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Adobe unplugs Creative Cloud sync tool during transition

The company apologizes after an Instability forces it to take the preview version of a synchronization tool offline earlier than expected. The service syncs files on mobile devices, the Web, and PCs.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
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Stephen Shankland
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Adobe argues that customers get more than just software with Creative Cloud subscriptions, but some Creative Suite customers object to what they see as a price increase.
Adobe argues that customers get more than just software with Creative Cloud subscriptions, but some Creative Suite customers object to what they see as a price increase. Adobe Systems

Unexpected instabilities forced Adobe Systems to hasten a planned outage for its Creative Cloud Connection, a service that keeps files made on mobile devices or uploaded to the Web in sync with customers' PCs.

Adobe launched it a half year ago in a preview version, and had planned to take it offline this week to update the interfaces the software uses to communicate with Adobe's servers. However, the company said in a blog post on Friday, " some updates...have caused instability in the service. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you."

As a result, Adobe took the PC sync part of the service offline earlier than planned:

To facilitate the transition from the preview, we are suspending the file sync desktop preview for the next couple of weeks while we finalize the updates for the initial full release. We plan to bring it back online prior to release, in order to allow additional testing. This does not affect mobile applications which use file sync.

You can, of course, continue to access and work with your files on your local system as well as via the Creative Cloud Web site. However, changes to local files will not be automatically synced to the Creative Cloud while the file sync preview is offline. You can continue to manually upload and download files to and from the Creative Cloud website.

Adobe is in the midst of a transition to a subscription business model and away from selling its Creative Suite software through a perpetual license. It still sells perpetual licenses of new versions of CS6 and upgrades to it, but new features only arrive in the Creative Cloud versions.

The Creative Cloud subscription, which costs $50 per month for a full-year commitment or $75 for a single month, grants access to the full suite of Adobe software and some online services such as file synchronization, Web publishing, and Web fonts. Individual software programs also are available for $20 per month.

Perpetual-license fans, though, greeted the Creative Cloud subscriptions with a storm of criticism. Many who upgraded less frequently are worried about an effective price increase, and others don't like the idea of losing the ability to edit their files at some point in the future unless they pay Adobe.

Adobe, though, promises faster updates to software and a gradually expanding array of online services.

To check whether those services are working, people can view Adobe's Creative Cloud status dashboard.