Wrong Colors Across All programs after update

[Samijune]

I use multiple adobe programs on a dialy basis for work. Last week I decided to update all programs (Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom and a few others). I had updated windows 11 not long before that. At first things seemed fine but a few days later, I suddenly opened up a file in illustrator to find that the colors were completely off. 

I didn't know why and couldn't figure out how to fix it after searching online for a bit so I just made the changes I needed to make to the file anyways and it was fine when exported. Then I found that the issue was happening with another file but in photoshop, then again with another file in Lightroom. All CC programs save for Premiere seem to be having this color issue. 

Brightness is low and colors are completely off. Yellows are orange, grays are black and so forth. 

The only forums I've found are quite old and unhelpful. I've tried multiple monitor profiles but there is no change. A few have attributed it to Window's previewer being inacurate in color however this doesn't pertain to my issue. 

Firstly the files have shifted in color from one day to the next without me changing any settings. 

Secondly, the exported files look the same across all my devices as well as on the web so it's not only a case of Windows photo viewer vs adobe programs. 

Any suggestions to resolving/troubleshooting this issue would be appreciated, I've been forced to edit all photos on my phone instead for the last week. 

[Bob_Hallam]

If you have saved Color Settings, go into Bridge and load those settings.  Bridge will show you they are synchronized across all applications.  Then check the files again.  

If there is still a problem, respond back and include your OS and computer info 

[Samijune]

Thanks for the quick response. 

Ive not previously used bridge or saved any specific color settings but if I download it will I still be able to restore?

[Bob_Hallam]

If you download and use Bridge it can synchronize any saved settings.   Given that you have not specified any it's also possible that after you decide what you want to use these files may still not match.   In which case you can check that by opening the images in Photoshop and looking at the document profile.  If the profiles are different in these different documents then that is the root cause.   To solve that just make sure you standardize on one set of color settings and use them everywhere.  

[TheDigitalDog]

  In which case you can check that by opening the images in Photoshop and looking at the document profile.  If the profiles are different in these different documents then that is the root cause. 

By @Bob_Hallam

Not so Bob. Absolutely not the issue!

Image on left: Adobe RGB (1998) in Photoshop.

Image on the right: sRGB in Preview.

Both color managed applications!  NOT what the OP is showing us.

Left" PS. Right Preview, two different color spaces

[D Fosse]

If you download and use Bridge it can synchronize any saved settings.

By @Bob_Hallam

My personal opinion is that this "synchronize color settings" option should just be removed. It doesn't solve any problems. If you have color inconsistencies, this isn't the cause. What it does do, however, is lull people into a false sense of security.

As we all know, any document profile will be correctly handled in a color managed application, and appear on screen, well, right.

There are very good and sensible reasons for not synchronizing color settings. CMYK policies in Photoshop should normally not be the same as in Illustrator or InDesign. In the former you want "preserve embedded profiles", in the latter you normally want "preserve numbers". You may also want ProPhoto in PS but Adobe RGB in Illustrator.

If color is wrong, it's usually a bad monitor profile, or a missing document profile, or an application that doesn't do color management at all. Or, as in this case, a corrupt GPU driver.

[TheDigitalDog]

So you have two images from screen captures, what application is being used on the left?

Can you provide a screen capture of your Photoshop color settings dialog.

How  does this image preview in Photoshop?

http://www.digitaldog.net/files/2014PrinterTestFileFlat.tif.zip

Tell us more about how the display is calibrated and if using a 3rd party software product, are you possibly using a V4 (version 4) profile?

See:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/wrong-colours-only-in-adobe-programs/...

[Samijune]

This image was created in photoshop and finalized in lightroom. The left is the windows photo preview which is still displaying as I had originally created it. Lightroom is on the right and used to look the same but now is different as you can see. 

Photoshop was the same scenario and as I said, I've expereinced this with all other working files I've reopened in Illustrator as well. However, as I wrote the original post, I updated again to photoshop v23.2.1 and now the file is looking accurate again.

This screen grab shows: windows viewer > lightroom > photoshop 

In fact, I opened illustrator for the first time today to compare it as well but even though I didn't update it myself, it is now displaying correctly. 

This file is the first one I noticed was off. It displayed this orange color that is still showing in the preview when I open the program. 

However, now when I open the file, it displays correctly as I had originally created it. 

Maybe it was just a bug with the recent update. Either way I'm glad photoshop and Illustrator are working again. Of course, it didn't happen until I finally snapped and posted to the forum. Hopefully Lighroom will correct its self as well shortly. 

[Samijune · Accepted solution]

Actually, I believe it was a bad Nvidia update. I also update my graphics driver while waiting for responses but after opening lightroom. 

The update finished, I opened illustrator and photoshop with no issue. 

I decided to see what would happen if i restarted lightroom after the driver update and now it is showing accurately again. How frustrating that was. 

Thanks for your timely responses. 

[TheDigitalDog]

This image was created in photoshop and finalized in lightroom. The left is the windows photo preview which is still displaying as I had originally created it. Lightroom is on the right and used to look the same but now is different as you can see. 

I suspect the issue is Windows Photo viewer which in modern versions of Windows "should" be color managed. Wasn't in the past.

Does the image in both LR and PS match? They are both color managed. Short of a display profile issue OR GPU issue (you can test this in either by disabling GPU in preferences), those previews should be correct. At this point, I'm more suspicious that the issue is Windows Photo Viewer.

No reason to be futzing with Adobe Bridge at this point. We need to know:

1. Is Photo Viewer the issue?

2. Or is the display profile or, a GPU issue in both Adobe products causing a problem previewing the data?

Again, the most likely suspect is Photo Viewer.

[Samijune]

The iamges are all displaying as the same and "accurate" now without adjusting any color settings. It was simply a GPU malfunction fixed by a driver update. 🤦🏻‍:female_sign:

Thank you for all your suggestions!

[Samijune]

However, I did attempt to disable my gpu in lightroom and that didn't make a difference when I was troubleshooting so it really threw me off. 

[Test Screen Name]

You can disable the GPU in some apps so it is not used for calculation. But it's still used for display to the screen. Really two quite separate jobs done by the same chip.