Legacy Customers
(If you purchased between 14 September 2019 and 3 September 2020 and your license has expired, you purchased the Annual Service Plan. In this case, if you haven't purchased since and you don't want to move to the 12 month subscription, then please scroll further down this article to "Grandfathered Customers").
If you purchased before 14 September 2019 and you haven't purchased since, you are a legacy customer. If you are already using these plugins previously purchased from us and you don't want to move to the 12 month subscription, they will continue to work as they have always done.
While these legacy licenses will no longer be updated, and may not be compatible with future operating system or Adobe Illustrator releases, the licenses remain valid and available for:
Adobe Illustrator CS6 to CC2019 Windows 7 / 8.1 / 10 and macOS 10.10 through 10.14.
You should have kept a record of your license keys for future reinstallation with the older Unified Installer Installation Method. If you are experiencing any issues locating your license keys, please contact us quoting any known email addresses to which your plugin(s) are currently registered.
Do not upgrade from Mojave to Catalina or above:
Please note that legacy customers should avoid upgrading from Mojave to Catalina, Big Sur or above. Please see our advice on Catalina for more information.
Do not move to CC2019 or above:
Please note that legacy customers should avoid upgrading beyond CC2019 as previously purchased plugins are not compatible with Illustrator 2020 or above.
When you upgrade to a new version of Illustrator, in the advanced options of the creative cloud app, deselect "removal of previous versions of Illustrator". If you have accidentally removed CC2019 and want to reinstall it, or if you would like to run CC2019 alongside a newer version of Illustrator, please see our step by step advice on continuing to use your legacy plugins in CC2019.
Grandfathered Customers
If you purchased between 14 September 2019 and 3 September 2020 and you haven't renewed your subscription since, then it is correct that you have a “Keep your licenses” Annual Service Plan and you are 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 able to use, install and reinstall the plugins you received on that year’s plan. As newer versions of Illustrator and macOS are released, you may find that you wish to purchase again in order to ensure continued compatibility.
All Annual Service Plan customers retained access to what they bought if they chose to not continue. 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.
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.
If you are one of these Annual Service Plan customers who hasn't purchased since before 4 September 2020, then as promised, you can continue using, installing and reinstalling the plugins with the compatibility you paid for on your year of the Annual Service Plan.
You may decide to purchase the subscription later in order to ensure the most up to date compatibility - crucially though, as long as you’re still using your Annual Service Plan that was available to purchase between 14 September 2019 and 3 September 2020, your access to those plugins is still available.
When logging into your account on the website you will see indication that your subscription has ended however, when you login to the Astute Manager you can simply revert to your previous versions.
To continue using your 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. You can then carry on using this for as long as you wish. 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, 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 M1, this won’t pose a problem with your grandfathered licenses. Our Astute Manager and plugins run natively on both M1 and Intel hardware, you can read more about this here.
Which version of Illustrator will my Grandfathered plugins work in?
If your Annual Service plan expired before October 20 2020 and you haven’t purchased since, your grandfathered plugins are CC2018 v22.0. 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 CC2018 v22.0 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 CC2018 v22.0 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.