Creative Cloud suite removal

[chrisw83580159]

Hello.

We have deployed Adobe Creative cloud 2015 in our environment now for the last 12 months. We are a University and have a site license. The full suite (basically everything from CC packager) is deployed to around 400 workstations in teaching labs. We have been asked to upgrade to the 2017 version and we are hitting nothing but obstacles.

1. We tried to run the remote update manager, we thought this would result in the applications being updated. It only upgraded to the latest 2015 version not the 2017 version.
2. We thought we could then just remove the suite using msiexec /x on the MSI generated using the CC packager. This didn't do anything or it didn't appear too.
3. We thought we could use the CC cleaner tool but this left behind all the start menu shortcuts and also a few apps remained installed such as a Fuse Preview.
4. We thought we could create an uninstall package using CC packager but this left a few things behind like Fireworks CS6.

Does anyone out there have a full solution to removing adobe creative cloud? Our plan moving forwards is to remove this version and deploy a new version.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly received.

Many Thanks

Chris W

[alisterblack · Accepted solution]

Hi chrisw83580159​

Firstly I think it would be useful to explain the difference between an update or patch, and a full new version of the CC product.

So for example. Photoshop 2017 is not an update for Photoshop 2015.5, it is a standalone version with a full installer that can co-exist with earlier versions. So it would be necessary to package and deploy the latest version of Photoshop. Once deployed this can be updated with the current version of RUM.

The full list of applications that behave in this way can be found here: https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/packager/apps-deployed-without-their-base-versions.html

Secondly my usual recommendation for removal would be to perform an MSI uninstall as you have done. This would normally take the form msiexec /x "c:\filename.msi" /q and is documented by Microsoft here. There are no special considerations for CC which should behave as any other application. To determine what may have caused this issue I would recommend checking the install logs.

If you want to enable verbose logging for the uninstall that can be done using msiexec /x "C:\MyPackage\Example.msi" /L*V "C:\log\example.log"

If you require assistance analysing the log files I would recommend opening a support case.

To contact support please use one of the following options.

Creative Cloud for Enterprise - from the Admin Console go to the support tab to open a case. Phone and chat options are also available here.

Creative Cloud for Teams - from the CCT Admin Console go to the Help tab for chat and phone options.

Alternatively please Contact Customer Care