Maybe I’ve been doing something wrong, maybe I’m just thick but this morning I’ve had a total nightmare completing what should have been a simple task. Activating Studio 8.

I already own a fully licensed copy of Fireworks 8, but after my beta copies of Dreamweaver and Flash decided to time out I bit the bullet and purchased a Studio 8 upgrade from DABS. I have 2 boxed copies of ‘Studio MX 2004 Pro’, plus the boxed copy of ‘Fireworks 8’ so I assumed that I had more than was required to qualify for the upgrade as opposed to the full product version.

Studio 8 turned up on Saturday and this morning I got busy with uninstalling all previous versions of Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks etc.

With this done I ran the Studio 8 installer and then launched Flash first, studio serial number in hand, ready to get activation completed.

First I’m asked to enter my Flash 8 Serial Number, so obviously I just enter the Studio 8 serial, that’s all good. Then I get another dialog which asks me to provide my previous Flash version serial number from which I’m upgrading. 10 minutes later I re-emerge from the loft with my Studio MX 2004 Pro box, I enter the serial number as instructed… nothing. No green ‘tick’, nothing, nada, zip. So I try again but without the hyphens, again nothing.

Another 10 minutes later I’m back at the computer with my other Studio MX 2004 Pro box, I try this serial… again nothing.

Right, ok… time to give Macromedia Activation Support a call I think, so off I pop to Macromedia.com in search of a number… …there isn’t one. All support seems to be email based these days. Great, Fantastic. Just what I needed. That means that no doubt I’ll have to wait at least a day before I get a response to my query.

Right, I really need to get on and do some work now. I’ve paid for my software, whay can’t this be simple, I’ve checked, double and triple checked the numbers. They’re right.

Last resort, I do a quick search on google for ‘“PFD700”:http://www.google.com/search?q=PFD700’. It’s asking me for a Flash MX 2004 serial number, so I’ll give it one.

Success.

Not exactly the correct route, but in absence of any proper telephone support, it seemed the only logical option.

Update: Drew is indeed right, seems I was using serials from a NFR (Not for Resale) copy of Studio MX. However there are a bunch of other products you can upgrade from.