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Photoshop was automatically uninstalled from Mac laptop

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
May 28, 2023
29 replies
3176 views

Today I saw that Photoshop was no longer installed on my Mac (M1 Pro) laptop running Ventura 13.4. I had to reinstall and all my previous Settings such as Workspaces, etc. were all missing. All other Adobe Software that I had previously installed was still installed. Why did was Photoshop automatically uninstalled without receiving any prior notification from Adobe. This is super FRUSTRATING !!!

macOS

Correct answer Kevin Stohlmeyer

@ui41918594 what most likely happening is a failed update. Go to your CC desktop app and turn off automatic updates and uncheck remove previous versions. If you try to install and it fails due to lack of disk space for instance, part of the update when those options are on is to remove previous versions. If it fails to install it removed the previous without the new added.

ralphlouzon

Inspiring

It just happened to me! No more Photoshop 2025, and all my custom actions erased...
No obvious reason to see such a thing (HD full, etc.).

It is incredible that such a thing could happen for such a software! Crazy.

Kevin Stohlmeyer

Community Expert

@ralphlouzon no custom settings would be erased by a failed install. Did you save your custom actions prior to upgrading? If you did not save them to a location from the panel in Photoshop, they were temporary action which would explain why they are gone.

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padcreative

Participant

This just happened to one of my colleagues. She turned on her Mac to find Photoshop 2025 had disappeared. All other CC apps were still there. When she went into the CC app, it said "Install" next to PS, but "Update" next to AI and ID.

She's on an Intel iMac. Plently of disk space left (100s of GBs).

It's never happened before and there's zero chance she would have done this manually.

I came here to see why this happened to her. I'm not here to get a solution, I'm just posting this to support the OP's claim that this happened without their permission – while receiving rather unsupportive responses from the community.

Kevin Stohlmeyer

Community Expert

@padcreative This is a pretty common situation. Can you confirm your colleague does not have her applicaitons set to auto update in the Creative Cloud app? If they do, turn that option off.

Some updates will uninstall the existing version first before installing the update. When the install fails (for any reason) it would leave you without the application installed and the original removed.

Next to find out why it failed, what OS is your colleague running on their Intel Mac? Failure may not be because of disk space. https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html

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padcreative

Participant

Thanks for your reply.

Good to hear it's a common situation (despite the original replies to the OP, suggesting it couldn't ever happen) as that makes me more confident that there isn't something suspicious going on.

She's got Sequoia v15.5 on her Mac. And we've just switched off the automatic updates.

Thanks!

B

billiejoe26618602iqy2

Participant

This has happened to me twice now. Good thing TheDigitalDog was here to provide everyone with his flawless understanding of the problem—imagine how awful it would have been if he just said nothing at all.

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Nicolas27999407b9nt

Participant

You're not alone!

I had Photoshop 2024 and Beta installed on my computer.

Beta crashed a few times and I therefore unisntalled it.
I updated Photoshop 2024 to Photoshop 2025 two days ago. Did a few edits.

Only to see now that Photoshop wasn't on my computer (MBP M2 Max) anymore. And there is plenty of space left on my 2To SSD!
Strange thing.

L

Lumigraphics

Legend

Compatibility isn't really an issue, older versions of Photoshop open files saved in newer versions. However, there ARE things like 3D features, SVG support, and sharing which have been removed from newer versions.

Kevin Stohlmeyer

Community Expert

@newertigo hindsight, etc etc doesnt help you now (sorry), but double check your preferences when installing that you don't have "remove older versions" active when you install.

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newertigo

Participant

Today I just noticed that my Photoshop 2022 is no longer installed on my Mac. Due to the nature of my work, I had versions 2022, 2024 installed and additionally Beta version. The CC App had to do it itself. Moreover, this version cannot be reinstalled, but I can install the older version, Photoshop 2021 which I tried and installed successfully. Weird, really weird.
And it's just not he case to make backup of app settings but also compatibility with others in team while they still have access to Photoshop 2022.

Kevin Stohlmeyer

Community Expert

And now back to our regularly scheduled forum post. @thegraphicgroove are you solid now or still having issues with PS uninstalling?

D Fosse

Community Expert

None of which has any relevance to the present situation. This isn't 1990, this is 33 years later.

Bugs and problems are 50/50 distributed, just look around the forum to get that confirmed. And more importantly - the user base is 50/50, which means that development efforts are absolutely 50/50. Anything else would be pretty stupid from a business standpoint.