This article provides guidance for MassArt community members on how to backup Adobe Creative Cloud data, or migrate it to personal Adobe Creative Cloud account.

Account expiration information

Important Update for 2022, 2023 and 2024 graduates:

We have extended access to massart.edu Adobe Creative Cloud accounts for recent graduates until October 8th, 2024. Specifically, any student who graduated between January 1, 2022 and July 7, 2024 will continue to have access to their massart.edu Adobe Creative Cloud account until October 8th.

Students who graduated after July 1, 2024 will have a 90-days from their Degree Completion Date to retrieve data from their massart.edu Adobe Creative Cloud account. 

NOTES:

• The Degree Completion Date is the official graduation date for any student at MassArt. This date is managed and maintained by the Registrar's Office, and is not the same as the date of Commencement. Check with the Registrar if you are not sure of your official graduation date.
• The official graduation date can vary depending on degree, certificate, or program requirements - check with an administrator or chair to determine the anticipated or actual official graduation date. 

Disclaimers

Please be advised of the following:

• There will be no extensions granted after your account has been deactivated, for any reason. Any request to extend beyond the deactivation date of your accont will be denied. 
• MassArt assumes no liability or responsibility for your data. You assume all responsibility for ensuring your data is backed up before your account is deactivated. Make sure you have provided enough time to backup your data, particularly If you have a large amount of data stored in your massart.edu account, or an affiliated service tied to your masssart.edu account.
• MassArt assumes no liability or responsibility, and does not provide any warranty or guarantee of any kind, about the usability, performance, functionality, or fitness for a particular purpose, of any resource, product, service, system, application or set of instructions offered by a third-party, including but not limited to tools provided by Adobe.
• MassArt does not control, and does not have the ability to alter, the performance, functionality, effectiveness or accuracy of third-party vendors’ offerings of any kind as described herein, or in any other guidance, communication or documentation provided by MassArt..
• Any guidance provided by MassArt is provided solely for your reference and educational purposes only. It is your responsibility to determine the best options that suit your particular needs. 
• We have received feedback from several alums that downloading files can take some time and may require hours or days to complete successfully, using either download or migration features. Our recommendation is that you start the backup process immediately. 

Access your account and assess the data

We encourage all users to review data stored in the their Adobe Creative Cloud accounts, delete files that are no longer needed, and backup or migrate files they wish to save. Users may consider downloading their data directly to the personal computer’s hard drive, to an external storage device, or migrating the files to a personal Adobe Creative Cloud account.

Backup and migration options

Users will need to consider which option is the best solution for their particular needs and should be advised that costs will vary depending on the amount of storage needed. Some users may find that a combination of the options below, or others not listed here, may be the best option. 

External Storage devices

Consider downloading Adobe CC files to your computer’s hard drive, or to an external storage device with sufficient capacity to store an archive of all user's Adobe Creative Cloud data. Prices for external storage devices vary, but users can expect to pay between $50-$200 for drives ranging in size from 500gb-4tb. Below are some links to storage devices:

• BH Photo’s top-rated hard drives 

• PCMag The Best External Hard Drives for 2024

• Tom’s Guide The best external hard drives in 2024

Online storage options are also an option for users who wish to continue storing data in the cloud. These articles can provide more information about online storage vendors, options, and pricing: 

• PC Magazine The Best Cloud Storage and File-Sharing Services for 2024

• CNET World Backup Day 2024: Best Cloud Storage Software Options

• Techradar The best cloud storage of 2024

Generally speaking, external storage devices are cheaper over time, as online storage and backup services are subscription-based.

Migrating your files and other data to a Personal Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe has published several articles which may be useful for migrating files, libraries, or other assets from a variety of Adobe Creative Cloud applications. 

• Student File Transfer
  • To access this tool, you need to log out of Adobe CC, or use a different browser which is not logged into Adobe CC, before accessing this tool.  
• Transfer files across accounts or profiles

Manually downloading your files

1. Open the Adobe Creative Cloud application on your computer on on the web:
   
   -or-
   Log into Adobe on the web at https://www.adobe.com/ using your MassArt NetID/email and password.
2. In the upper left corner of the window, click on the Files icon, and then click the Your Files icon
3. Right click (Windows OS) or control-click (macOS) on the file you want to download, and choose Download from the drop-down menu that appears.
   
4. You will be prompted to where you would like to save your file.