Adobe Creative Cloud - Access and Installation

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Summary

Adobe products are available to KU faculty, students and staff. Read below for product eligibility, access, and use instructions.

Eligibility & Product Availability

User	Means of Access
Faculty & Staff - KU Workstation	Available through the Software Center or Self Service on Mac.
Faculty & Staff - Personal Device	Available through the Creative Cloud website
Students	Available only to select students within specified groups. Access for all other students is through either of the options listed below: Adobe Creative Cloud is available to students at no cost in all centrally-managed public computer labs. More information regarding public computer labs is available on the KU IT website: "Computer Labs." Students can purchase a discounted year-license of Adobe Creative Cloud from the KU Bookstore. This gives students access to Entire Adobe Creative Cloud with over 20 creative applications until the date listed on the Bookstore's page.

Student employees may need to visit https://license.ku.edu to claim an Adobe Creative Cloud license. Once a license is claimed it may take up to 2 hours before it's ready to use.

Only users who belong to the appropriate groups will see the option to claim a license.
If the "Claim Adobe License" option is "Disabled", please contact the IT Customer Service Center for further assistance.

Products available through KU may include:
3D Modeler, 3D Painter, 3D Sampler, & 3D Stager, After Effects, Animate, Audition, Bridge, Creative Cloud (Desktop Client), Dimension, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Media Encoder, Photoshop, Photoshop Express, Premiere Pro, Substance 3D Designer, XD, Acrobat Pro

Sign In

Users with an Adobe license tied to their KU account can install the software on two devices on and off-campus.

Click Sign In on the Adobe product you need to license. These steps also apply if you go to the Adobe Accounts page, or click Sign In on any Adobe page.
Enter your KU email address at the login prompt.
If you are not routed to the KU single sign-on screen you may have both a personal and enterprise account with Adobe. Please select the appropriate account type to complete the login process. When selecting School / Work account you will be routed to KU Single Sign On.

If you need to view your account and details on the Adobe website:

Click your avatar in the upper right corner of the page, and click Manage Account.. This will allow you to view details about your Creative Cloud plan.

Employee

Please see related article regarding SCCM & Jamf which manages and allows user to install software on KU Devices. For personal devices please select your operating system from below.

Mac

Download the Creative Cloud application from the Adobe Creative Cloud website.
Locate the dmg file in Finder. Typically this is in the Downloads folder.
Open the file, and allow access to Adobe Creative Cloud when prompted. Your system may request permissions for Adobe more than once during the installation.
Double-click the Adobe Creative Cloud installer after the installer mounts on your system.
When prompted, click Continue. If prompted to enter your device sign-in credentials.
Sign in to Adobe Creative Cloud using your primary email address once the application finishes installing and launches. If needed, instructions for faculty/staff are linked above.
Wait while the installation completes. You'll see a status update on the left. Adobe will ask some questions to help tailor recommendations in Creative Cloud; you can choose to answer or click Skip.
When installation is complete, click Done on the screen.

Creative Cloud may take a moment to install updates upon opening. Once updated, you can use the Creative Cloud application to install Adobe products by clicking Install under the desired application.

Windows

Go to the Adobe Creative Cloud website.
Click on Sign In the top right of the page.
Enter your KU email address and click Continue.
You will be directed to the KU Single Sign-On page. After you enter your KU Online ID and password, you will be taken back to the Adobe Creative Cloud website.
Click on Apps on the left side of the page.
You will then see all the apps that are available to download with your specific subscription. Click on the Install button beneath the program you want to install.
The program will install.

Students

Purchase the Adobe Creative Cloud Software

Students can purchase a discounted year-license of Adobe Creative Cloud from the KU Bookstore. This gives students access to Entire Adobe Creative Cloud with over 20 creative apps until the date listed on the Bookstore's page.

Sign-in to Creative Cloud with a Personal Account

While students don't have access to Creative Cloud apps through their KU account, they do still have a work/school account tied to their KU email address. As such, if you have purchased a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud through the KU Bookstore you will need to use the following steps to sign in to and access the licensed versions of the software.

Click Sign In on the Adobe product you need to license. These steps also apply if you go to the Adobe Accounts page or click Sign In on any Adobe page.
Enter your KU email address at the login prompt.
Select Personal Account when prompted. This will route you to sign into the Adobe account tied to your subscription.
Enter your password. If you are taken to KU single sign-on, this indicates that you have selected "Work/School Account."

If you need to view your account and details on the Adobe website:

Click your avatar in the upper right corner of the page, and click My Account.
Select Plans from the menu in the upper left area on the page. This will allow you to view details about your Creative Cloud plan.

Personal Subscription Cancellations

We are unable to provide assistance with these accounts. If you are trying to cancel your Adobe account subscription. There are some things to note.
Your OnlineID@ku.edu cannot be used for a personal subscription service. When purchasing Adobe software from the KU Bookstore or another vendor, you may have used a different email address—such as a vanity KU email (e.g., FirstName.LastName@ku.edu) or a personal email account.

To check for alternate KU email addresses, visit https://alias.ku.edu.

Below are examples of what a personal Adobe account might look like.

Troubleshooting

Remove Credentials

Mac

Click on the Apple logo in the top left of the screen and select System Settings.
Scroll and select Passwords. Enter your device log-in credentials.
To delete any KU-Related passwords click on the i to the right of the desired password.
Click Delete Password.
Confirm password deletion by clicking Delete Password.

Windows

Open the Control Panel and select User Accounts.
Select Manage your credentials.
Select Windows Credentials the find the one you want to delete and click the arrow to the right of the credential.
Click Remove then Yes to confirm.

Uninstall

Mac

Open the Applications folder from Finder, then move any Adobe or Creative Cloud products to Trash.

Note: You may be prompted to enter your device log-in credentials.
Find the user folder, by clicking Go on the top Menu Bar, and selecting Computer then select your Storage Drive.
Now delete any Adobe folders or com.adobe.xxxxx files from these folders:
- /Users/[User]/Library/Preferences
- /Users/[User]/Library/Application Support
- ~/Library/Application Support
- The image below shows a sample of the process of how to find the User Folder and the Preferences folder inside of it.
Delete application PLIST files for any Adobe products from /Users/[User]/Library/Preferences folder. Not all products have a PLIST file.
- The GIF above shows how to find the Preferences folder.
After all com.adobe and Adobe files have been moved to Trash, clear the Trash bin and reboot the Machine.

Windows

The process to uninstall Adobe Creative Cloud apps can be done in either the desktop client of on the Adobe Creative Cloud website.

Sign in to your Adobe Creative Cloud using the Sign in instructions.
Navigate to the Apps section of Adobe Creative Cloud.
Click the three dots (More options) below the application you want to uninstall.
Click "Uninstall."
Select Remove.

If you are experiencing persistent issues with sign-in or licensing even after fully uninstalling software, you may need to run the appropriate Adobe Licensing Toolkit for your operating system.

Sign Out

Open the application (Creative Cloud, Acrobat, Etc).
In the upper right corner you should see a "Blue" generic icon (KU Account), or another icon for a personal account.
- KU Managed Account
Click Sign Out at the bottom of the menu.

Article Changelog

1/24/2026

Article updated to basic visual standard.

Adobe Creative Cloud - Access and Installation

Body

Summary

Eligibility & Product Availability

Sign In

Employee

Mac

Windows

Students

Purchase the Adobe Creative Cloud Software

Sign-in to Creative Cloud with a Personal Account

Personal Subscription Cancellations

Troubleshooting

Remove Credentials

Mac

Windows

Uninstall

Mac

Windows

Sign Out

Article Changelog

Details

Details