Posted August 9th, 2008, in: Computer Problems and Fixes| Technology

When trying to install Adobe AIR on my Mac running 10.5.4, I was getting this annoying message:

 

Adobe AIR Installer requires Adobe AIR to be installed.  What?

Error: Adobe AIR Installer requires Adobe AIR to be installed. What?

 

 

This application requires Adobe AIR to function. Please download the latest version of the runtime from http://www.adobe.com/go/getair, then launch the application again.

Which is weird because why would Adobe AIR require Adobe AIR to install?  Isn’t that like… impossible?

I found the solution!

 

  1. Open System Preferences. 
  2. Click on International.
  3. Click on Edit List
  4. Check Or Uncheck a Language (In other words, change something)
  5. Hit OK to save the changes
  6. Adobe AIR will now install!

 

For Adobe AIR Installation, open System Preferences and click International

For Adobe AIR Installation, open System Preferences and click International

 

 

 

 

 

OSX Adobe AIR Installer Works Now!

OSX Adobe AIR Installer Works Now!

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42 Responses to “OSX Adobe AIR Installation Problem SOLVED”

 
Jared wrote on August 16th, 2008 2:47 pm :

Hey, just wanted to let you know. I was having problems installing AIR on my G4 powermac running 10.4.11, and getting NO error message (“bus error” if you opened it up through terminal) and this seemed to also fix my problem.

Chris wrote on August 30th, 2008 9:15 pm :

Yeah! I don’t know how you figured this out, but I was getting the same warning box but in Japanese. You were right, just clicking off and on a check box in System Preferences/International did the trick.
Thanks!

G4 Powerbook w/Leopard 10.5.4

Ruth wrote on September 9th, 2008 10:08 am :

MacBookPro 10.5.4

Had same problem attempting to install Air as mentioned here and in the comments below the installer downloads pages on Adobe.com. I miss read Adobe’s support instructions to uninstall and then try again and deleted the uninstaller. I was really stuck.

I started a case with Adobe technical support and was given this web page in Adobe’s first response to my case. I came here, followed the instructions and all is well. Very important, I went to the download area of Adobe.com again and successfully installed an update. I suggest everyone check for that too.

Thank you so much for all your help. I hope others find this and are helped too. P.S. I suggested to the Adobe tech that they post this in their support area and give you proper credit.

Good Luck all!

Antoine wrote on September 15th, 2008 5:33 am :

I can’t thank you enough. This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen but it did the trick.

Andrew wrote on September 26th, 2008 4:42 pm :

Thank you! Thank you for solving this problem.

Oliver Goldman wrote on September 30th, 2008 1:08 pm :

Just wanted to let you all know we believe this problem has been addressed in the next release. It seems to occur only on a very small number of Mac OS systems, which is why we didn’t catch it before this release.

For those who are wondering about the strange error message in this case: The message was designed to be used when an AIR-based application is started on a machine on which the AIR runtime can’t be loaded, usually because AIR has been uninstalled. The installer also loads the runtime, but since it loads a copy of the runtime embedded in the installer, that load *should* never fail. When it does, however, it goes down the same error handling path and displays this incongruous message.

regards,
Oliver Goldman | Adobe AIR Engineering

Andrew A. Peterson wrote on September 30th, 2008 1:15 pm :

Oliver,
Great of you to address this thing here. Glad you guys at Adobe are listening to the blogosphere. Good PR policy.

Hari Jayaram wrote on October 1st, 2008 11:52 am :

Your documented solution worked perfectly. Its amazing what goes on in the world of software. Write once run everywhere is such a pipe dream.
Thanks for your post

lee wrote on October 14th, 2008 10:58 am :

I’m having ALOT of people report this issue when attempting to install my .air app. I’m glad to hear it’s fixed in the next release, it’s getting a bad rap, even though I’m totally passing the buck to Adobe in my email responses here, lol

lee wrote on October 14th, 2008 10:59 am :

It seems to be predominant in cases where the user has Logic installed, and waveburner.

Programmer #A-5 wrote on October 23rd, 2008 9:08 am :

Didn’t work on 10.4.11 on a G3 iBook Clamshell.

rt wrote on November 4th, 2008 1:57 pm :

Fantastic!!! Thanks so much, andrew. I was unable to install AIR in only one of my user accounts on my iMac. I was getting an error message in Chinese (at least I think it was in Chinese). This fix did the trick.

Too bad Adobe blew me off multiple times when I filed a formal bug report through them. Very disappointing.

Tour de Flex is not working for me | The Boschmans Account wrote on December 13th, 2008 10:10 pm :

[...] Google in it’s Google Maps API code page for Flex pointed me to a possible solution for a similar problem, but it’s apparently not the exact same problem, as it still [...]

Emma Kane wrote on December 19th, 2008 1:40 pm :

Thanks! This fixed the air installation on my MacBook Air.

Bartosz Pietrzak wrote on January 18th, 2009 3:31 pm :

Hey guys, maybe this will fix your problem (the “bus error” thing):

http://devguru.pl/2009/01/18/adobe-air-mac-os-x-and-bus-error/

Ruth wrote on February 22nd, 2009 11:50 pm :

I am having the same problem but have no idea how to find the system preferences on my computer. Help for the dummy required!!

Woj wrote on February 26th, 2009 7:00 pm :

Thank You for solution! It works for me.

Pat wrote on June 24th, 2009 2:20 pm :

I’m in the same situation with AIR and 10.4.11, and I just unchecked a language. Nothing has changed. The AIR installer opens and sits. Nothing gets installed. And if I try to install it with an application (like Tweetdeck) I get an error message saying that the hard drive is unavailable and the program can’t write to it.
Any further advice?

sara wrote on September 4th, 2009 6:07 pm :

I’m having a similar problem on my new Macbook Pro os 10.5.8, and get this message “Sorry an error has occurred. An error has occurred while installing Adobe Air. Installation may not be allowed by your administrator.”

I re-downloaded the dmg, tried to re install, and restart. Still getting this message. Any ideas?

Juan Javier Coka wrote on September 9th, 2009 6:24 pm :

I am trying to install tweetdeck with a macbook pro OSX 10.5.8 and at first it seem like it did install adobe air from the tweetdeck page but it would get stuck and the AIR application would open but nothing would happen. then i drag and drop all adobe air to the trash can and since then everytime i try to reinstalled either on the tweetdeck page it tells me to get from the adobe page and on the adobe page once the installer is downloaded and i open it, it frezees and nothing happen.

Debby Kaspari wrote on September 18th, 2009 12:08 am :

Holy Cow, it worked! Successfully installed Air on my IMac with Leopard 10.5.7. Seemed bizarre and unconventional, but unchecking a few international languages did the trick. Thank you for the great fix!

djcruMbs wrote on November 16th, 2009 6:45 pm :

I was so hoping it would have fixed my issue but it didn’t. I admire you for figuring it out because thats why sharing tricks and hacks between macs is what makes us love them so. … So now, i would like to put this new question to you because I’m about to pull my folicles out….
I am the owner, admin and only user on my mac os x. no one else has ever touched it, not even a “guest” user. I have tried to install “adobe air” a million times and tried equal fixes, and always always get the same error message:

Adobe® AIR®
“sorry, an error has occured”
An error occured whilt trying to install “Adobe Air”. Installation may not be allowed by your administrator. Please contact your administrator.

I have no idea whats left to fix to make this install, and without, i can not download, install and use an application that i need site owner on the “multiply.com” network.
HELP!!! please anyone with any info, i need you!!!
thanx
-djcruMbs-

[close]

andrewapeterson wrote on November 19th, 2009 8:51 pm :

Have you done a permissions repair from your Install Disk yet? I would try that.

Mike wrote on December 5th, 2009 6:36 pm :

I have had the latest Adobe Master Collection since CS2. I have never been able to install Adobe AIR on my Intel iMac. I gave up trying long ago until I heard about an App that I really want today. I am shocked to find that the same installation problems persist, over a year after they first emerged for me.
If Adobe AIR consistently can’t install or run on an operating system; it is rubbish – face it!
Common Adobe, FIX IT !!

Taylor wrote on January 7th, 2010 4:15 pm :

We have had some customers at YNAB who have had this error too, and following some of the comments on this page worked like a charm: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/403/kb403150.html

On Mac, in particular, deleting the following folders can allow the installer to work:
/Library/Frameworks/Adobe AIR.framework
/Applications/Utilities/Adobe AIR Application Installer
/Applications/Utilities/Adobe AIR Uninstaller

For Windows issues, people on that page report success using the Windows Installer cleanup tool. (See above link for more details)

Thanks for the helpful post!

JT wrote on April 22nd, 2010 8:08 pm :

deleting the Adobe AIR.framework in the Library worked for me

Jorge Muza wrote on May 27th, 2010 10:29 pm :

Finally, you have to do the following ( under Mac OS Snow Leopard ):

-Uninstall ALL air applications.
-Uninstall AIR, using the Uninstaller App ( located in /Applications/Utilities )

AND

-Delete the following directory:

sudo rm -rf /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/AIR/

And BINGO! after doing that, reinstall adobe air, and tweetdeck!!!

There you go, at least that worked for me, hopefully it works for you!

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Suzanne wrote on October 1st, 2010 8:19 pm :

Didn’t work for me. This is my error message:
An error occurred while installing Adobe AIR. Installation may not be allowed by your administrator. Please contact your administrator.

I am the administrator. what gives?

Adam wrote on October 7th, 2010 9:52 am :

Cheers Jorge Muza your solution worked for me after trying so many

Chris wrote on February 3rd, 2011 4:08 pm :

Hey… I’m having a problem where my computer does this: “You can’t open the application ‘Adobe AIR Installer’ because it is not supported on this architecture.”

I’m not a computer whiz, so I’d REALLY like some help with this. I’ve deleted all traces of anything “Adobe” just to see if it works, but it’s not helping at all. Any suggestions?

kHARI wrote on February 21st, 2011 12:51 am :

im seeing this too chris…“You can’t open the application ‘Adobe AIR Installer’ because it is not supported on this architecture.”

Mario Sirin Maxia wrote on May 4th, 2011 11:26 pm :

thanz for give me mthe Adobe AIR,com

andrewapeterson wrote on May 6th, 2011 6:45 am :

@mario
My pleasure. Thanks for the gift!

Andrea wrote on September 21st, 2011 5:24 am :

I am running Ubuntu, and had a similar problem (couldn’t install air files using an install badge, I always got “An error occured”…).
I followed this advice and went to System -> Preferences->Keyboard->Layout, changed something (then changes it back), and now the installs run without errors. Very wired…

marcus wrote on December 6th, 2011 4:20 pm :

it doesn’t work for me.. still having problem.

Gloria wrote on January 5th, 2012 1:36 am :

This did not fix my problem does anyone have another suggestion.

shelyna wrote on January 20th, 2012 8:55 am :

you are my hero, thank you so much!

for those who still have problems: after you did what he suggests, try to restart the system and then re-download the applications, it didn’t work for me either until I did this.

Sander wrote on January 20th, 2012 11:06 am :

This didn’t fix my problem either, but for some reason when I downloaded the air-installer from this website: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24406/adobe-air, the installation worked..

Kenny wrote on January 21st, 2012 2:15 pm :

Had the exactly same error message and this worked. Thanks a lot.

Weirdest error with the weirdest solution in a while..

Kenny wrote on January 22nd, 2012 1:37 am :

After a reboot or two, has Muse and AIR stopped working. And this fix doesn’t work either anymore.

Brian wrote on February 2nd, 2012 1:31 pm :

Zinio reader 4 installation fails, this application need Adobe AIR.
Adode AIR Version 3.1 fails to install (Feb 1,2012). I get the same error message as the original poster showed at the start of this post.
New out of the box Mac Book Pro with a SSD running Mac OSX 10.7 (Lion) and the zinio reader4 is my first downloaded app attempt.
I haven’t tried the above mention “fixes or work around” yet. Because I’m not a computer mechanic and don’t under stand how and what their talking about. My old PPC base Mac using Mac OSX 10.6 never showed me such a bazzar intallation failure. I hope this new Itel processor dosen’t bring with it all the PC problems that why I use a Mac to get away from computer problems.
I see this post started in 2008 its now 2012 and people like me are still are not able to do an one click isnstall of Adbbe AIR.
This means one thing to me, Abobe can’t fix this known problem with their app.
I also blame Zinio for foolishly relying on a 3 party app (AIR) engine to drive their readers functionality.
Looks like Abobe will be putting Zinio out of business, too bad I like receiving digital magazines.

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