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Question

Dreamweaver 21.5 unstable & crashing [MERGED by moderator]

Forum|Forum|10 months ago
May 21, 2025
38 replies
13482 views

On my PC and work laptop Dreamweaver is freezing and crashing everyday since this last update, it is very annoying. Please fix this bug.

Performance

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David25865452b87a

Participant

Here is one fix that worked for me after endless crashes and slow performance - in Windows 11:
Go to the Dreamweaver.exe file, under Windows/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Dreamweaver 20XX, and right-click and then select properties - in the panel that open up, select Compatibility TAB and then check the checkbox in Compatibility mode, so that it will run the program in compatibility mode for Windows 8.
So far I have had no crashes and Dreamweaver performance is running smoothly and it can finally keep up with me.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

Win10 compatibility seems reasonable. But Win8, not so much. 🫤

Anyway, glad it worked for you.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

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Sherwin F

Does anyone have a good alternative to Dreamweaver? After years of bugs, it seems to just be getting worse. I am on a brand new computer, just opened out of the box. Fresh install of Dreamweaver.

Copying and pasting crashes the app. Quitting and starting again, restarting, etc, all fail to fix it.

If copying and pasting breaks your app, then your app was rushed and your coding is sloppy. Paying customers should not have to waste hours trying to get software to do such a basic task.

Dreamweaver is becoming more and more useless, and more and more of a waste of time. At this point I’m willing to switch to a suitable alternative, free or paid. If I’m going to pay I’d rather pay a company that actually cares about releasing quality software.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

I use keyboard shortcuts to cut, copy & paste several times per day without any problems.

Which Operating System?
Which version of Dreamweaver?

For coding alongside Dreamweaver, I recommend Visual Studio Code (free) and PHPStorm (paid). If you crave Drag & Drop workflows, look at Bootstrap Studio.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

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Sherwin F

I only use keyboard shortcuts. Windows 11, fresh install (all windows updates completed). Whatever the latest version of DW is. I installed it from Adobe 2 days ago.

dgeris

Participant

I have the same problem, the app crashes continuously. I’m using version 21.7.
It seems that it often crashes after ctrl-v or after pressing enter. The app first freezes and then just closes automatically.

After opening it again, none of the files I had open, are still available. It starts blank and I need to open all the files again, no updates saved.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

@dgeris,

Have you Restored Preferences yet?

https://helpx.adobe.com/dreamweaver/kb/restore-preferences-dreamweaver.html

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

dgeris

Participant

Hi Nancy, yes I tried that, Also uninstalled version 21.7, installed it again, but the app keeps on crashing.
I uninstalled it again, installed version 21.4 and used it for a while, without any issue. Then updated to version 21.7 again and when opening the first document, the app crashed immediately just by opening the doc.
I'm going for an alternative now, asking 63 euro/month for a cloud subscription with apps crashing continuously is only frustrating me even more.

whcressall

Known Participant

Dreamweaver won't stay open on any PC longer than 30min. It crashes while idle.

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Frank2daMax

Participating Frequently

You reported Dreamweaver crashing, but didn’t reply back to @Nayan_Kankariya when he tried to help you. What version are you on? If it’s not 21.6, update it. That version fixed the issue on PC.

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Frank2daMax

Participating Frequently

It's been 7 days since I last reported updating to Dreamweaver 21.6, and happy to say after using it daily, it hasn't crashed and is working perfectly. I'm using a PC with Windows 11.

polandh95572754

Participating Frequently

ALWAYS crashes. What other app crashes in 2025 and loses your work? Primiere is arguably far mroe complex app and never freezes and crashes. I believe years ago they did a poor rewrite for PC that is still used. FYI, I also use on the Mac, which does not crash.

Nayan_Kankariya

Inspiring

Hi @polandh95572754,

Thanks for writing to us. Can you please confirm the Dw app version where you are observing the crash. Will it be possible for you to share the workflow steps where you are observing the crash. Also, please confirm if the crash is consistent on your machine so that we can troubleshoot and try few resolution steps on your PC.

Have a pleasant day!

Regards,

Nayan

Adobe Dreamweaver Team

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Frank2daMax

Participating Frequently

Yesterday, I updated Dreamweaver to the latest version (21.6). I hadn't had a chance to downgrade to 21.4, which was the last stable version, but so far 21.6 has not crashed.

Today, I tested some common actions that previously triggered crashes, specifically copy and paste and everything is working smoothly so far.

I'll continue to monitor Dreamweaver over the next few days, as I use it daily for work, and will provide another update soon.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

Good to know. Thanks for updating us on the new update. 😄

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

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Leon Gross

Participating Frequently

This morning I ran the Creative Cloud Desktop software, and there was a new update for Dreamweaver, 21.6. "This update includes bug fixes and stabiltiy improvements." So far, so good.

K

KellSacc

Participant

Same here. Yayyy!!!

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loup34403500

Participant

just wasa forced to imnstall the new DW - what a piece of CRAP- I can't see the page poperties - and the program keeps crashing.. I am paying for this garbage HELP me fix this

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

forced to imnstall the new DW....
By @loup34403500

==========
Who forced you?

Did you restart your computer after installing?

Window ⇒ Properties (Ctrl/Cmd + F3)

MyWorkspace is customized to display Properties on the bottom.

Your mileage may vary, depending on which Workspace you choose.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

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SewerSleuth

Known Participant

I have Dreamweaver v21.5 Build 15662 on Mac and for quite some months now it just hangs and goes completely unresponsive at different times during the day.

All I can do is Force Quit it in the Mac Finder and restart and I lose unsaved work. It can happen almost hourly, sometimes more frequently. Very frustrating.

No updates are available in Creative Cloud.

Any ideas?

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Ben M

Community Expert

I have Dreamweaver v21.5 Build 15662 on Mac and for quite some months now it just hangs and goes completely unresponsive at different times during the day.

All I can do is Force Quit it in the Mac Finder and restart and I lose unsaved work. It can happen almost hourly, sometimes more frequently. Very frustrating.

No updates are available in Creative Cloud.

Any ideas?

By @SewerSleuth

Other users have found success in rolling back to the 21.4 release pending a future update as the 21.5 release has been problematic for some.

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SewerSleuth

Known Participant

Oh wow, thought it was just me since I recently had a new machine. I am doing this now. Thank you for your very quick reply.

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