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Adobe will disable Adobe Elements 2025 three years after purchase

Martin Brinkmann
Oct 4, 2024
Updated • Oct 4, 2024
Software
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Adobe announced new Adobe Elements 2025 Family releases this week. The two products, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2025 and Adobe Premiere Elements 2025, come with "Ai magic" according to Adobe and several other improvements.

The beginner-friendly products differ in functionality and also license when compared to Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere.

Adobe announced a license change for products of the Elements 2025 family of applications. Each product on its own costs $99.99, but Adobe is giving customers who buy both a $50 discount.

More Adobe news

Adobe is training its AI on user data

So far so good. Problem is, the license is valid for three years. It is non-renewing according to Adobe and the purchased product will expire automatically after three years. Adobe says that customers may no longer access the application, except for Organizer.

Here is the Adobe's answer to "How does the 3-year term license work": " The license is for a full 3-year term, with no monthly or annual recurring subscription fees required. The license is non-renewing — it expires 3 years after redemption at which time the Editor will no longer be accessible, but the Organizer will continue to be accessible indefinitely".

The only way out is to purchase a new version of the Adobe elements product or subscribe to one of Adobe's other products that offer access to the files and tools in question.

In other words: Elements 2025 is sold with a kill switch. It resembles some form of shareware licenses. These supported a specific version of a product only. When a new major version was released, you had to purchase a new license to upgrade your existing copy.

The main difference to Elements 2025 is that the purchased copies usually did not stop working altogether.

Shorter trial period

Adobe has reduced the trial period from 30-days to 7-days. Customers may purchase the license from the trial software directly. Adobe did not mention why it shortened the trial period.

Closing Words

Are Adobe Elements 2025 products sold as a subscription with a very-long usage period? Customers pay $99.99 for three years. If they want to continue using the Elements product, they need to purchase another license. The upgrade is a bit cheaper, at $79.99 to Adobe Elements 2025, but that is the only difference.

The kill-switch is different from how the majority, or all (?) software company handle this. If you buy a product, you expect it to work indefinitely. Upgrades may cost extra, which is fine for many users, as that ensures that the developer or company remains in business.

Still, the general consensus is that you may run the purchased product even after it is no longer supported by the developer.

What is your take on this decision? Would you buy Adobe Elements 2025? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Summary
Article Name
Adobe will disable Adobe Elements 2025 three years after purchase
Description
Adobe Elements 2025 products are valid for three years only after purchase. Adobe will block access automatically after three years.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. LenardG said on October 20, 2024 at 8:26 am
    Reply

    The subscription models make less sense for not professional users. There are months I never open Photoshop Elements. I am a casual user. I loathe software subscriptions generally. They make sense for professional users, less so for casual use.

    This is the reason I have been using Photoshop Elements.

    Granted I did occasionally update as well, but having such a kill switch if very hard to swallow and I will probably stay on the 2024 version for now and look for a replacement in the long run.

    There have actually been quite a few recommendations in the previous comments already.

  2. Neil Rosenberg said on October 14, 2024 at 5:33 pm
    Reply

    I have been using Photoshop Elements for a few years, but I find it increasingly unable to do the jobs that I want (my photographic skills are evolving). I kept it around mostly for the simple stuff –cloning, cataloging, simple edits. I’ve moved my serious work over to ON1 Photo Raw, a competitor to the full-octane Photoshop/Lightroom product, and they have a perpetual license.

    Now that Elements has adopted the subscription model, I’m VERY unlikely to “upgrade”. I’m tired of products that PacMan away your money, even when you’re not using it. That’s mostly why I’ll never buy Photoshop. Greed is as greed does.

    The thing about this Elements change — who’s to say that Adobe won’t shorten the next cycle to two years, or one year, or raise the re-up price 50% or more the next time around. They’re acting like a drug dealer: cheap to get in, expensive to stay in.

    Not on my nickel.

    1. stephone said on October 19, 2024 at 6:25 pm
      Reply

      Neil,
      Thanks for the reference of ON1. I just purchased a copy. I am not going to further upgrade Photoshop anything. Adobe has clearly jumped the shark now!

  3. CherryWine said on October 12, 2024 at 5:11 pm
    Reply

    I have been a loyal fan of Adobe Elements since v15 through v2024. The 3yr license with kill switch is a deal breaker for me. I will purchase Affinity Photo v2 going forward which has perpetual license and great RAW capabilities.

  4. Ronald said on October 10, 2024 at 5:49 pm
    Reply

    Hmm, not very pleasant.

  5. Jeff M.S. said on October 8, 2024 at 7:12 am
    Reply

    Greedobe making Apple and Microsoft look far less greedy

  6. Anonymous said on October 8, 2024 at 12:54 am
    Reply

    Always keep the old versions before Adobe went greedy.

  7. hg said on October 7, 2024 at 5:33 pm
    Reply

    I hope they lose users in droves. I’m already using Affinity but as they’ve been taken over I suspect they will be joining Adobe in the annual license game at some point, despite their denials. I wouldn’t mind paying a **small** annual fee for useful AI processing though.

  8. samurai cat said on October 6, 2024 at 8:48 pm
    Reply

    Make a portable version of all Adobe products with VMware ThinApp and you probably should be able to trial 7-days forever or even run it on Linux under Heroic Launcher or Use Bottles or Lutris.

    Another option is Adobe Alternatives: https://github.com/KenneyNL/Adobe-Alternatives

    1. bruh said on October 7, 2024 at 10:09 am
      Reply

      yeah that’s one way to do things but it kinda sucks. I have two versions of a very expensive audio restoration software, one is proper-cracked, and the other is wrapped around some sort of VM thing. The problem with the VM one is that every time I launch it, it’s as if I launched it for the first time, it doesn’t remember anything. But yes, works well.

      1. samurai cat said on October 9, 2024 at 5:35 pm
        Reply

        Apps made portable with VMware ThinApp remembers everything. The data folder stores all the settings and stuffs portable app needs to remember. You should be able to reset the Adobe portable 7-day trial if you delete the files in the data folder.

        https://portableapps.com/apps < uses VMware ThinApp to make their portable apps if i remember right.

        How to make apps portable with VMware ThinApp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tvhdp1UHoc

  9. efromme said on October 6, 2024 at 2:46 pm
    Reply

    As for purchasing any type of subscription using a credit card – DON’T.
    It is the singular function of a business to sell and demand payment with a credit card. Once they have your credit card, you’re a target in their ruthless pursuit of money. They will obfuscate, lie and whatever else is necessary to bleed you. Think about cancelling a subscription like a telephone line, a DSL line etc. – the road blocks to hinder cancellation are crazy. Verizon and Spectrum come to mind. I’ve been lied to, sworn at, ignored, hung-up on etc. The hours they wasted testing my perseverance. But it generally works to their benefit.

    I have had to sue in small claims numerous times (getting good at now) to force local businesses to correct or fulfill contracts. Am also a prodigious letter writer; always use USPS Certified mail – courts love that. Then the task of getting the judgment. Well, that’s where credit cards are a blessing. Luckily I use a credit card processer that has a complaint process, a complex process, but seemingly fair. I’ve held several crooked businesses (auto mechanics the most frequent) to account several times.

    So what does this have to do with Adobe? Nothing, me just ranting on a Sunday morning.

  10. John G. said on October 6, 2024 at 2:12 pm
    Reply

    Adobe is the most bloated and useless piece of crap ever made by the software industry. I remember a few years ago, when I was in college, I needed to open a PDF-XFA with some important data about my payments. The services page recommended Adobe to open and view it properly, so I downloaded and installed it, around 250Mb file size and over 3Gb size after installation. Just 3Gb to open a single PDF-XFA file under 600Kb. It was so fun that I sent some emails to my classmates telling them about such a strange experience, and we all started an online thread to find other software. Our total surprise came when we were able to open and print the same PDF-XFA only with Mozilla Firefox. Thanks for the article! :]

    1. Anonymous said on October 7, 2024 at 8:46 am
      Reply

      Just shows, that you don’t know a lot about Pdf. It’s a quite complex format with thousand bells and whistles. The latest Spec has several 1000 pages. Firefox has just a pdf-viewer implemented and that’s it. If viewing a pdf document is all you need, than this is great, but if you want to eg sign the document, encrypt it, embed a binary or similar stuff, then you need a real pdf tool. That won’t fly with the (otherwise nice and lean) Firefox viewer.
      Adobe Acrobat can do that all. Adobe Acrobat Reader can still do some of the stuff and used to be a pretty good tool (albeit Adobe has over the past years indeed managed to turn it into a bloat heap of …). If you want it REALLY lean, there are several cli-based pdf tools for viewing, modifying and creating pdfs.
      Nonetheless, it is like always: you need to choose the right tool for the job.
      For just viewing a pdf, Firefox is fine (heck, even Irfan-View can do that with the pdf plugin), but when it comes to other tasks, that won’t fly anymore. So assuming that the Adobe stuff can only do the same the simple as js-based Firefox pdf-viewer is pretty naive.
      BTW … while formally being a binary format, most of any pdf file is still just ASCII text (except for eg embedded binaries like images eg). That means that you can (at least in principle) view most pdf files with robust text editor, that doesn’t immediately collapse, when it encounters binary. So if you want to read the content of a pdf file without a pdf reader, you can usually achieve that with a common text editor (at least if you more or less know, what you are doing). And if you are really hard core, you can even do it with cat and more (or less). Doesn’t get any leaner than that

      1. John G. said on October 7, 2024 at 3:36 pm
        Reply

        @Anonymous, yes, I surely don’t know much about PDF, however, having to download a program that consumes 2Gb just to open a PDF is simply unacceptable. Firefox is capable of opening PDF-XFA and even printing it without any problem. The other considerations are minor.

        Off-topic: To the person responsible for this site, someone is pasting my previous comments, for example, the one below is not for here, it was written for another previous article. Thank you. :S

      2. Maximilian Schreiber said on October 8, 2024 at 3:06 pm
        Reply

        The answer is; no, I would nor buy Adobe Elements 2025. A seven day trial doesn’t seem all the generous either. I assume the AI processing is part of the commercial reason for the shorter trial. I am happy using GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP).

        John G., perhaps you are coming down with some strange fever. Because both of those posts were written by you, i.e. (https://www.ghacks.net/2024/10/01/windows-11-2024-is-now-available-what-you-need-to-know/#comment-4587669) and (https://www.ghacks.net/2024/10/04/adobe-will-remotely-kill-adobe-elements-2025-three-years-after-purchase/#comment-4587833) they aren’t historic posts either. Note the Fragment Identifier differs and makes logical numerical sense, so it’s not the website at fault.

        Nobody else wrote or posted them unless of course your machine has been compromised with something nasty like AI or a Remote Access Trojan, and so forth.

        Only someone afflicted with or having the characteristic of mental derangement would be desperate enough to emulate your posts in such a strange way. Are you really claiming that there is an imbecile cyberstalker going around: copy and pasting your posts, then going to the bother of posting them, using your name, etc?

        In that case, you should be dealing with Softonic International SA directly rather than making wild random accusations. In truth, the odds are either your machine has been compromised or more than likely it’s simply PEBKAC.

    2. John G. said on October 7, 2024 at 4:03 am
      Reply

      W11 is the best worst joke of the decade. W11 is the most bloated and useless piece of crap ever made by the software insdustry. There are no enough words to say how tired I am about all the W11 crap. Nadella doesn’t know how much I hate his stupid OS, mostly till the inner point of my bones. Last week I tried to print two PDFs at least 999 times, with no success at all. Printer was always offline. No matter what I did, nothing was enough to be able to print. I was in a very remote village lost in the mountains and there was only my printer.

      I wanted to uninstall Edge in the past, and even Defender. However, I was completely unable to uninstall them without breaking something. So I left them and after a while I didn’t care anymore. It’s amazing how someone can adapt himself to the insidious odor of the unwanted software.

      Some weeks before updating W11 everything was fine with the printer itself. However my mistake was not to taste the printer functionality after doing the monthly updates.

      Finally I had to download the entire Kubuntu ISO to make a bootable UBS, and then fortunately I was able to print the PDF. With only the USB stick, no extra config, all out of the box.

      Thanks for the article! :}

      1. boombam said on October 8, 2024 at 12:35 pm
        Reply

        There are some scripts to remove defender & edge on github. I’ve tried it and it works.

  11. Jay Aire said on October 5, 2024 at 3:46 pm
    Reply

    Will never buy a subscription, or kill switch enabled product.

  12. Benjamin said on October 5, 2024 at 3:20 pm
    Reply

    My take? I find that the current variety of economics has or is coming to an end. Criminal behaviour is made seemingly legal by fantasy speak. In todays liberalism the most valid and accepted answer is ” do not buy it”… and then?

  13. Tim said on October 5, 2024 at 3:07 pm
    Reply

    “You would think the general public would have figured out the above by now.”

    They kinda understand it when you talk to them about it. The do get some firsthand experience you know, you just have to poke them a bit about it because most of them suppress their feelings about it because they feel so powerless to make a difference.

    On the other hand, they are also being told again and again to leave automatic updates on or they will get horribly hacked. They have been scared into not taking chances on that front, and unfortunately there are a lot of examples to prove that right.
    What they are not being told though are the unfixed and “wont fix” issues they are exposed to despite automatic updates. And sometimes because of updates. And that many (owners of the) producers are horrible shites who will gouge them for what they can.
    It is well known in business, where “pricing” is more of a matter of mafia-like extortion in many cases, but the general public is very blissfully unaware.

  14. boris said on October 4, 2024 at 11:47 pm
    Reply

    In the realm of crappiness, this is actually a step forward for Adobe. Considering that it is almost impossible to cancel an Adobe subscription without huge penalty in time, money and data, this shareware model is an improvement.

    Of course, this is not for everybody. You have to know how the program works. You have to be able to disable telemetry if this program has any. And it has to be on par with alternative programs on quality and price.

  15. Armin said on October 4, 2024 at 11:25 pm
    Reply

    Ditch software rental and switch to the Serif’s Affinity suite.

    You can buy exactly what you want (cheaper than Photoshop Elements), or get a Universal licence that give you access to windows, mac and mobile builds of the entire suite for a fixed cost (handy for designers working with macs AND windows machines). Updates are free, no subscription rental, and its actually really popular.

    1. Armin said on October 5, 2024 at 4:20 pm
      Reply

      While adobe is shortening demo periods, Serif’s Affinity suite has recently made their free trial last 6 MONTHS.

      Seems theyre confident people will love it when given long enough time to make up their mind instead of being time pressured into urgently paying up. After all, satisfied adopters essentially become new ambassadors for change.

      1. Anonymous said on October 7, 2024 at 7:27 pm
        Reply

        Affinity has just been bought by a company that makes its money from … subscription software services. Guess what comes next.

  16. nowayjose said on October 4, 2024 at 9:57 pm
    Reply

    GIMP and/or Krita, KDEnlive, ,ShotCut, OpenShot, FlowBlade, Natron

  17. ECJ said on October 4, 2024 at 9:00 pm
    Reply

    I tend to avoid American companies now-a-days if possible – they are all a bunch of crooks. But even by American standards, Adobe are a really terrible company.

    Ditch Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Premiere Elements – use Affinity Photo and DaVinci Resolve instead.

  18. Brian said on October 4, 2024 at 7:27 pm
    Reply

    I’m done with Adobe. It’s time has obviously passed.

  19. Albert said on October 4, 2024 at 5:57 pm
    Reply

    So if I block it with WFC, it won’t work at all ???

  20. 45 RPM said on October 4, 2024 at 4:54 pm
    Reply

    Adobe Greed Edition For Home Users.

    Considering that there’s virtually no feature you can add to any Adobe product that’s either necessary for what they aim to do (image work, textual content, etc.) or that has something so “wow!” you’re tempted, they need some angle to keep making money.

    So full blown greed mode kicks in.

  21. Mike said on October 4, 2024 at 3:32 pm
    Reply

    Do not buy, trust, or use anything that requires the Internet to work. Not only will the provider revoke your purchases at any time they choose, but they will also constantly make the product worse and/or force unwanted changes, such as increased advertising, additional usage restrictions and higher system requirements as time goes by.

    You would think the general public would have figured out the above by now.

    1. Oliver Spice said on October 5, 2024 at 3:40 am
      Reply

      So, I can’t use a streaming service?

    2. Anonymous said on October 4, 2024 at 10:40 pm
      Reply

      This is why I don’t use any new software. I keep the older versions and never upgrade.

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