Back to Adobe CC Desktop App hell

Report · Jul 18, 2019

[running Windows 10 1809]

Hi,

This morning, the CC Desktop launched by itself and entered the endless spinning wheel state. No way to stop it. After an hour, I killed the process. Then I tried to

relaunch. No way. I tried a repair from the Windows Control Panel and I got this :

which is ridiculous, obviously. So I tried the AdobeCreativeCloudCleanerTool to uninstall CC Desktop. It succeeded. I then downloaded and reinstalled Adobe CC Desktop. The installation succeeded (apparently). But now I'm stuck in an endless loop. When I try to launch CC Desktop, I get the following message after a very long time :

If I click on Repair, a new installation process begins, the existing CC Desktop is wiped out and I get again the same message when I relaunch CC Desktop. So, this time I clicked on Quit and tried the download link provided in the message. It's a broken link. So, I used the previously downloaded package (from Adobe's site) and installed again.

And now I'm back to step #1.

When will Adobe ever decide to hire capable developers for the CC Desktop App team ? This tool is a failure from the very beginning. Until now, I could always find a way to reinstall and have it running properly but this time, I'm stuck. Following the recommendations found here Adobe Creative Cloud, needed to resolve this problem, is missing or damaged didn't help in anyway. Using other tricks that had helped previously didn't help either.

Very frankly, is it that difficult to write an installation program that works ?

Report · Jul 18, 2019

uninstall everything cc including preferences, https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/uninstall-remove-app.html

then uninstall the cc desktop app, https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/uninstall-creative-cloud-desktop-app.html

clean your computer of cc files per http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

restart your computer (don't skip this)

reinstall the cc desktop app, https://creative.adobe.com/products/creative-cloud.

if you're unable to install the cc desktop app at this stage, use an administrator account (solution 4 here, https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/creative-cloud-missing-damaged.html)

use the desktop app to install your cc programs/trials

Report · Jul 18, 2019

Hi,

I already read, re-read, tried and re-tried all of this. This doesn't help.

Report · Jul 18, 2019

Samoreen, have you followed the steps listed in Error 21 or DW021 while installing Photoshop CC 2015 and located and renamed the correct OOBE folder?

If so, then Error 21 indicates that the system requirements are not met. Considering your first post indicates you are using Windows 10, please check to see if compatibility mode has been turned off for the current installation of the Creative Cloud desktop app. For more information on how to adjust compatibility mode, see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/15078/windows-make-older-programs-compatible . For additional information on Error 21, see Creative Cloud download and install errors .

Report · Jul 19, 2019

Thanks kglad, Jeff for the advice. Unfortunately, this didn't help. I think there's an issue with the new version (4.9). I have restored my system to the state it was in before CC desktop updated itself yesterday and the previous version appears to work normally but unfortunately, it immediately asks me to update to version 4.9 or to Quit. Updating brings me back to the Quit / Repair loop.

Report · Jul 19, 2019

Ok, thanks for the update, Samoreen. Please open a chat and work directly with our support team at Contact Customer Care so that the current error can be resolved.

Report · Jul 19, 2019

I'm currently in touch with the development team.

Report · Jul 19, 2019

Excellent, Samoreen. Can you please update this public forum discussion with either the resolution or your case number once the interaction is complete? This error most commonly occurs due to before mentioned compatibility mode. I would be interested to know what other possible causes there could be. You can find information on how to locate and update your recent support cases at View Adobe Support cases .

Report · Jul 28, 2019

I eventually helped myself and found a (temporary ?) fix.

See CC Desktop app - Stuck in an endless loop | Photoshop Family Customer Community

Report · Sep 12, 2019

Hello fellow victims of the Adobe CC Desktop madness,

The never ending story continues. This morning Adobe CC desktop told me that 1) an update was available for Photoshop and 2) that updates were available for the CC Desktop app itself. I started with the Photoshop update which failed (once again) with error 183. I then tried to update CC Desktop. It failed (once again) with error 184. I used the CC Cleaner Tool to uninstall CC Desktop and then tried a reinstallation. However, when downloading and running the CC Desktop installer, one can see that it doesn't install the latest version. So, when run, it immediately asks again to be updated and... error 184. Another endless loop has been invented. After reinstallation, CC Desktop didn't run immediately, though. I had to apply the workaround described here : CC Desktop app - Stuck in an endless loop | Photoshop Family Customer Community . I have 2 versions of AdobeIPCBroker on my system and only the older one is working.

Anyway, after relaunching CC Desktop, surprise, it told me this time that Photoshop was up to date. But it is still unable to update itself.

I had a discussion with the developers about these problems. They are located somewhere in India. For a while, I believed that things were finally taken seriously but they obviously abandoned their investigations when I reported the problem with AdobeIPCBroker. No more answer since then.

I am absolutely FED UP with these never ending issues. Giving no other way to update our Adobe apps than to use this terrible tool is a major mistake. This must stop. Throw this code to the garbage can and write a more simple and stable tool ! I'm not alone with these severe Adobe CC Desktop issues and there's no indication that the problem is taken seriously. It's time to wake up.

Report · Sep 13, 2019

Helping myself seems to be the only way to fix problems when using Adobe products. I eventually found out why the built-in updater of CC Desktop is failing with error code 184. It is trying to update files that it is indirectly using itself. This time, it was CCLibrary.exe that was indirectly loaded when CC Desktop was launched. So, the built-in updater fails because it is trying to replace an executable that it has itself launched. And then it issues an error code 184 telling me that the executable that it wants to update is in use by another process (which is actually itself). Kind of a self generated chicken-egg problem.

After killing this process and clicking on Retry, CC desktop could update itself normally.

1. The installer should be able to clearly indicate to the user which file could not be replaced.
2. It should, like many other installers do, try to terminate the offending executable and try again to automatically replace it.
3. Note that others have mentioned similar problems with other files. So, my case is just an example. The actual error source can be determinated by running the LogCollector tool and looking at the contents of Install.log.
4. Diagnosing such situations is something that is possible only for power users, developers or software engineers. The designers of CC Desktop seem to be unable to imagine how confusing this is for non computer savvy users when they are facing such a situation.

Another indication that the design of this app is flawed. Time to replace it.

Report · Oct 04, 2019

I've tried all suggestions presented with also no luck, which is proof of suggestions not really quality assured for this scenario.

What solved this for me was to download the full offline installer (ca 254mb). It installed the app in seconds, and this one has a larger UI and more control over your CC:

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/creative-cloud-desktop-app-download.html

It is NOT the first suggestion on this page! Skip down to "Problems installing? Try alternative download links",

expand for your OS and then the download for your version.

Current version is ACCCx5_0_0_354.zip

Report · Sep 12, 2019

Hi,

Is this forum now moderated ? I mean, do posted messages need some approval before being published ? I have posted a new message this morning and it didn't appear in the thread.

Testing again...

Report · Nov 04, 2019

I updated the CC desktop app just the other day, followed by a laboriously slow update of PS and associated progs that come with it. I HATE the new CC app. It just gave an error message saying it needed to be re-installed. Did that and... it no longer recognises PS. It's asking me if I want to install that na Bridge... all over again! After some difficulty getting the whole shebang installed and working in 2015 I found the previous CC desktop app was small, neat, efficient and pretty fast. Can we please have it back and dump the screen-hogging new version? Which appears not to have been debugged!!

It really is time Adobe's developers were parked in front of a whiteboard for about 24 hours with a simple message in capital letters written on it; 'New isn't necessarily better!' Why not find out what your customer base actually wants changed before you go ahead and change everything next time...

On a sidenote ir's also a bit of a mystery to me that Adobe markets Dreamweaver, the supposed 'Rolls Royce' of web design apps - yet Adobe's own site must be among the slowest to load of any I can think of offhand!

Report · Nov 04, 2019

I agree that the development team responsible for the CC Desktop app disaster (whatever the version) and all the update machinery should be sent back to school and replaced with a more efficient team.

Report · Nov 04, 2019

By the way, the last two updates of PS are for MacOS only but under Windows, the whole thing has been reinstalled twice just to keep the version number in sync. And the second update failed with code 183, a classic error that survived the "re-design" of the CC Desktop App. How about a simple patch operation on the version resource of the executable ?