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

Forum|Forum|24 days ago
September 15, 2026
15 replies
825 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 Anshul_Saini

Hi @gillesenvrac,

Thank you for reaching out. I understand the concern, seeing an "End of support for Intel-based apps" notification on a brand new M4 Mac is understandably confusing!

Photoshop runs natively on Apple Silicon, including M4. I just wanted to let you know that your version of Photoshop is not the problem. What's happening is that this notification is coming from macOS itself (not from Adobe). Starting with macOS 26.4, Apple displays a system-level alert whenever an app or any of its components, such as a plug-in, extension, or add-on, uses Rosetta (Apple's Intel translation layer).

The most likely cause is that you have one or more legacy plug-ins or extensions installed that still rely on Intel code. Even though Photoshop itself is fully native for Apple Silicon, an older plug-in running through Rosetta can trigger this macOS notification.

Here's what you can do:

In Finder, locate the Photoshop application, press Command-I (Get Info), and look at the Kind field. It should say "Application (Universal)" or "Application (Apple silicon)." If "Open using Rosetta" is checked, uncheck it.
Review your installed plug-ins. Older plug-ins (especially CEP-based or non-UXP plug-ins) may require Rosetta. Check with each plug-in developer to see if an Apple Silicon-native or UXP version is available.

If the notification persists even after confirming that Photoshop is not in Rosetta mode and you have no legacy plug-ins installed, please let us know; we can look into this further.

Best regards,
Anshul Saini