Creative Cloud fails to update (Error code 191)

[Abraham_Fernandez7834]

As the title says, the Creative Cloud app keeps failing to update. I first tried troubleshooting it with the guide for this specific error code, but nothing worked. Tried reinstalling the app and even using Adobe's cleaning tool, and nothing worked; the error kept showing up. Also tried repairing Windows 11, and that didn't work either. So I contacted support, and two different agents remotely connected to my PC, and neither of them could fix the issue or figure out what was going on.

As a little test, I decided to use a different PC, this time a laptop with Windows 11 as well and in that one, Creative Cloud needed an update, and it updated without issues. So I decided to go to the about tab in the app on both PCs and put them side by side, and strangely enough, both my main PC (the one with the issue) and the laptop are in the same version of the app and everything else below. (At the time of making this post)

So maybe this could be some sort of bug where it keeps thinking it needs to update when it is already updated?

I posted this issue on Reddit, and so far, two other people are also experiencing this issue.

Whatever is causing this issue, hopefully, Adobe becomes aware of it and fixes it.

Reddit Post 

[28714wqdi]

Can confirm that changing the Where new content is stored to the C: drive fixed the issue. Also I had to delete C:\adobeTemp as well because I got an error from the install.log "ERROR: Path:C:\adobeTemp already exists"

[Kanikas]

Hi Quoc34728714wqdi,

Thanks for sharing the details. Hope this issue is now resolved. 

Have a good day! 

^KS

[WinterRoses]

Thanks, the solution worked (only changed where "New Files" are save). However, the flickering issue persists.

The GUI is nearly unusable.

[WinterRoses]

Erratum: "New Apps" not "New Files"

[kglad]

@WinterRoses 

what's flickering?

[psuser]

Jeffrey, thank you for this solution. 

I have been seeing the Error 191 problem for a few weeks now and your solution worked flawlessly.

I had my New Apps normally saved to my D: drive since I needed to install some large apps that I did not want consuming all the space on my system drive C: . However my Creative Cloud apps were installed in my C: drive right after I installed Win 11 and before I made that change. After temporarily switching my New Apps to be saved back on the C: drive, the Creative Cloud update ran super fast, just seconds, and completed without any problems. I then set New Apps to be saved back to the D: drive as before and all is now good. A bit of a hassle but really no big deal.

Curiously I have not encountered any problems updating the Creative Cloud Apps (Photoshop, Lightroom etc.) themselves so I'm guessing that those updates must work a little differently to the CC update process.

Thanks again for the solution.

[jay_irvin_0044]

This solution worked for me.

[MisterAdvent]

Still no luck here.

All my storage apps were set to C:, so I set them to D:, rebooted, tried CC update - it failed, then set them back to C:, rebooted, and CC app update still fails.

[kanamiya]

I had intentionally set the new content save location to the E: drive to avoid cramping my system drive, so I initially found this solution a bit hard to accept.
However, I later realized that I could just change the setting to the C: drive only during Creative Cloud updates and then switch it back to the E: drive once the update was successfully completed.
In my case, I only needed to change the "New apps will save to:" setting (documents and other files were fine staying on E:.
I plan to do the same in the future if I encounter a 191 error again. It's a bit of a hassle, but it works 😛

[naomib77553045]

This is what I did too. My New content save location was D: so I changed it to C: to try the Creative Cloud update. It worked and then I changed it back to D:

It seems a bit cumbersome but at least it works 😊

[roberth58611526]

This worked for me too, changing just the location for New Apps and New Documents. I have multiple local SSD drives installed in my tower case, and I like to use a separate drive for Windows, one for Software, and one for Documents. So my New Apps was set to my E: drive, New Documents was set to my D: drive. I changed both to C: and the Creative Cloud app was able to update without the 191 error finally.

I reverted both to the original locations after the update; we'll see what happens on the next update.

I hope a better solution is found for this, because I'm not permanently changing my system configuration just to keep one Adobe app happy.

[alonm85415919]

This solution workded for me (but I really don't like being forced to install SW on my C: OS drive)....

[kglad]

i don't think you need to leave the install setting after you update.

[alonm85415919]

and I didn't... but it means that for Adobe Cloud I was forced to do something against my policy... 
but I moved on 🙂

[kglad]

the cc desktop app must be installed on your os drive.

if that's your complaint, it's legitimate but this is the wrong thread for that.

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Thanks for the feedback, @alonm85415919! I'm sorry you have to implement this workaround for now. Hopefully, selecting won't be necessary to overcome Error 191 in the future.

Thank you, everyone, for all of the detailed responses. Our engineers continue to evaluate the responses from this discussion as they decide the best way to prevent future occurrences of Error 191.

[Nahue L]

I tried all the steps recommended on the official site (https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/apps/troubleshoot/error-codes-150-199/error191.html) and still couldn’t resolve error 191. Then I found this post, changed the storage location, but only for new apps, to C drive (without uninstalling Adobe CC), clicked “Retry” in Adobe CC, and voilà—problem solved. If I’d seen this post earlier, I would’ve saved myself an entire morning of failed attempts.

[MisterAdvent]

When I first reported this, Adobe confirmed that my CC app is the current version.  I just wonder if it's throwing this error when the app doesn't need updating?

[ville_ekman]

I was able to solve this by changing the setting per Jeffrey_A_Wright's instructions in "System/Storage/Where new content is saved" from E: to C: drive

Then quit the Creative Cloud app, restarted it, retried the update and it went through without a hitch!

Thanks @Jeffrey_A_Wright for the solution! 

[DCJ777]

I am having this same issue, Checked the advanced saved settings and all mine were already set to c:, i only have one drive on this syste, I've tried updating under admin login and user login both through same error, tried downloading CC installer and it installs but when opening Creative cloud the same error is shown. Ran through the trouble shooting steps on Error 191 causes installation failure on Windows and none of that made any difference.

[Jeffrey_A_Wright]

Thanks for the update, @ville_ekman. It is a team effort, and your response will help us fix this error in future versions.

[nathan_0194]

I just spent a pile of time going through all the possible fixes that were listed in the various threads here but nothing worked.  Finally, I checked the version numbers and noticed that I am already on Version 6.7.0.278 which appears to be the latest version: https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/creative-cloud/release-note/cc-release-notes.html  Is it possible that I am being offered an update that doesn't exist?

For reference, this is a fresh install of Creative Cloud straight from the Adobe site.  It installs correctly and then on first launch it shows that it needs to do an update but fails with Error Code 191.  Everything else appears to be functioning normally.

[psuser]

Hi Nathan, FWIW my CC version number is currently also 6.70.0.278. It did not change after the update ran successfuly. Somewaht unexpected behaviour since updates do generally adjust the verison number even if only by the minor digits. Maybe Jeffrey can comment on that to clarify what we should expect the version number to be after running the update.

[MisterAdvent]

I discovered that weeks ago.  What I think is going on is when the thing does a version check it's throwing the error.  They actually haven't pushed an update to the CC app since this began.

[psuser]

I suspect that there is some "confusion" i.e bug in the latest update code regarding how the CC app was originally installed. Mine was installed using a traditional exe installer from Adobe rather than being installed from the Microsoft Store, where more and more apps are being sourced these days. Only Apps installed from the Micosoft Store pay attention to the Advanced Storage Settingsin Windows. So I wonder if the current CC app update does not correctly accomodate the situation where the app was orginally installed the traditional way. Just a thought.