Missing fonts will not activate

[mandym50733903]

No font's will activate in any adobe program, the spinning wheel just spins for about 3-4 minutes then stops.

I've tried unticking and reticking the 'enable Adobe Fonts' option, restarted my computer and it's still happening.

Account information is all correct as I can sign in to the website with the same information.

This is all I see:

[liz, Adobe Type]

Hi there,

I'm sorry that you ran into trouble with this. Would you please also try signing out of InDesign from the Help menu, and then sign back in? This will start a new Adobe ID session in InDesign and should fix any issues with the connection to your account:

1. click on the InDesign Help menu and choose Sign Out.

2. restart InDesign

3. click on the InDesign Help menu and Sign In

If that doesn't get the fonts working, please get in touch at https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html for further help.

Thank you,

-- liz

[mandym50733903]

Hi Liz,

Thanks for the help, I've already tried that, I did try it again, and now not only are new fonts not able to be synced, but now all the previous adobe fonts I had synced have gone and will not sync back. Which means I have to now try to download all those fonts manually from somewhere so I can continue my work, hopefully this can be resolved.

I will email fontsupport.

[once-and-future]

I had the same issue. The fix that worked for me was to unsync the affected fonts via the web interface, then open a document which requested the fonts, and activate the fonts individually from within the InDesign Find Font.

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Thank you for sharing the solution that worked for you. This will definitely help our customer to fix the issue.

Thanks,

Harshika

[Edie14]

This helped my issue today. Thank you!

[PacosMother]

I'm having the same problem. I tried your solution and it didn't work for me this time. It did last week.

[kpossibles]

Thank you so much for this answer! I'm so frustrated that Adobe hasn't solved this issue in their latest patch/update.

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Hi there,

I understand it could be frustrating for you. Would you mind elaborating more about the situation here so that we can investigate and check with the team? Are you facing issues with any specific Adobe application?

I will try my best to help.

Thanks,

Harshika

[kpossibles]

I use CCBiffBamBoom and FeltTip font for a client A but also have to use the provided fonts (non-CC) for client B. It is non-negotiable to use Adobe Fonts version for the 2nd client (B) because they probably are working on older versions of Adobe programs (non-CC). So I have to switch the fonts on and off.

I typically just deactivate on the web interface and that works. However, when I try to reactivate the font in an InDesign file where I already have the font preset saved as a paragraph or character style, it doesn't reactivate from the InDesign program.

Fyi I am not using the most recent version of InDesign because it crashes too much for me to use. I know a few of my colleagues are using the most updated version so if you can fix this issue in the beta version of the next update, it would be much appreciated. This issue is super annoying and I have to attempt to turn the fonts off several times in the web interface because the Find Font feature doesn't always work. 🙄

[SC9129 · Accepted solution]

Thank you.  This is the solution that worked for me.  Here is what I did to solve the problem:

1. Opened Creative Cloud application.
2. Selected the Manage Fonts option from the left hand panel of the application.
3. Selected Deactivate on each font "slider button"
4. Opened Adobe Illustrator
5. Selected Help from the toolbar
6. Selected Sign-out from the dropdown list
7. Confirmed Sign-out of every application in creative cloud
8. Exited Adobe Illustrator
9. Exited Adobe Creative Cloud Application
10. Opened Creative Cloud Application
11. Signed into Adobe Creative Cloud, which is now logged out
12. Opened Adobe Illustrator (the account was already logged-in because of the previous step)
13. Opened the Illustrator file that has the fonts needing to be syncronized
14. Selected "Activate Fonts" from Illustrator popup about missing fonts.
15. Done.  Problem Solved.

Thanks for this approach as I wouldn't have though to address the issue by deactivating from creative cloud directly.

[EquusCaballus]

Worked for me as well! Thanks for posting!!

[defaulta96njeok4xfe]

That worked!!!! TY

[willam_x]

Had the same issue, solved by launching the program directly from the creative cloud application rather than launching through windows

[Eyetooth.Design]

Nothing ever works with Adobe!!

I cannot open any files, as fonts rarely sync.  Logging in and out doesn't fix it, turning font sync on and off does not fix it.  Even when I eventually manage to open a file that does not need fonts updated (cause thank god I don't use adobe's fonts for everything), then the apps just completely freeze on me (either on the loading screen or the app opens and is completely unresponsive) and I can do nothing but restart my machine.

After all that the same things continue to happen.  Come on Adobe!!! These issues have been ongoing for many many years now! What are you doing to rectify them?

I loath and detest Adobe but there are no commercially viable alternatives at present.  These issues cannot be that hard to fix when you have had years to try and resolve them.

Don't bother contacting Adobe support either cause they simply delete all your preference files, install loads of other versions of the software, uninstall all your drivers and somehow make the problem even worse than it was before. 

[KevinLaytonMcAllister]

Half the issue is employee's reading from a pre-written list of solutions giving the illusion of a real solution.

[artist nick]

Agreed. Adobe needs to fix this ridiculous font situation. Every morning when I get to work I have to spend 5-10 trying to reactivate fonts that I used yesterday.

[kenthenova]

I agree all these companies worry about is about strategy for getting max out of our pockets instead of the software. You'll be shocked that the support is probably fake internal staff that don't even know the product.

[KevinLaytonMcAllister]

Adobe support is notoriously terrible when it comes to things like this, the CSR's will give you assurance that it'll be fixed and give you bandaide solutions in the meantime that end up being every CSR's go to solution for the next couple of years. These things are clearly not reported to or not cared about by the actual program techs who update the adobe programs. This specific font issue has existed for years throughout updates and continues to this day. Everything specified in this thread as a solution has been tried and re -tried by customers for years across different forums and help posts and I'm sick and tired of this font issue being ignored.

[xtanda]

If re-login your account  and de-activating the font via the browser did not help (as happened with me) try this: 

=> change your default browser to Chrome.

My default browser was Brave with its adblocker. It seems this interfered with the communication between Adobe application and the Adobe Fonts. The moment I set Chrome as the default browser, it activated.

Hope this helps someone.

[ChelsPlumb]

I had a similar problem, tried all the other suggested fixes and nothing worked.  Then I noticed in the CC app (on MacOS) when I went to manage fonts I had to click "activate fonts"  Not sure why that wasn't the default but cleared it up for me.

[Ginger5C09]

Tried this...didn't work for me. GRRRR!!!

[Ginger5C09]

For as much money as we pay for our Adobe monthly subscription, we SHOULD NOT have problems like this!!! I can't get my fonts to sync, all my adobe fonts are missing, I've tried all the suggestions in this thread, and I STILL CAN'T get my fonts to work. I've wasted HOURS today trying to get this to work and I'm past deadline!!! HELP!!!

[kpossibles]

What app are you using and which version of CC are you on: 2019 or 2020)? I noticed when I'm in InDesign or Illustrator 2019, a lot of unused fonts automatically deactivate now, although I might have selected a preference a while ago and forgot about it.

I worked on a cover again recently in Illustrator where the previous cover was made like a couple months ago and the fonts deactivated. But they activated fine through the app font activation pop-up.

If you're in the most recent 2020 version, you could try installing a separate older version of the app (2019) and try it again to see if the font activates that way. Another potential solution is updating to the recent version if you're on an older CC version (make sure it's a separate installation if you have the space) and seeing if the font activation is solved that way.

Just so you know, 2020 saved files DON'T have backwards conversion with older CC versions and have to be "converted" to older version compatible files, so be aware that could be a potential problem if you're working on a collaborative project where a client or an editor might have a different version installed.

[Srishti Bali]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about this trouble. In addition to the information shared above, I'd request if you could try the steps shared in this help article, and share your observations with us. 

Regards,

Srishti