Load Files into Stack ... not working until complete reinstall -- unacceptable!

Forum|Forum|1 day ago
May 23, 2026
2 replies
38 views

As the title explains, the Load Files into Stack was doing nothing at all. I tried reinstall without removing settings and that didn’t work. I then uninstalled Photoshop removing everything, rebooted, and then installed Photoshop and then it worked.

This seems to be “standard operating procedure” at Adobe and it just isn’t acceptable. There should at least be an error message … at a minimum!!!! Maybe the reboot fixed it. Maybe Jupiter aligned with Egypt but without any type of diagnostics, we are just stabbing in the dark.

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

While on the general topic of “loading files into a stack”…

Some simplified stacking scripts, that may work when the default Adobe script doesn’t:

Stack files to layers as horizontal or vertical canvas layouts:

Stack Layered Files to Artboards (retaining source layers):

Stack Documents from 2 Folders to Sets of 2 Layers:

Stack Documents to Sets of N Layers:

D Fosse

Community Expert

This was apparently corrupt preferences. No need to reinstall, just reset preferences.

Preferences are vulnerable to corruption because they are rewritten on every application exit, as opposed to read-only program files. An irregular shutdown can corrupt them, and small errors will accumulate.

Corrupt preferences tend to look like - and be mistaken for - application bugs.

pedzsanAuthor

Inspiring

Corrupt preferences has been a plague of Mac applications for a long time but I very rarely use Photoshop and consistently I have to fight with it like this to get it back into working order. I propose that as PS is updated, the preferences maybe falls behind in version and skipping a few generations of PS leads to “corrupt” preferences but it is actually just out dated preferences.

I question the need to rewrite it on every exit in the first place. And, rewriting a file can be done safely by writing to a temp file and then do an atomic move. Sanity check the preferences when they are read in an look for corruption. There are all kinds of ways to fix this or at least make it more robust.

Is there a prescribed way to remove the preferences when this happens again I will try that and see.

D Fosse

Community Expert

Yes, migrating preferences when updating can be a potential problem, for that reason, which is why I always advise against doing that. Just uncheck the box.

Considering that you do it once a year, spending ten minutes to set the application up is a cheap insurance against problems and instability.

Other than that, it works very reliably. I’ve had to reset preferences exactly once in the last ten or twelve years - and it solved the problem I wanted to solve (sticky hand tool).

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