Can't install on external drive [Branched from 2016 topic.]

[Dominik28188785hus6]

Hi, 
i had the same question. but the way you describe it doesn't work. Creative Cloud doesn't accept when I change the Install location for Applications to the external SSD hard disk. why? and is there any other solution? my amcbook storage is full due to and I just bought a new external hard disk by LaCie.

[kglad]

@Dominik28188785hus6 

if mac, what file system on the external drive?

how much free space is on your os drive?

[Dominik28188785hus6]

Hi @kglad 
The file system on the external drive is exFAT
and my os drive has 145 GB of free space  (now, after I put the media data to the external SSD)

[kglad]

copy and paste here a screenshot of the cc desktop app install location setting.

[Dominik28188785hus6]

and this happens when I choose the external hard disc

[kglad]

you can't install to the root of any drive.

and in the future don't use insert photo, again copy and paste.

[Nancy OShea]

If you're out of primary hard disk space, you need a new computer.  See the system requirements below and keep in mind that these are minimum requirements. You'll likely need additional HD space for operating system + all other apps you use.

- https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/system-requirements.html
- https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html
- https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html

[Dominik28188785hus6]

Thank you Nancy, but that's why I asked if its possible to install adobe applications on an external hard drive. So far it didn't worked in the CC settings, although I didn't try to use the root of the external (as speculated by @kglad ), instead folders I already created. Or does it needs partition of the external in order to change the Install location for Applications?

[kglad]

@Lumigraphics found the problem: macs can't execute apps on exfat formatted drives.  they can read/write to those drives, but not run programs.

[Test Screen Name]

Yes, but the apps are pretty small, compared to everything else. You will need to change some settings and you'll still need lots of space on the system drive. I agree with Nancy: you need a bigger drive. Unfortunately, the basic configuration of PCs/Macs isn't enough for designers.

[Lumigraphics]

You may need to format that external drive as HFS Extended or APFS to install software on it. ExFAT is a Windows format.

[kglad]

@Lumigraphics 

macs can read/write to exfat drives, too.

[Lumigraphics · Accepted solution]

Yes but I don't believe applications can run properly from an ExFAT drive. it must be a Mac format.

[kglad]

ah.  thanks for that. i didn't know.

i did some research and found this, 

The external drive must be formatted in some Apple/Mac Filesystem like HFS+ or APFS. If you try to run those external apps from an exFAT or some other non-Apple/non-Mac file system, macOS will complain about a "corrupt or broken" app, even though the app itself would be totally fine.

[Nancy OShea]

Installation on compatible format externals still requires ample primary hard disk space to download and unpack the program files before they are moved to the external.