Error 41 Photoshop Elements 2019; Creative Cloud Refuses to Uninstall with Perpetual License CS6

Question

Hello,

This question is twofold: Recently I moved my perpetual license CS6 from a 2009 iMac with SL to a 2017 iMac with High Sierra. (BTW, I don't rely on these apps professionally so it doesn't make sense for me to spring for a Creative Cloud subscription. These days I mostly use Photoshop and Illustrator out of CS6 Web & Design Premium.)

Despite having to manually install the CS6 apps and their updates (i.e. right-click installer to view "package contents" as a workaround for the 32-bit components in the CS6 installers under High Sierra), I ended up with Creative Cloud and now the CC uninstaller, despite running the CC cleaning tool, won't let me uninstall the CC even though I have never so much as run a trial of CC apps.

Meanwhile, I attempted to install Photoshop Elements 2019 on the same iMac from a DVD. The installation failed with error 41, reporting that the installer was unable to access a critical file/directory. (This error is associated with not being logged in as the administrator but I'm seeing it anyhow.)

I opened Console and found a handful of errors under /Library/Logs (adobegc.log):

…

In the "User Reports" file of Console, there is a crash report that reads as follows:

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread: 3

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_MEMORY_ERROR at 0x000000010d240018
Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal: Bus error: 10
Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xa
Terminating Process: exc handler [0]

VM Regions Near 0x10d240018:
VM_ALLOCATE 000000010d23f000-000000010d240000 [ 4K] rw-/rwx SM=PRV
--> mapped file 000000010d240000-000000010d241000 [ 4K] r--/r-- SM=COW Object_id=7cf13a41
Mach message 000000010d241000-000000010d243000 [ 8K] rw-/rwx SM=PRV

Application Specific Information:
Analyzing process: Install[10412], path: /Volumes/Photoshop Elements 2019/Adobe Photoshop Elements 2019/Install.app/Contents/MacOS/Install; parent process: [1], path: /sbin/launchd

I don't know if this relates to a permissions issue or if there is a conflict created by other Adobe components. (I have used Terminal to reset permissions but officially permissions repair isn't supported under High Sierra as it is no longer present in Disk Utility.)

Meanwhile, I don't want CC installed but when I try to run the uninstaller it refuses, saying I still have CC apps installed!

As mentioned, I also tried the cleanup tool and here is a portion of the log that resulted:

2023-12-11T19:55:07.708000Z Info: HFC Cleanup Completed successfully.
2023-12-11T19:55:07.708000Z HFC Entries cleaned = 0
2023-12-11T19:55:09.362000Z Error in fetching HD product details error = 10
2023-12-11T19:55:17.583000Z ***************End Session*****************
launch :: reading plist file
launchApplication for executable path/usr/bin/defaults2023-12-11 11:55:17.744 defaults[19736:6946382]
Domain com.adobe.accmac does not exist

When I look at "User Reports" under Console, I see the following crash report for the CC Uninstaller (strangely, it never reported to me that it crashed, only that it refused to uninstall, citing the presence of CC apps):

Crashed Thread: 1 Dispatch queue: com.apple.root.default-qos

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x000000000000000c
Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal: Segmentation fault: 11
Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xb
Terminating Process: exc handler [0]

VM Regions Near 0xc:
-->
__TEXT 0000000106c5d000-0000000106e45000 [ 1952K] r-x/r-x SM=COW /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Creative Cloud/*/Creative Cloud Uninstaller.app/Contents/MacOS/Creative Cloud Uninstaller

There is also a crash report for the PE 2019 installer:

crashed Thread: 3

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_MEMORY_ERROR at 0x000000010d240018
Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal: Bus error: 10
Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xa
Terminating Process: exc handler [0]

VM Regions Near 0x10d240018:
VM_ALLOCATE 000000010d23f000-000000010d240000 [ 4K] rw-/rwx SM=PRV
--> mapped file 000000010d240000-000000010d241000 [ 4K] r--/r-- SM=COW Object_id=7cf13a41
Mach message 000000010d241000-000000010d243000 [ 8K] rw-/rwx SM=PRV

Application Specific Information:
Analyzing process: Install[10412], path: /Volumes/Photoshop Elements 2019/Adobe Photoshop Elements 2019/Install.app/Contents/MacOS/Install; parent process: [1], path: /sbin/launchd

Over the summer, it took me hours upon hours to install CS6 Design & Web Premium under HS because I had to track down a way to obtain update files since the Application Manager no longer communicates with Adobe servers (will inform that an app needs an update but unable to successfully install it. Consequently, I had to search the web for an archive of the update files to apply them without the help of Adobe Application Manager.)

To rule out a faulty DVD install disk, I then attempted to install Photoshop Elements 2019 on another install of High Sierra (2009 iMac) and that installation went off without a hitch.

I really hope it is not necessary to wipe my hard drive (APFS) and start over again since that is the only thing left to try if I don't uncover what the "critical file/directory" is that error 41 refers to upon reporting a failed installation.

Before I exercise the nuclear option, I would like to decouple CS 6 from CC and backup my Mac once it is "clean" with TM. How can I do that if CC refuses to uninstall itself?

Any recommendations or suggestions — apart from signing up for CC — are welcome.

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