Greyed-out Creative Cloud Icon In The Menu Bar; Won't Load

[rmalsin]

Hi. At some point within the last two days, the Creative Cloud icon in the menu bar of my mac went greyed out and now when I click on it the window that loads is blank. I tried some of the advice in this post but trashing opm.db didn't work and every time I try to uninstall Creative Cloud (so I can reinstall it) it refuses to let me, saying there are still programs using it.

The CC programs I still have are accessible from the dock and the launchpad, but I can't reach anything to dowload new updates. What do I do?

(Also in the course of things, the application manager might have gotten deleted.)

[puneeta23771395 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Please perform following steps to fix this issue.

1) Close all adobe related processes in activity monitor (Creative cloud, Core sync, CC library, services for adobe desktop app, adobe desktop service, Adobe IPC broker, AAM updater)

2) Navigate to following locations and assign the current user full permissions to adobe folders. To navigate click go from menu bar at then click goto.. type /Library/application support/   and click go.

3) To assign the permission right click on adobe folder and click Get info.. A property window will open. Then click on lock symbol to enable editing. Then click + sign to add your username. Then change read only to read and write. Then click gear symbol at the bottom and click apply to enclosed items and click ok.. Proceed to next step then.

3) Navigate to following location /Library/application support/adobe and rename aamupdator to aamupdator.old and oobe to oobe.old .

4) Navigate to ~/Library/application support /adobe/oobe and rename aamupdator to aamupdator.old and oobe to oobe.old .

5) Open application library and delete creative cloud,

6) open utilities from application library itself and delete Adobe application manager and creative cloud

7) Install creative cloud from following link  https://creative.adobe.com/products/creative-cloud

8) Launch cc app and it should work fine

[rmalsin]

It took me a while to find everything I needed to delete, but once I did it worked! Thank you!

[puneeta23771395]

You are welcome. I appreciate your effort to resolve this issue.

[arleighb]

this is nuts. adobe can't write an apple script for this? I don't have time to fix and reinstall faulty software. I'm paying enough; this should be solved on adobe's end, not the user's end.

[Tabbykat007-vdcyRp]

I agree.  I haven't got time to faff around with something I'm paying for.  Makes me furious

[UliMors]

YES!!!!

Today I spent HOURS trying to reinstall / delete/ clean the CC APP - deleted folders in Library etc etc.

FINALLY your detailed description did it - there must have been on or two things that are not advised by others.

THANKS!!!!!!!

Uli

[JoeFourMan]

Firstly and most importantly thank you for these steps, following them fixed my problem too.

However I must echo what others have said that this is not really appropriate for us end users to have to jump through these hoops. I can only imagine people of less computer literacy trying to follow this. My mother for example would NEVER be able to fix this problem on her own, that's just a fact.

The fact that this problem is still rearing its ugly head in October, when most of these posts are from the beginning of the year speaks volumes to how little you guys (Adobe) give a ****. Again, thank you for the fix but seriously its a fix for a problem we should never see.

[sarahs18033965]

Replying to yours since it was just posted yesterday. Did you use any of the CC "libraries" (swatch colors, smart objects, etc.) before having to reinstall? I am going to try this process tomorrow, but I'm worried that when I uninstall it I will lose all of my library items.

I wish Adobe software wouldn't suddenly BREAK. Time is money, and any time spent on fixing this is so costly for my business!

[Alyssa5FEB]

Is there a video for this?  I'm a novice Macbook user and this seems daunting.

[zenkosaya]

This happened to me today. It's 2023 and Adobe is more expensive than ever and constantly breaking. This is ridiculous.

[kglad]

@zenkosaya 

exactly what problem are you seeing?

[zenkosaya]

The creative cloud icon is grayed out. When I open it, it says I've been signed out. When I try to sign in, it keeps popping up for me to sign in again. I can access the apps but can not uninstall creative cloud to reinstall because it says other programs that use creative cloud need to be uninstalled but if I try to uninstall those, it asks me to sign in and the issue repeats.

[kglad]

follow the steps here to resolve the cc sign in/out loop -  https://helpx.adobe.com/manage-account/kb/troubleshoot-creative-cloud-sign-out-sign-in.html

[zenkosaya]

I am unable to uninstall the app which is the first step in fix you have linked.

[kglad]

what's your os version?

which uninstaller did you download?

what do you see after starting the uninstaller?

[zenkosaya]

I'm on Mac and I just updated to Ventura 13.1. I tried to use the uninstalled in the creative cloud app in finder.

[kglad]

follow the directions in the link i previously posted.

[zenkosaya]

As previously stated, I can not complete step 1 in the link you've sent. Creative Cloud will not uninstall.

[zenkosaya]

I was able to fix the issue by deleting everything using the creative cloud cleaner.

[kglad]

for others that link connects to the cc app uninstaller.