Problem with Adobe Creative Cloud after upgrading to a new MacBook Pro

Just because I came upon this thread while looking for a solution today; what I had to do to get rid of the Creative Cloud Experience folder was to restart in recovery mode, disable system integrity protection (SIP, not sure if I can link it here, but Google’s first result should tell you how), restart, delete the folder, restart, enable SIP again, restart.

Adobe has been bad at where they put their files historically, so I wouldn’t blame Apple here. With so many people running into the issue it just shows Adobe wasn’t testing properly.

This is how to fix the adobe creative cloud experience folder issue.

Firstly you must disable the System Integrity Protection (SIP)

To disable SIP:

• First, uninstall the application that may have partially or incorrectly installed, if applicable
• Reboot the system and hold down Command+R (⌘+R) keys simultaneously when you hear the startup chime; this will boot macOS into Recovery Mode
• Once in Recovery mode, open a Terminal window from the Utilities drop-down menu at the top of the screen
• Type in the Terminal: csrutil disable
• Hit Enter, and you’ll see a message saying that System Integrity Protection has been disabled and that the Mac needs to restart for changes to take effect
• Restart the machine (enter reboot in the Terminal, or use the Apple menu to find the Restart option)
• Delete the dreaded creative cloud experience folder
• Install the desired software
• I would advise adding yourself to the admin rights of the experience folder to avoid further issues
• then enable SIP

To re-enable SIP after installation:

• Reboot into Recovery Mode again (⌘+R at system chime)
• Open a Terminal and enter: csrutil enable
• Reboot

This fixed it for me and I have all the CC apps back on the machine.

Hello nilsohman,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities! I understand that you're unable to update Adobe Creative Cloud apps on your MacBook Pro. I would be happy to help point you towards a resolution.

Let's start by ruling out permissions issues as a possible cause for what you're experiencing with the "Adobe Creative Cloud Experience" folder:

Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder - Apple Support

If there's no change after trying those steps, I would like to have you test if you can update these apps with a different user account. If you don't have another user account, here's how you can create one for testing:

How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support

Let us know what happens after trying those steps.

Cheers!

Another user. I've uninstalled Adobe Creative Cloud and reinstalled it several times. The problem is this stupid "Adobe Creative Cloud Experience" folder in /Applications/Utilities

Apple has sort of messed this up because it is sandboxed/SIP protected such that I cannot even fix the folder using sudo in terminal. stupid.

New updates to Adobe CC apps cannot be installed because they fail when trying to move some "CCX-process" app into the folder, but it is not permitted.

I have the exact same issue - same type of computer, same issue, tried the same things. Is a compete clean start of MacOS the only solution that worked for you?

I had a programmer-friend override the whole system and finally manage to rename the folder, and that sorted it for me. But I’m not sure of the original cause, either. Just hope it doesn’t reoccur.

Can you tell me how they were able to rename that folder - how did he get permissions to do that? I've been trying for days and this is beyond my ability. Thanks

Thank you! This was the only solution that completely fixed my Catalina/Creative Cloud installation issues.

I had to restart the Mac in recovery mode, open the Terminal app and removed the Adobe directories there.

That was the only way. Apple kind of has this messed up permissions wise. And that’s pretty crazy to require those extents in order to correct a folder permission issue!