Participant

P: (macOS 27) Photoshop 2026: "There was a problem with Generator" at launch

Forum|Forum|1 day ago
September 15, 2026
3 replies
57 views

Environment

Adobe Photoshop 2026 27.10 (ARM64)
Mac mini 2024, Apple M4 Pro, 24 GB RAM
macOS 27.0 Golden Gate

Problem

Immediately after enabling Preferences > Plugins > Enable Generator, Photoshop displays the message:

“There is a problem with Generator.”

I checked the Node executable bundled with Photoshop:

/Applications/Adobe Photoshop 2026/Adobe Photoshop 2026.app/Contents/MacOS/node

Running:

file "/Applications/Adobe Photoshop 2026/Adobe Photoshop 2026.app/Contents/MacOS/node"

returns:

Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

Therefore, Photoshop itself is ARM64, but the Node executable used by Generator is still Intel x86_64-only.

Before Rosetta 2 was installed, running:

"/Applications/Adobe Photoshop 2026/Adobe Photoshop 2026.app/Contents/MacOS/node" --version

returned:

zsh: bad CPU type in executable

I then installed Rosetta 2 with:

softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license

macOS reported:

Install of Rosetta 2 finished successfully

After installing Rosetta 2, the Photoshop Generator error disappeared.

Expected behavior

Photoshop ARM64 on Apple Silicon should include an ARM64 or Universal Node runtime for Generator and should not depend on an x86_64-only executable.

Workaround

Installing Rosetta 2 restores Generator functionality.

Additional confirmation

As a further diagnostic confirmation, the issue was resolved immediately after reinstalling Rosetta 2 with:

softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license

macOS confirmed:

Install of Rosetta 2 finished successfully

After restarting Photoshop with Generator enabled, the Generator error no longer appeared and Generator worked normally.

This provides a reproducible correlation:

Rosetta 2 unavailable → bundled x86_64 Node cannot execute (bad CPU type in executable) → Generator fails.

Rosetta 2 reinstalled → the same x86_64 Node can execute → Generator works again.

This strongly suggests that the current Photoshop 27.10 Generator implementation on Apple Silicon still has a runtime dependency on Rosetta 2 because the bundled Node executable is x86_64-only.

Pinned Reply By Srishti Bali

Hi @UgoM

Thank you for your feedback. You’re right. Currently, Generator requires Rosetta 2 to run on macOS. I will update this thread once we have confirmation on the native ARM build.

Moving your post to questions, as this is an expected behavior, not a bug.

Sameer K

Community Manager

Hey, @JustCallMeDrew. Welcome to the Photoshop Community. I'll clarify this for you.

You see the pop-up because the Generator is still Intel x86_64 architecture, and the support for Apple-Silicon is arriving soon. For the time being, unchecking 'Enable Generator' from Photoshop > Settings > Plugins is a valid workaround.

Thanks!
Sameer K
(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

J

JustCallMeDrew

Known Participant

I upgraded to macOS 27 Golden Gate yesterday and now an error message comes up when I launch Photoshop 27.9.1 saying “There was a problem with Generator...”.

When I disable “Generator” in “Settings - Plugins” the error goes away but once I enable it, the popup comes back straight away.

Any idea how to get rid of it without disabling the Generator plugins?

Srishti Bali

Community Manager

Hi @UgoM

Thank you for your feedback. You’re right. Currently, Generator requires Rosetta 2 to run on macOS. I will update this thread once we have confirmation on the native ARM build.

Moving your post to questions, as this is an expected behavior, not a bug.

Thanks, Srishti Bali | Community & Engagement Strategist, Digital Imaging | Adobe

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