Acrobat only — Error 224 on launch (MacBook Air M4, Sequoia 15.7.7) — everything else in CC works fine

Amal - All steps above check out. BUT System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access did NOT list Adobe Acrobat and Creative Cloud Desktop. SO i added them. rebooted. same 224 error. i’m down to running the Acrobat diagnostic tool, BUT I can’t open Acrobat, which closes as soon as I click on the error msg. Please advise. 

re 3., above. Adobe Desktop Service is on. Adobe Update Helper is Off. I see neither Adobe Acrobat or Creative Cloud Desktop on the Full Disk Access list. re: 4., above: How do I do that?

1. I see in Passwords → Passkeys, displays 0 Passkeys. 2. I see the Welcome page followed by the 224 msg.

   

    

Hi @billa23663364 

Hope you are doing well, and thanks for the detailed write-up. I can see you've already ruled out the obvious suspects. Let's dig into what makes Acrobat's launch and licensing flow different from the rest of CC.

Before jumping to steps, a few quick questions that will really shape the diagnosis:

1. When you say you "don't use Keychain," do you mean you've actively disabled it, or just that you don't consciously use it? Acrobat's licensing layer on macOS depends on Keychain Access to store credential tokens, even if you've never manually added anything there. This is actually different from how Photoshop and InDesign handle credentials, which is likely why they're unaffected.

2. After a fresh install attempt, does Acrobat even begin to launch? Do you see its icon bounce in the Dock before the Error 224 dialog appears? Or does it go straight to the error without any visible app activity?

3. Have you checked System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access to see whether Adobe Acrobat and Creative Cloud Desktop are both listed and toggled on? This is an M-chip + Sequoia-specific glitch that gets missed even after clean reinstalls because it doesn't carry over automatically.

4. Also, try enabling the "Allow apps to access data from other apps" permission for Adobe. Did you get any privacy permission prompts from Acrobat during or just after install that you may have dismissed?

Here's a structured path forward. These are Acrobat-specific steps, not the generic CC reinstall cycle you've already been through.

Step 1: Verify your connection to Adobe's activation servers

Adobe's activation servers need to be reachable over HTTPS for licensing to complete. Check your connection to Adobe Servers as described here https://adobe.ly/44TmA4s If that test passes but Acrobat still can't verify, the issue is local, which narrows things down considerably.

Step 2: Check and repair your hosts file

An operating system's hosts file maps host names to IP addresses, and an incorrectly configured hosts file can affect your Mac's ability to connect to Adobe's activation servers. Download and run the Limited Access Repair Tool for macOS from Adobe's help article: Resolve connection errors with Adobe's Activation Services. Run it with admin credentials and let it automatically reset the hosts file.

Step 3: Check Full Disk Access for Acrobat specifically

On M-chip Macs running Sequoia, macOS applies stricter sandboxing than on Intel. Acrobat needs explicit Full Disk Access to write its licensing and session files to protected directories. Photoshop and InDesign don't always need this in the same way because of how their entitlement files are structured.

Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access, and make sure both Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Creative Cloud are listed with the toggle enabled. If Acrobat isn't there, click the + button, navigate to your Applications folder, and add it manually. Restart your Mac fully after making this change.

Step 4: Collect logs before your next reinstall attempt

If none of the above resolves it, please don't do another blind reinstall. Instead, run the Acrobat diagnostic tool here https://adobe.ly/3S4ME9L first, which will capture the exact state of things so our team (and engineering if needed) can see what's actually happening during Acrobat's launch attempt. 

Let us know what you find at each step, and we'll take it from there.

~Amal