Skip to main content
O
Owen Linzmayer
Known Participant
January 4, 2020
Question

Photoshop 2020 21.0.2 beach ball

  • January 4, 2020
  • 9 replies
  • 14556 views

I recently "upgraded" to the latest version of Photoshop and am appalled at its pathetic performance. Virtually everything I do in Photoshop now results in a few seconds delay as the spinning beach ball icon appears. I'm working with small JPEG images less than 2MB in size, yet even if there are no documents open, simply clicking the Photoshop menu to check the version number causes a pause.

 

This is infuriating. I'm running the very latest version on a brand new MacBook Pro 16" with 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD.

 

Please tell me there is a simple solution such as changing a preference setting or trashing a cache file somewhere.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    9 replies

    NovaGiant
    NovaGiant
    Participating Frequently
    August 23, 2022

    I am also getting increasingly frustrated with photoshop. Eveytime I boot up PS and start clicking I get the beach ball. Actually just started happening with 23.4.2. And why in the heck do the keep changing the tools?? Been a user since ver 2.5. Last week I started using Pixler/e everytime PS beach balls on me, Most of what I need is there not a complete replacement YET but, I suggest check it it out. It will save you from the beach ball.

    James Woodley Photography
    James Woodley Photography
    Participant
    February 16, 2021

    Same here. Powerful Macbook Pro. No issues with any other software. The only change that I made was to (dumb I know) upgrade to the latest version of Photoshop... Isn't that meant to be a good thing?

    This is beyond frustrating. I have lost hours of time trying to resolve this while making excuses to my clients because their deadlines don't care that my software has stopped working.

    I have tried resetting preferences and downgrading one by one to each of the available previous versions. They now seem to have all inherited this issue.

    Adobe, please fix this immediately.

    S
    selsk66
    Participating Frequently
    September 15, 2020

    I also reset my prefrences and it seems to have helped rid the beachball of doom.

    A
    Adubsmagic
    Participant
    June 16, 2020

    I get the spinning beach ball every time I use the transform tool. Also now I'm dealing with the whole canvas showing a solid dark gray until I zoom in or out. WTF is this garbage update?

    SebastiaoV
    SebastiaoV
    Known Participant
    June 13, 2020

    Hi people!
    Same issue here. Do you know of any other solution since this post is 4 months old besides downgrading? 

     

    Thanks -;)

    C
    chuckszachta
    Participant
    August 14, 2020

    I just rest all of my preferences (yes I had to go back in a change everything back to normal) but this seemed to have solved it.

     

    I have a feeling that PS imports the prefs from previous versions during install and there is a conflict.

      Domi1974
      Domi1974
      Participating Frequently
      October 12, 2020

      I've found the "guilty" pref, wich caused the beach ball lag. For me it was the User/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop 2020 Settings/MachinePrefs.psp . I deleted it, and the beach ball lag has gone! This way all my settings remained.
      Thanks for the tip to chuckszachta for resetting preferences!

        Johan Björklund
        Johan Björklund
        Participant
        January 23, 2020

        For 2 seconds I was happy the cause wasn't that I'm using a 2009 Mac Pro... Was hoping .03 would fix this, but no. Anyway, reverting to .01 got rid of the bb. Don't really enjoy the thought of having to find out the hard way (up-and-downdating) when this will be fixed.

          BTA 86
          BTA 86
          Participant
          February 7, 2020

          Same issue here. So far only once or twice a day. I first thought it might be where I had my scratch disk set so I tried a more recent external drive with a lot more free space connected by lightning cable and no change.

            M
            mspinc
            Participant
            January 21, 2020

            same problem here, very annoying.

            downgrading to 21.0.1 solved the issue so far. 

            BUT BE CAREFUL: save all your settings, presets, shortcuts, etc. before downgrading. it wont ask you if you want to keep them (as it does when upgrading), so all of this was gone for me, lost for ever – thanks adobe, great job.

            T
            trappy1976
            Participant
            January 13, 2020

            I've got the same issue. It may only be for a moment, but I'm finding that I'm getting the beachball at every task. It doesn't seem to matter what it is either. It's only been happening since the last update. Adobe need to sort this out pronto.

            O
            Owen LinzmayerAuthor
            Known Participant
            January 13, 2020

            I tried several of the "solutions" suggested here and in other threads, all without success. I don't have time for this nonsense, so I downgraded to Photoshop CC 2019 and all the beach ball problems disappeared. 

            T
            Trixiegrace
            Participant
            January 13, 2020

            I uninstalled .02, and installed .01. So far, so good. If the beach ball comes back, I'll uninstall .01, and revert to 2019. 

            C
            calees
            Participating Frequently
            January 5, 2020

            I was having the same problem and I contacted support chat.  They remoted in to my laptop and changed some settings and it now works in that respect.  However, I'm having multiple problems in my color space etc. so I too am super unhappy with the adobe 2020 update which pretty much tanked my business over the holiday season.  Thanks for nothin' Adobe.

              T
              Trixiegrace
              Participant
              January 6, 2020

              I'm having the same problem as OP since upgrading. I have reset the preferences several times, uninstalled and reinstalled PS. It works fine for half a day, then the spinning BB appears, and stays longer and longer. Closing and restarting PS and the computer does not help. I want to go back to 2019, but can't figure out how. This is extremely time-consuming and frustrating.

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