Can't reinstall PS CS3, claiming it's not uninstalled?

My friend who is too lazy to post here is having problems with CS3. He uninstalled it before he got a larger hard disk, or so he thought. Now when he goes to reinstall PS CS3 it gives him an error that it's already installed. Now, I'm not a Mac guy, I'm just smart enough to realize asking for help is more likely to get a solution than sitting around. :)
So, what can I suggest he look at to figure out why PS CS3 thinks it's still installed?

I still advocate Repairing Permissions (with Apple's Disk Utility) before AND after any system update or upgrade, as well as before AND after installing any software that requires an installer that asks for your password.
I have seen software installations go sour because the installer did not find everything as and where it should be.
I have also seen software installations go bad because the installer did not clean up after itself properly and did not leave everything as and where it should be.
This is just my own personal opinion and practice based on my own observations. Others may disagree and that's OK. I can only base my routines and my advice to others on my own experience and conclusion. I don't pretend to know why others believe otherwise.
Repairing Permissions after the fact (i. e. not immediately before and after an install) may NOT help. Try it anyway, though.
====
Additionally, if your machine does not run 24/7 so that it runs the daily, weekly and monthly Cron Scripts in the middle of the night as intended by Apple, run Cocktail (shareware) as well.
Cron Scripts are maintenance routines designed by Apple to run on a daily, weekly and monthly basis in the middle of the night.
If you don't run them, you WILL run into trouble, sooner rather than later.
Here's an excerpt from the Apple tech doc http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107388
Mac OS X performs background maintenance tasks at certain times if the computer is not in sleep mode. If your computer is shut down or in sleep at the designated times, the maintenance does not occur. In that case, you may want or need to run these manually.
Mac OS X periodically runs background tasks that, in part, remove system files that are no longer needed. This includes purging older information from log files or deleting certain temporary items. These tasks do not run if the computer is shut down or in sleep mode. If the tasks do not run, it is possible that certain log files (such as system.log) may become very large.
Also, from: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106978
The disk activity generated by find is a normal part of file system maintenance, used for tasks such as removing invisible temporary files that are used by the system. It is scheduled to occur early in the morning at 03:15 everyday, 04:30 on Saturdays, and 05:30 on the first day of each month.
NOTE:
There have been comments to the effect that Apple "fixed" this in 10.4.2 and later versions of the OS, but I have not been able to verify this to my satisfaction. The reference in the 10.4.2 release notes are far from explicit on this subject.
= = =
If you have DiskWarrior, run it regularly too.

Similar Messages

  • How can I reinstall Contribute CS3?

    I'm having problems with my Adobe products. At first I couldn't uninstall CS3 so I've downloaded Revo Uninstall and managed to delete the programme but I still can't reinstall it. My cd will open, begin to run then just go quiet. I've also bought a copy of Elements 8 which will not install either. Please can someone help ......Please.

    Without exact system info, including your network configuration, nobody can realyl say anything. Specific ports being blocked is not a generic failure in teh Adobe software, it's more likely that some security setting or your Internet Router use that same port and things go boom...
    Mylenium

  • Can't Reinstall Photoshop CS3

    I am on Leopard 10.5.2. I had the Photoshop PS3 trial edition, which expired. Then I got the full CS3 Web Premium, and when I installed it said Photoshop was already installed. But when I went to license it, it said the license code was invalid. So I trashed the Photoshop folder from /Applications, emptied the trash and restarted the installer to try reinstalling it from the DVD.
    But now I realize there is an *uninstaller* that I apparently should have used.
    I am stuck right now in a situation where the installer says Photoshop is already installed, so I can't reinstall it, but since I trashed it, it won't let me uninstall it either.
    Anybody have any suggestions? Sigh.

    I had a user do this here a the College I work at, this is what you need to do:
    Go back to Adobe's website and Download the trial version, once you do this you will see in Applications/Utilities/Adobe Installers/Add or Remove Adobe....
    Run the Add or Remove program for the trial version, once you have done this you can then go ahead and install your licensed version and register it.
    Sasha

  • Can I reinstall my OS (on iMac) and not have to worry about losing my Creative Suite?

    Every now and then I feel the need to reinstall my OS to clean my computer, but since I have gotten CS I have been in fear of losing my copy if I do so. Can I back up the Suite or can I reinstall using my products serial or is there anything else I can do to ensure I will not lose my product?

    You can do a clean install on your Mac. But you can't reinstall from a backup. You need to reinstall from your original install disc, or from a backup of the install file if you downloaded the software. If you don't have such a backup, you can download the software fresh from here:
    Other downloads
    Using a normal backup of your computer, or using the Migration utility doesn't restore all the miscellaneous files in different locations that Adobe places in different locations.

  • Can't reinstall InDesign CS3

    I was a longtime PageMaker user, and upgraded from PageMaker 6.5 to InDesign CS3 a few years ago. I'm not a designer, so use it mostly for family projects.  Last month my computer died and I took it to a computer shop, where they had to wipe it clean (saving files), which required me to reinstall all my software.  No problem with anything except the InDesign. Because it was an upgrade, it wants the serial number from my PageMaker, which I discarded not long after I originally upgraded to InDesign.  I want to be able to use it (I did pay for it, after all -- even if it isn't the most current version anymore).   I "chatted" online with Adobe technical support, but they said they can't help me because it's not a current version. Is there anything I can do to be able to use this program that I paid for? Any help is much appreciated.

    I'm sure I registered my PageMaker, but I was using a different email at that time, and I'm unable to log in to Adobe using that email address (and the various passwords I was using way back then).  My current profile shows my serial number for my InDesign -- and my registration date in 2008.  Maybe I shouldn't have discarded the PageMaker serial number, but still.... they have a record that I legitimately installed it in 2008.
    I got an email response after my online "chat" and it didn't even refer back to me and my problem. It didn't even get my name correct! Doesn't make me feel very confident in the level of support...  Here's that email, copied and pasted:
    Hi Seved,
    Thank you for contacting Adobe.
    You had contacted us regarding the installation issue with Photoshop Elements 12. Please download the trial version of Photoshop E lements 12 and click on the license this software option and enter teh serial number. Unfortunately chat got disconnected in betwe en the conversation.
    For further assistance please feel free to contact us at any point of time.
    Live chat is available for 24hrs and 7days a week.

  • Pls help I can't reinstall photoshop CS3 Not responding

    I buy a New computer and trying to reinstal Cd Photoshop CS 3,  when finished to pass all components I try to open and said, photoshop NOT RESPONDING ! Can somebody help me pls ?
    I desinstal photoshop from my old computer.
    Thanks !

    We need more information.
    How to get help.

  • Can't reinstall Photoshop CS3 extended after new hard drive

    The software appears to install on my windows vista op.sys machine BUT when I try to start photoshop CS3 it just hangs..tried to re-install several times but still same ...Please help

    Moving this discussion to the Photoshop General Discussion forum as Users in this forum may have additional suggestions on how to resolve difficulties with opening Photoshop.
    Blobbyblobs I would recommend checking your installation log files to see if you received any error messages.  You can find details on how to locate and interpret the installation log files at Troubleshoot installation with install logs | CS3, CS4 - http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/troubleshoot-installation-install-logs-cs3.html.
    Also did you copy over or migrate the files from your old hard drive or is this a clean installation?

  • Help!!! Can't reinstall Photoshop CS3

    Soundbooth beta has caused some conflicts with my Photoshop CS3 (I am assuming that is what is causing my photoshop wierdness) causing me to have to reinstall Photoshop. When I attempted to do so, I got a message to insert Soundbooth CS4. I uninstalled Soundbooth. So I thought. But every time I try to reinstall Photoshop, I am asked to insert Soundbooth CS4.
    HELP. I desperately need to reinstall Photoshop and naturally Adobe is closed until Monday.
    Note: I am on a Mac 10.5.4, 9 Gg RAM if that helps.

    We need more information.
    How to get help.

  • How can I reinstall CS/Bridge when they do not appear in NW's Control Panel programmed delete listing?

    Bridge in CS6 is returning the error message "Bridge has encountered a problem and cannot read the Cache."  Purging install the software.  However, for some unexplained reason, neither programme is listed under the programme delete option in W7 control Panel.  Is there any other way of safely deleting CS6 and Bridge so that I can reinstall both.

    Bridge does not have an uninstaller, because it does not have an installer. Bridge automatically gets installed when installing an Adobe application. Thus the only way to uninstall it is to remove the Adobe applications it is attached to. So you have to remove all CS6 applications to remove Bridge CS6. However, uninstalling Bridge will not purge its cache, this will be left behind. You can purge the cache at launch by holding down the Command+Option+Shift (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Win) while launching (you have to be quick to get the timing right). Choose the Purge Entire Thumbnail Cache option in the Reset Settings dialog that appears.

  • I reset my macbook pro. now I can't reinstall . please help

    I just reset my macbook pro. Now I can't reinstall because my apple ID has not purchased Lion..

    If your Macbook Pro installed Lion before resetting, you can reinstall Lion from recovery area of HDD.
    Start Mac with "option" key to select recovery HDD(or "command"+"R" key) then formatting with Disk Utility for reinstalling area.

  • CS3 Won't Run, Uninstall or Deactivate, Can't Reinstall; Junked.

    Windows XP Pro SP2
    2GB Ram
    Adobe CS3 Production Premium
    Thanks to Adobe's new licensing system I have a $1700 production suite that is completely useless.
    After a few weeks of working fine, it suddenly decided, for reasons unknown, to cease working. With the exception of Acrobat Reader, no portion of CS3 suite will load, all crash out with an error during the loading process, all with what appears to be an issue related to Flexnet licensing.
    I've tried following the crazy instructions regarding removing it, but not even Windows' Add/Remov eprograms can remove it because it needs to be deactivated first, but I can't do that because I can't load any CS3 application to deactivate it.
    When I tried manually removing all traces of CS3, including all the registry hacks Adobe barbarically suggests (rather inelegant for a supposedly industry profrssional product) the reinstallation goes awry and after it finally finishes, all applications still fail because it is supposedly not activated properly.
    At this point I can only assume that the product is merely junk and that Adobe simply does not care. (they have not suggested a real solution, only clumsy and idiotic suggestions to remove it manually and reinstall over and over).
    My last recourse is to completely format my hard drive, and completely reinstall Windows XP SP2 which is a major undertaking in and of itself, entailing a massive backup and reinstallation of all my software, as well as all my project and business information.
    Adobe (and Photoshop) have truly gone downhill since Photoshop 7, and I see very little of any value or worth in this "Creative Suite" as the only thing it seems to create is frustration and additional problems. Is this sort of licensing really stopping software pirates? Am I supposed to suffer through lost contracts and countless hours of frustration after paying nearly $2000 for the software so that some pirate can't use it? Why don't they have a standalone application that can handle activation/deactivation and installation repair? Flexnet is practically a system crippling virus. And why did the add/remove wizard force me to shut down Yahoo messenger before it could run, and then tell me it couldn't do anything anyway?
    This software is junk. Now I am forced to find a new product to edit my digital photography and create web and video content (hopefully for less than the $2000 I wasted on these discs that are now only good as beer coasters).
    -Mark

    >Any chance your firewall is blocking Flexnet?
    No, I had disabled the firewall entirely after the issue presented itself. When I initially installed CS3 for the very first time I gave it (and all Adobe products) full permissions to allow for updating and any other internet-related communications they might require. Initially everything installed correctly, activated properly and all applications worked fine. After two or three weeks everything suddenly failed. After trying to load Photoshop and getting the mysterious failure, I had tried running other apps and all CS3 specific apps failed, giving me my first clue that it was licensing related (especially in light of the fact that non CS3-specific Adobe apps *would* load, such as Flash Encoder, Acrobat, and mysteriously, Soundbooth).
    It's my belief that since the Flexnet licensing subsystem (which is crucial to running CS3) is prone to corruption, deletion or other conflicts, that there should be a standalone application that can perform a verification check for Flexnet activation and repair, registration and updating without requiring an Adobe CS3 app to be loaded. Especially since the deactivation procedure requires loading into a working CS3 app. I was told by a forum member that this is "the least of my worries" yet it is a concern for those who wish to minimize the amount of time spent calling customer service and dealing with installation and activation problems.
    It's most likely that something I installed, uninstalled or use, had caused a conflict or corruption in Flexnet thereby preventing CS3 from operating. Following Adobe's suggestions, I stopped and restarted Flexnet, and Photoshop asked me to reactivate, and the reactivation was successful, however the application still crashed when it got to the "Initializing Palettes..." loading stage. All other CS3 applications, at that point, also failed to load, and all gave the same error code (which also referenced adobeowl.dll).
    The Add/Remove system didn't work properly, and so I also followed other suggestions (as per Adobe) of manual removal, running CS3clean.exe and reinstalling, but that also failed to resolve the issue (twice running CS3clean.exe first at level 1 and then level 2, I hadn't bothered with level 3 at this point as there seems to be no trace of Adobe software on my system), and the applications gave the same errors after reinstallation, activation and attempting to launch.
    The last recourse suggested was a "low level format" as that would be the only way to ensure no remaining traces of activation, licensing or prior installation, and would generate a new and unique activation and installation environment. However, since the actual *problem* has not been determined (nobody seems to know *why* or *how* this has happened) I am extremely reluctant to take such an action if the problem is likely to crop up again.
    Since other people have reported the same problem, (not to mention many issues regarding installation problems) I really don't wish to spend hours backing up my system, formatting and reinstalling Windows, updating Windows, reinstalling every driver and software package and then gambling that Adobe *might* work properly after all that.
    Since there is obviously a conflict with some software I run, and the other software I run is software I own and use routinely, then it's evident that Adobe Flexnet licensing is unable to maintain a coherent and secure record of my ownership of the CS3 product. That being the case, I don't see any point in continuing to wrestle with it until such time as Adobe determines a cause for the problem and issues a fix for it (though I doubt they will, they don't seem concerned in the slightest). For now, CS3 is no longer a piece of software I can use effectively or rely upon to be part of my production pipeline. I'm looking into other options for my workflow, and recommending against CS3 (as a whole) in general, except on "clean" systems with virtually no other potentially conflicting non-OS software present.
    -Ma

  • I am trying to reinstall Dreamweaver CS3 from the CD after having computer issues.  Now getting error "You can only install one Adobe product at a time.  Please complete the other installation before attempting to install ......."  There is no other Adobe

    I am trying to reinstall Dreamweaver CS3 from the CD after having computer issues.  Now getting error "You can only install one Adobe product at a time.  Please complete the other installation before attempting to install ......."  There is no other Adobe product installing.  I have used the Adobe Cleaner Tool many times and uninstalled other Adobe Products but neither has worked.  I have uninstalled/reinstalled this CD version of Dreamweaver several times when changing computers and after having computer issues. A google search of the problem suggested it may be an error related to the number of times I can reinstall this product due to licensing issues.  Please help.

    A google search of the problem suggested it may be an error related to the number of times I can reinstall this product due to licensing issues.
    Absolutely not. You are misinterpreting things. The activation check never happens when just running the installer, only much later. It means what it says - there is another "install" pending/ active on your system, meaning somewhere there is an (invisible) process still blocking things. Either way, since you haven't provided any real technical info, we can't advise specifically. if you are on Windows, you may want to check your task manager and terminate any setup.exe and msiexec.exe processes plus potentially may need to manually fix/ delete some registry keys. For anything beyond that you will have to be much more specific.
    Mylenium

  • How can I reinstall parts of CS2 suite w/o harm to standalone AI CS3, CS4?

    On my G4 I have been using Photoshop CS2 from the suite, but over the years as disk space has gotten slim, I've deleted my InDesign and Illustrator CS2 folders to make space. Because the suite is expensive and unwieldy, I have upgraded Illustrator CS3 and CS4 as stand-alone applications (these are upgraded from my FreeHand 10 serial #).
    I used to have my applications scattered between two partitions on my hard disk but have enlarged the OS10 partition and shrunk the (rarely used) OS9 partition so there's room on the OS10 partition to put all my applications and files on one disk. Unfortunately, the last time I resized the partitions, I neglected to run a disk utility first, so had to reinstall OS 10.4.11.
    Nearly everything works again, except I seem to have lost some sort of permission or activation file for Photoshop CS2. (I've already thrown away the "previous operating system" that the reinstall saved). When I try to reinstall or reactivate Photoshop from my CS2 suite installation disk, the installer thinks I still have all the applications installed (except Version Cue, which I seem to have successfully deleted entirely once upon a time). There is no option in the installer to restore/refresh/reinstall a program I've already installed (i.e. if I damaged a file).
    I can find "uninstallers" for CS3 and CS4 applications, but all I have for CS2 is the PDF with instructions for how to chase down and delete a dozen or so files from libraries and preference folders. Some of these are easy to find. (They tend to have 2005 and 2006 creation dates). Other files and folders seem to be intermingled with items installed by (and NEEDED by) Illustrator CS3 and CS4. So I am reluctant to delete every last file on the PDF instructions.
    Is there a specific file or folder I should delete that will make the CS2 installer think there are no CS2 applications already installed? I'm happy to do a complete reinstall, but I'd like to not have to reinstall my later copies of Illustrator too. (Mac OS 10.4.11, PPC chip)
    At this point I've deleted about 2/3 of the items on the uninstall instructions, and I've emptied the trash, but no luck re-installing. Any ideas?
    Thanks - Ben

    Oops! Housekeeping again. When cleaning out my old drive partition, I had left the CS2 applications in the old applications folder, and copied the contents to the main applications folder. I intended to hang onto the old CS2 files until I was sure they were no longer needed, or the new ones worked; instead I forgot about them.
    Although I had deleted the CS2 files from the new application folder, the installation disk detected the ones in the old location, and wouldn't let me install new ones. I erased those files and it's now reinstalling properly.
    Thanks for your help.

  • Can't reinstall CS3

    windows crashed / reinstalled
    reinstalled CS3 but couldn't "deactivate" so now won't let me run program
    chat support tells me they can no longer help because it's old product... so now I can't use/reinstall CS3 or PS-CS3
    ouch

    That's simply not true.
    Follow the on-screen instructions and call the number for activation when appears there.
    Support can be slightly pig-headed when it comes to this, but don't take "we can't help" for an answer because that is simply NOT true.
    I've had to be very stern with support when it comes to activation issues with CS3/CS4. But they can absolutely give you the proper codes to activate.
    Support CAN help with activation for CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6 and CC. It's only CS2 and older they can't help with (because activation for these versions is not required any longer)

  • Can't reinstall CS3.  "All Components Fail to Install"

    I had been running CS3 on Windows Vista 32. First received, out of the blue, the dreaded error that licensing had stopped working.  Was not able to rectify by the long list of ususual means.  Finally was instructed by adobe tech support to uninstall CS3 and reinstall.  Uninstall apparently successful (confirmed with Microsoft Fixit Tool that did find and fix some registry errors).  Can't reinstall CS3 either from DVD or from desktop.  Receive status report after install script finishes:  "All Components Failed to Install."  I have spent over 23 hours on this problem to no avail.  PLEASE HELP!

    Thanks for the reply, but I did all that already.  After much research and seeing what's worked for others, below is a rundown of what I've already tried...  (much of my process below came from http://na-na-sa-ra.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-re-install-adobe-cs3-after.html which I too had found and had hoped would help.)
    After attempting to uninstall CS3 from the control panel, I ran the Adobe CS3-5 cleaner, numerous times selecting various listed options during the script run.  After running each time, I ran the MS Fixit tool (http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall) that reportedly will "fix problems with programs that can't be installed or uninstalled".   After each run of the MS Fixit tool, I attempted to reinstall CS3 - the install script would run for a good long while, showing (slow) progression of a status bar, but in the end give a status report saying that all components failed to install.  Even though complete installation failed, Adobe CS3 would be on the list of programs in the control panel, so I would repeat an "uninstall" from the the control panel, and rerun the MS Fixit tool.  Sometimes the MS Fixit tool would find/correct problems, othertimes it would report that no problems were found.  I repeated this procedure for all the options given in the CS Cleaner Tool script without success.  Thinking it might be a problem with attempting to install from the DVD (which has never been a problem before), it was suggested to try installation from the desktop (copied all DVD files to a desktop folder).  Repeated the entire above process using the "desktop files" instead of the DVD.  No luck.  (...and phoning Adobe tech support was not productive - they sent me here to the forums.)
    Really appreciate you trying to help.  Have any other suggestions?

Maybe you are looking for