Isolated Feature Restricted Licensing is a method of licensing Adobe Creative Cloud apps on computers that are segregated from networks. In this method, the licenses are installed directly on the computers along with the apps using an Isolated activation package. The package is self-contained, and includes the licensing information specific to the computers where it is installed.
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Acrobat Classic version can now be included in Feature Restricted Licensing packages for ETLA customers. VIP and VIP marketplace customers will need to purchase Acrobat Classic FRL separately. This will provide customers with a stable release version of Acrobat to deploy in secure environments. For more, see Document Cloud Product Tracks. |
For an Isolated Feature Restricted Licensing package to include licensing information specific to a computer, include the activation codes for the computer when generating the package. You can generate activation code for each computer using Adobe's Licensing Toolkit. After you have generated client codes, create an Isolated Feature Restricted Licensing package in the Admin Console, and deploy it on a user machine.
The Isolated Feature Restricted Licensing option appears in your Admin Console only when Adobe entitles your organization to use this type of licensing. The option does not appear by default.
Launch an application on your computer. The license activates automatically.
To license the Creative Cloud apps on user computers, run the Adobe Licensing Toolkit on each computer. The tool provides a CRC32 checksum of the computer’s machine ID that Adobe uses to issue a corresponding license. CRC32 is not a machine ID, device ID, or any device identifiable information.
The license expiration date is the organization's contract end date.
Starting December 2023, only packages aligned with Adobe's Enterprise & Teams support policy will be available on the Packages tab of the Admin Console.
This will help optimize the performance and load time of the Packages tab.
After you've generated the activation codes, perform these steps to create an Isolated Feature Restricted Licensing package.
On the Packages tab, click Create a Package.
Choose Feature Restricted Licensing, and click Next.
Choose Isolated activation, and click Next.
Enter the activation codes that you generated using the Adobe Licensing Toolkit.
OR
If you created a CSV file for multiple computers, upload the CSV file.
OR
To create a product-only package, leave the Activation Code box empty and don't upload a CSV file. Use this option is if you want to create install media and licenses separately.
Ensure that you enter the correct license code that you generated using the Licensing Toolkit. This procedure does not check the validity of the error codes that you enter in this step.
However, if you enter invalid license codes, your end users will experience issues when using the associated apps.
On the Entitlements screen, select the required entitlements, and click Next.
On the Configure screen, select the required options and then click Next.
A package made for one operating system and architecture type, cannot be deployed on another.
On the Choose Apps screen, click the plus icons next to the corresponding applications to include them in the package.
Optionally, you can filter down the list of Available Applications to choose from.
Latest versions: Display the latest version of all available applications.
Long-term supported versions: Display Adobe's long-term supported versions.
Beta apps: Display available beta apps. Learn more.
Older versions: Display a list of previous versions of the apps. View versions that don't receive security or feature updates.
App Add-ons: Certain Adobe apps come with Add-ons. So, when you add an app that includes one or more Add-ons, you have the option to include the add-ons in the package you're creating. By default, Add-ons are not included in the package.
After you're done with your selections, click Next.
(Not currently available for Windows ARM devices) On the Choose Plugins screen, search and select plug-ins to include in the package, and click Next.
You can select the Show Compatible Plugins Only check box to display the plug-ins that are compatible with the apps in the package. This filter doesn't appear if you only have the Creative Cloud desktop app in your package.
To view the list of selected plug-ins, click Selected Plugins.
The plug-ins that you include in the package do not necessarily need the supporting application to be part of the same package. You can include plug-ins and extensions for apps that are previously installed on your users' computers. Also, if a computer does not have the targeted application for a plug-in, the plug-in is not installed on the computer.
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Management options |
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On the Finalize screen, specify the following:
Package name: Enter the name of the package.
Create flat package: If you have chosen a macOS platform, you have the option to create flat packages. This option is selected by default. For more details, see Creating flat packages.
Review the included applications and configuration for this package before building the package.
Click Create package.
If you are creating macOS packages, the Adobe Package Downloader is downloaded to your computer. Open and run to complete download process. For further details, see Adobe Package Downloader.
You are returned to the package list when the package creation process begins.
If the package is built successfully, you are prompted to download the package.
Also, the Download link is available in the Actions column of the corresponding package row. So you can download the package later.
A package is available in the Admin Console for up to three days. To check the time remaining to download a package, click 
to the right of the package name.
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Caution |
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If the package that you've created, contains one or more apps that have been rolled back owing to a bug or issue which needs to be fixed, this package displays as Revoked. You will be unable to download this package. Also, if you have previously downloaded a package that contains a revoked app, you should not deploy it. You should create and deploy a new package with a non-revoked version of the app. 
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The downloaded package file is a .zip file format. If you double-click to unzip the package file, you may encounter the following, Unable to expand error on macOS 10.14 and prior versions. This is because the macOS Archive Utility does not support the unzipping of large files that are zipped using the Zip64 mode. 
To unzip the file, open the terminal in the folder where you've downloaded the file and run the unzip command: unzip <file name>.zip |
The package that you download, contains a Packageinfo.txt file. This file has the information such as the following about that package:
The PackageInfo.txt file is for informational purposes only.
After you create the feature restricted license package, set up the end-user machines with the license:
For details on troubleshooting Creative Cloud apps installation and uninstallation errors, see this document.
If your organization renews the contract, and you require to relicense your users. To get the latest apps, deploy a new package that includes the apps. Deploy a new package to update the apps following a contract renewal. You can either create a package or update a previous package, by performing the following steps:
Log in to the Admin Console and navigate to Packages > Packages.
The history of all packages created by all admins in your organization is displayed.
Click the expired package you want to update.
In the package details pane, click Update Package.
Download the updated package and deploy to user machines.
You can remove a license from a computer in the following scenarios:
Use Adobe's Licensing Toolkit to remove a license. Adobe Licensing Toolkit is a command-line utility that is used to activate or uninstall licenses. It is available in the licensing package that you download from the Admin Console. Alternatively, you can download it directly from the Admin Console under Packages > Tools.
To remove a license, run the following commands with admin privileges:
Windows:
adobe-licensing-toolkit.exe --precondition --uninstall --filePath <absolute path of the .json file>
macOS:
sudo ./adobe-licensing-toolkit --precondition --uninstall --filePath <absolute path of the .json file>
For more information, see these steps.
The .json file can be found within the package that was downloaded from the Admin Console and deployed to the user machine. The file contains the licensing information.
In the scenario where multiple licenses have been installed on a single machine, run the following commands with admin privileges to remove the licenses:
Windows:
adobe-licensing-toolkit.exe --precondition --uninstall --all
macOS:
sudo ./adobe-licensing-toolkit --precondition --uninstall --all
For more information, see these steps.
Instead of removing licenses from a user's computer, you can uninstall the license and the products. By using the Feature Restricted Licensing packages, themselves.
Read the details on how to uninstall packages from a user's computer.
When generating activation code, only the CRC32 checksum of the computer’s device ID (Sha 256) is shared with Adobe. The information shared is not device-identifiable.
Every package is bundled with a license file. To create a license-only package, skip adding any applications to the package.
Create license-only packages to deploy on client computers where applications are already deployed but without licenses or with trial licenses.
To deploy a package using Microsoft's System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), you need to create an install / uninstall program from the SCCM console. The steps to create the install / uninstall program are given in this section of the Deploy Adobe packages with SCCM article.
Use the above procedure to create and deploy the package using SCCM, with the following exception:
In Step 2 of the procedure:
If required, to download the Adobe licensing toolkit (adobe-licensing-toolkit.exe) file for Windows:
Isolated Feature Restricted Licensing licenses expire on the date the contract ends.
Following a contract renewal, the admin can choose to relicense their users by:
Users will retain access to available Adobe apps for 99-days beginning with the Post-Grace Period, but no new packages can be created during that time. Learn more about contract expiration phases.
Adobe provides this 99-day grace at its sole discretion to facilitate the deployment of renewed licenses, and it is liable to change.
Isolated Feature Restricted Licensing does not support Adobe Applications in virtualized environments.
When the admin removes a feature restricted license for an isolated activation package, the license count will not be updated on the Admin Console. It is because there was no communication with the Adobe licensing servers after the package was deployed.
The Adobe License Decoder is a command-line tool that tells you about all the feature restricted licenses on a computer. This tool examines globally-installed license files and provides the following information:
Use the Github repository to download the tool and for detailed documentation.
To identify the activated packages on a client computer, follow these steps.
This command displays the licensing information for all the apps installed on a computer.
SAMPLE OUTPUT:
Adobe Licensing Toolkit (0.1.5.57) License Details NpdId : MWVjZGNlMzMtZGU2Yi00ZmNlLTkzZTktY2MxMjBhZmFiZjg1 AppId : Photoshop1 DeploymentMode : FRL_ONLINE, FRL CacheExpiry : 03/06/19 20:01:56 India Standard Time LicenseId : 511F26523959D15EBD9B LicenseExpiry : 03/06/21 20:01:56 India Standard Time NpdId : YjZiOGU0ZTItYTkxNy00NTFlLWFkOTItZTljNTc2M2U2OTgx AppId : Animate1 DeploymentMode : FRL_CONNECTED Operation Successfully Completed
Sign into the Admin Console and go to the Packages tab.
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In the filtered list of packages, click the package. The details of that package are displayed on the right. The Package License ID on the Admin Console corresponds to the NpdId on the Licensing Toolkit command, above. Use this to identity the packages installed on a client computer. |
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The Package License ID is only available for packages created on or after 7/24/2021.
Yes. Adobe XD is available as part of the Creative Cloud All Apps Feature Restricted Licensing plan purchased through an ETLA contract. However, there are differences in the XD interface, features and workflows compared to XD in a Named User Licensing environment.
For details on the differences, see Adobe XD with Feature Restricted Licensing.
