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elphinwhite
Participating Frequently
November 10, 2019
Question

Spinning wheel on every action since updating to Photoshop 2020 (Mac OSX Catalina)

  • November 10, 2019
  • 28 replies
  • 25526 views

After updating to Photoshop 2020, pretty much every action I try on Photoshop (right clicking on a layer, moving mouse to "edit" menu, creating a new layer, after "save" or "save as", applying a filter, opening a file, closing a file) I get about 5 seconds, sometimes longer, of the spinning pinwheel during which time Photoshop hangs and is unusable.  The only exception seems to be using a Plug In (Exposure X4) which works perfectly and with no delay at all.  In the end, everything works fine, but being forced to endure an unwanted wait of 5 seconds every single time you try and do anything is incredibly frustrating.

This has only happened since updating to PS 2020, and I've checked all my preferences (performance etc.) and nothing has changed - they were all successfully imported to the new version.  I've tried restarting (MacBook Pro and PS CC 2020) and deleted PS CC 2019 and Bridge 2019 in case those were interfering with it.  I've also checked to see if it makes any difference using an external monitor, hard drive, mouse etc. and found none.  Very strange.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) running macOS Catalina v 10.15.1

Any help / ideas much appreciated.  Any others with same problem would be reassuring too!

Thanks in advance.

Photoshop CC 2020 v21.0.2

 

Update:  The solution marked as correct, from manu_torres below, is only a temporary fix, sadly.  After a few days it's back to the slowness, the spinning wheel on every action, and a version of Photoshop that is pretty much unusable. 

So this problem is most definitely not solved, Adobe!  Please can someone take a proper look at this?

This topic has been closed for replies.

28 replies

Participant
July 17, 2020

I am having this exact same issue and also can not run two Adobe programs at once or they crash. As a professional graphic designer, it's incredibly frustrating and a total time suck.

Participant
July 14, 2020

This is still an issue for me and killing my workflow. @Adobe why hasn't there been an update yet?

Participant
June 11, 2020

Same issue here with latest update. Every single action causes the spinning wheel with varying delays. Even simple tasks like editing a file and exporting as jpg.  It slows down my work flow. It's infuriating. Can we go back to non-subscription model. At least that didn't nag me every other day about updates or needing for creative cloud central app to be open. It's nonsense and a drain on computer resources.

Altavek
Participant
June 11, 2020

does it "fix" itself when you disconnect from the internet? If so, try the hosts file patch fix. All my systems are running like champs after doing this. There's some old server out there in Adobe land that the new OS doesn't like talking to. This prevents it from doing so and DOES NOT break updates, cloud services, etc.

 

http://adobehostpatch.blogspot.com

May 21, 2020

Same issue here and it's getting worse! I waited 22 (TWENTY TWO) MINUTES today to rotate a canvas 60º! That was after a 3 minute wait to save a document that was less than a meg in size. I've checked my Activity Monitor and neither the memory or the CPU Loads are anywhere near maximum capability. I've deleted my preferences so many times I know them by heart so I can reinstate them in a few minutes (I know you can save them but it's faster just to redo them in case the old preferences file was corrupt). I've reinstalled PS2020 twice, and it doesn't matter whether I have Graphics Acceleration turned on or not. I talked to Adobe and they suggested it might be a bad font (FONT??? REALLY????). I went through and checked them all just so I could say it was done, but it made no difference. Here's the thing - between the time I was running v2019 and 2020, I had not installed any new fonts at all, and I never had this in V2019, so why all of a sudden could it be a font? I'm up to here with hearing about how many great new features we are getting with each new version or update, and yet it takes 22 minutes to rotate a canvas. Or 3 minutes to save a file (that subsequently took less than a second). Or 5 minutes to draw a single brush stroke. Give me a program I can depend on and run my business on instead of giving me a newer and faster way to draw a stroke please! I won't make money off the latter, but I'll lose it big time on the former if you can't give me that. 

 

Glenn

 

EDIT:  I'm actually now thinking of sending a formal letter of complaint to Adobe HQ. We'll see what (or if) response I get if I do because somebody has to do something about this program. If the current engineers aren't up to the task, maybe someone needs to be made aware of that. It's not like this is just a minor thing at this point. People can't use the program and/or are losing money with their business'. 

SwearingDad
Inspiring
January 12, 2021

Hello, I found a tip from Domi1974 on this thread https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/photoshop-2020-21-0-2-beach-ball/td-p/10835381?page=1 and it worked for me:

 

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.

 

I deleted that from the preference file and restarted Photoshop and it worked correctly again.

Participant
April 24, 2020

I'm having this same issue. MacBook Pro (2017) running Catalina 10.15.4. I've been trying to fix this issue for over a week now. When I open Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign they go into the spinning-wheel-of-doom and I end up needing to force-quit them evey time. I ran through all of the suggestions for fixing the issue, several times, and twice even uninstalled all Adobe products and reinstalled them. Everything on my computer is up to date. This is bloody frustrating, and based on this thread it appears that it's been a known issue for several months. Anyone have a solution yet?

murat_germen
Known Participant
April 25, 2020
no, adobe has no clear definition of the problem and they cannot offer any
solutions. CC 2019 works much more smoothly and this is what i am using at
the moment. the monthly fee that i am paying for the development of the
software is wasted. adobe should not charge people until they fix this
problem!!!





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http://artsy.net/artist/murat-germen -
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*New Turkey monograph from MASA* (2013):
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Fine Art P
Inspiring
April 4, 2020

Adobe Photoshop and Bridge have always been slow for me. (3.5 GHz x6, 64GB RAM, 3GBx2 VRAM) I think it's just the software. It will hang, pause, suddenly snap, show the spinning wheel, etc. It has been like this for years.

Participant
March 1, 2020

I'm experiencing the same problem and have since last year. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling and it works for a bit and then starts up again. Most of the time I end up having to force close Photoshop so I lose my work and have to redo it until it does it again.  I'm so frustrated that I pay a subscription and can't even use it without having to redo my work constantly. It seriously slows down my work flow.  The fact that this has been issue for so long and it has not been fixed irks me even more.

Participating Frequently
December 26, 2022

I've experienced problems from. CS5 and onward.  Using my personal or work based systems of all kinds & versions ... starting around 2011 it's one thing after another. 

Inspiring
February 26, 2020

I always keep the previous year version on my system so I can jump back if needed. I know there are issues with Catilina and 2020 but they should be close to fixed now. Make sure you are up-to-date. 

Altavek
Participant
February 26, 2020

I, too, have been plagued with performance issues from Adobe since upgrading to Mojave. I've searched extensively, employeed copious "fixes" from Adobe AND Apple to no avail. The only thing I knew that actually worked was to diconnect my iMacPro from the network before launching any Adobe software. So it's something that the apps are calling out home for.... well, I found this extensive list of Adobe servers that bootleggers use to block activation, amongst other things, via the hosts file. I employed it myself even with my account still active and legit. Everything is running like a champ now! Back to High Sierra responsiveness! Creative Cloud wanted to fix two entries with their Limited Access Error Tool, I allowed it, and it has not impacted performance at all. I highly suggest giving it a try. PM me for the list.

Participating Frequently
December 26, 2022

Yes some sort of updater I think ... it's Adobe serving Adobe snoop ware 

troyjack
Inspiring
February 17, 2020

Same issue here. It began with 21.0.3 update on High Sierra desktop Mac Pro.