Bridge hangs up when launching.

[Ed Merrin]

This is my second post about this. Yesterday morning Bridge (2026, on MacBook Pro M5 with Tahoe) stopped working. It begins to lauch, the menu bar appears, but then nothing else. If you try to use a menu, for example the "about Bridge" or anything that would call up something on the screen, nothing hasppens and the menus all grey out. Then you have to use force quit to cloe down. I've tried everything I see on hte web to no avail. If I hold the coamn/optio/shift keys I get a window that  allows me to choose emptying cache and/or deleting presents (nothing about startup files) but doing that doesn't alter the results. I starting from teh finder insteard of the doc, but the same things happen. Any ideas? 

Ed Merrin

[Ted@Hotmail]

Installed Bridge 16.0.0.63 and on startup, the screen loads however if I click on anything, the screen goes grey and a message says "not responding".

I have uninstalled and reinstalled Bridge 16 and even tried Bridge 15.1.2 and got the same results.

I have found that if I do the CTRL+ALT+Shift and select the "Purge All Local Cache Files" it will function as expected. If I exit and restart the app it reverts to the "not responding" message.

The Adobe apps are installed on Windows 11 Pro, 13th Gen Intel core i9-13900KS, 64GB RAM, NVIDEA Ge Force RTX 3060 Ti updated driver 32.0.15.8157, with Samsung SSD 990 Pro 2TB/4TB drives. I have even tried moving the cache files to another drive but got the same results. Returned everything to default install specs.

Currently also runnibg Lightroom Classic and Photoshop with no issues.

Thanks

Ted H

[Ed Merrin]

I had something very similar going on, especially with the menus dimming out. I’m not sure who or how, but tinkering with my display options seemed to have fixed it (I have an Eizo monitor with multiple inputs and a MacPro laptop). Figuring out how to set it up changed everything - I originally went that route after sending a screen video of what was happening and the tech suggested modifying monitor resolution, although that isn’t what I actually did. Meanwhile, I had already created a new user on the same computer and Bridge worked fine for “him.” That at least needed my attempts to reinstall, purge this or that, etc.

I also found that Lightroom and Photoshop worked normally throughout all this.

I made the new user disappear and everything’s still fine.

Ed Merrin

[gary_sc]

Creating a new user allows a test of whether the issue is your setup as opposed to something wrong with the program. This is a common testing procedure for any application. (Many years ago, I created a new user for my computer with the sign-in name "testme." To keep things easy for myself, I use the same sign-in password and other mandatory entries.) If the program (in this case, Bridge) works, there is something wrong with your entry module. One solution is to do what you did: switch to your new name as the new permanent name. When you feel comfortable, you have everything under control, you can delete your old entry name and password. 

[Ed Merrin]

Well, I discarded the new one rather than the old one once I got it up and running on both. I had done the same thing over a decade ago with Silverfast. The problem was solved when I got a newer computer. Then I didn’t need the extra user also.

[gary_sc]

My guess is that you pretty much built up all of your applications from scratch. This does the same thing as creating a new user: no residual stuff that can clutter the system.

[Susan36605040ujaj]

I am having consistent issues with Bridge 2026 crashing - not only the app, but my imac as well, causing me to lose files I havent' yet saved and LOTS of time lost. Wishing I hadn't deleted Bridge 2025. This has become a serious bug that Adobe needs to address and soon.

[gary_sc]

Hi, @Susan36605040ujaj, sorry, I need to back up for a moment: there is one "save" when it comes to Bridge: getting the files onto your computer. Once they are on your computer, you cannot lose them via Bridge.

There is perhaps a 2nd "save" when you've opened a file in Adobe Camera Raw and made adjustments. When you are done with your adjustments, you can either click "Cancel," which will cancel any adjustments you have just made, "Open," which will open the file you've made adjustments on in PS, or "Close," which will close that file from ACR with all the adjustments you've just made. But again, the files are not lost.

Can you please elaborate on which of these you are referring to?

At this point, I have to ask where you are opening files for Bridge. Is it on the camera card? Is the camera connected to your computer via a cable? That is never ever a good idea. The camera card is not designed for the give and take of file data streaming back and forth when working on images.

Now, assuming you are moving the files to your computer for enhancement, a couple of suggestions in order of easiest to hardest:

For the given folder you are working from (again, not the card), go to the Tools (menu) and select "Cache," and select (the only option of) Purge the folder that you're working with.

Does that solve the problem?

Next, Rebuild the Preferences for Bridge.

Quit Bridge if Open. Just before clicking on Bridge in the Dock or double-clicking the application for the Mac, press Command-Option-Shift. For PCs, press Control-Alt-Shift. Then open Bridge, BUT KEEP your fingers on those keys until you see a window pop up. From the window, the options are: “Reset Preferences" and "Purge All Local Cache Files.” In your case, check both of them.

Does that solve the problem?

Lastly, set Apple's security preferences: 

This is not Adobe's fault or anyone else's; this is Apple ensuring that applications that have not been granted permission to access areas of your computer cannot access those areas. 

[Note: in the images below, you'll see that the application being given permission is Acrobat — mentally think of Bridge when you see Acrobat. This needs to be done for all applications on a Mac, and if you've updated one of these applications, it's not uncommon to have to redo them.

Go to your Mac's Settings, and search for "security." That will get you to the settings that Apple uses to let you bypass their default "vault" protection. (This is a good thing.)

Starting off, you see this, note I have three things marked out.

Starting from the 2nd, Full Disk Access, if you select that, you'll see all of the applications that have been granted Full Disk Access. If you see Acrobat but it is not turned on, click on the switch on the far right side. If you do not see Acrobat, click on the "+" symbol on the bottom, locate Acrobat to add it, then turn on the switch.

Next go to Accessibility, same conditions as above.

Lastly, go to Files & Folders, this should already be set but depending on where it's located (such as a server), you may have to set this as well.

Again, all of the above may have already been done by you, but it's wise to check.

And lastly, did this help solve your problem?