Creative Cloud Automatically Deletes Acrobat Apps After Mac OS Update

Dear Adobe,

My aim is to work with you to identify the cause/s the issue related below so that Adobe can provide a solution to prevent it happening again, most specifically to prevent this happening to anyone else.

The Sequence of Events

On Wednesday 12 August 2026 at approximately 17:00 BST opened my MacBook Pro and straight away initiated an update to the Mac OS , from 26.5.2 to 26.6.1, through the System Settings panel.

Immediately after the update was completed I noticed that two applications were missing from the Dock, with two question marks in place of their icons.  See screenshots below.

Thinking that the links between the Dock and the applications were broken I opened the Applications folder only to find that both of the applications were missing.  I conducted a Spotlight search of my internal drive but it was clear that they had been removed from my internal drive.  I then checked the Bin (Trash) to see if they had been moved there but, once again, they were absent.

I then went to the Adobe Creative Cloud Application in order to re-install the two missing applications.  However, neither  Acrobat Reader not Acrobat Pro were listed; and indeed no Acrobat applications whatsoever showed in Creative Cloud application under ‘Apps’ nor  ‘View Updates’.

At 09:20 BST Thursday 13 August 2026 I contacted Adobe technical support and spoke with  Shravani.  She advised me that the two applications, Acrobats Reader and Pro, had been merged into one application and that the Pro features could be unlocked with a subscription to Creative Cloud (I already have a full subscription for all of the applications).  Shravani talked me through installing this new application which had now appeared in the Creative Cloud application and could be downloaded.  I was able to confirm that the new combined Acrobat appears to have the functionality of Acrobat Pro. 

As a reference  I then checked my Mac Mini, which also has Acrobats Reader and Pro installed and was not updated from Mac OS 26.5.2, and the two applications have not been removed nor replaced by the new combined Acrobat.  Moreover, the new combined application is not available in the Creative Cloud application.

The most likely explanation here is that update to Mac OS 26.6.1 somehow triggered the Creative Cloud application, running in the background, to delete the two Acrobat applications but then it did not install the new replacement application and neither did it make it immediately available for download. 

No information was provided in advance by Adobe, that the two applications were going to be replaced by one.  At no time was any notification given by Creative Cloud that it was going to delete the two Acrobat applications with the intention of installing a new combined replacement.  All that happened was that the two applications had been mysteriously deleted.

The lessons for Adobe are that it must improve its communications.  There are plenty of opportunities to keep subscribers up to date and inform them of Adobe’s intentions.  Moreover, replacing software should be only be on advisement from Adobe via messages given from the Creative Cloud application, or by email, and then left for the user to upgrade any Adobe software by choice only.

Below –  a screenshot showing a Time Machine ‘Snapshot’ before updating the Mac OS showing the presence of the two applications Adobe Acrobat DC (aka Pro) and Adobe Acrobat Reader in my Applications folder.

Screenshot showing a Time Machine ‘Snapshot’ after updating the Mac OS but installing the combined Acrobat application as related above.  Note the absence of Acrobat Pro (confusingly, the containing folder has the same name as the new application) and Acrobat Reader

Please note that it is counter-productive, if not actually insulting, to assume a customer is either stupid or delusional especially when they are trying to assist your technical support team in reaching a solution for the issues identified.

If you would like any more information or assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.  In the meantime Adobe must make significant improvements to their communications to customers along with changing the way the Creative Cloud application performs updates.

In my 35 years as an Apple user I have never had an application mysteriously deleted in this way.  Adobe, you must do better.

I do expect Adobe to conduct a full investigation and to report back to me.  Also, an apology would be nice.

Then Adobe call me and say that they cannot escalate this to senior technical support nor to their engineering team.  Since they have moved technical support for the UK to India support has become a joke.