Frequently Asked Questions & Help
Make it with Creative Cloud logo, pricing and app icons [View Image]
HELP and HOW-TO's
Includes Adobe sign-in, sign-out, app uninstall and reinstall.
Note: These troubleshooting videos were created by VCU Labs and Classrooms Computing using Adobe Premiere Pro!
Contact adobe@vcu.edu.
LICENSE/SUBSCRIPTION ACCESS QUESTIONS
[View Image] Please note that Adobe has changed how Shared Device licenses are configured and shared in an educational environment, which differs from previous VIP procedures. Additional information can be found in the FAQs below.
Licenses request processes vary by your affiliation with the university. See more info for each affiliation or scenario below.
Students should visit https://vcu.onthehub.com and sign-in with their VCU eID to purchase an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription for either 6 months ($30), or 12 months ($60). Eligibility requirements below.
- To qualify for purchase of an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription students must demonstrate eligibility through the following criteria.
- Students must be actively enrolled as a part-time or full-time student at the university in good standing with the account affiliation of “student”. Primary affiliations of “former student”, “accepted” (without also being actively enrolled), and “alumni” are not eligible to purchase a subscription.
- Students must have an active VCU eID and @vcu.edu email address (the @mymail.vcu.edu email domain is a forwarding domain, i.e. it forwards mail to your @vcu.edu email address)
- Students taking non-credit bearing courses who do not have a VCU eID and an @vcu.edu email address are ineligible to purchase an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.
- Agree to all terms and conditions of sale.
- Upon separation from the university, your access may be removed, and further renewal privileges of any active subscription may be revoked.
- No refunds will be provided.
Faculty and staff must use the form located at https://go.vcu.edu/adobelicenserequest to submit a formal request for access to Adobe applications and services. Only teaching faculty may submit requests for access to the All Creative Cloud Apps 100GB entitlement.
Departments/Faculty that wish to submit requests for bulk user additions for their students for a particular course or curriculum may also do so my using the form located at https://go.vcu.edu/adobelicenserequest. The option to specify multiple user eIDs is now active.
Adobe has changed how Shared Device licenses are configured and shared in an educational environment. In the past, any user who was able to use a computer could open an Adobe application setup with a Device license. As of December 2019, the license installation has changed and Adobe requires the user to sign in to use Adobe Creative Cloud. VCU has given students access to Creative Cloud on a computer with a Shared Device license by allowing the use of VCU credentials to login. Visitors login as an Adobe Subscriber or must set up a free Adobe account.
Shared Device licenses are issued to departments based on network location and must be configured properly before Creative Cloud is accessible. Device licenses are issued to computers that provide access to multiple users, such as classrooms, labs, etc. Contact adobe@vcu.edu if you have any questions about Shared Device licenses.
Contact your departmental technical support personnel to install the Creative Cloud Desktop application for access to all Adobe Creative Cloud apps, or the Adobe Acrobat DC package for access to Acrobat DC only.
For information about how to install Adobe Creative Cloud software on your personally-owned device(s), go to: https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/creative-cloud-desktop-app-download.html. Use the second choice, “How to download Creative Cloud desktop app using direct download links” and select the appropriate option for you computer, Windows or Mac download. You will need to extract the zip file and run the installer located in the "Build" folder. This option will install all the applications on your computer, which will prompt you to sign-in with your Enterprise ID. Use you VCU eID and if prompted further, choose the "Enterprise ID" option. You should now see all Adobe Creative Cloud apps listed with buttons that display either "Open" or "Install".
You may still be signed-in to one or more Adobe applications using a personal Adobe ID. Closing the application does NOT log you out of the Adobe application. Open one Adobe application, go to Help and select Sign Out. You must Sign Out of all your Adobe applications and then log in using your VCU eID. If you are prompted further with a choice of two options, select the "Company or School" option. In the Creative Cloud Desktop Application, all apps should be listed with buttons displaying either "Open" or "Install" next them, if you are signed-in using your VCU eID and have a named-user license or subscription purchased through the OnTheHub webstore.
If you are still seeing messages or a button display "trial" next to the apps in the Creative Cloud Desktop Application, we recommend signing-out of all your applications and uninstall all the Adobe applications on your computer. Go to https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/creative-cloud-desktop-app-download.html and select the second installation choice, “How to download Creative Cloud desktop app using direct download links” and select the Windows or Mac download. You need to extract the zip file and run the installer located in the "Build" folder. This option will install all the applications on your computer and will prompt you to sign-in with your Enterprise ID. Use you VCU eID and if prompted further, choose the "Enterprise ID" option. You should now see all Adobe Creative Cloud apps listed with buttons that display either "Open" or "Install".
End-users MUST have a VCU eID and must sign in to the Adobe.com website, Adobe Creative Cloud applications and cloud services with their VCU eID using their @vcu.edu email address. Use of an @vcuhealth.org email address is prohibited. End-users who belong to a VCUHealth-only unit (i.e. any of the units on the left of the venn diagram: Hospitals, Physician Plans, Comprehensive Care Centers, and HMO) are NOT eligible to purchase Adobe Creative Cloud software licenses and subscriptions. Students of VCU are always allowed to purchase an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, however requirements above still apply, and students must also meet certain eligibility requirements. Click on the Venn Diagram below to view a text-only version.
Venn Diagram for VCU Adobe Licensing. Click on the image to view text-only version. [View Image]
When end-users and deployment liaisons sign-in using their VCU email address (eID@vcu.edu), if they have an "Adobe ID" account (this could be a retail subscription purchased with a personal credit/debit card) or a VIP account linked to the same email address, they will be presented with two options: Adobe ID (Personal Account) and Enterprise ID (Company or school account). Once migrated, end-users and deployment liaisons should use the Enterprise ID option to continue signing in with their VCU eID. Eventually VIP Adobe IDs will be deprovisioned and go away entirely. End-users with both a personal account AND an enterprise account will continue to see this screen each time they sign-in at Adobe.com. See screenshot below.
To cancel a personal Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, please submit a request through the IT Support Center. We will provide the steps you will need to take to cancel your subscriptions without paying a cancellation fee. Any Adobe.com web store subscription may be cancelled within 14 days of a renewal date without a cancellation fee. Visit adobe.vcu.edu to purchase a new license under the VCU Adobe Enterprise Term License Agreement.
All faculty and staff end-users who request a license for Adobe Creative Cloud Software (this includes Acrobat-Only requests) will be automatically placed in a 0GB entitlement which restricts access to Adobe’s Cloud Services and removes all Creative Cloud Enterprise Storage access. This decision was made by the Information Security Office to comply with university policies and reduce the risk of data exposure. Teaching faculty and staff who directly interface with students in a course or other teaching/learning capacity may be granted access to Adobe Creative Cloud storage and services by request only. Each request will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the VCU Adobe Enterprise Administration Team and the Information Security Office. More details below.
- Teaching faculty and staff who would like to request access to Adobe Creative Cloud storage and services may do so but submitting an application at this link: https://go.vcu.edu/adobelicenserequest
- According to the Higher Education Cloud Vender Assessment Tool, Adobe’s response to the question clearly provides an answer to uploading content to the Creative Cloud Enterprise storage service. See quote below. Beyond this quote, the Information Security Office has determined that use of Adobe’s Creative CLoud storage and cloud services is not an acceptable risk for most end-users and therefore must evaluate each request for access to cloud storage and services on a case-by-case basis.
- “Content created with CCE should be classified as public or soon-to-be-public creative materials. PII, PHI, sensitive or confidential information should never be placed in CCE.”
- Public or “soon-to-be-public” data is considered Category 3 information by the VCU Data Classification Standard.
- All non-proprietary data that is considered publicly available for unrestricted use and disclosure, where if lost or illegitimately modified, these data will generate no negative impacts to individual departments, schools, colleges, or the institution as a whole. Such information is available to all members of the university community and to all individuals and entities external to the University community. Such data can make up public website information, public press release, public marketing information, directory information, and public research information. (Public Data/Information).
Access to fonts in Adobe Creative Cloud will require gaining access to Cloud storage1. Some business units may be denied access to Cloud storage due to high IT security risk issues. To apply for Creative Cloud storage services, please submit a request using the form located at https://go.vcu.edu/adobe/cloudaccess.
1 This requirement is a technical limitation imposed by Adobe, that VCU has no control over.
When I try to share files with another user, I receive the following error message:
Enterprise Sharing Restrictions Enabled
This feature isn’t available because your organization has enabled sharing restrictions.
Learn more link: https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/using/sharing-restrictions.linkfree.html
Per instructions from the Information Security Office sharing of files through the Creative Cloud Enterprise storage service is prohibited. Because the university has one directory for all users, Adobe provides no way to separate end-users based on attribute (group, affiliation, etc) for sharing restrictions. Unfortunately, until Adobe provides more granular scoping options for sharing restrictions, this functionality will remain disabled. Alternatively, you may use Google Drive which is the preferred and recommended cloud storage option for sharing files with other users.
This error (see screenshots below) message is specific to the new version of Lightroom. There are currently two versions of Lightroom available. The newer Lightroom, and Lightroom classic. For a complete comparison and more information please visit this link: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom-classic/lightroom-cc-vs-lightroom-classic.html
This is a technical limitation with Adobe's software VCU has no control over.
DocuSign has been selected as the officially supported solution for obtaining electronic signatures on documents. Submit a request via https://servicedesk.vcu.edu to request a DocuSign account to begin sending documents for electronic signature. For more information about records management, please visit: https://ts.vcu.edu/askit/policies-and-publications/records-management/
Mac OS 10.15 (Catalina) will not work with Adobe CC/DC 2018 and earlier products. Please upgrade your Adobe desktop software to a 2019 version BEFORE upgrading your Mac OS. More information can be found on Adobe's website.
TECHNICAL QUESTIONS
All Unit Liaisons should refer to the Application Software section of the TUG wiki for Adobe information.
All Unit Liaisons should refer to the Application Software section of the TUG wiki for Adobe information.