My Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and Creative Cloud Desktop have all stopped working

Hello Adobe Community,

A few days ago, just after returning from a once in a lifetime holiday and importing 3,500 photos, my Lightroom Classic (LR), Photoshop (PS) and Creative Cloud Desktop (CC) all stopped working. Every time I opened LR or PS, the window would appear but empty and would state "not responding", even after multiple restarts. I then tried opening CC and it would do the same and then say "CC is taking longer than usual to load. Relaunch or restart and try again.” I tried multiple relaunches, restarts and reinstalls to no avail. Occasionally, CC states that it is missing or damaged and needs repairing, but when I try to repair it returns Error Code: 50.

I reached out to Adobe's Virtual Assistant and they suggested the following, with my actions underlined:

1. Restart your computer to clear temporary system issues. I have restarted multiple times although when I select restart, my laptop gets stuck on the “restarting” screen so I have to force shut down by pressing the power button. When I select shut down, the power button remains lit after the screen goes black and the laptop won't power back on until I hold the power button to switch off and press it again to switch on. After some restarts the trackpad and keyboard won't respond so I restart again.

2. Check for pending system updates on your operating system and install them. Up to date

3. Update the Creative Cloud desktop app by opening it (if possible) and selecting Help > Check for Updates or download the latest version from the Creative Cloud download page. Not possible because CC will not load.

4. Force close and restart the Creative Cloud desktop app using keyboard shortcuts: Windows: Ctrl + Alt + R, macOS: Command + Option + R. CC did not respond to this input when still installed.

5. Verify folder permissions for Adobe folders such as SLStore and Adobe PCD:

   On Windows, right-click the folders (e.g., ProgramData\Adobe\SLStore) and set permissions to allow full control for Administrators and System. Both set to full control

   On macOS, use Get Info and set appropriate read/write permissions.

6. Clear corrupted cache and reset settings:

   Delete the Creative Cloud Libraries folder from your user AppData or Library folder. Deleted

   Delete the OOBE and AAMUpdater folders from the Adobe folder in your user directory. I have deleted OOBE but I cannot find AAMUpdater in Local Disk

7. Check for missing or damaged components:

   Reinstall the Creative Cloud desktop app using the latest installer.

   Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to remove incomplete installations before reinstalling. I have tried this multiple times to remove all CC apps to no avail.

8. Ensure antivirus or security software is not blocking Adobe apps. No blocks in place

9. For Lightroom-specific issues, try uninstalling and reinstalling Lightroom Classic, and repair or reinstall Microsoft Visual C++ redistributable packages if on Windows. I have uninstalled and tried reinstalling to no avail because CC will not open to action the install.

10. Following these steps should resolve most launch issues with these Adobe apps.

I have also noticed that Adobe Photoshop 2026 is still showing in my installed apps but when I try to uninstall, an error returns the message that the uninstaller.exe file cannot be found and the CC Cleaner Tool does not list it as being installed.

See attached for screenshots showing relevant windows and warnings.

Please can you help my restore my access to Lightroom, Photoshop and Creative Cloud Desktop because at the moment my Lightroom Catalogs are totally unusable?

I am running Windows 64-bit OS and all Adobe apps were up to date before uninstalling and attempting to reinstall them.