Macintosh Updates

Updater-Mac (Macintosh Updates)

These preferences control how the Updater works for the Acrobat family of products 9.2 and 8.1.7 and later. Earlier product versions used the Adobe Update Manager (AUM).

This preference category contains the following subfeature(s):

Updater (basic settings)
Updater (other settings)
Updater logging

Updater (basic settings)

These settings disable the Updater and set the update mode for Acrobat.

Summary table

bUpdater	Disables and locks the Updater and removes associated user interface items.
UpdateMode	Specifies whether to check for updates on startup and at a regular interval.

bUpdater

0 (bool)

10.1.1+

Library/Preferences/com.adobe.Acrobat.Pro.plist

Summary

Disables and locks the Updater and removes associated user interface items.

Details

Manually create this key at the root of the file to override UpdateMode. A value of 1 does nothing. Possible values include:

0: Disable and lock the Updater.
1: No effect.

GUI mapping

Disabling the Updater removes these UI items: Preferences > Updater; Help > Check for Updates

1 (int)

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/ARMDC/Registered Products/com.adobe.(product name).(track name).plist

Lock Path

Not lockable

Summary

Specifies whether to check for updates on startup and at a regular interval.

Details

Acrobat only. This is the default preference for controlling updates. To override it, create bUpdater. For DC and later products, this new preference replaces those used in previous releases. Possible values include:

0: Don't check for updates.
3: Automatically download and install updates.

This feature lockdown file is not shipped with the product. Admins create and deploy this file to override product defaults. For configuration and deployment details, refer to the Enterprise Administration Guide.

GUI mapping

N/A

Updater logging

Summary table

AcroPatchLogLevel	Configures logging to provide debugging output.
LogLevel	For 12.x and later products, sets the log level to either brief (0) or verbose (1).
LogLevel	For 11.x and earlier products, sets the log level to either brief (0) or verbose (1).

1 (int)

com.adobe.ARMDC.plist and com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.plist

Lock Path

Not lockable

Summary

For 12.x and later products, sets the log level to either brief (0) or verbose (1).

Details

The log file is a file generated and appended to at runtime with status, operational, and error information describing what the Updater is doing. This information helps diagnose runtime problems and should be included with any support requests. Logging behaves as follows:

Logging cannot be disabled.
Logs reside at ${HOME}/Library/Logs/Adobe/.
Log files are Acrobat Update Helper DC.log and Acrobat Update DC.log.
Log file size is not limited during an update.
Log files are appended to each time the Updater runs. If an existing log is bigger than 1 MB, the logs contents is moved to a file marked as "old". For example, Acrobat Update DC-old.log.

Set the log level as follows:

0: Brief
1: Verbose

N/A

1 (int)

9.2-11.x

com.adobe.ARM.plist

Not lockable

For 11.x and earlier products, sets the log level to either brief (0) or verbose (1).

Details

Logging cannot be disabled.
Logs reside at ${HOME}/Library/Logs/Adobe/{application name}
The log file is Updater.log.
Log file size is not limited during an update.
Log files are appended to each time the Updater runs. If an existing log is bigger than 1 MB, the Updater truncates the log. There is a 1MB limit on old logs.
Old log files are backed up once as Adobe Acrobat/Reader Updater-old.log and overwrites any existing old.log. There should never be more than two logs on the system.

Set the log level as follows:

0: Brief
1: Verbose

N/A

4 (string)

debug

10.0+

com.adobe.acrobat.InstallerOverrides.plist

Lock Path

Not lockable

Summary

Configures logging to provide debugging output.

Details

Manually create this key to get more information about command line installations. The value should be set to "debug"

GUI mapping

N/A

Updater (other settings)

Summary table

CheckForUpdatesAtStartup	Specifies whether to check for updates on startup.
CheckForUpdatesModeAtStartup	Specifies whether to check for update mode on startup.
LastCheck-{hash of app location}	Records the last time the Updater checked for updates.
noServerContactDays	Sets the time that can elapse without a successful update before the Watchdog dialog appears suggesting the user manually update.

1 (int)

135

10.0+

AdobeARMOverrides.plist

Lock Path

Not lockable

Summary

Sets the time that can elapse without a successful update before the Watchdog dialog appears suggesting the user manually update.

Details

When the Updater successfully obtains a manifest it records the download date. The noServerContactDays preference specifies the time interval that is allowed to pass from that download date to a a successful update. The default is 135 days. If thetime has elapsed, a dialog appears suggesting the user might want to manually get an update from adobe.com. In 12.x and later products, this value is hard coded and cannot be changed.

GUI mapping

N/A

LastCheck-{hash of app location}

1 (int)

null

9.2+

com.adobe.ARM.plist

Not lockable

Records the last time the Updater checked for updates.

Details

Not user modifiable. By default, the Updater checks for updates every 3 days. When invoked, it reads and uses the value in this key. If more than 3 days have elapsed, it checks for updates against the server value. The 3 day default can be overridden by the StartInterval key.

GUI mapping

N/A

CheckForUpdatesAtStartup