Installing CC [to an external drive]

[johnc98521768]

I have installed CC to my iMac computer.  I want to install CC on an external hard drive.  When I try to change the default location i get the message: cannot install to a root path.

[Title edited for clarity... Mod]

[Anupriya Khare]

The creative cloud applications cannot be installed on an external drive.

Regards,

Anupriya Khare

[johnc98521768]

Can the Lightroom & Photoshop excluding the creative cloud be installed on an external drive?

[Anupriya Khare · Accepted solution]

All the CC applications cannot be installed on the external drive.

[ajn_design]

This was answered a year ago, but this Adobe FAQ says it CAN be done but not recommended. Why isn't this recommended? I also ran out of space in my SSD C drive and I have an extra SSD where all my files and scratch disks.

Download and install Creative Cloud apps

Where are my apps installed, and can I change the location?
By default, your Creative Cloud apps are installed in the Program Files folder (Windows) or the Applications folder (Mac OS).

You can change the default install location, although it is not recommended. Open the Creative Cloud desktop app and click the gear icon at the top right of the window. Choose Preferences > Apps > Install location > Change. Navigate to the desired location and click Open. Your new install location appears in the menu.

[Jason_Graham1]

As developments along this route occur, it would be very useful to have somewhere to look for them, because with Apple's insistence on solid state drives being the standard so early, it's left several generations of Macbooks with way too little disk space. We need to use external drives for some programs.

[Marumasa]

Okay you say they can't be installed on the external hard drive however you never shared why. Would you be willing to share?

[Test Screen Name]

This information is incorrect. The message "Cannot install to root path" means simply what it says; unfortunately, this is not so easy to understand as Adobe's programmers thought. The root path is just the top directory (on Windows, that is a drive letter like K: or E:) (on Mac this is the folder with the disk name, like External Disk or Macintosh HD). The solution is very simple, make a folder on your disk, and set that as the install path.

[Pattie-F]

moving  to Creative Cloud Download & Install

[John T Smith]

This discussion is about Mac (which I don't have) but a warning for anyone doing this on Windows

When you plug a USB drive in Windows assigns a drive letter... lets say D

If you unplug that drive and then plug another drive in it may become D - so if you plug your program drive back in it becomes E

That drive letter change will cause the program entries in the Windows Registry file to be wrong... and the programs may not work

If you are going to install to an external drive on Windows you should NEVER unplug that drive