Issues Regarding Adobe CC 2015 & El Capitan

[Chris Van Deusen]

My paycheck relies on the Adobe Creative Cloud products, and after I updated (not upgraded) to OS X El Capitan I am experiencing ALL SORTS OF ISSUES. Illustrator is fragmenting all of my art into cubes and my Premiere-Pro-CC 2015 workstation won't even launch. When I open a video project, it says opening and displays a loading bar. When it finishes loading the workspace doesn't appear.

I opened a chat on 10/1/15 with an Adobe Support person and she kindly told me that Adobe CC does not work with beta versions and that I should downgrade to Yosemite. I didn't have a Time Machine Backup for Yosemite so I'm looking for a workaround. I'm going to first MANUALLY BACK UP all of my files to an external hard rive, then use a second, empty hard drive to install Yosemite.

It's incredibly frustrating that Apple and Adobe gave no public warning about such issues, which are effecting so many people. When I figure out how to revert back to Yosemite, I'll let you know.

[Vinay Dwivedi]

Hi Chris,

Have you tried renaming the Adobe folders to old_Adobe in the Documents folder and in user library.

Location: Users>Username>Library>Application Support>Adobe

User libray is a hidden library so you can click on Go menu and hold opt key to display it.

//Vinay

[Chris Van Deusen]

Hi Vinay,

Thanks for your reply. I have tried opening a number of different projects saved on various hard drives both internal and external. The greater issue here is that I am having issues with multiple CC apps and manually renaming/shuffling folders is just pushing dust under a rug.

Until Adobe or Apple can fix the issue in its entirety, I am forced to downgrade to Yosemite. In June, Apple was boasting about how well El Capitan works with Adobe CC. It's amazing that nobody mentioned that Adobe doesn't work at all with El Capitan beta. It's shameful and a huge burden on my professional workflow.

[R Neil Haugen]

From personal and group discussions at NAB, several "major" video software/hardware vendors made blistering comments about a certain non-MS OS maker. Ahem. Not that they wanted public acknowledgement of their comments mind you. But it was a wide and nicely varied group of vendors.

They looked back on the days when being THE graphics OS was A Thing for Apple with great fondness ... but the total agreement was those days are long gone. Apple is all about "devices" ... phones, ipads, watches, everything "consumer" and has little corporate concern for the pro graphics business anymore. It's just not enough of their total market share to catch the interest of those at the top. I found their comments about what in practical terms has changed ... illuminating. I guess two main things.

-They now get less time to test the new release out than before, and less specific info on what coding has changed than they used to get. With all the potential hardware pieces and potential combinations not even counting various software running stuff through that hardware, this is a complex and difficult task to test for and make changes to firmware/drivers to mate between current software that might be in use and the new OS and the current hardware.

-The vendors have little if any means of getting any change in the OS to be released no matter what that new release may "break", which is quite different ... Apple wanted to make sure the thing worked with the hardware & software of the graphics/video business, now ... well ... that's not their problem. There was some forth & back before, that's pretty much non-existant now.

The general agreement? They get more "ears" at MS these days, which for that group, is quite a shock. And look at all the troubles that Win10 has been having with video ... and now some hi-tech folks are posting that much of that is because Win10 dropped so much "past" code sections to get leaner & faster (which it actually is), and so it's going to be a scramble for the gear & software vendors to re-firmware/driver things to work within the new OS. Some pieces probably just won't work, they've got chips just too outdated. But when this is sorted, they think Win10 will be a very good OS to move forward with.

As a PC user from the get-go, this is just ... bizarre. "We" knew Apple cared a lot more for graphics pros than MS, we just wanted to save some serious bucks on gear. Now ... it ain't the case.

So ... if the other vendors feel Apple isn't giving them nearly enough time & info to re-tool their stuff for OS updates ... then the same might be the case for Adobe.

Which is why a number of Mac users here have been harping on the board for other Mac users to NEVER allow your machine to auto-update the OS. Several of the "simple dot updates" in the last couple years have completely broken all pro video capabilities. It's the old suggestion to wait for others to figure out how broken the "new improved" model is before adopting it.

Neil

[John T Smith]

Well, at least one Adobe staff member did post a warning, but that was not a general warning that went out to everyone with an Adobe ID (and I don't know if Adobe does that anyway) Warning about Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan

At least one person said that a Java update https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1507936 MAY help

And a message specific to Mac 10.11 video problem https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1969491

ADDED... not 10.11 but a 10.10.5 fix https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1927875 that may help

ADDED2... Other problems are often related to "default" permissions needing to be changed

-one person's solution https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1689788

[Per Rene Ottesen]

The problem is, that You can't step back from El Capitan, so hopefully You've taken a backup/disk image before You make the update, since the best thing WILL be to step back on the OS.

I've got this warning from Adobe:

In case you’ve missed it, DO NOT install/use/upgrade to OSX El Capitan on systems that need to run Adobe applications.

There are a number of issues (and it’s still unclear if it’s enough for Adobe to solve or not):

• Open Cl performance/crashing
• VST plugins crash (in many apps, not only Adobes)
• Audio drivers with ANY third party audio interface
• Video monitoring stops working when Alt-tabbing between apps

Once it’s safe, Adobe will post so here: https://blogs.adobe.com/premierepro/

[danielmarmolejo]

I have an edit work that include 18 years of production in a documentary with 80% of advance.

All was ok before "EL CAPITAN".

Then of the installation of the new Operating System, my 18 years work are an artifact collection.

We need an urgent solution for part of Adobe, because Apple don´t have an idea about this.

[R Neil Haugen]

El Capitan is screwing up with all sorts of software AND hardware ... even to MS Office. If an OS has as many serious issues as El Capitan currently does, how is Adobe supposed to sort that out? Re-write their entire OS for them?

Same thing has been going on with Windows 10 ... especially on first release, it was a flipping disaster for many in the graphics areas from video to sound to stills. Over the last couple months they've actually released various mini patches as simple "updates" and apparently fixed many issues with some percentage of users. There are some on here who are doing great in Win10 ... and some who simply try it and have to run back.

I've had issues with Adobe's work at times but you can't blame them for an OS with major stupidity built in. I expect Apple will get that going ... eventually ... but you may not want to run any pro video work through it for the current time. Best practice anyway is to NEVER do a major software update mid-project ... especially without a backward-restoration plan in place. And that includes both OS and programs.

A suggestion as to how to test out an OS ... get a new disc, take out your "old" operating drive ... and do a fresh install of the new OS on the new disc. When it shows it's running fine, then one by one download & install your needed programs, testing each out on download on test projects. When everything works fine ... go ahead and start working your normal work.

But ... if along the install process, anything breaks ... take the new disc out, put in your old OS disc ... and get back to work in 5 minutes flat.

Neil

[Chris Van Deusen]

Great insights Neil, but testing each operating system by downloading software to it one by one is a tedious process that none of us should have to deal with...especially if you're paying top dollar for a Mac. I totally understand where you're coming from though.

[R Neil Haugen]

Well, it's just starting out afresh with a clean install as if for a new computer ... then one by one adding in the programs. A number of the folks here note it does take them a couple hours to do this way but again ... it also means they have a rock-solid fallback to meet deadlines if they do encounter problems.

We'd all like to think the software folks either for OS or for programs will ship totally bug-free stuff we can immediately start using and still get work out the door. Having seen the howls on these forums over several of the Mac updates/new-ish OS releases of the last couple years, and coming from  the PC side, having watched the releases of the programs also have interesting & useful new features only to find once released into the Wild that they've also got a bug here and there and oh ... "dang ... one just put me out of operation" ... not being my favorite phrases to utter, I've seen the wisdom of the test before leap idea.

To each their own, of course. And it's in the first-jumpers that the rest of us get to hear whether it works or not ... 

Neil

[Chris Van Deusen · Accepted solution]

Hi All, I come bearing GOOD NEWS! This is how to downgrade from El Capitan to Yosemite (Or whatever OS X you had installed prior to El Capitan)

So after about a week of intensive searching, I found a solution that let me downgrade to Yosemite. I also used the same technique to help a coworker downgrade from El Capitan to Mavericks (He never updated Mavericks to Yosemite). Basically, this tutorial will help you downgrade to the OS X version you had prior to downloading El Capitan.

The one Caveat is that you'll need to erase your built-in Mac hard drive (Macintosh HD). I know, this is daunting, but if you have a way to back up your computer, PLEASE do so before following these instructions. These were sourced from an apple support thread.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

If you have a Time Machine backup, you need this support page:

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18848?locale=en_GB

If not, then you'll need to make a Yosemite USB installer of at least 8GB. (a USB3 one will be much quicker).

First download the OS X 10.10 Yosemite installer from the Mac App Store in the Purchases section (you may need to hold alt/option while selecting Purchases. Once it's downloaded, just quit the installer and set the downloaded file's name to InstallOSXYosemite.app (make sure only .app, not .app.app)

1. Plug in your USB drive into the computer and open Disk Utility (in Applications).

2. Select the USB drive from the left sidebar and click on Erase tab.

3. Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in the format box and set the name be YosemiteInstaller

4. Now click on Erase button and wait until the format process completes.

5. Then choose Partition tab and select 1 Partition from Partition Layout dropdown menu. Click on Option and ensure GUID Partition Table is selected as the partition scheme, with its name set to YosemiteInstaller.

6. Launch the Terminal app (in Applications/Utilities) and copy-paste the following command in, and then hit Enter:

• sudo /Applications/InstallOSXYosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/YosemiteInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/InstallOSXYosemite.app --nointeraction

7. This will create the bootable USB flash drive. This takes between 10-20 minutes. Do not interrupt the Terminal or eject the flash drive during the process. Once the process completes, you will see the message "Copy Complete. Done."

The OS X Yosemite bootable USB flash drive will be ready for use and you can start the clean installation process. How to Clean Install OS X Yosemite on Your Mac

8. Ensure the bootable USB flash drive is plugged into your Mac and restart the computer. As soon as the start-up chime plays, press the Option key (Alt).

9. Choose the USB drive on the start-up drive selection screen and hit Enter/Return on the keyboard.

10. Wait until the Yosemite installer appears on screen. This could take a few seconds or minutes.

11. Click on Disk Utility and then hit Continue.

12. Click on Macintosh HD from the left hand-side pane and then hit Erase tab on the top-right portion of the window. Leave all the settings at their default values and then hit Erase button at the bottom right. This will wipe all files stored on your startup hard drive.

13. When the erasing process is complete, return to the first screen where you selected Disk Utility. Now click on Install OS X and then hit Continue.

14. Choose the Macintosh HD partition you erased in step 5 and then click Install.

TroubleShooting Guide:

a. If you're using a flash drive make sure it's more than 8 gigs. Note that an 8 gig flash drive is actually 7.66 gigs. I recommend a 16 gig to be safe.

b. If you're downgrading to Mavericks, follow the above instructions exactly, but replace every instance of the word "Yosemite" with "Mavericks." (for example in Step 3: name flash drive MavericksInstaller.app & copy and paste the following:

• sudo /Applications/InstallOSXMavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MavericksInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/InstallOSXMavericks.app --nointeraction

c. Step 6/7 took about an hour and a half. Just Be Patient.

d. Step 8 took a few tries, but don't give up.

Overall, Just be patient with your Mac. Let it load, let it do its thing. This WILL WORK. It did for me & now I'm running illustrator, Photoshop & Premiere perfectly. It's good to be back!