Please save my FreeHand :(

Question

My FreeHand 11.0.2 was working fine under 10.5.4 (Intel
MacBook), until I installed a security update 2008-005 (at least I
suspect that's the reason). After that FreeHand jumps in the dock
and nothing happens, a common problem (sigh) the answer to which
was a HotFix here
http://www.adobe.com/go/tn_18933
I'm not sure how to use that hotfix, I've just double clicked
it and it said success, but FH still didn't work. Then I found out
that a PPC process named AuthenticationS(ervice) blocks 99% of my
CPU while FH is trying to start. The Console also had some lines
about that. I killed the process in the Activity Monitor (it asked
for the admin pass) and then FH did start in the background. I've
tried that several times and had to start it that way.
Then I googled for macromedia authentication and found a lot
of problems. Anyway, I wanted to wipe out every instance of
AuthenticationService from my machine (the Macromedia problems
should be solved by thrashing the Macrovision folder, etc) and I
did delete it from Library/App support, User Library/App support,
FH contents/Shared support etc... Then FH refused to start with a
warning that it's architecture isn't supported. Then I deleted FH
and reinstalled it (no boxes for serial number or anything came
up), but this time
4-5 AuthenticationService processes were blocking 99% of my
CPU and I couldn't kill them, or when I did manage to kill one,
another one popped in immediately, and it only stopped when I quit
FH app. HotFix doesn't help. I've tried to reinstall it numerous
times, delete it with AppZapper, only delete certain
AuthenticationService files, nothing helps... Please save my
FreeHand, I know there are alternatives like LineForm or Inkscape
or Intaglio or Illustrator or whatever but I want my FH back!
:(

Answer 1

Hello adobebody,
A year ago I experienced the same problem. Thought I’d
lost my Freehand forever until I stumbled across a solution.
Here’s a post I later made to someone that was having a
similar problem. I will reprint the whole thing instead of trying
to edit it to fit your situation. And pardon me if this fix has
already been suggested.
Good luck getting your Freehand back!
I may be able to help. On Monday morning my Freehand 11.0.2
went into a coma, exhibiting the same symptoms you describe, with
the added feature of Photoshop (9.0.2) going bad after everytime I
attempted to launch FH. Only a restart would get PS going again.
Freehand -- nothing would get it going.
I spent a good part of 2.5 days trying every trick I know to
get the damn thing to launch with no success. I reinstalled
Freehand, Photoshop and Mac OS X 10.4.10 combo updater, more than
once; ran Disk Utility, DiskWarrior and Onyx multiple times;
deleted and/or replaced with older versions from my backup drive,
many different .plist (preferences) files; and a whole bunch of
other stuff suggested on Mac help sites. Including from Adobe:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_18933&sliceId=1
Which didn’t work for me, but you should try it. Who
knows?
Anyways, still no FH but looking at the Activity Monitor (
FINDER > Go > Utilities > Activity Monitor ) I discovered
that whenever I tried to launch FH it stalled (and became an
“inactive process”) and another process called
“AuthenticationSe” led the list for CPU usage but did
nothing and the computer had to be restarted to regain stability --
stable except for the FH problem of course.
So an “Authentication” issue, and the activation
glitch mentioned in the Adobe link above, eventually led me to the
solution (won’t get into the how and the why because I really
don’t know).
Unfortunately this requires that you have a backup of your
system from back when Freehand still worked. If you don’t,
sorry about that -- hopefully the HotFix above worked, or someone
else has a suggestion based on the following idea:
Restart your computer, repair permissions, verify your disk,
repair disk if necessary, standup and shout FREEHAND ROCKS, restart
again, then....
Uncover a folder called “Product Licenses” on
your startup drive.
Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences > Macrovision
> Safecast > Product Licenses
The folder looks empty, but there’s got to be something
important inside that you can’t see. Replace the Product
Licenses folder on your startup drive with the Product Licenses
folder from the same location on your backup drive or disk (from
when FH worked). Maybe don’t let the folder on the startup
drive get overwritten by the older version, but remove it to the
desktop -- just in case you need to put it back.
Now try to launch Freehand. If this works you’ll get
the startup screen (yay) and the message that you need to activate
your software and you’ll be taken to an Adobe registration
page and there you go.
Good luck.