Adobe "Can't Administer Apps" Fix

I'm getting a "Can't Administer Apps" error when trying to download Adobe Rush, Premiere Pro, etc.

That error that you are seeing is an unfortunate relic that we’ve been running into on certain Adobe installs around campus. The wording makes it sound like it’s something to do with the permissions on your account, but it’s really just an install that added the wrong preference file on your computer. Fixing it just involves opening that specific text file and changing the word “false” to “true”.

 

This video walks through the process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyphY4QJk44 Links to an external site.

The steps shown in that video boil down to this:

1. In File Explorer, navigate down to the following folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\OOBE\Configs

1. Drag the ServiceConfig file to your Desktop
2. Open the file in Notepad (right-click and choose Open With…)
3. Change the word False to True, and save the file
4. Drag the file back to the Configs folder
5. Reboot your PC
6. Once the computer has restarted, your Creative Cloud app will not allow you to install and manage your Adobe apps

 

If you or a coworker also need the same fix for a Mac, this video shows how to find the same file on macOS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xJ36xe8JOY Links to an external site.