Plug-ins won't install. CC Desktop doesn't show activity.

[AllenCobb]

Running latest CC (everything) on Win10. Add-ons page shows various purchases, and the Install / Remove button works, but CC Desktop app shows no activity. (It does show when fonts are added, apps installed, etc.). Sync is on, not paused, and I've rebooted many times, uninstalled old Extension Manager, etc. Maybe I need to run another CLEANER tool to remove dregs of Ext.Mgr? I ran a LogCollector, but the page doesn't say where to send it (some obscure text about "attached to an email" but no email is found, and WEIRDLY no email address is just, you know, like, printed on the webpage).

I've spent a couple of hours on this, so it's getting very expensive for me.

Thanks in advance,

Allen

[kglad]

did you check to see if those plug-ins were compatible with the adobe program version you have installed?  if so, and the plug-ins are compatible, what program?

can you attach a screenshot showing what you mean by the "Add-ons page"?

and what do you mean by the desktop app shows no activity? eg, you're clicking assets>fonts and you see something unexpected?

[moved from Downloading, Installing, Setting Up to Adobe Creative Cloud]

[AllenCobb]

Yes, the add-on I'm interested in is compatible; but none of them loads anymore, and the desktop app never shows any download activity for any plugins. The fact that CC desktop doesn't acknowledge plugin activity strongly suggests it's not an issue with compatibility with Photoshop. In fact one or two of the add-ins are just ZIP files that download to disc, and are not "installed" into Photoshop. Some add-ons are for Illustrator, FWIW.

The most recent app, for example, is a new, up-to-date Photoshop plugin "Ultimate Retouch Panel."

The "add-ons page" is https://exchange.adobe.com/addons/my_addons (which of course will be different for each subscriber). It shows all my add-ons, with an Install/Remove button for each one, dating back several years. Clicking the button does not cause anything to happen in the CC desktop app, which always responds to any installs, uninstalls, downloads, etc.

Showing no activity means this: When an addon is installed via Adobe Exchange website, the "Activity Stream" tab of the CC desktop app displays a notification message. Same for fonts, apps, and other Adobe notices. For example:

20 fonts were added

13 hours ago

You installed Photoshop CC | View tutorials

14 hours ago

You installed Muse CC (2015) | View tutorials

863 days ago

and so on.

When there's an add-on install problem, CC Desktop notices look like this:

The Add-on Air bubble and clouds failed to install: General error message.

394 days ago

IAC, it does appear that the cloud isn't able to even initiate an add-on download to my account now.

[AllenCobb]

Further info:

Can't uninstall CC desktop without uninstalling all the CC apps, but I did run the "repair" operation, which appeared to download the latest CC app. That ran (and restarted itself the first few times I used it) and appears to be OK.

CC app version is 4.3.0.256

Sync module is 2.4.3.114

Thanks,

Allen

[kglad]

glad you got that sorted.

[AllenCobb]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. The CC desktop app appears to be working, but add-ons still don't install or trigger any response.

I meant just to confirm that there are no symptoms of the CC app itself not working.

The problem, I believe, is in Exchange communicating with the CC app's host somewhere in Adobe cloud.

Allen

[kglad]

[ moved from Adobe Creative Cloud to Adobe Exchange]

[AllenCobb]

@kglad  -  Thanks for the move.

Allen

[Jonathan_Ferman · Accepted solution]

Hi Allen,

Sorry to hear about your issues. I suggest trying to install another way. I detail the steps to do that here: Add-ons have been uninstalled without my permission

Let us know if that works for you.

Thanks,

Jonathan

[AllenCobb]

Interesting that this was automatically marked as correct, which I assume means "solved"....

ANyway, thanks for the lead. I'd already been there, and "enjoyed" the circular recommendations (no fault of yours!). One problem -- in the UX department -- is that some of the pages linked to in that series of steps warn against using the extension mgr app because it's been deprecated since CC 2015. Others say to use it, but some of those pages are years old, leaving the discerning user to wonder if he's getting obsolete advice. Not all of the pages are dated, or marked with which CC releases they can be used with.

In the end, I managed to get the add-ons that I needed installed via Anastasiy's extension mgr, and fishing around for the file downloads for each of the add-ons I really cared about. (Another UX issue is nomenclature -- these "things" are plugins, add-ons, and extensions, installed automatically by the CC app, if it works, but if not, by some third-party tool recommended by Adobe, which has the same name as the old Adobe app which the user is explicitly advised to remove completely. If that's not confusing, I don't know what is. In the end, a lot of time spent, I got what I needed, but the problem itself is definitely NOT solved!

I appreciate your effort to assist, though. I have to assume that at some level this tangled web of work-arounds is going to become obsolete once the Exchange and CC App folks get talking to each other again. In the meantime, I feel sorry for users who don't know how to surf through dozens of links to find obscure band-aids for basic problems.

Thanks,

Allen