Users suddenly can't find our extension in Manage plugins on CC App

[ivandazed]

I am the developer of an extension for Illustrator which is listed for years on Adobe Exchange. In the manifest.xml we already state the extension is compatible from 21.0 up to 26.9.

But recently in these 2 days, we got reports from several users that Specees disappear in Window  > Extensions after updating to Illustrator 26.2.1. They even can’t find it in the CC desktop APP  (Stock & Marketplace > Plugins > Manage plugins). And they cannot download the extension (They reported with error code 1001) nor they can install it with .zxp downloaded from Adobe Exchange. One user contacted Adobe support and they reply him with the answer that saying the extension is not compatible with his Illustrator.

We have tried install and reinstall our extension on both Mac and Windows with Illustrator 26.2.1 and we found no issue so we don’t think compatibility would not be an issue. Please advice on how our user can fix this, or in case you think that’s our problem in our code, pleasegive us  advise on how to fix it.

[erinferinferinf]

Hi there!

Yikes! That sounds bad.

Please reach out to wwds@adobe.com and ccintrev@adobe.com and tell them about the problem, with a link to your listing on https://exchange.adobe.com/creativecloud.html

Today is a "Global Wellbeing Day" so it might be Monday or Tuesday before anyone gets back to you. (Some

countries have an "Easter Monday" as well...)

Can you send your customers ZXP files outside of the Exchange? (Looks like it's a paid extension though...)

Does your extension use the XMP Script Library? That dropped out of Illustrator 25.4, but it's been restored in 25.4.5_525. (And later versions.)

In a developer Slack someone else was asking:

Is anyone aware of any issues with Illustrator 26.1 on Windows 11 with CEP? I have an extension I wrote that has worked great for a couple of years but a customer recently upgraded to Windows 11 and now it seems some functions are no longer working.  I don’t have access to Windows 11 so can’t debug.

It installs fine for me, and I'm still given the option to download the ZXP from here: https://exchange.adobe.com/creativecloud/install-instructions.100740.html

I'm on an M1 Mac, with Illustrator 25.4.1, Creative Cloud desktop app 5.7.

The -1001 error is  "EXMAN_FAILED_ELEVATE_START_TIMEOUT = -1001," which I think means that there was a permissions error of some sort.

I take it you can't replicate the users' problems, right?

[ivandazed]

Thanks for the conatct and I will ask them for help!

Right, it's a paid extension ao I can't send them the .zxp. We have used the XMP Script Library to save some information to the .ai file. Yes, I remember the related function didn't work for some older version (probably 25.4 as you mentioned) but that doesn't affect user to use our extension at all. So I guess that's not related to the current issue. Both Mac and Windows (Windows 10)  users reported the same issue so there's no clue for us. And you are right, I can't replicate the error on Mac and Windows.... 

[Adam DeHaven]

@ivandazedhow were you able to resolve this?

I have the exact same issue 

[ivandazed]

Problem not yet solved and still clueless. More and more users encounter the same issue on different OS/Illustrator versions... reached out to wwds@adobe.com and ccintrev@adobe.com and hopefully will get some feedback soon. Now I am wondering if our extension uses an old CEP (7.0) that make CC App on some system thinks our extension is incompatible? 

Can you also share your problem here to get us more clue on this issue?

[erinferinferinf]

So, behind the scenes there is now a flurry of emails as this is investigated.

Fortunately the engineers have been able to reproduce this problem, which is promising. (Problems that are not reproducible are much harder to solve....)

Both of your plugins are incorrectly throwing some sort of "expired" flag, which causes them to be uninstalled and is also triggering the entitlement error (1001). I don't know where or how this expired flag is generated, but some of the Exchange engineers on Pacific time may be able to tell us.

The part where the plugins aren't showing up in the Creative Cloud desktop app seems like a different issue, which might have to do with UXP and sorting. (UXP isn't available for Illustrator yet.)

So work is going on behind the scenes! If there's a JIRA ticket (or tickets) I'll track those and report back here.

[ivandazed]

Thanks and this is a good news! Hope this issue can be solved soon! 

[Adam DeHaven]

@erinferinferinf  I know I mentioned this on Slack (repeating here so it's in thw forum), but I also think it's odd both of these Plugins have been pushed down to the "other section" when searching for a plugin, and users can no longer "Buy" with the single click of a button. 

Illustrator apps (and apparently some, not all) shouldn't be penalized into another section with no purchase button; especially with no explanation of WHY they aren't showing the button. 

[erinferinferinf]

We're still investigating the error 1001 issue, it appears to affect people who have previously purchesd plugins (not first time purchasers), something in the system is erroneously firing an "expired" flag.

• The error messages are not helpful in this case. A compatible app is installed, but the user is flagged as not entitled.
• Customer support is routing users back to the plugin developer, but there's no way for you to fix this. Customer support is following the procedure for the (unhelpful) errror code.

Illustrator apps (and apparently some, not all) shouldn't be penalized into another section with no purchase button; especially with no explanation of WHY they aren't showing the button. 

I totally agree with this, and have sent the comments on to the Product Manager of the Marketplace. Unfortunately the Creative Cloud desktop 5.7 app rolled out just before we both went on vacation... Fortunately that means people who haven't updated the desktop app won't see that sorting method.  Hopefully we can fix it before 5.8 rolls out (targeted for June), I'll check on that...

🤔 All of these messages are marked as "correct" but we don't have a solution yet. 😅 I'll re-mark them when this is sorted out...

[erinferinferinf · Accepted solution]

Hello again,

We've been investigating the entitlement issue and there's a temporary fix in place while the root of the problem is addressed. (I'm told that the temporary fix will appear permanent for end users.)

Apparently, only users with auto-renewing subscriptions were affected. Please ask your customers to try reloading your plugin from within the Creative Cloud desktop app and let us know if it works.

The customer support team has been informed of this as well, so hopefully you won't keep getting complaints routed to you. Let us know if you do!

[Adam DeHaven]

Thanks for the update!

What about the "Buy" button no longer appearing on the plugins and them appearing in the "other" section?

[ivandazed]

Thanks for your update. 

How a user reload the plugin in Creative Cloud App as there is no reload button there? Will they need to quit and restart the app to reload that?

[ivandazed]

I tell our users to do this as Adobe Support replied: Sign out of the Creative Cloud App and then sign back it and our plugins should be there. Unfortunately, with 7 users report back so far, only 1 out of them can install the plugin again. Others still encounter the same issue...

[erinferinferinf · Accepted solution]

Hi @ivandazed,

Please follow up with ccintrev@adobe.com with your list of users and CC me, finnegan@adobe.com.

I shouldn't have said "reload" before, I should have said "re-install". It's my understanding that the plugins were automatically uninstalled due to a credentials error.

Are the users all on the Creative Could desktop app 5.7? (Go to Creative Cloud -> About Creative Cloud, or on Windows, under the Windows, Help -> About Creative Cloud)

I think you could have them reinstall the Creative Cloud desktop app (according to these instructions) - without uninstalling apps like Illustrator, since that would take a while.

Regarding the buttons and sorting issues:

What about the "Buy" button no longer appearing on the plugins and them appearing in the "other" section?

It is on the roadmap to replace the "Learn more" button with the "Buy" button for a more consistant experience across CEP and UXP. Removing the "Other" section is also on the roadmap for the Marketplace. These changes won't roll out until later this year, however, in part because the Creative Cloud desktop app updates quarterly.

[ivandazed]

Email sent to ccintrev@adobe.com and CC you. I haven't got every users' information but some of them are on 5.7 version of the CC app. I will also ask them to try uninstall and reinstall CC app and see if that works.

[erinferinferinf · Accepted solution]

Hi Adam and Ivan,

The Exchange team worked on this issue over the weekend, and reports:

...we did a thorough analysis over the weekend and restored another 1250 entitlements. This time we are pretty sure we got all of them so please reach out to Adam and tell him one more time to have any users that complain to try reloading.

We also have a permanent fix in place so no new renewals will be missed.

[...] feel free to forward email addresses of any users who continue to have problems despite one more reload (and I will analyze).   As you can see from the other email it is possible that some users actually did cancel their subscription and will have to pay again while others may not have realized that the plugin was entitled to different AdobeID credentials than they are using for CCD.

Send any users that are still stuf to me, finnegan@adobe.com and CC ccintrev@adobe.com 

I'm also going to check, in the long term, if the customer support people could alert us any time 10 or more users are getting sent back to the developer for support, particularly right after a Creative Cloud desktop app roll out.

[Adam DeHaven]

Thanks Erin!!

[ivandazed]

Thanks Erin! I will send a note to the users and tell them the issue is fixed.

[Pictoris Grafica]

Hi Erin, I also have a problem with Specees. it disappeared from the window and if I try to install it it gives me error 1001. I contacted Adobe support but they told me to contact the manufacturer. I don't know how to do it, it's a tool that I use a lot.

[erinferinferinf]

Someone else emailed me with the same issue... I think it was you:

This morning I uninstalled everything and reinstalled and logged out and logged in again with my credentials also from Adobe Exchange.

I managed to unlock the situation and install Specees.

[ivandazed]

I was told by Adobe (they had worked really hard on this issue) that the issue is fixed. Please try sign out the Creative Cloud App and then sign in again. You should be probably abled to install Specees again, though I heard from a user that she had to reinstall Creative Cloud App and Illustrator and make it work again....