Adobe is on a road to a most epic of fails. Imagine you have a deadline for delivering a project that is due in a few hours but your legally-purchased software won’t allow you to open it. That is the sad truth for users of Adobe’s Creative Cloud for the past day.
Due to a technical problem in the sign-in process, many users have been unable to use applications for which they pay a monthly subscription fee to Adobe.
Really hard to meet deadlines when @creativecloud is down. Any ideas on how much longer it will be down? @Adobe
— Tarver Reeder (@reeder2011) May 15, 2014
@AdobeCare I have Work To Do YOU ARE COSTING ME MONEY #SubscriptionFail — ? Harry Stymiest (@harrystymiest) May 14, 2014
Today is the top reason people hate the idea of Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions. Software stops working beyond their control.
— Jeff Carlson (@jeffcarlson) May 15, 2014
Dear @creativecloud, please get Adobe ID working. You are crushing my productivity and hurting our business.
— jayselway (@jayselway) May 15, 2014
Absolutely disgusted by @adobe & @adobebc today, how can this be allowed to happen? As partners we need answers? @adobecare @creativecloud
— Tom Edwards (@tomjamesedwards) May 15, 2014
You shouldn’t force people to use the cloud for their work tools, and then have your system down for >12 hours!! @Adobe @creativecloud
— Charles RICHARD (@charlie_thebird) May 15, 2014
I login to work on this weeks episode and Adobe Creative Cloud Services are down, meaning I can’t edit #ThisIsWhyIHateCloudServices
— The Completionist (@JKCompletesIt) May 15, 2014
Can’t believe @creativecloud has been down all day. A good thing we’re not in the graphic design business. Oh no wait..
— Made in Katana (@madeinkatana) May 15, 2014
Despite repeated assurances @creativecloud is still down. I guess @Adobe assumes I’m stealing their software when their system fails.
— Rick Knight (@GoCatGo) May 15, 2014
Late Thursday, the issue was resolved on Adobe’s end as it began restoring services.
The Adobe ID issue is resolved. We are bringing services back online. We will share more details once we confirm everything is working. — Adobe (@Adobe) May 16, 2014
Plenty of those who held strong as skeptics of the Adobe Creative Cloud model will certainly point to instances such as this for evidence why a subscription based model is a bad idea for creative professionals.
While Adobe says it will update us with additional details once all services are restored and it confirms everything is working again, it will be a tough sell to assure creative professionals that they can count on Adobe so blindly going forward. Even if Adobe issues a partial refund of subscription fees, the damage that some professionals endured over the past day with client relationships and billable time is irreplaceable.
While we wait on Adobe’s response, what are your thoughts on this outage and how it should affect Adobe’s Creative Cloud model.
Linh says
I have not used CC, but I thought check in happened once a month? Were the people not being able to login in that situation? I ask because there are seemingly a good number of folks saying they had no problem using their software.
Not to defend CC or anything, just want some clarity. This really should be a yearly check in if they must proceed. You already signed a 1yr contract.
Stephen Cupp says
Yes you signed a 1 year contract in most cases. You can go month to month, but it costs more. And yes it checks in once a month to make sure you paid the bill. So when you have as many subscriptions as CC has you will have people checking in everyday. What should of happened is they call support and get a workaround. I know if you call before hand there is something Adobe can do in case you go on a trip and can’t be connected to the internet on the day it checks.
DomDdom says
Regardless, seems to be a flaw exposed.
Of course there are those who’ve seen no interruption and are continuing to sing the praises of the all mighty Adobe, and then there are those who have been seemingly kicked out from using their paid for software.
No matter what Adobe (or microsoft, or whomever) does, if you have a remote, cloud based subscription software, it will be subject to issues like this. It isn’t a problem until it is.
As has been shown already, CC is just as susceptible to pirating as the creative suite was, so the whole piracy argument is BS. The “usefulness” of renting software has been debated and with examples like this, show that there is certainly justification on the part of the critics. The value to a software solution, professionally speaking that relies on remote sign in access to provide clients the results they’re paying for is scary. There are a lot of folks seemingly not effected by this particular outage, but what about the next time? Again, it’s never a problem until it is.
Bring back the option for perpetual license Adobe and let your customers choose.
forkboy1965 says
I concede that when the whole issue of CC first came up I was principally against it simply because of the cost. I could purchase a version of Lr or Ps and stick with it for years if I opted to do so. I wasn’t forced into a monthly pay scheme, which seemed less than ideal for my non-professional needs.
I never even thought about situations like this where professionals could find themselves completely cutoff from work.
But why should any of this be a big surprise? I can’t get Netflix to be 100% reliable and it’s inconsequential compared to a pro’ s work tied up in CC.
Jenny says
Capture One
There is a 60 day trial version.
http://www.phaseone.com/Imaging-Software/Capture-One-Pro-7.aspx