CS4 updates fail

[Roy_...@adobeforums.com]

For some reason Adobe CS4 automatic updates will try to install, but they never work. All I get are messages that say Adobe [product name] failed. I've tried while logged on as Administrator, but same results. No other info about the failure is available.

[lucas_...@adobeforums.com]

I am also having this problem. There were 8 updates I needed. Some of them installed but others will not. The ones that won't install are
Adobe Reader 9.0 Language Support,
Adobe Extension Manager CS4 2.1,
Adobe Output Module Update
-Services Update,
Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 Update for Adobe Device Central CS4,
Version Cue Server 4.0.1 Update,
I have 64bit Vista and have had no problems with my CS4 Suite and I know that there were other updates that worked today (Air was one of them).
Please help

[lucas_...@adobeforums.com]

does anybody read these? or am i wasting time here

[Peter...@adobeforums.com]

This is, I think, a fairly common problem on Vista 64 (Bob will probably pop in and say it isn't). The usual first step would be to try downloading directly from the update site and installing them manually.

Peter

[boblevine]

I've not seen a problem at all with CS3 or CS4 updates on Vista 64. But
everything is installed in its default location.

Bob

[Steve_...@adobeforums.com]

Same problem, manual install does not hep at all.
I have been in contact with Adobe and have installed and deinstalled my CS4 master suite six times so far.
If I ever get it straighten out I will post.

[Roy_...@adobeforums.com]

I did finally get the updates to work, but I had to completely uninstall CS4, completly. I had to log in as Administrator and delete every file or folder that had anything to do with CS4, and there are al lot of them. Then I deleted anything and everything Adobe related from the registry. Regedit it too cumbersome; I suggest using something like RegistryWorkshop. It has much better search and replace functions and will keep you from messing up the registry if you are unsure. Just make a backup copy first. I don't know if this draconian method is completely needed, but it worked for me.

[April_...@adobeforums.com]

I am not on Vista, I am on XP Pro SP3. I have installed CS4 Design Premium and then uninstalled it about 6 times. I have used the clean script. I have manually deleted what I could find, but obviously couldn't find everything. I finally had to uncheck the box for updating the Extension Manager, and have to stick with EM2 - cannot upgrade to EM2.1 because it becomes "dead" and cannot be used. To have EM functionality, I am forced to stick with EM2.

Hello Adobe? Can you please make a clean uninstall tool for Extension Manager so I can turn the update back on? Or at least post instructions for manual removal of everything?

The worst is that I have to uninstall the entire suite every time, and it takes way too much time to try to solve the problem.

[Stephen...@adobeforums.com]

I, too, am unable to install this update.

Windows Vista Ultimate 32.

In addition, the failed attempt to install broke my explorer context menu. I had to disable the adobe Drive CS4 context menu extension to get any context menu at all.

[Matthew Laun]

You might be experiencing this issue which has been causing CS4 updates that patch files (instead of replacing them) to fail on some Windows machines. This issue, cause, and solution are documented here:

<http://www.adobe.com/go/kb408524>

Wile the issue is understood and documented for Windows Vista, it's possible that the same root cause could exists on some Windows XP systems, if they contain NTFS junctions, and those junctions have incorrect permissions.

If you find that is the case, please contact me directly so that I can follow up with you.

Sincerely,
Matthew

[Captai...@adobeforums.com]

I have the same problem on Vista Ultimate x64.
And its just with Extension Manager 2.1. All other updates worked for me. Manual installation failed too. There's always "installation error" - no more information - great!
I can't believe you can just get it to work with an complete uninstall/reinstall. This is not very productive for a company if you have to spend hours dealing with this problem!

[Matthew Laun]

Captain,
Sorry your having these troubles. Please note that the solution is more than a complete re-installation. The initial cause is due to a permissions problem that must be solved. Once that is fixed, you could, theoretically run the updates and have them work. Unfortunately, if you had a previous failure due to the root cause, it's almost certainly left one or more files stranded in your ProgramData folder, not where they should be. So when the updater runs and finds the file missing, it gives up. This is the reason for the reinstall. You can try instead to read the installer log file:
C:\program files\common files\adobe\installer\[name of product][date].log
See what lines say something like, "couldn't find file [x]" find that file in the C:\ProgramData and put it in the path indicated in the log. This would restore the missing files, and allow the update to work.

This is one of those cases where the permissions problem is actually to blame for setting us up to fall into an infinite loop. Don't get me wrong, we own our share of responsibility for causing customers grief. But we're all just human here :-)

Best of luck!
Sincerely,
Matthew