How to Request Access to Creative Cloud

Request Creative Cloud for Students License
NOTE: For student educational/instructional use. Request must be submitted by an instructor or academic department.

Request Creative Cloud Licensing for Cornell Employees
NOTE: For University business/administrative use. Includes student employees.

License Details

Cornell University has an Enterprise Term License (ETLA) for the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps Plan. Cornell staff and faculty with a documented business need may also receive access to the the full Creative Cloud All Apps Plan under individual (Named-User) licensing. Named-User licensing provides you with a personal license allowing you to install and use Creative Cloud on any computer. 

Please note that the ETLA has a maximum number of individuals to whom Cornell may provision a CC All Apps Plan license. CU Software Licensing asks that departments please use their best judgment on business need before asking for a license. 

If you are a technical support provider (TSP) looking for information about deploying Creative Cloud in your department, please see the Creative Cloud for TSPs article.

Please see Cornell's Adobe Licensing FAQ article for answers to specific questions.

What Is Included

The Creative Cloud All Apps plan includes all desktop applications that are part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. This includes Acrobat Pro, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Premiere Pro, and many other applications. The license also includes all Adobe Creative Cloud online collaborative tools and Adobe CC mobile apps, along with 100 GB of Adobe Cloud Storage for your Adobe documents. See Cornell's Adobe Licensing article for a list of all of the Creative Cloud apps included in this plan.

If you only need to edit PDF documents or combine multiple PDFs into a single document, you do not need the All Apps Plan. Instead, you should apply for an Acrobat Pro license.

Eligibility

Cornell Employees

Access to the Creative Cloud All Apps Plan or the Acrobat Pro DC standalone plan can be granted to regular full-time, part-time, temporary, and student employees of Cornell University at the Ithaca and Cornell Tech campuses. The license may cover external contractors at Cornell who are performing duties similar to those of an employee. The license may also cover employees of some Cornell-affiliated institutions located on the Ithaca campus, including the Boyce Thompson Institute, the USDA Robert W. Holley Center, the ROTC program at Cornell University, and Cornell Alumni Magazine. Continued access to the license is contingent upon employment and may be canceled by the request of the employee's department.

Cornell Students

Registered students at Cornell University with a documented academic need to use Creative Cloud software may be granted access to an instructional-use license on a semester-by-semester basis. All requests must originate from an instructor or Cornell academic department. Continued access to the license is contingent upon student registration, and will expire a few weeks after the end of the semester.

Weill Cornell Medical College

The Weill Cornell Medical College has its own independent agreement with Adobe for Creative Cloud. Weill staff and faculty should check with either their departmental IT staff or with the Weill ITS Department for more information on Creative Cloud at Weill.

Creative Cloud All Apps Plan

Restrictions

The Creative Cloud All Apps Plan is licensed for Cornell staff and faculty that have a documented business need for the software. That determination is made by the employee's department. Creative Cloud software can be installed by eligible individual staff and faculty under individual (Named-User) licensing.

The ETLA also provides a separate campus allotment of Creative Cloud Classroom/Lab Licenses. Unlike the standard Named-User license, Classroom/Lab licenses are installed with a Serial Number onto a specific Cornell-owned computer located on Cornell premises. Any individual who has access to a computer with a Creative Cloud Classroom/Lab license may use the software, and does not require a personal license. More information about Creative Cloud Classroom/Lab licensing can be found in the Creative Cloud for Technical Support Providers article.

After your request for a Creative Cloud license has been approved by your department, you will receive a confirmation notice from CU Software Licensing that your license request is in process. Later that day, you will receive a separate confirmation and welcome notice from Adobe. The message from Adobe will include an embedded link to activate your account. When you follow that embedded link, please sign in with your [email protected] email address. If asked to choose an account, choose Company or School Account, then sign in using your Cornell NetID and password.

Download and Install

Install on a Cornell-owned Computer

To install Creative Cloud software on your Cornell-owned computer, please work with your department's local IT support team. Most personnel at Cornell do not have sufficient access rights to install software without the assistance of their local IT support team.

Install on a Personally-owned Computer

Your Adobe Creative Cloud license also allows you to install the software on computers that are your personal property. You can download the installer from the Adobe website.

You will sign in to Adobe with your Cornell credentials. If given the option, please be sure to choose "Company or School Account." At sign-in, you will be brought to a Cornell-branded CUWebLogin page with Two-Step Login. Please sign in with your regular NetID and Password.

For detailed instructions for installing and using Adobe Creative Cloud software on your personally-owned computer, please see the User Guide on Adobe's support website.

Troubleshooting

If you receive a “License Expired” error, are prompted to start a trial license, or are prompted to purchase a license, you have most likely signed in to Creative Cloud with the wrong account. Please select Help -> Sign Out, then confirm that you wish to exit all Adobe services. Then, please start Creative Cloud again and follow the instructions to Sign in to Adobe Products with CUWebLogin. 

If you are still unable to use Creative Cloud after signing in with CUWebLogin, please contact the IT Service Desk for assistance.