Confirm you see a Federated directory on the Settings page.
Last updated on
May 19, 2025
The Adobe Admin Console is where you or a colleague can assign licenses to Creative Cloud and Adobe Express for Education and manage your users.
This walkthrough will help you set up a brand-new console or optimize your existing Adobe configuration. If you have an existing Adobe Admin Console for Creative Cloud, you can use this guide to deploy Adobe Express in your current console.
Adobe Express for Education is free for K12, and you have unlimited licenses for users in your district.
How to use this resource: This step-by-step guide is designed to support you where you are in your configuration process with Adobe. Skip any steps you’re confident are complete and refer to those requiring your district's attention.
The Adobe Admin Console is where you or a colleague can give licenses to Creative Cloud and manage your users.
Create a console if you don’t already have one using the K-12 Adobe Express Admin Wizard.
Look at the Overview on the homepage of your Adobe Admin Console to make sure Express is listed.
If Express isn’t listed on the Overview page, visit the product page https://adminconsole.adobe.com/products and select Get Started
Don’t see Adobe Express? Reach out to Adobe Support via the Support tab of your Adobe Admin Console.
-
-
If you need to add a Federated Directory, navigate to Settings in your Adobe Admin Console. Work with your Google, Microsoft, or primary identity System Administrator and follow the instructions here to set up your directory and claim your domains.
-
Confirm you have claimed all of your district’s domains in your Federated Directory.
-
If your domains are nested in another directory, please move them to your Federated Directory.
-
If you cannot claim all of your domains because they are part of another Console, please either set up a Trust relationship with official district Consoles or work with Support to remove your domain from an unofficial Console.
-
Confirm the default identity provider that is configured is correct and does not need to be updated. See appendix A if you are considering updating your default identity provider.
-
Test signing in with your default pathway.
To enable students and teachers access to Adobe Express, they’ll need an Adobe account and an Adobe Express license assigned to that account. We recommend adding a sync to keep your system up-to-date.
Select the best pathway for your district/school to manage users and provide licenses.
|
Automatic User Management (Sync) |
Automatic License Management & Deprovisioning |
Group-level Generative AI controls |
Share role Role data |
Limited additional configuration required + simple set up* |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
(OU) |
|
|||
|
|
(Group) |
|
|
||
|
* |
*Provide automatic licenses with nothing more than claiming your domain, but clean up users manually.
Don’t have any of these pathways available for syncing users? Try the User Sync Tool.
See the table below for sign in pathways and learning management system options and the benefits of each. You can have as many of these pathways enabled as you would like, from one to all six, without causing conflict.
|
Clever |
Classlink |
Canvas |
Google Classroom |
Schoology |
Quick Login |
Pin to Chrome taskbar |
|
|
One Click SSO, bypassing login screen |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
Manually import class rosters |
|
||||||
|
Assign roles at login |
|
|
|||||
|
LMS grading workflows |
N/A |
N/A |
|
** |
|||
|
LMS assignment workflows |
N/A |
N/A |
|
** |
* Clever and ClassLink can also be used as SSO only, without rostering.
**Google Classroom Add-on requires Google Education Plus.
-
Add your chosen easy sign in pathways and/or LMS integrations.
-
Test your sign in and assignment options to ensure functionality.
-
Make sure you’ve placed the Adobe Express icon at the top of your district portal app list so it is easy to find.
In order to make the best use of Adobe Classrooms, we recommend syncing your classes or defining which users are teachers and students. This will prevent students from creating their own Classrooms and will allow them to easily join their teachers’.
|
Rosters and creates classes in Adobe Express |
Provides user role information for feature access |
Provides user role information for feature access |
Role-level AI Controls |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
If you don’t want to set up Roster Sync with Clever or ClassLink, users’ roles will pass through to us via the SSO-only configuration as well, without class rosters.
Ensure that your technology meets our system requirements and that your network is prepared for Adobe software downloads and activations by allowlisting our network endpoints.
-
IMPORTANT: Ensure Domain Enforcement is ON to prevent personal accounts from being created with your school/district domains. The initial steps will not impact any existing users.
-
Make sure everyone who has administrator access has been granted permissions and old administrators have been removed from your console.
-
Determine how you’d like students, teachers, and staff to interact with Adobe’s Generative AI.
-
Add Security Contacts to your console in case of a data incident.
Did you get stuck along the way? Please reach out to Adobe Support in the Adobe Admin Console for assistance.
Privacy, Trust, and Compliance Resources
A collection of resources relevant to privacy, trust and safety.
Note: While reviewing the documentation, Adobe Express is an application within the Adobe Creative Cloud family of applications.
|
Primary Authentication in Federated Directory |
Directory Sync to create user accounts |
Add additional IdPs (login pathways) |
Sync rosters from Clever or ClassLink to apply licenses to shared groups. |
Appendix B: Device Configurations
Chromebooks - There is no native Chromebook app, we recommend pinning the Adobe Express web app to the Chromebook taskbar.
iPads - Deploy the Adobe Express app through your MDM to ensure students with iPads can access the tool.
