Adobe CC error & photoshop, indesign, illustrator slogging

[millersb02]

Hi,

I'm working on an iMac, Big Sur 11.1

I've been having a few things happen lately:

• Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign are sluggish. They get the beach ball and are "unresponsive" frequently.
• I get this error message (see attached image) about Adobe CC being lost or damaged. The error message seems to pop up randomly and is not connected to a specific action.

Here's what I've tried so far:

• I tried hitting the "repair" button on the error message and completed the steps.
• I uninstalled everything - photoshop, illustrator, indesign and adobe CC and reinstalled.
• I have been watching activity monitor when the apps get sluggish/unresponsive. The CPU load is not getting high when the apps get tied up. I've also noticed that the applications are not getting slow/unresponsive when I do harder things (like moving around a high res image), but will be slow on very basic tasks. 
• I have run disk utility and did first aid on my main hard drive. There were no errors, so no fixes were made. 

What could be happening? What should I do next?

Thanks!

-Sarah

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Sarah, sorry you are encountering so many problems utilizing your Creative Cloud membership.  The behavior you described could result from a misconfigured software firewall or security software.  I encountered similar errors because my software firewall was slowing down the ability of the Creative Cloud desktop app to contact Adobe servers.  Once the firewall settings were corrected, the error in your screenshot, and several other apps that used Internet access, all started functioning normally again.

Sarah, please see https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/common-network-connectivity-issues.html for steps you can take to resolve connection errors.  Please focus on the software firewall and any anti-virus software that is installed.  Please make sure no updates are available and use the manufacturer's recommended settings.