Interdependency Between Creative Suite 3 and Creative Suite 4
Some recent postings on the Creative Suite Mac User to User forum point to some interdependencies between installations of Adobe Creative Suite 3 and Adobe Creative Suite 4. I’m not sure whether this is a cross-platform issue, or Macintosh only, but I thought I’d bring it up here to elicit further discussion. Robert Levine expressed the opinion in the thread that this was a Mac-only issue.
Here’s the posting from A. Amri that starts the thread on the user forum:
I installed parts of Creative Suite CS3 on my system (just the basics, PS, ID, Illustrator, etc.). Later on I just got Photoshop CS4 and installed that. Now, months later, I want to instally the rest of CS 3 on my system, yet half way through Disk 1, it ejects the disk and asks me to install the InDesign CS4 disk. I don’t have InDesign CS4! I did install the trial version but then uninstalled it.
And one of the forum moderators, Neil Keller, added:
On a slightly different note, on my well-maintained system, I had the Master Collection CS3 on my Mac; then installed the Master Collection CS4. When I recently decided to uninstall most of CS3 (per instructions), I found that for a few CS4 apps, I had to enter my password the first time I launched them. But Photoshop would tell me some scripts were missing, and the solution was to uninstall Photoshop CS4 and reinstall it.
These comments suggest that there are some interdependencies between the CS3 and CS4 components. The suggestion that those of us on the forum have been giving to issues like this on the Mac forums is:
- Completely uninstall all CS4 components using the Adobe Installer. On the Mac, the installer/uninstaller is located at Applications > Utilities > Adobe Installers.
- Then install any CS3 components you need, and update the components.
- Finally, reinstall your CS4 components again, and install any necessary updates.
Please share your experiences if you have both Adobe Creative Suite 3 and Adobe Creative Suite 4 installed.
I currently have CS2, CS3, and CS4 installed on my mac system (and a few others systems Mac and PC). My experience has been that I have to install CS2, then CS3, then CS4. I uninstalled Photoshop CS2 awhile ago, and when I tired in reinstall it, it refused since I already had CS3 on my system. Short of uninstalling everything and starting over, my advise is to install everything in the earliest version first, then work your way up.
Hi, Steve.
If you remember, a few months ago (right before the InD Conference Master Class) I reported the same problems via Twitter and Facebook. On both Windows and Mac I had issues with getting CS, CS2, and CS3 to work with CS4–beta, GM, or shipping.
I followed Adobe’s removal instructions to the letter, used the scripts and third party uninstallers, but couldn’t get CS4 to coexist peaceably on any system with a pre-existing CS3 install.
On the Macs I had to completely remove all traces of all Adobe apps, then install from the oldest to the latest. Everything worked until InCopy CS4 fouled up Creative Suite 3 and 4. Eventually I got that working.
On Windows, nothing would cure the issue. I had to reformat my main Windows XP machine, getting clean installs of CS1-CS4. My XP laptop, which never had a beta or GM release for CS3 or CS4 installed on it, is still waiting for reformat. Neither CS3 nor CS4 will currently work on it. Installing CS3 demands the CS4 disk, which fails when I insert the CS4 disk. Again, cleaned off the system per Adobe’s instructions, but no luck. Someday soon I’ll have to reformat that laptop and spend a few days getting it back to work-ready.
Hi, Pariah,
Thanks for posting that account here. I get most of my InDesign news from the very active User to User forums, and at InDesignSecrets.com, or by email. I don’t have a FaceBook account, and I’m not a Twitterer so I missed your prior postings. There are getting to0 be many communication routes these days, and I don’t have time to log into all them.
I ran into none of those problems installing CS4 on top of CS3 on any of my computers, Mac or PC. But I did run into the uninstall issue on one of my Macs.
Given that when I installed CS3 over a year ago it clearly stated that once I did so, it wouldn’t allow me to go back and install CS2, I just assumed that CS4 was the same – and apparently it is.
James,
I don’t have the ReadMe handy for CS3, but I just looked at the ReadMe files for CS4, and no where that I found does it talk about any limitations of installing or uninstalling previous versions of the Suite. Can you be more specific about where you read that, and what exactly it said.
Steve
Wait, are you saying that to install an upgrade to CS4 (say after having formatted your computer) you must install CS3 first, or are you just saying that if you need both CS3 and CS4 you ought to install in the correct versioning order?
I’m saying that it appears that you need to install (or reinstall) CS3 first, then install (or reinstall) CS4 or you may run into problems.
Roland, if you’re to run both, then it would seem sensible to install in order, but the way I read this, the problems start when you uninstall something.
I have to admit, I’m just amused to consider that for once it’s us Windows users that needn’t worry.
In all fairness though, I did lose some Photoshop file associations, (and thus IDCS3’s Edit Original function), when I uninstalled the PSCS4 trail.
My experience with the CS3/CS4 transition was the same as Neil Keller’s, and not like Pariah’s. For a few months I was working with the CS4 pre-release but also needed CS3 so I could save down InDesign CS4 files for use at printers and such (at least one had trouble with the CS4 INX file).
So for these months I had both installed, and noticed no problem. Uninstalling CS3 also worked without a hitch, but I do recall Photoshop CS4 missing some components afterwards which required a reinstallation.