Creative Cloud Assets Lose Features Without Prior Notification
Users of Creative Cloud assets in North America have been surprised to find out this week that unannounced interface changes have (at least temporarily) removed some features which were being actively used by Creative Cloud customers.
The Versioning History and the Search field are missing. The Versioning History was found in the Activity panel (Figure 1) and let you keep up to 10 days’ worth of versions of Creative Cloud files. This wasn’t much, but it could save your tail if you deleted something by accident.
Figure 1: Previously you could save up to 10 days of revisions to Creative Cloud files in the Activities panel but this is now discontinued.
Other categories like Libraries and Mobile Creations have not been moved to new interface. For example, when you click on Libraries you’ll see a message, “Libraries aren’t here yet but we’re moving them soon.” When you click on a button, you’re taken back to a different URL where they are displayed in the old interface.
Anne-Marie discovered the changes in the Creative Cloud assets interface and posted about it on Twitter Thursday, April 19, when she noticed posts on the Creative Cloud user forums asking if the versioning features were gone. The changes apparently happened this week.
There was no prior notification of the changes and the announcement was extremely low-key, only a tweet on Wednesday from @creativecloud that led to a blog which described the changes. Considering the fact that some people may depend on the versioning feature, this is pretty shocking!
The New Creative Cloud Assets Interface
You can get to the Creative Cloud assets webpage by choosing assets.adobe.com, or by clicking on the Creative Cloud Files link on your Adobe.com entry page when you’re logged in with your Adobe ID.
The first time you enter the new interface, you’ll be greeted with the message in Figure 2.
Figure 2: When you enter the new Creative Cloud assets interface, you’ll be greeted with this message.
The interface is cleaner and better organized (see Figure 3). One commentator said that it now looks more like Dropbox.
Figure 3: The new interface is cleaner and more “Dropbox-like.”
Here are some of the other changes. Missing and moved features are promised to return in time:
- With the Activity section missing, its components are moved to different locations: Sharing notifications are shown in a bell icon at the top of the page. Help is found under your Profile icon. You can manage your quota on the bottom left.
- The Archived section under Files has been moved to a new Deleted section.
- Search and version history are missing but are supposed to return in the middle of 2018.
- The Recent section is also missing and is supposed to be back in the “next few months”
- The Libraries and Mobile Creations sections are supposed to be integrated “later in 2018”
One other piece of good news: Creative Cloud and Libraries now have a UserVoice website where bugs and feature requests can be made: https://creativecloudassets.uservoice.com
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I have to say I’m shocked and angered that Adobe would make this kind of unexpected and unannounced change. It’s not fair to the worldwide CC community, and it damages user trust.
i had the same feeling when receiving a public message from Adobe that Muse is kicked out. Well adobe came kinda back on that, but it is development stopped.
Your right David, it is damaging the user trust.
This sort of behavior is why I never tried Muse, why I never tried DPS, why I’ve only played with Publish Online. Adobe now has a very, very lengthy blemished track record of introducing features and discontinuing them.
If Adobe had applied its current M.O. to the launch of InDesign, it would have been discontinued in two years. Not until CS — about six years into the product’s history — did anyone I know even try it. I got a copy of InDesign 2.0 as a free rebate with the purchase of a Quicksilver G4 Power Mac. I cracked it open and played with it but would never have dreamed of switching from QuarkXPress.
This sort of nonsense reminds me of the crisis of confidence I had — and my clients had — in Quark, the company, circa 2003. (Once my largest book design client announced it was migrating, it gave me a reason to switch, and I never looked back.)
In short, this type of business strategy is extremely unnerving to consumers. Even if we aren’t actually using the products or functionality, it doesn’t mean we’re not paying attention.