Creative Cloud | Common questions

You can learn all about the latest features in Creative Cloud on the overview page. To find out what’s in the latest version of each CC desktop app, check out each product’s page on Adobe.com.

No, the desktop applications in Creative Cloud, such as Photoshop and Illustrator, are installed directly on your computer. So, you don’t need an ongoing Internet connection to use them.

An Internet connection is required the first time you install and license your apps. But, you can use the apps in offline mode with a valid software license. The desktop apps attempt to validate your software licenses every 30 days.

Annual members can use the apps for up to 99 days in offline mode. Month-to-month members can use the software for up to 30 days in offline mode.

The applications are installed and run on your desktop, just like any other desktop application. The first time you download any of the individual creative apps, you automatically download Creative Cloud for your desktop. You use the Creative Cloud desktop app to access, download, and update any of the individual creative applications.

CreativeSync is the underlying technology in Creative Cloud that intelligently syncs your assets, fonts, photos, settings, Adobe Stock assets, and more. These items instantly appear in your workflow wherever you need them and in the right format. With CreativeSync, available exclusively in Creative Cloud, everything you need is always at your fingertips as you move from app to app or device to desktop.

Yes, you can share files you create with Creative Cloud apps like any other file through email, FTP, and so on.

Also, Creative Cloud sharing features let you share files with anyone by letting them view files in a browser. Viewers can turn layers on and off, see relevant metadata, comment, and even download files for editing.

You can manage file sharing settings on your Creative Cloud Files page.

No, you can continue using your current version of the product as long as you have an active membership. You have flexibility on when and if you install a new release.

Yes. Your existing Creative Suite product installation is not affected by installing the CC product applications. For example, you can install and use the perpetually licensed Photoshop CS6 on the same computer as Photoshop CC.

If you purchase your membership directly from the Adobe website, it begins when the Adobe Store fulfills the order. Get started by signing in to your account.

If you purchase your individual membership at a participating retailer or online store, it begins when you enter your redemption code on creative.adobe.com and click Get Started.

If you purchase a team membership through a reseller, your membership term begins when you add seats to your account.

You continue to have access to Creative Cloud member free benefits. And, if you saved your work to your computer, you continue to have access to those files on your own device. You no longer have access to the Creative Cloud desktop applications or most of the services that are components of a Creative Cloud membership. And, your allowed cloud storage is reduced to 2 GB.

Get download instructions, visit the Creative Cloud download and install forum, troubleshoot specific issues, or contact Support.

Yes. You can download and install Creative Cloud desktop applications on multiple computers, regardless of operating system. However, activation is limited to two machines per individual associated with the membership. See the terms of use for more information. Learn how to deactivate a Creative Cloud license on a machine.

Your access to Creative Cloud is governed by the terms of use. You can also access your subscription terms here. 

Find out how to change your account information; update credit card details; or upgrade, renew, or cancel your membership here.

The 2015 release of Creative Cloud includes all-new versions of 14 CC desktop applications plus the debut of the new Adobe Character Animator (Preview). Accelerate your work with new Adobe magic, performance, and Touch workflows. Capture inspiration or design production-quality work seamlessly across desktop and mobile devices. Jumpstart your creative projects by accessing a library of fonts and graphics, and tens of millions of inspiring images from the new Adobe Stock service—available from right inside your CC apps. Or discover and follow inspiring work on Behance, and learn how to use Creative Cloud with brand new step-by-step project guides.

To find out more about what’s new in Creative Cloud, check out the Creative Cloud overview page.

With Creative Cloud, you have the option of sharing information with Adobe about how you use the CC desktop apps. This information lets us give you a more personalized experience, and helps us improve the quality and features of products. This option is turned on by default and the information is associated with your Creative Cloud account. You can change your preference at any time on your Adobe Account Management page.

Yes. You can choose not to share information about how you use the Creative Cloud desktop apps by setting your preferences on your Account Management page.

This setting applies to how you use the features within desktop apps, not to the services these desktop apps use, such as Behance or Typekit. These services are governed by their respective privacy policies and/or the Adobe Privacy Policy.

You can share the following types of information about how you use the Creative Cloud desktop apps:

• System information, such as operating system, processor, and amount of memory installed
• Adobe product information, such as version number
• Adobe feature usage information, such as menu options or buttons selected

This information is associated with your Adobe ID and can be used to personalize the application experience, provide feature usage data to the product teams to help improve the product, and to communicate with you.

Your content, and information about the content within your files, is not shared with Adobe.

You can find an overview of how Adobe may use information associated with you in the Adobe Privacy Center.

For the 2015 release, users will see in-app learning content, which over time will provide personalized learning content based on how the application is used.

As we learn more about how the personalized learning content is used, we plan to expand the functionality to other Creative Cloud applications.

If administrators install applications via Creative Cloud Packager using Enterprise IDs, the ability to share information with Adobe about using Creative Cloud desktop applications is disabled for members of the following: Creative Cloud for teams, Creative Cloud for enterprise, and Creative Cloud for education. It cannot be enabled.

However, if administrators let users install Creative Cloud applications via the Creative Cloud for desktop app using an Adobe ID, users can share information about how they use the applications. Users can change these preferences at any time by visiting their Account Management page.

The Creative Cloud Photography plan is the perfect solution for anyone interested in photography, from photo enthusiasts to professionals. The plan includes the world’s best photography tools that enable you to organize, edit, enhance, and share images on your desktop or mobile device—anytime, anywhere.

The Creative Cloud Photography plan includes Lightroom and Photoshop CC for the desktop, Lightroom for mobile, and Photoshop Mix for mobile devices. You get all the essential tools to organize, edit, and share your photographs from anywhere—on your computer, on the web, on your iPad, and on your iPhone or Android device. Master new skills with an extensive library of how-to videos and always have access to the latest imaging innovation from Adobe. Learn more about the Creative Cloud Photography plan.

Your Creative Cloud desktop applications (such as Lightroom and Photoshop CC) are installed locally on your computer. You don't need an ongoing Internet connection to use them. You only need to connect to the Internet once every 99 days to validate your membership.

No. You do not have to store all your photos online. Your photos remain on your local hard drive. You can decide which photos you want to synchronize with Lightroom for mobile or store in your 2 GB of Creative Cloud storage. Even if you choose to sync your files with Creative Cloud, you always have a local copy of your files.

The Creative Cloud Photography plan includes 2 GB of online storage. The storage enables various apps within the bundle to sync and transfer metadata, which provides seamless integration across applications.

The plan also includes Lightroom for mobile, which includes the ability to sync images between Lightroom for the desktop and your mobile devices. Images synced with Lightroom for mobile do not count toward your 2 GB of online storage.

You'll still have access to all your photos on your local hard drive through Lightroom for the desktop. You can continue to import and organize photos as well as output your edited photos through Export, Publish, Print, Web, or Slideshow. Access to the Develop & Map modules and Lightroom for mobile are not available after your membership ends.

We have different plans for individuals, businesses, and enterprises.  Learn more on the Creative Cloud membership plans page.

View the latest list of countries where Creative Cloud is available for individuals, teams, and small businesses. Enterprise customers should request a consultation.

Credit card payment is accepted for Creative Cloud memberships in all supported countries. Payment via PayPal is accepted in only a few supported countries. See Payment options.

We’re working to make Creative Cloud as widely available as possible and will share more details about country availability over time. While individual memberships may not be available in your country, you may be able to purchase a team membership through a global Adobe reseller.

Creative Suite 6 products are also available for purchase. Learn more ›

The Creative Cloud website is available in English, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. Individual desktop apps and services may not be available in all these languages.

Yes, we offer a Single App plan for most of our products.

Find out more on the Creative Cloud plans page.

To update your billing information, sign in and go to Account Management.

Yes, you can prepay for one year for most Creative Cloud membership plans. Learn more on the plans page.

Any membership canceled in the first 14 days is fully refundable. After 14 days, cancelation policies will apply.

To cancel a prepaid or paid-monthly annual membership, contact Customer Support. To cancel a month-to-month membership, visit your Manage Account page or contact Customer Support.

Yes, you can purchase multiple Single App membership plans under a single Adobe ID, as long as they are for different applications.

No, CC versions of the desktop applications are not available as a perpetual license.

Find out what’s new on the product pages for the desktop applications.

Many of the Creative Cloud desktop applications let you export files to the Creative Suite 6 version of that same application. CS6 products are available via a perpetual software license on Adobe.com. Adobe plans to continue to support the ability to export to CS6 in the applications that already have that capability. New features added to the desktop applications after CS6 may not be supported in the exported file, or by the CS6 application.

The following applications support the ability to export to the CS6 version of the application:

• Photoshop
• InDesign
• Illustrator
• Flash Professional
• Dreamweaver
• After Effects

Applications not listed here may not support exporting to Creative Suite 6, and may not do so in future releases. New features added to the above list after CS6 may not be supported in the exported file, or by the CS6 application.

Minimum system requirements for each Creative Cloud app can be found on the system requirements page.

Yes. Flash Professional CC is now Animate CC and is still available in Creative Cloud. Flash Professional was renamed Animate, because it offers first-class support for publishing animations in HTML5 and other platforms in addition to Flash and AIR.

Past releases of Flash Professional dating back to CS6 remain available for Creative Cloud members. You can find them under Previous Versions in the Creative Cloud desktop app.
 

Yes. About once a year, we archive a release of the Creative Cloud desktop applications. The archived versions can be installed in addition to the latest release and other archived releases.

You can find information on how to install previous versions of the Creative Cloud desktop applications here.

You can find comprehensive information on Creative Cloud and security in the Adobe Security Center.

The security center contains a comprehensive white paper on Creative Cloud for teams as well as a security FAQ for IT.

There are no restrictions on the file types you can store in Creative Cloud.

There are no restrictions on the file types you can share from Creative Cloud.

Your Creative Cloud files are stored on your desktop as well as on the Creative Cloud servers. If you cancel or downgrade your paid membership, you still have access to all of the files in the Creative Cloud folder on your computer and via the Creative Cloud website.

Your account will be downgraded to a free membership, which includes 2 GB of storage. If you’re using more than 2 GB of storage, you won't be able to upload new files to the cloud. To upload new files, delete files on the Creative Cloud server until the amount of storage you're using drops below 2 GB.

If you're over your storage limit, you have 90 days to reduce your online usage. After 90 days, you could lose access to some or all of your files saved on the Creative Cloud servers.

No, you can save your files wherever you choose—on your local hard drive, mounted drives, thumb drives, and so on. However, your Creative Cloud membership comes with cloud storage that you can choose to use for backups, link sharing, folder collaboration, and more. The Creative Cloud for desktop application makes it easy to synchronize your local files with your Creative Cloud storage. So if you choose to sync your files to Creative Cloud, you still retain a local copy of your files.

A free Creative Cloud membership gives you access to file syncing and sharing features and 2 GB of storage space. You also get some free services and access to free trials of Creative Cloud desktop applications.

You can download trial versions of the desktop applications from the Creative Cloud Desktop Apps page.

Yes. See this FAQ for details.