have to do to “unregister” it from the old owner and re-register for the new one.

Fortunately, this is possible to do. Adobe has a Transfer of License form (North America, or Rest of World) that you can download, fill out, and return to them to effect the move. This could happen after a sale or donation of the product, either for a business or an individual. Note however that Adobe’s Education (including the Student & Teacher) products are not eligible for a transfer of license – they cannot be resold or given away… Read more about the limitations of Adobe’s academic products.

The transfer form itself is fairly straightforward – just things like the name, version, and serial number of the product, plus the names, contact info, and signatures of both the transferor and the transferee. Note that the transferor needs to have the software registered with Adobe, which can be done electronically and just takes a minute plus can get you free goodies. Once submitted, Adobe then takes a couple weeks to process the transfer request, at which point the recipient becomes the new registered owner of the software and the legal licensee who can receive customer service and support.

Note that you can’t transfer individual components of a collection like Creative Suite 5 – it only goes for the whole package. Also, you are transferring all versions that are connected with that product – so for example you can’t use your copy of CS3 or CS4 to get discounted upgraded pricing on an upgrade to CS5.5, and then transfer your old copy of CS3/CS4 to someone else – it won’t work. You could either upgrade to CS5.5 and keep the earlier one, or purchase the full version of CS5.5 and transfer the prior one. See more about the allowed uses of previous versions when you’re upgrading Adobe software.

One last part that sometimes trips people up is the proof of purchase: if you didn’t buy the software directly from Adobe then you need to provide one – and any receipts from Internet auction/vendor sites such as eBay, Craigslist, or Amazon Marketplace are not accepted!  So this is yet another reason to avoid these places like the plague…

OK, ready?  Be sure to read the (important!) full instructions to make a transfer, including step-by-step on what you need to do and include together with the official form. Note that Adobe does not limit how many times their software can be legally transferred, although each customer can initiate a maximum of four transfers in their lifetime. Also, if there are any support contracts attached to a license, those won’t transfer to the other party.

Finally, before you submit the transfer, be sure to deactivate and uninstall the software on all your own systems.

[ Learn about how many machines you can run Adobe software on. ]

Hope this information helps… but please post any questions you may have and we will get answers!

If you’d like to move away from shuffling serial numbers altogether, consider an Adobe Volume License to simplify management instead of one-at-a-time copies… For a lower cost, you can get a single license with one serial number for your entire team.