Why does the DC installer remove Acrobat Pro XI, and all of its plugins, without warning?

Forum|Forum|10 years ago
April 6, 2015
53 replies
94518 views

When you run the "Update" to Acrobat DC, Acrobat XI, and any plugins you are using, disappear. There is no warning. Pro XI is just simply gone.

It is not possible to install Pro XI along side of DC. If you try, the install seems to work, but the Applications folder only contains DC.

Also: Acrobat Pro XI does not appear in the Previous Versions list in the Creative Cloud app.

The only way I have found to get Pro XI back is to uninstall DC, then go to the Pro XI Download page: https://creative.adobe.com/products/acrobat

Click Download, and the CC applet will download and re-install Acrobat Pro XI. You will then need to re-install all your plugins.

Adobe: Thank you so much for creating a massive support headache for your customers! Your ability to screw us over knows no bounds.

Install update and subscribe to Acrobat

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer lrosenth

Let me start by saying that we are sorry that you are experiencing the problem that you are. However, you should understand why you have these pains and hopefully prevent them from happening in the future.

Adobe has NEVER supported the installation of multiple versions of Acrobat on the same machine. Not on Windows and not on Mac.

We are aware that some of our customers choose to use this UNSUPPORTED configuration AGAINST OUR RECOMMENDATIONS, however, it is NOT supported. As such, the act of upgrading from Acrobat XI to Acrobat DC is just that - an UPGRADE. It's not a "install a new piece of software next to my old one". Just as when you update/upgrade apps from the Mac App Store or with the Chrome browser - you don't get to keep old software, you simply get the shiny new thing.

Concerning plugins - it appears that some of you have been installing your plugins inside of the application package on the Mac. This is also an NOT RECOMMENDED configuration since Acrobat X, when we enabled support for an external plugin folder - for exactly this reason - that when we uninstall an application it also uninstalls the included plugins. Had they been in the proper external folder, they would have been left alone. Though, as Andrew said, none of the plugins would still work on the Mac.