P: MacBook Pro Apple M2 Max Laggy Liquify

[Abreu.pedro]

MacBook Pro Apple M2 Max 96GB RAM - Photoshop 24.2
I recently changed to this new computer and photoshop is super laggy in tools like liquify and other filters, the brush lags a lot!
Even the zoom is slow.
Even my 2015 MacBook is faster at these tasks.

I don't know what is going on but something can't be right...

[Patrick_Biller]

I will gladly share my screen to show you this issue. 

[Efekan Pürçekli]

25.5 
now its more laggy. Thanks alot.. I really cant believe that ..

[Mark.Dahm]

We were able to observe this lagginess in a recent screen sharing session, on Mac Intel, and were able to duplicate inconsistent lagginess with very large files. We are investigating this. 

Would be happy to know from you:

1. Happen predictably/with specific steps, or just more randomly?

2. Happen with files an any particular size, or color profile or bit depth?

3. Happen on what hardware and software combination?

4. Does it seem like the mouse click down event is getting locked up, or is the drawing clearly just lagging behind the mouse down events?

Thanks for any additional clarification. We beleive we started seeing this with Ventura and on newer Mac hardware, but not every report lines up that way, so there could be multiple issues happening.

[Patrick_Biller]

1. Happens every time I use liquify tool. The curser lags across the screen. It makes it impossible to use the tool. 

2. I'm using 16bit TIFF files from a fujifilm gfx100s. They are approx 250mb. 

3. Latest Macbook Pro with 16gb RAM Sonoma 14.2.1 M1 chip. Editing in C1, opening in Photoshop and editing with both applications running. 

4. Drawing clearly lagging behind curser movements, to the point where I move the curser and it wont move for 5-7 seconds. 

4. 

[Efekan Pürçekli]

Hello ..

"I think I've solved the freezing and slow movement issue in Liquify. 😃 I'm opening it as a smart filter... I haven't experienced any freezing or lagging at the moment." 

[Patrick_Biller]

How do I do that?

[Efekan Pürçekli]

Patrick , 
Yes, I have temporarily solved the problem. We open the smart filters and then click on Liquify. We open the layer as a smart filter and add a Liquify below. Then, by double-clicking, we enter Liquify again. There is no longer any freezing or lagging issue.

[Pedro Downunder]

I find it interesting that in this thread a "community beginner" (I find it hard to take these catergories seriously) claims to have solved the Liquify error, which has plagued it for a year. My question is, why doesn't Adobe fix such errors promtly, rather than relying on customers to do their software maintanance?  

[Patrick_Biller]

I wonder that too. How’s this not fixed yet?

[Efekan Pürçekli]

Hello Pedro,

what is the reason for writing this is precisely ? Have you tried the solution I suggested? I took the time to share a solution that I personally tried and achieved positive results, and you're telling me you can't take it seriously? I understand. When I first used Photoshop, you didn't even exist in the world. I'm also new here, writing something for the first time. I'll attribute your attitude to your age.

And yes, I would also very much like to know why the problem still hasn't been resolved. But it's been almost a year.

Wishing everyone good work. 

[Pedro Downunder]

Efekan Pürçekli, My reason for responding to your comment was not to criticise your suggested work around, but to point out the holes in Adobe's customer support. It's Adobe's all too funny customer tag terms I draw attention to; terms the US business world use rather too loosley. Having staffers refer to themselves as "an Adobe evengelist" is another example of this silliness.  

In my view Adobe use this "community" to have paying customers solve what they should solve quickly and efficiently themselves. I say this because customer's continue to share stories here of similar technical problems that go unfixed by the company.

I'm an artist and independent film-maker, not an nerd or engineer. And I have used Adobe products since 2004. As for the naïveté of my age, I began making analogue film 1966 and returned to it digitally in 2003. 

[Mark.Dahm]

I appreciate @Efekan Pürçekli  input; no need to criticize; sometimes certain steps works for everybody, sometimes it doesn't. I think Efekan's note is also a good one, since it's generally preferred to edit non-destructively whenever possible, as described.

This issue has been difficult to isolate; changes in operating systems, hardware and drivers are dicey, and if we can't duplicate the symptom here, we're left with pure guesses as to how to address certain issues. We were finally able to do a screen share with one customer from this thread, and it helped us to replicate one certain scenario that we were not able to get from reading just the text descriptions left here (many of which were stale, since this thread started almost a year ago, but keeps getting piled on with modified steps; not complaining, it's just like herding cats to get the right description of an issue that is current; thank you @Patrick_Biller  for your details, btw).

We are looking at how to solve for that issue, which was a file of at least 8k pixels on Apple M1 hardware. Might also resolve Patrick's issue with 16-bit TIFFs, as we were able to get things to act up with Adobe Camera Raw opening rather than Capture 1.

A note about the GPU; Multiple applications hammering the GPU at the same time, especially imaging apps (as opposed to games) is a recipe for instability. Releasing GPU resources can help minimize GPU contention across apps, though I know how inconvenient that is to the workflow described.

[Efekan Pürçekli]

When I encountered the same issue on both of my Mac Studio devices, I requested assistance from an Adobe representative to connect to my computer and resolve the problem. They connected twice and claimed to have solved the issue by performing a clean installation of all Adobe products or by disabling the GPU. However, none of these attempts were successful. Consequently, I requested a refund and ultimately received it.

Did this solve my problem? No. Since realizing that the issue remained unresolved even after four months, I'm writing here.

There's a claim that Liquify works properly on the untouched photo, but I've tried that too. I've consistently experienced it not working. I've tried closing and reopening 2-3 times to try to get it to work properly, but it only runs slightly faster and never at its previous performance level.

I'm both a photographer and a director, and I also do my own retouching. To ensure my work doesn't suffer, I've been trying various things myself, and I've found a workaround using smart filters. Currently, both of my devices are working fine using this method. I hope this helps you complete your work comfortably until the problem is resolved.

[Mark.Dahm]

@Patrick_Biller ,

A layer can be converted to a smart object by right clicking (or control clicking on Mac) on a layer name in the Layers panel. If it is a background layer, the right click menu looks like A below, and if it's a normal layer, it looks like B below:

A

B

Select 'Convert to Smart Object'. That will allow all filters to be run non-destructively, and modified and tweaked as much as you want without ever losing access to the original pixels of that layer. To go into the smart object and edit like a 'normal' layer, you can double click on the layer thumbnail, and it will open as a separate document window; changes to that layer are written permanently, and this change is destructive. But you may never need to do that; the liquify filter can then be used on that layer just as you would normally use the liquify filter, and without ever opening the smart object layer.

We have been able to replicate the performance issue with an M1 on Ventura, and are working on solving this, so thank you for your patience. 

[YahorShumski]

Convert to Smart Object doesn;t work eigher. I need my money back NOW

[peggphoto]

@Mark.Dahm Any updates on the liquify issue? Still crippling my workflow. 

[Mark.Dahm]

@peggphoto , unfortunately we could not get a verified fix into this latest release; still working on this. If you didn't see one earlier report, one customer noted that Liquify seemeed to work fine when operating on a smart object; maybe try turning your source content into a smart object to see if that works better for you in the meantime.

[YahorShumski]

@Mark.Dahm 

Smart object doesn't solve the problem. How do you feel working for the company not able to solve this kind of issues?

[Erin26]

If you are experiencing erratic mouse movements in the Liquify dialog, these workarounds, may help.

1. After launching the Liquify dialog, do not move the mouse until the dialog is open.
2. If erratic mouse movements still occur, try clicking out of the Photoshop app and back in.

[Efekan Pürçekli]

with smartfilter it was working good. Now with new update all fixed. thx

[TGR74]

Mine is still horribly slow and disabling GPU helps but I shouldn't have to.  Will this ever be fixed??? 

[JessicaZeoli]

Check for an update (25.6); I did one yesterday and have yet to have any issues (fingers crossed). 

[Mark.Dahm]

@JessicaZeoli , please let us know if you do run into issues and share system info if so.