Sometimes using Creative Cloud is anything be seamless.

I really like Creative Cloud. And I think that Adobe’s subscription approach is the right way to go. But one thing that has to improve is the reliablity of the Creative Cloud desktop app that acts as app installer, sync engine and type installer.

When I went to export my files for this week’s “On Typekit,” none of my Typekit fonts were activated. The Creative Cloud desktop app was prompting me for an update to itself. I clicked the button for it to update, since I wasn’t getting anything done without updating. The update process started and then failed, giving me an error code, 1001.

A link with the error code took me to an Adobe help document with a list of error codes, which led me to another page that presented three solutions to try in order:

Uninstall the Adobe Creative Cloud app and reinstall it.
Run the Adobe CC Cleaner Tool.
Reinstall the Creative Cloud desktop app using an administrator account.

Restarting the app yielded a blank panel with a spinning wheel of doom.*

The Creative Cloud desktop app isn't exactly reliable.

This isn’t the first time the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop app has flaked out on me. It seems to happen a few times a year. And each time, I reinstall the desktop app and it will be fixed. It’s not hard to manually reinstall the desktop app, but it is annoying.

There are a couple of things that are frustrating with this. First of all, an error code? That I have to look up on a list of error codes? Reminds me of Mac OS 7. Adobe could have easily linked me directly to the solution.

The bigger issue is that if one of the big selling points of the Creative Cloud subscription is auto installation, syncing and access to services like Typekit, then the desktop app has to work seamlessly. And right now it doesn’t at all.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge Cubs fan and with the Cubs in the World Series, I don’t have time to deal with this in time to get this week’s “On Typekit” post up. So I’ll get back to it next week.

Hopefully, I’ll have Creative Cloud fixed by then.

* Or whatever. That's what I call it.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. In his spare time, he reinstalls the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop app for fun. Follow Bob on Twitter and Instagram.