This morning's Creative Cloud Update just REMOVED FILES from my computer, how do I contact Adobe??

[Guest]

I work at Backblaze.

We are getting a TON of customers reporting that when Adobe Creative Cloud updates

on the Macintosh (which it did this morning 2/11/2016) then it removes the

contents of folder /.bzvol/ which belongs to Backblaze (this folder does

not belong to Adobe Creative Cloud!!)   Removing this folder disables

Backblaze.  Here is an FAQ on it:

.bzvol is missing : Help Desk

Does anybody know how to contact Adobe to ask them to PLEASE STOP
ROLLING THAT UPDATE OUT.  Or possibly stop removing our software's

files?!

If you use Backblaze, you should stop installing Adobe Creative Cloud updates

until they start behaving better.  They might be removing OTHER RANDOM FILES

from the file system?

[braddock6921]

Just to go on the record, I too wound up with half of my client folders removed from my hard drive this morning. You see, as some others, I had my "Clients" folder labeled with a space before the first letter of the folder so that it would sit at the top of my directory. The folder itself was not deleted, but as I mentioned about half of the client folders inside that folder were MIA.

At first I attributed it to the fact that we had a neighborhood power failure last night (Thurs), but after reading several posts on the 'disappearing' files, I'm starting to think it had nothing to do with the power failure. I spent most of the day (Friday) searching my computer for the files and ultimately restored the client folders from a backup. This unfortunately did not take care of the work I lost yesterday that was scheduled to be backed up last night. I knew I didn't want to move to the 'cloud', and if in the end, it's determined that this is the cause for the disappearing folders and file, just re-affirms my original opinion about using the service.

[ProDesignTools]

Sorry to hear about the headache and inconvenience of lost work... It's always a huge pain when that happens.

The bug is unfortunate, but has nothing to do with "the cloud" in particular. It appears to just be a buggy desktop software update, that happened in the CC desktop app.

Bugs are not new in Adobe software, nor in any software anywhere. Software is written by humans, and humans are fallible, thus bugs happen. 100% certifiably bug-free software of any level of complexity has never existed in the history of computers.

Not trying to make excuses for Adobe. Obviously bugs slip through, as they did back in the Creative Suite days. The upside of CC is that we get product updates and new features faster and more regularly, but the flip side is that we may see bugs faster too.

In any event, no doubt the Adobe engineers are upset this happened and working hard to get it fixed just as fast.

[Steve Werner]

There's now an official statement from Adobe about the bug. They are "in the process of deploying a new update..."

Creative Cloud Desktop Mac Issue | Adobe Customer Care Team

[imksn]

It would have been more respectful to have notified me by email rather than finding out about this on twitter...

[ishouldbeanactress]

First it was the data breach which has me with a credit alert every 90 days for the rest of my life and now this.

You have no business touching anyone's files or programs.

[phthalojohan]

Hi guys, I was one of the people who got the auto update to this version. I now uninstalled Photoshop CC and CC just in case, and will reinstall once Adobe rolls out a new update. Sigh.

In my case my top root folder was .DocumentRevisions-V100. I can't see what is inside though.

Can anybody answer me as to what is inside the .DocumentRevisions-V100 folder, and what would happen if the content is gone?

[imksn]

‌phthalojohan,

IF you go to the 16th entry above, there is a link to an arstechnica article that summarizes what's in the folder and how to work around so files in that folder aren't lost.

[phthalojohan]

Thanks imksn. That clarifies it. Funny thing is I haven't seen any error messages or lost any work... don't really use the autosave feature. Wasn't even aware of the problem until macrumor talked about it.

[BlazinBuffalo]

Imksn, that article just says that deleting .DocumentRevisions-V100's contents could have negative consequences. Not too helpful. Can anyone tell me:

a: how to determine if my .DocumentRevisions-V100 folder is compromised (my computer says I don't have access)

b: if it is compromised, what do I do about it?

[imksn]

‌BlazinBuffalo,

a. You've probably already gotten the same notice that I have regarding the updated blog post by Adobe that includes info that the folder affected must be user writable. Since the .DocumentsRevisions-V100 folder is not user read nor write enabled, that folder will not be affected.

b. If it is compromised, the only option would be to reinstall from your backup. That would only be important if you needed past versions of files that were auto-saved. Otherwise, it seems it would be replaced by a fresh folder the next time you work on a document or file from an app that has the auto save function such as TextEdit or Preview.

[BlazinBuffalo]

Thank you imksn for the info. I have not heard anything from adobe on this matter, I had to learn about it from various news/blog articles.

Since .DocumentsRevisions... is not user read/write enabled would the bug fail or move on to the next available writable folder?

Like Mark, I don't appear to be affected but it's hard to get answers from adobe who seems to be staying very quiet.

[Guest]

I simply compared my current root with the last Time Machine backup prior to the CC update and added back the files in the 1st folder that were deleted by CC...

I just don't understand how these guys 1st have the Lightroom debacle and then this disaster...  I guess it all stems from the completely absurd software rental model.

PS. On a tangential topic, has anyone noticed that the latest release of Bridge is completely unstable?  Use it for 5 minutes and it crashes, 5 minutes and crashes...

I trialed Capture One Pro and wow do I love it and have also trialed Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo (amazing product but need a bit more time to mature)...  When my CC Photography renewal comes up in two months I am out, Adobe is just way to customer hostile for my tastes...

[imksn]

‌BlazinBuffalo,

>>Since .DocumentsRevisions... is not user read/write enabled would the bug fail or move on to the next available writable<<

As the Arstechnica article states, the first folder listed alphabetically in the root directory will be affected. Any folder with user write access in that root directory is susceptible. As jsm5758 mentioned in post 67, one can check ones backup to compare the first folder listed in the root directory.

[BlazinBuffalo]

imksn ,The Arstechnica article doesn't say anything about user write access, and in fact states that the .DocumentRevisions-V100 folder could be effected.

".DocumentRevisions-V100 [is] a folder that stores data required for Mac autosave and Version history functions to work properly. Deleting its contents could have negative consequences. "

Let me clarify my question:

My first alphabetically listed folder was .DocumentRevisions-V100 (I have since added a buffer .aaaa folder) and thus not user writable. My next alphabetically listed user writable folder was .vol which is now empty. So, is the nature of the bug that if the first listed folder is not user writable, nothing happens (in which case my .vol folder is supposed to be empty) or does the bug cause the first user writable folder's contents to be deleted? Any explanation of the bug I've seen has been ambiguous on this distinction.

I wish that Adobe would offer greater explanation than simply to say hold off on updating. What about those of us that already have?! Even an apology would be nice.

[imksn]

BlazinBuffalo,

>>>The Arstechnica article doesn't say anything about user write access<<<

I wasn't clear about where the idea came from that the folder had to be user write enabled to be susceptible. That came from the updated Adobe Customer Care Team blog mentioned in post 65 previously.

Related to the /.vol directory, that's over my pay grade. Mine is also empty, but the folder above that is /.TemporaryItems on my system. So, I would think that may suggest that the /.vol folder is empty when we view it in Finder. Additionally, every /.vol I look at in my Time Machine backup is empty. Someone else will have to verify this thinking of mine.

[LexS]

I have just created 3 folders in the root, one with two leading  .. points to be sure it will not happen here.

Question: can you not make the .bzvol protected to the highest authorisation? Would that help?

[thierryp61617375]

Same Issue with COGILOG but no answser...

[phthalojohan]

Just to ask, if I do download creative cloud now off adobe's official link here Download Adobe Creative Cloud apps | Free Adobe Creative Cloud trial (its adobe official SEA page), will it be version 3.5.0.206 or an older one which doesn't delete files off root?

I tried to ask adobe on twitter about this, but their answers weren't really clear.

[phthalojohan]

Okay I chatted with the adobe support, they mentioned that the version downloadable now is 3.4.3.189. So that should be safe

[philipn95815980]

... but that's a lower number.  What do we do if we already have 3.5.0.206 installed?

[Steve Werner]

If you install the lower-numbered version is will replace 3.5.0.206. I've done this already.

Then, when the engineers release a new safe version, it will probably have a new higher number.

[phthalojohan]

I just noticed that creative cloud popped up an update available notice, version 3.5.1.209. Think I'll wait till adobe gives the official release notes before I update this time

[bhatnaga · Accepted solution]

Hi,

CC build 3.5.1.209 has the fix for the problem described in this thread. We are rolling out the update and should be available to everyone soon.

Regards,

Anirudh Bhatnagar

Creative Cloud Lead Quality Engineer

[patrickf17463216]

Do you or Adobe have an official response on how and why this happened?  What steps will you be taking in your software QA process to prevent something like this from happening again? 

[PicLocata]

This is pretty bad. Accidental file deletion is such a well-known risk. For example, a programmer means to do something like: wildcard-search for '/' + adobe-folder-prefix + '*'; then delete-first-folder. But for some reason the adobe-folder-prefix variable isn't set, and so the first result of '/*' is deleted. (t could be worse - the code might be to deleted all folders found! That's why it's burnt into the experience of all developers who have seen it or done it themselves.)

Given the obvious risk, you'd expect special care. For example, only delete folders and files through a single routine that checks against a list of Adobe folders. Or have a sentinel file inside each folder that should be deleted, and check for the existence of that sentinel file. You'd also expect any changes to deletion code to get special attention at the code review stage, and that would be one of the items on the review checklist.

I don't think this is just a accidental error with unfortunate consequences. It suggests a major flaw in the CC development process. Given the other problems I have experienced personally with CC updates (failed without logging out and back, removal of plugins, removal of a major feature without notice) I hope Adobe will take this incident as a wake-up call that the CC update process needs an overhaul. To date, Adobe have demonstrated that they don't have the expertise to make the Creative Cloud experience work for their customers.