Why do I have 3 'Creative Cloud Files' folders?

[pausefaux]

Hello! I have a question about the Creative Cloud folder structure/syncing.

I installed the Creative Cloud Desktop application on my MacBook Pro and then installed the following programs: Lightroom, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat Pro.

Once I had done that I switched 'file sync' on in the Desktop Application bar.

I noticed that I have three different areas called 'Creative Cloud Files' and one of these folders is called 'Creative Cloud Files Unknown' [see screenshot below].

Does anyone know why there are three separate locations? Which area am I supposed to save my files in so that I can sync them with the cloud? Can I delete the one that says 'unknown' in the file name? I assume that the folder listed in the Favourites Bar is the same place as the 'Creative Cloud Files' folder in my account?

[Jacky___Agence_Grrr]

Hello,

I have exactly the same problem (well, I guess that's a problem). The one called "unknown" is empty while the other one contains the saved files (PSD, AI...). I tried to put it in the trash. We'll see how it works...

[wharress]

Hi,

Have you recently logged in with a different AdobeID?, this is cause when a user is logged out and then logs back in. Does the Creative Cloud Files Unknown folder contain your files?

Thanks

Warner

[danchapuk]

HI,

I have same problem. I am logged on both machines with same Adobe ID.

I have tried from scratch, to install CC app again but just does the same.

Is there any fix yet?

Thanks Daniel

[pausefaux]

Hi all,

Well I ended up deleting the 'unknown' one and nothing seemed to happen so it's fair to say that it's just a ghost folder that doesn't affect functionality maybe!

[wharress]

Hi,

Can you confirm that you have been logging in with different Adobe IDs?, this is the only time this would happen.

[Therese C]

I have this exact same problem. I have not logged out of my Adobe account and I only have one Adobe ID. My (unknown) folder has what appears to be, duplicate files in it. It showed up randomly this morning when I booted up my computer. Unfortunately I have no time to troubleshoot yet another annoying issue with CC.

[mikei28594921]

I did not log in with a different Adobe ID and it happened to me- it just started happening where I saw it was re-syncing all my files. This is quite scary, since all my work files I store in there.

[Elba Sobrino]

Sorry for the inconvenience this issue is causing.  The File Sync engineering team is actively investigating.  We'll provide an update as soon as we have more information to share.

Thanks,
Elba

[danchapuk]

HI,

I only have one account.

This still happened, lest time I deleted the 'ghost' folder i lost recent files.

I have since other stopped using cloud altogether, it has cost me 3 days of work which isn't acceptable for a paid solution.

So back to Dropbox for some reliability. Free version

Daniel

[a_flaster]

I just restarted my win 7 machine and found my Creative cloud folder contained the original directories but no files. Fortunately I found a Creative Cloud unknown directory that contained all my files. What's up with that?

[Form_Follows_Function]

Same issue here. Have duplicate Creative Cloud folders one appears with (unknown) next to its name. Also the folder with (unknown) next its name, the contents do not have the folders with a green check mark next to it. I am a user on a team account.

[Islanddive]

Same issue - just went to my Creative Cloud Files folder and all the folders are in there but no files within the folders. I thought all was lost until I found the Creative Cloud Files (unknown) folder which thank god had all my files. Leaves me with a very uneasy feeling though after that scare.

[wkrisay]

Same issues here.  Would appreciate a response from adobe.  Same thing happened a few months ago but creative cloud created a 'archived' folder instead of 'unknown'.  Never received and answer or solution to the problem.

[majmanCC]

Happened to two three separate users/computers in my office (mine included). One user in an entirely different location.

Brought our network to a crawl, as it immediately started re-downloading our entire CC directory.

Still downloading as we speak, as I had to lower download speed settings in preferences to relieve some bandwidth.

I considered just plopping everything from the "unknown" directory into the currently downloading one, but I can't imagine that would go smoothly...

[howard_chung]

Hi there.

I currently have 30 users in my Adobe Creative Team account.

Two of my users experienced this just own (one on OSX and other on Windows 8).

It looks like the "Adobe Creative Cloud For Desktop" Utility was FORCED INSTALLED update today (not asked if the user wants to install it).

At this time, with that (Unknown) folder - do not copy the files back into the new folder.

If syncing is taking forever - the temporarly work around is to make a COPY of the file you need form the (Unknown) folder - place it on your desktop (outside of those folders) - do your work and wait for your folder to SYNC up.

I'll post a response/update in the next 24/48 hours per my CASE from Adobe.

I'm very disappointed on how this has impacted my creative team's schedule.

- Simon.

[Memba]

Same issue on Windows 8.1 with latest updates.

Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop app has updated without warning on Apr 2.

Since then all files have been transferred to "Creative Cloud Files (unknown)" and "Creative Cloud Files" is now empty.

[Lunchbag]

I had the same problem where the FORCED UPDATE (as simon_kok put it so well) created a duplicate of all my CC  sync files and called them "Creative Cloud Files (unknown)".  To make matters worse its all on my c-drive since Adobe CC FORCES YOU to put on C.

As for me, my C-drive is a 120GB SSD so the duplicate files syncing from my CC files overloaded my c-drive!!  I had to start deleting stuff and my system almost crashed.  Couldn't work.  Lost several hours on this today - just like the last CC update.

Adobe - think about it - if a user has 100 GB of CC files and another 50 GB of Adobe CC software then you sync a copy of all the CC synced files (100 GB) - that's 250 GB of CC data on your c-drive... ridiculous.

If you move the CC files to another drive come every update it will move all your files back over to C without warning...  It did just that to my biz partner today. 

Utterly bush league.

Stu

[derekajack · Accepted solution]

With the recent update of the Creative Cloud Desktop app (1.9.1.474) we unfortunately introduced a bug which causes the creation of a new Creative Cloud Files folder, and re-sync of all content. This will only occur the first time the sync application runs after the update. This has caused understandable pain and confusion, for which we truly apologise.

We have taken steps to ensure we increase our focus on quality in this area to prevent a recurrence.

The Creative Cloud Files app contains logic that supports the use of multiple Adobe IDs. This allows you to sign out of one ID and in to another, but keeps your Creative Cloud content separate. When you sign out and change IDs, the app moves the previous Creative Cloud Files folder and it's contents and appends it with the previously signed in ID (User@AdobeID). It then creates a new main folder and starts to sync content of the new ID.

The bug which I mentioned previously occurs, as the app believes an ID switch has taken place and as such, moves the current Creative Cloud Files folder and tries to append the previously signed in ID. As no switch has actually taken place it manifests as (Unknown).  The app then creates a new main folder at syncs down the data.

Essentially what you end up with is a Creative Cloud Files folder with your newly sync'd data and a Creative Cloud Files (Unknown) folder that contains duplicate data.

This occurs once, after the last update completes.

The fix is to simply delete the Creative Cloud Files (Unknown) folder.

I would advise that you ensure you have no pending edits that you may have made offline and that you check the contents of the new, main Creative Cloud Files folder contains everything you expect it to.  If not, check the contents of the Creative Cloud Files (Unknown) folder.

If there is still a discrepancy with your data, you can check on creative.adobe.com to confirm your data is there.

If you have any further problems or questions about this particular issue please email syncforum-communication@adobe.com

Again, let me say we are sorry for any inconvenience caused

[jeshb]

Oops, be careful before deleting the (unknown) folder. For me, the files I've had opened since the CC app updated and created the (unknown) copy are all in the (unknown) folder. It sounds more like the bug created a copy of the CC Files folder, renamed the existing folder to (unknown), then switched syncing to the new folder—not the other way around. This left all my open files and folders OS X remembered to save and export into in the unsyncing (unknown) folder instead. If you've made any new files or edited existing files since the update, you could have your newest files in the (unknown) folder. It's like the bug kicked all my files out of the sync.

[Drawingbuddy]

Apologizing for bugs like this when we are premium monthly or annual subscribers is the absolute least you can do. This has now occurred to my account on 2 separate computers after the most recent update and the confusion could potentially cost an individual or company thousands. If they deleted the renamed (unknown) folder and just allowed the cloud sync to download, they could easily lose work that didn't sync because it was too large or because of some other spurious error.

I wonder how many users were hit and don't realise they've lost work when deleting the duplicate folder to free up valuable space. I can only hope that most users "Google Creative Cloud Files (unknown)" and find out here before it's too late.

[Memba]

Hello Adobe,

We need clear instructions how to fix this.

On Windows 8.1, my "Creative Cloud Files" directory is now empty and a "Creative Cloud Files (unknown)" directory has all my files since 2 Apr.

Today 4 Apr, I have signed out of Creative Cloud to ensure I will not loose any of my latest changes which I have backed up.

I cannot stay without working these files forever.

[Memba]

How do we fix this?

Do we simply move files from "Creative Cloud Files (unknown)" to "Creative Cloud Files"?

Should we restore a backup?

Should we stay signed out and wait for a fix?

Is there any risk in signing in and relying on syncing in the meantime?

Please give us clear instructions to fix this or at least advise a safe operation mode until you provide a fix.

Come on, it has now been 2 days.

[Jason Sherwood]

This has cause MAJOR version tracking errors for us. In fact it was sending the wrong version files to one of our clients that brought this issue to light. We are spending hours and $ to manually fix this issue, let alone fixing the "ding" in our relationship with our client. We cheered at the concept of CC, but feel underwhelmed at the fundamentals of cloud sync and share. This certainly has not been the only hiccup we have had with CC. We hope for fundamental improvements, in the mean time are considering mitigating options for file collaboration and syncing.

[ijernigan]

I would also like to know how best to handle this. Why can't you push an update that fixes it? I have had many issues in the past with syncing because of poor internet access, and keeping my files synced at 100% essential for maintaining my work flow. This is going to cause our team alot of headache and man hours to resolve and wait. This bug is a really really bad one.