Skip to main content
C
Chebz
Participant
February 20, 2020
Question

ICC profile is invalid Photoshop 2020

  • February 20, 2020
  • 9 replies
  • 45074 views

Hi,

 

I have been using photoshop for many years and have recently had to reinstall everything.

I have reinstalled Creative Cloud as well as Photoshop. As it loads it gets hung up on 'Building color Conversion Tables...' and then closes throwing up the error message 'Could not initialze Photoshop because the ICC profile is invalid'.

 

I have searched through these forums and various other places to find a solution and I have tried everything I have found to sadly to no fix.

I have tried;

  • changing my 'Colour Management' profile to sRGB IEC61966-2.1.
  • holding down Ctrl + Alt + Shift, starting Photoshop and deleting the Adobe Photoshop Settings File when prompted.
  • uninstalling and deleting every part of Photoshop from my drives.

All to no fix.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I truely love photoshop and use this product often.

 

If anyone requires some details on my set up I am running Windows 10 Home 64bit.

Monitor DELL S2240L and Acer PNP19.

 

{Thread renamed by moderator}

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    9 replies

    Dov Isaacs
    Dov Isaacs
    Legend
    July 25, 2020

    There is no “free version” of Adobe Photoshop!

     

    - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
      E
      Engrmujeeb12
      Participant
      July 25, 2020

      i believe the free version is only limited for some time..!

      So don't rely on free version, check for the full version

       

      C
      Colorful_cause5DE3
      Participant
      July 16, 2020

      Open the photo in Paint or similar and save. Worked for me.

      NB, colourmanagement
      Community Expert
      NB, colourmanagementCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 18, 2020

      moved to the Color Management Board.

      neil barstow, colourmanagement.net :: adobe forum volunteer

       

      NB, colourmanagement
      Community Expert
      NB, colourmanagementCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      February 23, 2020

      And will it still not work with both screens plugged in Tezzi? 

      you wrote: "It did, Photoshop runs when I am just going through my single Dell monitor.

      I plugged in my Acer monitor without any changes to the ICC files and it decided not to work again after."

       

      something still amiss there, then -  it would be good to know when and how you fixed it?

       

       

      thanks

      neil barstow, colourmanagement.net

      [please do not use the reply button on a message in the thread, only use the one at the top of the page, to maintain chronological order]

      C
      ChebzAuthor
      Participant
      February 22, 2020

      I really appreciate all the help but unfortunately nothing has worked.

      I'm completely at a lost.

      I have also cleared my system of photoshop and reinstalled and no change, even with trialing these ideas again.

       

      Thanks again for your help.

      C
      ChebzAuthor
      Participant
      February 22, 2020

      Following on from this. I decided to unplug my 2nd monitor, delete all the colour profiles associated with both monitors and see if that had made any change.

      It did, Photoshop runs when I am just going through my single Dell monitor.

      I plugged in my Acer monitor without any changes to the ICC files and it decided not to work again after.

      I'm not sure why but I will see if I can find the cause but at least for now I can use Photoshop again!

       

      Thanks for all your advice.

       

      D Fosse
      Community Expert
      D FosseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      February 22, 2020

      "delete all the colour profiles associated with both monitors"

       

      Yes, that's what we advised from the beginning 🙂 You say you're not sure why, but the profile is simply corrupt or not written to icc specification. It happens a lot. Many monitor/laptop manufacturers can't seem to get this right (Acer, Dell, Asus, LG and Samsung are the worst offenders) - but they still get these profiles distributed through Windows Update.

       

      Photoshop loads the monitor profile at startup - whichever is set up as default for that display in the system - but if Photoshop detects a broken or invalid profile it will either throw a warning, or worst case not start up at all.

       

      As always, the proper and permanent fix is to get a calibrator. The monitor profile is an essential component in the Photoshop ecosystem and you need to be in control of it.

        D Fosse
        Community Expert
        D FosseCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        February 21, 2020

        Dell and Acer monitor profiles are more often corrupt/broken/defective than they are working. Delete them, get them completely off your system. The next time they turn up in Windows Update, make sure to disable/ignore that particular update permanently.

         

        Then reset Photoshop preferences (and get yourself a calibrator).

         

        Deleting installed program files won't do anything. What you need to delete is everything Photoshop-related under you user account, specifically the subfolder called AppData. This is a hidden folder, so you need to unhide it in the OS. This is where all settings and preferences are stored.

          TheDigitalDog
          TheDigitalDog
          Inspiring
          February 21, 2020

          What are you using for calibrating and profiling your display? It might be the display profile being corrupted. 

          Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
            TheDigitalDog
            TheDigitalDog
            Inspiring
            February 21, 2020

            I also read this helped another user with this error:

            Delete the "Photoshop" folder under: "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Adobe\". This sets photoshop back to defaults.

            Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
              Sahil.Chawla
              Adobe Employee
              Sahil.Chawla
              Adobe Employee
              February 21, 2020

              Hi there,

              That does not sound good, could you please check this thread and let us know if it helps? https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/the-embedded-icc-profile-cannot-be-used-because-the-icc-profile-description-is-invalid-ignoring-the/td-p/9489453?page=1

              Regards,
              Sahil

                C
                ChebzAuthor
                Participant
                February 21, 2020
                Hi Sahil,

                Thanks for the suggestion but unfortunately that didn't work out either :(.

                Thanks though.
                Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
                Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices