Completely uninstall Adobe CS5

I once installed Adobe CS 5 as a Trial but now I pre-ordered the new suite. I've deleted the Adobe CS 5 suite, and installed the new suite. But whenever I try to open photoshop for example, the Software Setup pops up and tells me my trial of CS 5 has expired and I need to enter a serial.
I don't know if it will accept my CS 6 serial, but I first want to get rid of all (!) the CS 5 files.

I've tried the Adobe CS Cleaner tool, deleting the .cache and .pcd file in /Application Support/Adobe/Adobe PCD, but it's still asking for a serial... So I'm guessing there are still some files somewhere.

So, how do I delete ALL files of Adobe CS 5, so I can start over with a fresh copy of CS 6?


I'd start with the actual uninstaller rather than the cleaner.

  • http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/uninstall-creative-suite-cs5-cs5.html

Adobe does do deep integration, and I've been known to just walk away from machines with too much adobe on them. If you feel the uninstaller isn't getting things clean enough, you can take it a step further as follows:

  • Perform a clean install of the OS
  • use Migration Assistant to bring in the user account rather than setting up a new user on the "clean" Mac
  • download the uninstaller onto the new admin account

At that point, you can run the uninstaller to clean out any ~/Library plugins that might be installed. It's overkill, but sometimes a clean start is better than trying to let uninstallers find every copy of files that have been zipped, moved, linked, etc...


Some of this may be repetitive but follow these steps and you should have absolutely positively NO trace of Adobe left on your computer.

  • Remove all Adobe fonts from /System/Library/Fonts, /Library/Fonts/, ~/Library/Fonts

  • Remove all these additional fonts from the same folders:

    WarnockPro-Bold.otf                WarnockPro-LightDisp.otf          WarnockPro-BoldCapt.otf           WarnockPro-LightIt.otf             WarnockPro-BoldDisp.otf           WarnockPro-LightItCapt.otf        WarnockPro-BoldIt.otf              WarnockPro-LightItDisp.otf        WarnockPro-BoldItCapt.otf         WarnockPro-LightItSubh.otf     WarnockPro-BoldItDisp.otf        WarnockPro-LightSubh.otf          WarnockPro-BoldItSubh.otf      WarnockPro-Regular.otf            WarnockPro-BoldSubh.otf          WarnockPro-Semibold.otf        WarnockPro-Capt.otf                  WarnockPro-SemiboldCapt.otf   WarnockPro-Disp.otf                WarnockPro-SemiboldDisp.otf   WarnockPro-It.otf                       WarnockPro-SemiboldIt.otf      WarnockPro-ItCapt.otf                WarnockPro-SemiboldItCapt.otf WarnockPro-ItDisp.otf              WarnockPro-SemiboldItDisp.otf WarnockPro-ItSubh.otf               WarnockPro-SemiboldItSubh.otf WarnockPro-Light.otf              WarnockPro-SemiboldSubh.otf  WarnockPro-LightCapt.otf        WarnockPro-Subh.otf                

  • Search for and remove any files labeled 'Adobe' or 'Macromedia in all of these folders

$find . -name "*adobe*" -print
    /Applications                       /System/Library/
    ~/Applications                      ~/Documents/
    /Applications/Utilities             ~/Library/
    ~/Applications/Utilities            ~/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/Adobe
    ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.adobe
    ~/Library/Internet Plug-ins/Adobe
  • Remove these explicit folders
    ~/Documents/Updater/
    ~/Library/Acrobat User Data/
    ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe
    ~/Library/Applications/Macromedia
    ~/Library/Application Support/Macromedia
    ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe PDF
    ~/Library/Caches/Acrobat
    ~/Library/Caches/Adobe
    ~/Library/Caches/Opera Cache
    ~/Library/Preferences/Acrobat
    ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe
    ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe
    ~/Library/Preferences/com.adobe
    ~/Library/Preferences/com.adobe
    ~/Library/Preferences/com.macromedia
    ~/Library/Preferences/Dreamweaver
    ~/Library/Preferences/Opera Preferences
    ~/Library/PreferencePanes/AdobeVersionCue
    ~/Library/receipts/com.adobe
    ~/Library/StartupItems/AdobeVersionCue
  • Search for and delete the following files and/or folders:
    ACE2CACHE
    Acrobat
    Acrobat Webcapture Cookies
    Adobe
    Adobe GoLive 7.0 Prefs
    Adobe Illustrator CS Settings
    Adobe InDesign
    Adobe Photoshop 8.0 Paths
    Adobe Photoshop CS Settings
    Adobe UM
    Com.Adobe.Acrobat.Pro6.0.plist
    Com.Adobe.Acrobat.Pro7.0.plist
    Adobe Registration Database
    Adobe Installer.tmp
  • Open terminal
sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/*
  • Restart