Adobe CC Login Issues - Here's the Fix

If you're a Creative Cloud subscriber, sooner or later you will hit the dreaded bug where you are asked to sign in via the Creative Cloud app, and as soon as you do, it will automatically tell you you're signed out. It eventually happens to everyone, Mac or PC. Here's why and here's the fix:

The CC app tracks who you are in a local database file that Adobe created called opm.db, that lives in your User folder. This file can and does go corrupt. Adobe needs to revisit the code in this app and fix that problem. ANYWAY, Adobe does offer a supposed fix in their online help but it won't work without an additional step. Here are the steps as per Adobe:


1. Close the Creative Cloud application.
2. Navigate to the OOBE folder. Location:

Windows: [System drive]:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\Adobe\OOBE
Mac OS: /Users/[user name]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/OOBE

3. Delete the opm.db file.
4. Launch Creative Cloud.


This is technically the fix, but the file will not delete according to Step #3 because there are other CC services still running (at least in Windows). If your file won't delete and you're running any flavor of Windows, do this:

- Open Task Manager (right-click the Task Bar along the bottom and select Task Manager from the popup menu)
- The Task Mgr window will appear. If you are running Win 7 or 8 (and maybe Vista), you might see a button on the form that says Show Processes from All users. Go ahead and click that.
- Find this process: AAM Updates Notifier.exe. Right-click on it and select End Task.
- If you also see CreativeCloud.exe, right-click and End Task on that one also.

Now your corrupted opm.db file will delete successfully. Unfortunately I don't own a Mac right now so I don't know if there will be trouble deleting that file in OS X.

Anyway, that's it! Start up Creative Cloud and Sign in. It will act like you are a new user, but it will then pick up what you have installed and you'll be back to normal.

Some of you know that I have been a cheerleader for this subscription model that Adobe has implemented (you probably still think I'm nuts, lol), but the dual platform and anywhere-availability for installation at a moment's notice is quite convenient. But I will say this: if Adobe is so bent on doing this type of software licensing from here on in, they seriously need to shore up their software that controls account management, it is WAY too buggy. If they want this model then they have a responsibility to make sure the user interface is much more bulletproof then it is. And let's hope they learned their lesson after the database hack they let happen (it's titled "website hack" in the media, but the thieves got WAY past the webserver level and too far down into the database IMO).

To their credit, when I hit this "logged out" issue last night and was miffed when I saw that telephone support ends at 5pm, I did follow the website's suggestion of tweeting the problem to @AdobeCare on Twitter, and within minutes I got back a reply with the URL that led me to the fix. Far cry from the Maytag Repair Man visiting your home, eh?

Thanks Paul. I've had my CC subscription since it became available and today is the first time that the problem occurred on my machine. I recalled seeing your post a couple of days ago and that I had flagged it. Coincidence? Perhaps the error on my machine was caused by our post I followed your instructions (Windows 7) and the problem was shoved immediately. Thanks again for posting this item and all the other ones. Roger

Glad it worked! Strange timing, huh? It does seem like several people on the Adobe forums are complaining about it. Be nice if Adobe would FIX it. Hey, there's an idea!