Changes to Adobe Creative Cloud Storage Experience

[Tarun Saini]

To enhance the Adobe Creative Cloud storage experience, we would like to inform you of upcoming changes to the Creative Cloud file syncing service that may impact your workflow.

Creative Cloud has previously enabled personal users to save files on their local devices in a folder called Creative Cloud Files. The contents of this folder can be synced (copied) to the user’s cloud storage via a process that runs on the local device. You can access those files locally on the device in a folder named Creative Cloud Files or through the Creative Cloud website within the Launch More menu (from the Synced files option)

Discontinuation of Synced Files: We would like to inform you that the Synced Files feature in Creative Cloud will be discontinued. Starting February 1, 2024, the Creative Cloud desktop synchronization service and the folder and file-sharing capabilities of Creative Cloud Synced Files will be phased out.

Impact on Users: If you are a personal user (free or paid) relying on Creative Cloud Synced Files for file syncing, folder sharing, or collaborative work, please be aware of the following changes:

• Files in the Creative Cloud Files local folder will no longer be copied to cloud storage.
• Copies of files in cloud storage related to Synced Files will be deleted.
• Files and folders shared with other users from Synced Files will no longer be accessible.
• Adobe apps leveraging Creative Cloud Synced Files for cross-device file sharing will remove those integrations.
  
  

Your Assets are Secure: Rest assured, all assets in your local Creative Cloud Files folder on your device will remain intact and under your complete control. You have the option to leave the assets in the Creative Cloud Files folder or move them to other Adobe-supported storage solutions such as Frame.io or Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) assets. Additionally, third-party cloud storage solutions with sync capabilities are viable alternatives.

Adobe continues to offer and support cloud storage and syncing across Creative Cloud with Cloud Documents, Creative Cloud Libraries, Lightroom Cloud storage, and Frame.io cloud storage. None of these cloud storage solutions are impacted by this change.

Quick Links

• Discontinuation of Creative Cloud Synced files
• Discontinuation of Creative Cloud Synced files for business plans 
• Creative Cloud Synced Files End of life for Premiere Rush  
• Creative Cloud Synced Files End of life for Media Encoder  
• Creative Cloud Synced Files End of life for Premiere Pro  

 Hey community! Upvote if this post was helpful, and leave a comment to join the conversation.

[Ares Hovhannesyan]

When this changes going to roll? Tommorow?

[kglad]

i don't have any insider info.  it was supposed to happen 2/1/24

[Ton Frederiks]

I read: "Starting February 1, 2024, the Creative Cloud desktop synchronization service and the folder and file-sharing capabilities of Creative Cloud Synced Files will be phased out."

Phased out sounds gradual to me, not like a worlwide cut off on February 1.

[kglad]

i didn't see "phased out", but clearly not all of us saw this occur on 2/1/24

[@mj]

Hiya,

CC Libraries are an option. Not as slick imho.

Check out this resource for how to. https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/how-to/creative-cloud-libraries.html

This is a worthwhile read too. https://petapixel.com/2023/09/06/adobe-is-ending-creative-cloud-syncing-heres-what-that-means/

hth

mj

iMSD

[john dp49100710]

its 31 january and the syncing has stopped, why is that?

[kglad]

@john dp49100710 

did you check the appropriate sync eol link?

[@mj]

It's done folks.

The best plan of action is to negate any impact this may have on your work.

So if online is a necessity, there's Apple, Google, Dropbox, Box and MS to choose from.

Best

mj

[Noremac]

It's funny that is says “to enhance” listen to the community ADOBE! No one wants this gone! 

[dbonte]

Will Adobe lower prices now that Synced Files are discontinued? We now have a product with missing parts.

[kglad]

https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/subscription-price-increase-2023-individual-plans...

[ribik]

Adobe's grand plan, it seems, is to herd us away from the freedom of our local hard drives into the fenced pastures of their cloud. By axing the sync option, they're shoving us towards Adobe Cloud Documents. It's their way of saying, "Forget about choice; welcome to our cloud corral, folks—like it or not." 

[kglad]

@ribik 

that's not really true.  the file types you can use with all the other parts of adobe's cloud are very limited.  eg, you can't use anything from adobe to save an image file to their cloud.

[@mj]

I think it's probably best to cater for redundancy.

When it comes to safeguarding our data, we should have a redundancy backup plan in place, imho.

Best

mj

iMSD

[VFS-Jason]

All local copies have vanished from the Creative Cloud Files folder that were previously synched. Gone!

What happened to the promise that "all assets on your local Creative Cloud files folder on your device will remain intact and under your complete control." ??

[kglad]

@VFS-Jason 

really?  the folder name is changed.  did you check the changed folder?

[@mj]

Yo, that's rough @VFS-Jason ,

It's probably best to back up to GDrive, MS Sharepoint, Dropbox or suchlike.

I'm surprised that your local folder got toasted. I still have access to mine.

Best

mj

iMSD

[kglad]

@VFS-Jason 

also, others are reporting the online synced files are still available in a zipped file with a posted expiration in march 2024.

[VFS-Jason]

@kglad 

The failure on Adobe's part is that they did not disclose or clearly state that Shared Synced Files have different circumstances than the Synced Files area. The Zip file you're referring to does not apply to Shared Synced Files and those are what vanished. 

Adobe's Support couldn't understand our explanation either and seemed totally lost about their own service/product.

The folder/files were technically shared with our accounts. We are not the originator of 'sharing' the files; our client is. One of our local workstations utilized the Creative Cloud Files folder as the sync location. Over 300GB of files were absolutely 100% stored on the hard drive as a result of the ongoing sync process. 

After Feb 1, that local folder was emptied by the magic wand of Adobe.  This feels like a complete lie and violation of privacy, authority, whatever you want to call it. 

Furthermore, a local 'renamed' folder was not created on the C:/, or anywhere for that matter, as described in the announcements.

The only workstation that did not have the files vanish is our client, whom thankfully, always had the sync enabled. 

My workstation previously synced with that same Shared Synced Files directory, but I no longer needed up-to-date files as of around 2 years ago, so the sync has been in the Paused status since that time. After Feb 1, my local folder/files did not vanish. A new local folder in the C:/ was created too, but did not follow the stated naming convention (it's simply named /Creative Cloud Files) and is empty.  Empty because, again, based on our theory, my account had zero Synced Files. 

The difference between our workstation with the vanished files is the heirarcy of the CCF folder on the machine:

D:/Creative Cloud Files/  & always syncing = EMPTIED

D:/additional-folder-name/Creative Cloud Files/ & no recent sync = SAFE

Adobe has given no explanation for these results. Why were my files not deleted and my coworkers were deleted? Because I used a secondary folder so Adobe couldn't "find" it to delete it? Because I didn't have sync enabled overnight on Feb 1st? If our workstations were unplugged, would the files have been deleted upon the next start up? 

Nothing in the (one!!) announcement sent via email in August 2023 mentioned SHARED Synced Files. Nothing I've read in the last 48 hours mentions nor warns that only the original owner of the shared cloud directory would safely retain the files. 

It is absolute madness and we are completely stunned as to how Adobe can technically/physically and legally remove saved local files from our workstation, apparently because they existed in a particular folder. 

@mj  You're absolutely correct about a secondary storage and we failed to do that appropriately and frequently. Too much trust in synced/shared assets saved locally on 3 workstations. They go POOF on one of them and it definitely sets off panic. Based on the given announcements, I did not fear deletion of our local files and we were going to move everything to an in-house server after the shutoff. Doesn't change the fact we do need additional archive copies. 

[kglad]

@VFS-Jason 

i don't trust anyone with my files so i've never relied on adobe's (or anyone else's) cloud storage, but i do see how the loss of shared sync'd files would be a problem that should have been anticipated.  and it makes no sense to zip the files already users' local computers.  it would make more sense to zip the shared files.

are you sure those zipped files aren't the shared files?

[@mj]

I second your sentiment @kglad. Trust no one with your valuables.

Imagine you had a bar of gold. Would you hand that over to a third party somewhere in another geography?

Probably not right?

mj

iMSD

[A356811556yeh]

Does anyone know how to transfer the Adobe Premiere Rush project files (not videos) from one android device to another android device, given the Discontinuation of Creative Cloud Synced files for Adobe Premiere Rush in December 2023?

[kglad]

@A356811556yeh 

you were using your local cc sync folder to save rush files?

[A356811556yeh]

I wasn't using creative cloud. I have all my projects on the android device
that I want to replace with another android device.

[Randy Hagan]

Have you tried moving your files to Google Drive?

You have the app, and related services, installed on both Android phones. That might work well for you.