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Can I turn off Node.js: Server-side JavaScript

Explorer ,
Nov 29, 2016 Nov 29, 2016

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I have Node.js: Server-side JavaScript installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCXProcess\libs

I am on a data cap plan for my internet access and whenever I go over 3Gb, 5Gb, and 10Gb my monthly cost goes up by $10.00, then $15.00, and then another $15.00.

The Server-side JavaScript app has used up 2,160MB in just the last 10 days. This is running up my usage and more than doubling my monthly subscription costs to CC.

What is Server-side JavaScript actually doing?

Can I somehow disable or delete Server-side JavaScript?

Can I turn it off somehow and only run it once a month?

Please help.

John

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Explorer , Jan 15, 2017 Jan 15, 2017

Another update on my problem.

I have finally been able to get high speed DSL at my house. Bell upgraded their equipment at the local switching station and I was at their office to sign up before they even got the last wires hooked up. I've been dreaming about this ever since I moved into this house in 2000.

I now have unlimited data so I turned node back on again. I still don't know what it does or why I have 3 versions of it installed but just in case it does something important I guess I'll just

...

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Community Expert ,
Nov 29, 2016 Nov 29, 2016

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i don't know what it does but people have turned it off/renamed it and reported no problems noticed.

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Explorer ,
Dec 01, 2016 Dec 01, 2016

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Thanks kglad for your help. If I don't get any more replies to my question here I will try that. I have read that renaming it can cause error messages to pop up when you open Photoshop. Better than paying for all that extra data usage every month though.

As an update to my original post, I noticed that I have 2 instances of Node.js: Server-side JavaScript installed.

This is the one that keeps downloading 200 to 400MB of whatever every day. That's the one I want to get rid of.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCXProcess\libs

This one doesn't even download 1 MB per day.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCLibrary\libs

Neither one of these show up in Windows 10 under "Apps and Features" or in Control Panel "Programs and Features" so I don't know how to even uninstall them if that's what I need to do. You also mention that some people have turned it off. How do you go about doing that?

I'm running Photoshop CC 2017 by the way.

John

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Explorer ,
Dec 03, 2016 Dec 03, 2016

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Yesterday alone the Node:js Server-side JavaScript in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCXProcess\libs folder downloaded 419.76 MB of something? Remember that I have to start paying extra if I go over 3GB per month. So far in this months billing cycle it has downloaded 3398.19 MB (3.32 GB) and I'm only half way through the billing cycle. At this rate if I some how managed not to use any other data, Node alone is going to cost me $60.00 plus tax for the month. That is just not acceptable. Please Adobe, do something about this.

As a temporary fix to stop this data download I've re-named Node:js but just left it in the same folder. This morning I've not had the data download as on other days. I opened Photoshop and got no errors popping up. So far so good, but what does not having Node running do to Photoshop CC staying up to date, if that's what Node was actually doing?

I'd appreciate any more advice and help on this, especially from Adobe.

John

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Community Expert ,
Dec 03, 2016 Dec 03, 2016

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you can always manually check for photoshop updates.  they aren't released very often and i'm not aware of any that are critical.

ie, updates add new features or more camera raw support or fix bugs.  i don't remember any related to security.

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LEGEND ,
Dec 03, 2016 Dec 03, 2016

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If you don't have a need for Cloud based storage for libraries or are not involved in collaborations with other people then why not simply logout of Creative Cloud via the desktop app or through Photoshop itself under the 'Help' menu. You only need to login once a month to verify your account otherwise you don't even need to have internet access at all. You could also turn off 'syncing' in the desktop application as that will waste money by needlessly uploading library content to the cloud. Also under preferences go to plugins and make sure the box that says something like allow extensions to connect to the internet is not checked.

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Explorer ,
Dec 04, 2016 Dec 04, 2016

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Thanks Terri for your advice and help.

I wasn’t doing any Cloud based storage or collaborations and had never set that up so it should not have been generating any internet usage. I did have Syncing turn on but hadn’t told it to sync anything. My “Creative Cloud Files” folder in Windows “File Explorer” was empty. I have now turned it off as per your suggestion. In Photoshop under Edit/Preferences/Plug-ins I did have “Allow Extensions to Connect to the Internet” checked. I have now un-checked that.

I’m also going to try turning off the Creative Cloud desktop app and only run it once a month.

Ever since I renamed Node.exe in the “C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCXProcess\libs” folder the daily downloads have stopped and Photoshop still works without any errors popping up. I still have another instance off Node.exe running in C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCLibrary\libs but it only generates less than 1MB of traffic per day so I just left it alone. I have a third instance of Node.exe in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2017 but I can’t tell if it’s using up any network resources so I left it alone.

So that is 3 versions of Node.exe.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCXProcess\libs (now disabled by changing the name)

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCLibrary\libs

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2017

I still have some questions about Node.exe.

Will renaming and therefore disabling the one Node.exe cause any problems latter on?

What does renaming an executable file do to the registry?

Does Creative Cloud need it to run for some reason? I would think Adobe installed it for a good reason.

If I really don’t need it then how can I uninstall it completely?

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Explorer ,
Dec 04, 2016 Dec 04, 2016

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Hi Terri,

I just opened Photoshop and under the Help Menu I told it to Sign Out. A window popped up stating that this will disable Photoshop and Lightroom on this device. I said OK and when I tried to open a photo in Photoshop it told me that I had to sign in to be able to use it.

So I guess that means I can't stay signed out and still use Photoshop? I can be without internet access for a month but I can't be signed out.

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LEGEND ,
Dec 05, 2016 Dec 05, 2016

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Hello,

I don't know what the consequences are of renaming 'node.exe', but it's bound to interfere with contacting the Adobe servers. My apologies, I was wrong about signing out as that is the equivalent of deactivating, which slipped my mind -so you don't have a problem there. So what to try instead? Well you could just turn off your router of disable your network card, but a more elegant way would be to block Photoshop and maybe node.exe at your firewall with a firewall rules, then monitoring Task Manager or Activity Monitor for network activity..

I'm very puzzled exactly why you are getting so much network activity if you are not syncing libraries! Try disabling the Creative Cloud startup processes in Task Manager or the equivalent on a Mac-you may not have all of them. As you can see I keep most of them active, but as you can launch the desktop app manually not much is lost by deactivating them at startup. Also your computer will probably start quicker when these things are deactivated.

Adobe.png

If you want to experiment with blocking at the firewall, I would recommend Windows Firewall control which is free and easier than going into the firewall itself and making changes to firewall rules.

http://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php

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Explorer ,
Dec 13, 2016 Dec 13, 2016

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Hi Terri,

Sorry for taking so long to respond. I was out of town for a few days and busy with other things.

Obviously I can’t turn off my router as I need to be connected for other reasons. As for blocking Photoshop and/or node.exe at my firewall, wouldn’t that then have the same effect as renaming node.exe and thereby interfere with contacting the Adobe servers? (If that's what node.exe does?)

Ever since I renamed Node.exe in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCXProcess\libs folder I have not had any of the daily downloads of 300 – 400MB of data. It also does not appear to have interfered with any Adobe CC updates as I checked the CC desktop app 4 days ago and there where updates available for Camera Raw and Lightroom and this morning there was an update available for Photoshop.

I’d like to keep my startup processes at their default settings if I can.

I am totally puzzled as well as to why I was getting so much download network activity and syncing libraries was not enabled. What was being downloaded every day? And why do I have 3 instances of node.exe installed on my system?

Terri, can I ask you to check your system and see if you have node.exe installed in these locations as well?

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCXProcess\libs

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCLibrary\libs

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2017

Thanks for your help and thanks for the link to Windows Firewall Control.

John

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LEGEND ,
Dec 13, 2016 Dec 13, 2016

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Terps wrote:

Hi Terri,

Sorry for taking so long to respond. I was out of town for a few days and busy with other things.

Obviously I can’t turn off my router as I need to be connected for other reasons. As for blocking Photoshop and/or node.exe at my firewall, wouldn’t that then have the same effect as renaming node.exe and thereby interfere with contacting the Adobe servers? (If that's what node.exe does?)

Ever since I renamed Node.exe in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCXProcess\libs folder I have not had any of the daily downloads of 300 – 400MB of data. It also does not appear to have interfered with any Adobe CC updates as I checked the CC desktop app 4 days ago and there where updates available for Camera Raw and Lightroom and this morning there was an update available for Photoshop.

I’d like to keep my startup processes at their default settings if I can.

I am totally puzzled as well as to why I was getting so much download network activity and syncing libraries was not enabled. What was being downloaded every day? And why do I have 3 instances of node.exe installed on my system?

Terri, can I ask you to check your system and see if you have node.exe installed in these locations as well?

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCXProcess\libs

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCLibrary\libs

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2017

Thanks for your help and thanks for the link to Windows Firewall Control.

John

Hi John,

yes I can confirm I have node.exe in all three of those folders. The version in Photoshop 2017 is bigger than in the other two folders and there is also a much smaller version in Dreamweaver. I don't honestly know what node.exe does but it is connected to the environment in which JavaScript is being run. If you disabled it in Photoshop 2017 you might lose things like Generator and also anything that is scripted, but you have disabled it in the desktop application so it may not have too many implications. I'd just play it by ear for now and if you don't get any instability don't worry about it.

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Explorer ,
Dec 13, 2016 Dec 13, 2016

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Everything seems to be working fine so I am just going to leave well enough alone and leave the one version of node.exe renamed and see what happens.

Thanks again,

John

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Explorer ,
Dec 13, 2016 Dec 13, 2016

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Another update.

I called Adobe today to see if they could provide any more info on this. They did not seem to know about this issue. After a bit of back and forth and being on hold they told me that if I did the update to Photoshop that the CC desktop app was saying was available that that would fix the problem. I was also told to rename the node.exe to it's proper name. I did all that and no luck. The Node.exe version in the CCX folder downloaded another 444MB of something???. I changed the name back to Problem_node.exe and now it's deactivated again.

When I asked what node.exe actually did they simply said it was a javascript program and that I would have to talk to Microsoft about that, even though it was Adobe that installed it.

Needles to say, I was not impressed with the "help" I got.

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LEGEND ,
Dec 14, 2016 Dec 14, 2016

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That's interesting. When you asked me to check for node.exe on my system I did see that it was a part of Visual Studio as well as the Adobe products but it didn't seem important. I wonder, is it possible your system has been downloading data like updates from Microsoft? I know I have been receiving multi GB updates over the last couple of weeks. Usually though you will get a message that a system restart is necessary-probably not connected but food for thought.

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Explorer ,
Jan 15, 2017 Jan 15, 2017

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Another update on my problem.

I have finally been able to get high speed DSL at my house. Bell upgraded their equipment at the local switching station and I was at their office to sign up before they even got the last wires hooked up. I've been dreaming about this ever since I moved into this house in 2000.

I now have unlimited data so I turned node back on again. I still don't know what it does or why I have 3 versions of it installed but just in case it does something important I guess I'll just let it run.

Terry, you though it might have something to do with Windows Updates but on the days I was getting the 3 to 400 Mb downloads no updates where installed for Windows. Even when node was turned "Off" I was still getting regular Windows updates.

I hate unsolved mysteries but I think I'll just let this one go rather than driving myself to where I need a system update for my brain.

Thanks again Terry for your help,

John

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LEGEND ,
Jan 15, 2017 Jan 15, 2017

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Good to hear that John. I don't like mysteries either. My main bug bear with Windows 10 is the amount of hard disk activity it seems to need. I guess it's doing something but still seems pretty pointless. Thanks for the update.

Terri

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 10, 2022 Jan 10, 2022

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LATEST

You are a savior. I renamed node.exe to node renamed.exe and thank God it stopped eating MB! Everything seems to be working properly without showing any error message. Thank you so much !!!

 

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Participant ,
Feb 01, 2017 Feb 01, 2017

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I did a little sleuthing in the main.js files in C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\CCXProcess\js\

From what I could see, this node.exe is running the server connection for the CC desktop app "Adobe Creative Cloud". It's the one that adds a little icon to your taskbar, too. There is a lot of stuff in there about updates and stock (adobe's stock art store). That makes me think it is downloading updates in the background.

A=new d(["signIn","signOut","proxySettingsChanged","profileUpdated","installApplication","uninstallApplication","updateApplication","subscriptionStatusChanged","updateStock"]);

So you might try disabling the "Adobe Creative Cloud" app, specifically, from starting at runtime.

You can do that by opening the app, clicking the gear-box in the upper-right, and clicking "Preferences...", then uncheck the "Launch at login" option and restart your computer.

Sorry, I don't have time to run the tests myself on my work computer here, but if you do, please let us all know the results!

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Explorer ,
Feb 01, 2017 Feb 01, 2017

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Thanks Max for doing some research into this. The bit about it possibly updating stock photos in the CC desktop app "Adobe Creative Cloud" could maybe be what it doing, although I've never download any stock photos. Maybe it's just updating the list of what's available in the desktop app?

As you can see in my last post I now have high speed DSL and no data cap so if  it wants to download 3 or 400 MB everyday it doesn't matter any more.

I'm still disappointed that Adobe couldn't give me an answer on what node.exe actually does.

John

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New Here ,
Aug 02, 2020 Aug 02, 2020

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In addition, the server side node.js is regularly doing some kind of internet download every minute or so, which messes up any kind of internet streaming I'm doing at the moment such as audio, video, etc. It's enough of a spike that it's noticeable! Very annoying. I will try these suggestions. But this kind of internet usage on a minute to minute basis is really unacceptable, especially when I'm not even using the cloud for anything other then checking if there's a new update to an Adobe app I'm using. 

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LEGEND ,
Aug 02, 2020 Aug 02, 2020

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I have no inside info, but here is some background info: node.js isn't an app and it isn't an Adobe thing. Rather, it's an engine for running JavaScript apps. So, Adobe could be using to run many different apps at different times, some of which you might need and others of which you might not. You may well find other node.js engines in other places, used by other companies. So the question is not really, "what is node.js doing" but "what are these JavaScript apps doing".

 

That's a good question, and hard to answer. Adobe have a lot of apps doing secret things related to licensing, and detecting counterfeits, so there is no detail anywhere. But some might be doing the normal downloads people need. My money is on it not succeeding in whatever it's trying to do, so it keeps trying again, very often. If it succeeded it would stop and your network usage more like what other people report. Could it be blocked by a firewall? Possibly. The app (not node.js itself) might write a log. 

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