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Known Participant
May 25, 2026
Question

Photoshop will not launch

  • May 25, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 94 views

Here is my environment:
Apple Intel iMac; Tahoe 26.5     Adobe Photoshop 2026 

Not sure when I last used Photoshop but it used to work fine. Today it will not run. I tried launching it directly from Finder and also tried launching it from Lightroom Classic. When I try to launch, nothing happens. I might see a splash screen for 1 or 2 seconds and then nothing. Tried rebooting and tried running in Safe mode; no joy. Lightroom seems to be running fine but not Photoshop.

I realize this sounds like an Adobe question and I will pursue that, if I can find an Adobe support site. They sure as heck do not have a support phone number, that I can find.

Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thank you.
Hector

    4 replies

    Known Participant
    May 29, 2026

    I thought I already sent a response but I don’t see it. Sorry about that. Thanks for the responses. The other day I called Adobe and spoke to a support person. I gave him control of my machine and eventually the problem was fixed. He was not good at explaining what he was doing,  even after my questions. Photoshop now works but after the call I discovered a big problem with Lightroom. I use Lightroom Classic and I think my catalog is messed up. Looks like another call to Adobe.   :-(

    Peru Bob
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 26, 2026

    It could be a permissions issue.

    Known Participant
    May 26, 2026

    I tried this suggestion and there was no change.

     

    I also used the Photoshop uninstaller to remove Photoshop and then re-installed Photoshop using Creative Cloud. The uninstall and re-installed worked okay but nothing has changed.

    I was hoping re-installing Photoshop would work.

    Thank you.  Any more suggestions?

    Peru Bob
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 26, 2026

    Try resetting the tools and/or preferences.

    To restore preferences quickly using a keyboard shortcut:

    Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) as you start Photoshop. You are prompted to delete the current settings. The new preferences files are created the next time you start Photoshop.

     

    Note: Using the keyboard shortcut, preference files for custom shortcuts, workspaces, and color settings will also be reset to default.

     

    https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html#restore_preferences