Troubleshoot install issues with log files in Adobe Creative Suite (CS6, CS5.5, CS5), PS Elements, and Premiere Elements

Adobe Creative Suite (CS6, CS5.5, CS5), Photoshop Elements, and Premiere Elements product installers record their actions in log files. These log files can be useful in determining whether certain errors occurred during an installation. For silent installations, the log file is the only place that records error messages.

  • To troubleshoot Creative Suite, Photoshop Elements, or Premiere Elements errors that occur after you clicked Install, see Analyze the main product install log.
  • To troubleshoot Creative Suite, Photoshop Elements, or Premiere Elements errors that occur before you click Install in the installer user interface, see Analyze the PDapp log.

Have Creative Cloud?

For information on using Creative Cloud install log files for troubleshooting, see Troubleshoot install issues with log files | CC.

Analyze the main product install log

If you're troubleshooting install errors that occurred after you clicked Install, analyze the main installation log.

Analyzing the main installation log consists of three main steps. Go through each step in order until you locate your installation errors.

  1. Navigate to the log files in one of the following folders:

    • Windows 32 bit: \Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Installers\
    • Windows 64 bit: \Program Files(x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Installers\
    • Mac OS: /Library/Logs/Adobe/Installers/

    The log filename includes the product name and install date, followed with ".log.gz." The extension .gz indicates a compressed format.

  2. Use a decompression utility such as WinRAR or StuffIt to decompress the .gz file. Once uncompressed, the log file is a plain text file.

  3. Open the log file using WordPad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac OS).

    Note:

    By default, log files open in Console on Mac OS. Select all the text by pressing Command+A, and then copy and paste it into a text editor before continuing.

  4. Scroll to the bottom of the log. Look in the --- Summary --- section for lines that start with ERROR or FATAL and indicate a failure during the installation process.

    Important: Some entries that start with ERROR or FATAL are not actionable error messages. Some ERROR and FATAL messages only indicate the component that failed, and not what caused the failure. See "Informational ERROR and FATAL entries" under "Analyze advanced failures" below.

    There could be multiple errors. Error messages look like the following:

    ERROR: 1 Error rolling back command ARKCreateDirectoryCommand

    ERROR: 2 Unable to create directory "E:\ProgramFilesAdobe\Adobe Contribute CS5

  5. Search Adobe Support for a solution to each error message. When you search, omit paths and machine-specific information from search strings. For the errors above, for example, you would search on “Error rolling back command ARKCreateDirectoryCommand” and “Unable to create directory.”

    For a list of errors that may appear in your installation or launch logs, along with possible solutions, see Installation and launch log errors | CS6, CS5.5, CS5.

Creative Suite, Photoshop Elements, Premiere Elements, and Acrobat may use the Windows Installer service. Error codes generated by this service do not appear in the Summary section of the log file.

Note:

The error appears before the search term in the following format: Error 1234.

  1. Using WordPad, search the log file for Return value 3.

  2. Search Adobe Support for possible solutions to any error you find. Omit any file or registry paths from the search.

  3. Repeat the search until you have reached the end of the log file.
  4. Scroll to the summary section of the log and look for any of the following entries. If you find any of the following entries, see Microsoft Visual Studio runtimes fail to install in CS5, CS5.5 for Windows for a solution.

    • ERROR:  - Microsoft_VC80_ATL_x86: Install failed
    • ERROR:  - Microsoft_VC80_CRT_x86: Install failed 
    • ERROR:  - Microsoft_VC80_MFC_x86: Install failed 
    • ERROR:  - Microsoft_VC80_MFCLOC_x86: Install failed 
    • ERROR:  - Microsoft_VC90_ATL_x86: Install failed 
    • ERROR:  - Microsoft_VC90_CRT_x86: Install failed 
    • ERROR:  - Microsoft_VC90_MFC_x86: Install failed

The Creative Suite, Photoshop Elements, or Premiere Elements installer reports most of the errors in the Summary section of your installation log file. If there aren't errors in the Summary section, the last failed component installation caused the installation failure. 

Errors that Return value 3 error codes don't generate also indicate that the last failed component caused the installation failure. Troubleshooting advanced failures sometimes requires that you determine the necessary troubleshooting steps if no error message is generated.  

Component installations start with:

Installer Operation: <Component name> *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*==*=*

Component installations end with:

*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* Operation complete. Setting status: # =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*

Follow the instructions below to find the last component that failed to install.

Important: Do not search the log for the status: # possibilities. Status: # entries that did not prevent the installation sometimes occur. Only the last component installation that failed caused the installation to fail.

  1. Scroll to the bottom of the installation log file.
  2. Slowly scroll up from the Summary section of the log. 
  3. Find a log entry with a status: #, where pound is not 0.  The line is similar to:

    *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* Operation complete. Setting status: 7 =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*

    Note: This entry indicates the end of a component installation that exited with errors.

     
  4. Once you have identified the last component that failed, scroll to the top of the component installation.  

  5. Review each log entry between the beginning and ending lines of the component installation for any error messages.

  6. Search Adobe Support for possible solutions to any errors in this portion of the log.

    Note:

    If no error messages are listed, troubleshoot the referenced component. Use the log to see the type of action that the component installation took, and to determine troubleshooting steps. See AIR component fails when installing Creative Suite 5 products.

To troubleshoot the failed installation component, first determine what the component was trying to install, then perform component-specific troubleshooting. For example, if the installer tried to install a font pack, but there aren't errors between the beginning and ending component installation log entries, troubleshoot fonts. You might uninstall and reinstall a font, check permissions on the fonts folder, and disable font management utilities.

Informational ERROR and FATAL entries

The following entries for Windows users indicate that 64-bit components could not be installed and can be ignored on a 32-bit system:

  • ERROR: The payload with AdobeCode: {1E0B4F40-6DC4-4C09-B889-F595D34B4B86} has required dependency on:
  • ERROR: Family: CoreTech 
  • ERROR: ProductName: Adobe Player for Embedding x64 
  • ERROR: MinVersion: 0.0.0.0 
  • ERROR: This dependency is not satisfied, because this payload is x64 and is not supported on this machine. 

The following entries indicate that an installation component has failed, but do not indicate the cause of the failure. You can ignore entries similar to the following:

  • ERROR: Removing this dependency from list. Product may function improperly. 
  • ERROR: - AdobeColorJA CS5: Install failed 
  • ERROR: - Adobe ReviewPanel CS5: Install failed 
  • ERROR: - Photoshop Camera Raw (64 bit): Install failed 
  • ERROR: - Adobe Photoshop CS5 Core_x64: Failed due to Language Pack installation failure

Analyze the PDapp log

If you're troubleshooting install errors that occurred before you clicked Install, analyze the PDapp log file.

  1. Navigate to the PDapp.log file in one of the following folders:

    Note: The following folders are hidden by default. If necessary, use Folder Options (Windows) or Option key > Go (Mac OS) to view hidden folders. For more information, see Show hidden files and folders in Windows 10 and earlier or Can't see user library files in Mac OS X 10.7 and later.

    • Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Temp
    • Windows 10/8.1/Vista/7: \Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\Temp
    • Mac OS: Users/[user name]/Library/Logs
  2. Open PDapp.log in a text editor such as WordPad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac OS).

    PDapp.log records installation attempts sequentially. Each line in the log starts with a date and time stamp, which indicates when the installation was attempted. Each attempt starts with a Build Version number.

    Analyze only the most recent attempt. If you can’t determine which build attempt is the most recent, delete PDapp.log and run the installer again.
     

  3. In the most recent installation attempt, look for lines identified with [ERROR] or [FATAL]. For example:


    5/1/2010 13:49:48.847 [ERROR] DWA.SystemRequirement SystemRequirements check FAILED for payload - Adobe Media Encoder CS5 PCI WRAPPER
    5/1/2010 13:49:20 [FATAL] PIM - Error could not create PIM Common Folder Path... F:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\OOBE\PDApp\

  4. Search Adobe Support a solution to each error message. Omit paths and machine-specific information from search strings. For the preceding errors, for example, you would search on “DWA.SystemRequirement SystemRequirements check FAILED for payload” and “PIM - Error could not create PIM Common Folder Path.”

Still need help?

If you cannot find a solution for your error after searching the Adobe Support page, contact Adobe Support.

You can also visit the Adobe product forums.