"Installer Failed To Initialize"? After Effects CS5 Mac, Help!!!

[Guest]

I'm in serious need of some help here. I downloaded the After Effects CS5 trial, but when I go and try to install it I get an error:

"Installer Failed To Initialize. Please Download Adobe Support Advisor To Detect The Problem"

I already tried Adobe Support Advisor, but it didn't detect any problems.

I tried re-downloading the file again, but still no luck.

I'm running an iMac with Mac OS X 10.6.2, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor.

Can anyone please help me?

[TimeRemapper]

Have you tried using the Cleaner Tool?

[Guest]

The Cleaner Tool doesn't seem to work, because
says "There Is No Session To Delete".

[Todd_Kopriva]

Did you follow the links that I provided?

[Guest]

I did, but they said to use the cleaner tool, or Redownload and extract the installer. I've tried both but it still isn't working.

[Todd_Kopriva]

A quick search for the error string that you asked about turns up this document and this one. If you look for the error message on those pages, you'll see some possible solutions, including redownloading and re-extracting the installer.

[Peter_Sgouros]

2 questions, are you installing as administrator? and if the installer arrived as compressed file, did you decompress first?

if you are trying to launch the installer from the mounted .dmg, try copying the contents of the installer out to your local disk and try to launch the installer there.

[Guest]

I am installing as administrator, and the download arrived as a dmg. I copied the conents like you said but it still doesn't work

[Peter_Sgouros]

have you any antivirus software running? 

[Guest]

no

[Peter_Sgouros]

please look for and attach the following file:

/Users/[yourname]/Library/Logs/PDApp.log

ideally, I would like you to save the file that is currently there somewhere else. delete the original log file, then execute the installer again. it should generate a clean representation of the error.

then attach both files.

[Guest]

Old one - file:///Users/milk/Desktop/PDApp.log

After fresh installation - file:///Users/milk/Library/Logs/PDApp.log

[Peter_Sgouros]

doesn't look like they posted properly. I see local filenames but not the files.

[Guest]

Solved It!!! I accidentaly deleted Adobe App

lication Manager so I downloaded a different CS5 trial to get

the AAM app. With the application the installer wouldn't work!

[Peter_Sgouros]

could you elaborate?  just so it's clear to anyone else who might hit this.

where/how/why did you delete the adobe application manager?

that is usually the first thing that the installer installs, so odd that re-running the original installer didn't fix that...

[Guest]

I deleted the Adobe Application Manager (by throwing it into the trash) from the Utilities folder because I thought it didn't do anyhting, but the After Effects installer checks for the application and if you don't have it, then the installer will fail

[doggmatic28]

Thanks for posting this solution.  I am working from Windows 8 Pro and had to reinstall Dreamweaver CS5.5.  My installation would not initialize and provided the same errors.  After installing Adobe Application Manager CS6, Dreamweaver installed beautifully.  Thanks. 

[TechERA_Systems]

Hi.  I see this thread is old...last post is july 2010.  However, since I just had a similar issue and since a google search brought me here, i figure id share my info with other who my hit this too...

i have os x 10.7 and am trying to install cs5.5 master collection.  i kept getting the installer failed to initialize error.

by looking at the PDApp.log, i saw an error and fixed the issue causing the error...

my issue was when launching Install.app, it looks for ~/Applications and creates a folder "Adobe" in it.  I had an alias in my home dir and the log showed the installer didnt see it as a valid directory.

by removing the alias, the installer then created the folder "~/Applications/Adobe" for me.  However, since it created an empty folder named Applications, separate from the actual /Applications dir, this was not acceptible.

So, if i right click on /Applications and hit "Make alias" and move that to my home dir...same issue.

But, if i open Terminal.app and type "sudo ln -s /Applications" the seemingly same type of alias or "symbolic link" is created, but instead the installer see the dir as valid, and the install went flawlessly.

Hope this helps someone.

🙂

[TimeRemapper]

Cool, thanks for posting!

So, it sounds like a permissions issue. Since you created the alias via terminal using root or su privileges, it would appear that you user account isn't creating the appropriate privileges for that alias. Did you check the differences between the alias made via terminal and the alias made via the gui?

[TechERA_Systems]

yep sure enough...

using make alias creates a file with these perms "{username}:staff 644" where as using terminal with su creates a proper sym link with "root:staff 755".

sweet...thats why i love command line...

🙂