Appealing to you in lieu of Adobe Support
mara06 (2153 points) | Mon, 2007-09-10 19:36I guess I'm being punished for playing with the torrent download of CS3 a while ago, and also for forgetting that OS X doesn't want us dragging things to the Trash to uninstall them.
That's just what I did, and now my purchased CS3 upgrade won't work. It's finding hints of that torrent version. The Uninstall utility can't help because something it needs is missing (trashed). It's telling me I have to reinstall the original software, which it took me like 3 days to download with Azureus. And no, I didn't back it up.
Short of flinging myself off a cliff, I have no ideas for how I might correct this mess I've gotten myself into. Any ideas?
Mara
... EVERYTHING for Adobe?
If you search for EVERYTHING then you can delete EVERYTHING even remotely linked to Adobe. That being said you CAN try an archive and re-install of your system to see if you can remove some offending files in the system folder. . .
worth a try.
"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda
Did you try the Adobe CS3 clean script?
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cs3clean.html
Here was another topic on how to uninstall the CS3 beta.
http://www.macobserver.com/tip/2007/04/18.1.shtml
Not sure it will help but worth a shot.
Here's more fun.
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.3bc3ab72/0
If all else fails try 'AppZapper'.
Thanks. ireid, I think doing what you suggest is more or less what got me in this mess to start with! OS X doesn't like us doing that sort of thing, even though their support forum on this general subject suggests it, to. NRG, I'll try your options. I think that I'll wind up just reformatting etc. to be on the safe side. What's one Monday night in the overall scheme of things, right? *sigh*
Mara
lol sorry sounded like Yoda there. . .
No, No re-install, only ARCHIVE and install. When you boot from your OS X installer it has three options clean install, format and re-install and archive and reinstall. Archive and re-install justs removes the OLD system and puts it in a folder called 'Previous System' very handy if you need the OLD preference files for whatever reason. . . That way you do a CLEAN install (sans updates of course) and you just put things back one by one until you're back to normal.
'Hmmm judge me by my size do you, and where you should not, for the force is my ally and a powerful ally it is!" LOL
"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda
Oh I know about Archive and Install. Am trying that right now, in fact, after having struggled with NRG's suggestions and a few other things without much success.
What's happening npow is when I go to install the CS3 upgrade, the installer believes I've already got Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3 installed (NOT TRUE!), so upgrades to those portions of CS3 aren't an option. This tells me there's some artifact of the CS3 betas of PS and Illustrator on my hard drive. Since the usual ways of detecting and uninstalling them have failed me, the only thing left might be to just reformat the whole damn disk. ARRGH!
Mara
What a mess to whip the hard drive. :(
I did some more digging and found this information which was release 3 days ago. Sounds like the previous version wasn't deactivated. Not sure it will help at this point but here it is just in case.
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb401574&sliceId=2
Manually remove CS3 Web Premium (Mac OSX)
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb400604&sliceId=1
Did you run both 'level 1' and 'level 2' on the clean script? Dare it say to contact support if this doesn't do the trick. PUKE!
I'm working with CS3 Design Standard (I'm print oriented here). I'm trying to upgrade CS Standard, not CS2. I've tried everything outside of completely reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling everything from scratch. I rue the day I downloaded the CS3 beta! Apparently a lot of other people do, too. Adobe says to trash everything the old-fashioned way except for Version Cue, which must be removed using their uninstaller. You'll hear form me again after I reformat. If THAT doesn't work, you may be sure Adobe will hear from me. The shrieking alone, even without the hissing, spitting, and flashing claws, should get someone's attention. This hope sustains me, though I probably hope in vain :-(
Thanks for taking an interest in my problem, guys. I really appreciate it.
Mara
I found a great utility a while back called AppZapper - it finds all the hidden bits you need to fully uninstall an application - it proved very handy for getting rid of a previous version of Quark that wasn't letting me upgrade when I got the new one.
I suppose you already tried to login/create a second user (with Admin powers), and install from that user. Then you know that it must be something in the the Library folder at the root level if it doesn't work.
Pirated software has a downside, and you're feeling it now. Naughty-naughty!
Now, for some advice. First, don't bother with the archive and reinstall. All you're doing is archiving the existing files (which you don't want) and putting them right back again. It's not necessary.
When I upgraded to CS3, I didn't use the clean up scripts from Adobe - I removed everything manually, and it worked perfectly even though I did have the Photoshop beta installed.
You will need to go into BOTH Library folders (the main Library and the Users>Library folders). Delete all "Adobe-related" files from inside the Preferences, Application Support, Receipts and random Adobe-related folders inside both of the Library folders.
Of course, you must also delete all the Adobe folders inside the Applications folder as well.
Now here comes the tough part. You must also delete an invisible folder in your Home directory which is named ".Adobe" - you can do that by "unhiding" it using an application like Hideaway, FinderBuddy or Onyx. There may be other invisible files, but that's the only one I deleted, YMMV.
Hope that helps.
-----------
Visit Creative Guy for graphics and Mac OS tips, tricks, tutorials and commentary
-----------
Visit The Graphic Mac for graphics and Mac OS tips, reviews, tutorials and discussion.
Under 'New Search' when u press command F, under Kind you can change 'Last Opened' to 'Other' from the pull down menu. Under Other scroll down to 'Visibility' then choose visible or invisible items. That and the 'Kind' being set to folder for .Adobe will find it.
The thing is, can you delete an invisible folder or do u have to use a third party add like onyx to change the attribute first?
I know I USED to do it BEFORE spotlight came along. . .
BTW. (I HATE SPOTLIGHT) but that's just me.
"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda
Jim, you don't need to tell me how naughty I was -- and all for naught, given that the torrent I downloaded turned out to be the very 30-day trial offered by Adobe themselves. Anyway, your advice is persuasive, but I opted to stay up all night reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling, blah blah blah. The result of this housekeeping is that you could eat off the flkoors of my Mac now -- it was getting a little funky there for a while -- except my G5 and AirPort Extreme aren't speaking to each other, though my laptop has no trouble. So...until the Mac Network guru shows up, I'm living an Ethernet life. Could be worse, I suppose.
Now where'd I put that Face to Face book...?
Mara
At least starting off fresh brings less clutter and mess to deal with after all is said and done. I like to erase and re-install about once a year or so. The only things I save are email, bookmarks, password database, address book and of course the Documents, Movies, Pictures and Music folders. ALL apps get a fresh install. I say all, but every time I do it there are less and less to install. ;-)
-----------
Visit Creative Guy for graphics and Mac OS tips, tricks, tutorials and commentary
-----------
Visit The Graphic Mac for graphics and Mac OS tips, reviews, tutorials and discussion.
I've had a very similar problem with CS2: I installed the trial (!) version, and after that I couldn't install the full version anymore. I guess I've spent to entire days on trying to remove the trial install, deleting every imaginable file containing the slightest reference. Nothing worked, I am still unable to use CS2 up to this day.
My very pessimistic forecast: nothing except a clean install of OS X (ie. format & install) will help. Good luck!
For the record, Adobe's official advice is to use the Uninstaller bundled with Version Cue to get rid of that app., but to manually seek out and destroy all other CS material. Is that swell, or what?
On deadline now, and way behind. Curses!
Mara