Was the initial install of InDesign done with the Adobe packager? I had issues as well with applying some updates to InDesign. I ended up having to download a new package from Adobe, deleting the existing InDesign and installing the new package. This way it included current updates.

yeah - we used the Adobe package tool. I'll repackage and try again. Thanks for the suggestion.

The bigger question I'm trying to solve is to determine if an update for Adobe is available without applying it. I want to have a Self Service update button for Adobe CC to appear only when updates are available. It looks like I'm going to have to rewrite aamimporter to just look at whats installed and look whats available, then set a flag. I really wish RUM would have a --list option or something...

At JNUC last week Adobe had a session, Cynics Beware: Adobe in the Enterprise, where they announced that a new version of RUM will be available in a few weeks that will add the ability to list available updates and to download only to cache the updates to be installed at a later time, very similar to the softwareupdate command.