Although we are no longer able to provide technical support to Grandfathers via email (due to the forthcoming end of compatibility support), full information and advice can be found below and we strongly recommend taking advantage of the Grandfathered discount before this offer ends in September 2024
If you purchased your plugins between 14 September 2019 and 3 September 2020 and you haven't renewed your subscription since, then it is correct that your licenses are currently Grandfathered. When your 12 months came to an end, you will have stopped receiving minor updates and you’ll also have stopped receiving upgrades to the latest versions and access to new releases. You are however, still currently able to use, install and reinstall the plugins you received on that year’s plan.
But for those who decided to continue to the new subscription, the clearer full subscription model will have taken over with the new terms applying.
For guidance on continuing to use your Grandfathered plugins, please scroll down to "To continue using your Grandfathered Annual Service Plan plugins".
Please note however, that due to the ever expanding set of Creative Cloud releases, it eventually becomes technically impossible for us to maintain plugins for older versions of Illustrator.
We are therefore providing 12 months notice that upon release of the new version of Illustrator (expected to be released in October 2024) we will no longer be able to support compatibility of the plugins for the versions of Illustrator that you purchased against.
As a Grandfathered customer we appreciate that this will impact you, and are therefore offering a one time offer of a significant discount against the purchase of our subscription. This offer will expire September 30 2024 and is available within your Grandfathered account.
In December of 2023, we will end email Customer Support for Grandfathered customers. You will still be able to use your Grandfathered plugins, but due to the administration time required in supporting such enquiries, it will be necessary to refer to the FAQs for the answers to such questions. We therefore strongly recommend that you take up the 100% discount available to you before it expires.
Please log into your account to checkout with this discount.
Which version of Illustrator will my Grandfathered plugins currently work in?
If your Annual Service plan expired before October 20 2020 and you haven’t purchased since, your grandfathered plugins are Illustrator 2019 to CC2021 v25.0 compatible - You cannot use your Grandfathered plugins on Apple silicon based systems or macOS versions greater than Catalina 10.15.
If your Annual Service plan expired before 13 January 2021 and you haven’t purchased since, your grandfathered plugins are Illustrator 2019 to CC2021 v25.0 compatible - You cannot use your Grandfathered plugins on Apple silicon based systems.
If your Annual Service plan expired between 13 January 2021 and 3 September 2021 and you haven’t purchased since, your grandfathered plugins are Illustrator 2019 to CC2021 v25.1, v25.2 and v25.3 compatible.
Please note that only Illustrator CC2021 (v25.1, v25.2 and v25.3) is compatible with Apple silicon based systems.
We initially launched our “1 price per year for all plugins” scheme as the Annual Service Plan. From feedback it became clear that this was confusing, and customers didn’t see any benefit in keeping plugins which would likely lose compatibility in a short time. We therefore decided to make it simpler by switching to a full “subscription” in name and operation.
From 4 September 2020, all customers pay the one-off initial fee and receive access to ALL plugins, all updates, new plugins and customer support for a year. When that year comes to an end it’s necessary to renew the subscription to continue using the plugins.
This change enabled us to reset the trial period for all users and ensure we could offer a clear and fair money-back policy. Other benefits since then include easier activations and deactivations when working between different computers (without needing to restart Illustrator), and improved team license management, plus multiple brand new plugins.
To continue using your Grandfathered Annual Service Plan plugins:
1. Check which version of Illustrator your Grandfathered plugins will work in (see guide at bottom of page) and revert to that version of Illustrator if necessary.
2. Login to the Astute Manager
3. Ensure all instances of Adobe Illustrator are quit
4. Click the 3 dots associated with each plugin
5. Opt for Uninstall from the menu:
6. After successfully uninstalling, re-install the plugin
This will install the last compatible version of the plugin that was available in the 12 months during which you received updates. If/when you choose to purchase again, the current subscription service terms will then apply.
Please note for customers wishing to revert to CC2021, as Adobe has withdrawn the public download of that version, you will need to contact Adobe (https://helpx.adobe.com/support.html ) to request a download of it.
Please also note that the latest plugins, such as Reform, and learning features such as AG Docs which were released following the end of Grandfathered accounts will not be available for install without first resubscribing. Please also note that if you are working on an Apple Silicon, this won’t pose a problem with your grandfathered licenses. Our Astute Manager and plugins run natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel hardware, you can read more about this here.