Tips & tricks on manually cleaning installation of Adobe CS 6 applications

Hi and welcome to my blog once again. I'll go short and crisp as always in my other blogs for your ease of reading and applying the troubleshooting steps in order to get rid of issues that come up during Adobe Creative Cloud application installation. So, here we go. I'll first post the steps for Windows users and then down below you'll find the troubleshooting steps for Mac users.

Note: Windows XP support will be abandoned in future. Upgrade your OS to Windows 7 or 8. The troubleshooting steps will be mentioned keeping in mind that your OS is either Win 7 or Win 8. Mac OS X 10.6.8 and later (Intel based Macs only).

TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS FOR WINDOWS USERS

1. Run the uninstaller from Control panel > Uninstall a program.
2. Choose the individual programs that show CS6 along with the title and hit Uninstall button.
3. Click Remove preferences from within the uninstaller and proceed.
4. When the process is complete,  download the cleaner tool from this location: Adobe Cleaner Tool
5. Now unzip the contents and run the "AdobeCreativeSuiteCleanerTool.exe" as an Administrator by right clicking on the file.
6. Follow onscreen instructions inside Cleaner tool to remove all remaining and left-out folders after normal uninstall process.
7. Now you've to clean the following folders manually to make sure there are no existing files and folders or registry keys for Adobe software: 

Files & Folders to remove manually:

Type %temp% in search box from the start menu to navigate directly inside your current account's Local Temp folder. Empty this folder. Delete the below folders after this step.

C:\Program Files\Adobe*

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe*

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Macrovision Shared

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe*

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe*

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Macrovision Shared

Program Data will be a hidden folder in Windows by default. To show the contents of ProgramData, please open an explorer window and then click Organize > Folder and Search Options. Click on View Tab > Show hidden files and folders.

Once you've revealed the ProgramData folder, please delete the below mentioned folders within it.

C:\ProgramData\Adobe*

C:\ProgramData\FLEXnet

C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe*

C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\com.adobe.*

C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Local\Adobe*

C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\LocalLow\Adobe*

C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe*

Registry Keys to remove manually:

Launch Windows registry editor. 

On Windows 7: Start > Run > then type "regedit" without the quotes.

On Windows 8: Move your mouse cursor to the top right corner of the screen and click on the Search icon when it slides in from the right of the screen. Choose App. Then in the search box type regedit. Click on the regedit program from within the search results.

Caution: Take a backup of the Windows registry first before making any changes. Please see a short video clip of how to take your registry backup. 

or click this link: http://youtu.be/q4gh1g388KM

Once the backup is complete, delete the following registry keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Macrovision

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VirtualStore\Machine\Software\Adobe*

After cleaning the registry keys, reboot your machine (optional) and you're done. You're now ready to install the Creative Suite 6 or earlier versions as a fresh installation.

 

TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS FOR MAC OS X USERS

For Mac OS X users it is quite easier than in Windows. Please follow these steps to perform a clean re-installation. 

1. Navigate to the folder /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Installers. Here you'll find all the uninstallers for Adobe applications and Suites.
2. Double click on the Suite uninstallers to begin the uninstall process.
3. Check the Remove Preferences option within the uninstaller window.
4. Click Uninstall to proceed. 
5. Upon completion, download the Adobe Cleaner tool. Double click to mount the volume and run the cleaner tool. Follow on-screen instructions which are pretty user friendly and self-explanatory.
6. Uninstall any instances of Adobe software by running the uninstaller from Adobe Installers folder or by manually moving the applications to trash > Empty trash.
7. Download CleanApp Mac. Extract the contents of the zip file and drag the app to your Macintosh HD/Applications folder.
8. Run the AppCleaner and search for Adobe keyword in the search box.
9. Select any Adobe related files left behind and click Delete button to remove left-out files and folders.
10. Once all of the above steps are complete, manually delete the below folders:

/Applications/Adobe*

/Applications/.AdobePatchFiles (hidden, use Go > Go to Folder command)

/Applications/Utilities/Adobe*

/Library/Application Support/Adobe*

/Library/Application Support/FLEXnet Publisher/

/Library/Preferences/com.adobe*

/Library/Preferences/FLEXnet Publisher/

On OS X 10.7 and later, Library folder is hidden by default. To show Library, please launch Terminal.app from the Utilities folder and then type the following command:

chflags nohidden ~/Library

Now your Library folder will be revealed permanently.

/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Adobe*

/Users/<username>/Library/Caches/Adobe*

/Users/<username>/Library/Caches/com.adobe*

/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/Adobe*

/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/com.adobe*

After deleting the above folders manually, reboot your Mac (optional) and then you're done. You can now insert a disc to begin fresh installation or log on to http://creative.adobe.com to enter your account details and directly download your Adobe applications that you subscribed for, through Adobe Application Manager.

There are many instances where even after performing a clean installation doesn't resolve the licensing issues. These instances are rarely seen. However, if that is the case, please contact Adobe Support for further technical assistance.

Hope you've enjoyed reading my blog and feel free to comment or ask any questions to me and I'd be glad to help. You can reach me at Shushobhan's email.

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