Can ARM folders be deleted?

[ChrisSlovacek]

There are 2.8 GB of ARM files on my computer.  They are located in C:/ProgramData/Adobe/ARM/ and are in folders from previous versions (Reader_10.0.1, Reader_10.1.4, Reader_10.1.5, Reader_10.1.6, and Reader_10.1.7,).  I need the space (it's a 40GB drive with less than 2GB free space).  Can any or all of these files/folders be deleted?

We are currently running Reader 10.1.7 and 2.7GB of the files mentioned above are in the folder "Reader_10.0.1"

[LeoAdobeX]

ARM is Reader and Acrobat Updater.

This folder is for downloaded Updates.

After Updates are installed, ARM suppose to delete them.

All Reader Updates combined cannot be as big as you mentioned.

Can you provide a list of files that are there? Maybe just a names of a few biggest files should help to understand better what is going on.

You can delete the files - if Updater will need them again, it will re-download

[ChrisSlovacek · Accepted solution]

There were 1,668 folders whose path began with "C:\ProgramData\Adobe\ARM\Reader_10.0.1\" each of which contain the files AcrobatUpdater.exe, AdobeARM.exe, AdobeExtractFiles.dll, and ReaderUpdater.exe.  Each of these folders are around 1,805,080 bytes.

Over all there were 5003 directories and 6645 files taking up 2,989,359,555 bytes! 

In a command prompt window, I navigated to "C:\ProgramData\Adobe\ARM" and then ran the command "dir /s >arm.txt".  When I open it up in Excel, it is an astounding 18,326 rows long!!

So I did uninstall all adobe reader, adobe arm, adobe flash, and adobe shockwave programs.  Rebooted the computer.  Deleted those folders (all of which were still there).  And then reinstalled Flash and Shockwave.  They have Adobe Acrobat so Reader is not necessary.

All I can say is that I hope this was an isolate glitch.  I'd hate to think that Adobe ARM is taking up gigabytes on hundreds of thousands of computers!

[LeoAdobeX]

Chris,

The information you provided is valuable - I will make sure that the issue is addressed.

If you could please answer a few more questions-

What is this operating system?

How many Users have account on this system?

Could it be that someone has changed permissions on the C:\ProgramData folder?

Thank you

[ChrisSlovacek]

The OS is Windows Server 2008. There were 6 users, I think.  I'm sure no one would have change permissions intentionally.  Notice that most of the files are related to Reader 10.0.1.

I could send someone at adobe the directory enumeration like I was talking about if it would be helpful.

[LeoAdobeX]

Thanks Chris,

The only other thing that I would ask you at this point - can you pelase collect AdobeARM.log file from the User Temp folder? (each User likely has it's own Temp folder with its own AdobeARM.log file)

In the same Temp folder there might be AdobeARM_NotLocked.log file - please collect those as well.

It is best if you could Zip all those files and e-mail to me. I can provide you with my e-mail in the private message. There is no personal info in those files.

The files that you found left behind are all self-update files. Why they are not deleted is not clear. Hopefully log files could shed some light.

[ChrisSlovacek]

Well, like I first mentioned, the space issue was critical so once we

uninstalled the Adobe products and rebooted, we deleted the ARM folder and

everything that was in it.  The next time I’m there, I’ll review the

storage in that area and see if it is happening again.  If it is, I’ll let

you know.  What is your PM address?

[Ankit_Jain]

The Adobe ARM log files (i.e. AdobeARM.log and AdobeARM_NotLocked.log) are present in the %temp% area for each user.

In all probabilities, you would have only deleted the ARM folder (present in the C:\Programdata\Adobe location) and not the %temp% area.

Could you please collect the ARM logs from all the users and send it across to the email ID I have shared with you in my PM.

[pwillener]

I have that folder as well, with many subfolders, but they are all empty.

[ParrotSlave]

It's almost seven years since this question was posted, but Adobe is still trying to protect us against the evil of having extra free space on our hard drives. Here's a screenshot of my ARM window just now, showing more than 400 mb of space being used by various incarnations of Reader going all the way back to 2014.

[rossy656]

I just checked and my machine also has 2.0G of historical ARM folders.  It's good to know that we are being protected from having unused diskspace for free in this fashion. :).  My operating systm on this legacy system is Windows 2012 Server.

[Patchouli Knowledge]

I spent the last hour trying to squeeze space out of my C drive and now I found this gigantic 5.5GB folder. I'm so pissed off right now. Now I hate Adobe Reader even more.

[Michał5FD6]

"All Reader Updates combined cannot be as big as you mentioned"

Here I am with my 10.6 GB ARM folder

[Test Screen Name]

" "All Reader Updates combined cannot be as big as you mentioned" Here I am with my 10.6 GB ARM folder"

There have been a lot of updates since 2013. The last few posts have shown what is supposed to happen, with one download per update. I don't know about Reader, but the updates for Acrobat Pro DC total 26 GB. This is different from the original post, where something had gone haywire, and made thousands of folders for the same update.