P: Photoshop 22.1.0 - Program Error using Spot Healing tool and using Select and Mask

[jjaylad]

Repeatedly ...even after restarting PS and/or rebooting laptop, I try to use the spot healing tool and incessantly get this popup:

"Could not complete your request because of a program error"

All I can do is click the OK button and then continue until a minute or so goes by and I get the same thing happening again. Another buggy update???

[Fabiantech]

So I should tell my client, that I had to crop the 80 MPixel Photo to 4000px, when delivering the job?.... ^^ *sigh*

Adobe, if you are listening, you are not making yourself many friends among pro-retouchers working on deadlines to deliver... shiny new features like neural filters don't make it when basic functionality isn't working any more due to old and buggy code and lack of modernization/re-programming of core components.

[Fabiantech]

Why? The anser might sound cynical, but unfortunately it's true IMO:

Since Creative Cloud it's easy to roll out bug fixes.

So basically we users have become beta-testers. Non-payed, rather paying beta-testers, that is...

[Fabiantech]

Adobe, please

1. acknowledge, that there's a major flaw in current version
2. reproduce this error
3. research it [*] (no logs and no debug information given is an absolute no-go in modern software development, by the way...)
4. try to find out and encircle, what's causing the errors
5. tell us whether there's a workaround (other than disabling GPU, that's no workaround for many pro users!)
6. when you know the cause of the problem, inform us about the time span until you will probably roll out a bug-fix

<- THAT's what transparency would look like and would bind customers.

[*] That's your job. Not ours. We have enough problems dealing with angry clients continuously struggling with the bugs of your aged and messy core program code.

Thanks.

[ikoviak]

Not necessarily cropping it to a different size. But literally selecting the crop tool and making sure the setting is to "delete cropped pixels" and hit return. So no resizing or adjusting of the crop area. Just leave that as is.

Not sure if you tried this yet, but you could try saving out to a different file format. Anyway, the goal is to not lose the work at hand and progress that was made so those are things that have worked for me. In extreme cases, I've had to force quite and pray for a good recovery...

But yes, a big bummer and no clear answer as of yet...

[Fabiantech]

Okay, sorry if I misinterpreted you. The "reducing the image size to 4000px (approximately)" above doesn't seem like "cropping out the invisible pixels".

[robs62777368]

Alas, no luck.

I have PS freshly installed on a brand new PC, specially bought for Photoshop, because release 2021 didn't support my old video card any more. I now run a NVIDIA RTX 2060, if this is useful.

[jrumans]

@Flo I truly hope that your message reaches the right people. Well said.

[Wazza999]

I too have also just started receiving this error after the last update. It occurs when just using the healing brush on an empty layer whilst retouching. The error message pops up randomly after a few strokes.

[Fabiantech]

@JeffreyTranberry 

At first glance your message seems to be forthcoming, engaging and cooperative.

But actually it seems sad and a bit like a confession of failure to me:

• It's an obvious bug. Showing up only minutes after installing the new version. Reported by countless pro users.
• IMO it shows that you do absolutely ZERO quality control or testing before rolling out a new version.
• It shows that you treat us as (paying, not paid) beta-testers.
• It's NOT fixable by reinstalling/resetting prefs etc. It's disgusting that Adobe asks us do things like that, wasting the life time of countless of it's users.
• By the way, it's a feature of acutal and good tech-support to understand the reason of problems/errors, not just unspecifically and always suggest "Please reinstall PS." I do not need tech-support to enlighten me with the idea that I could reinstall the software.

Anyway, sorry for the longish message, I still think it's your job...

• to do basic tests before rolling out "updates"
• research problems instead of asking us users to do the beta testing for you

IMO it's the OPPOSITE of real tech-support to continue suggesting actions to us users which just waste our life time (like even reinstall the operation system; even days after the bug was well-known on forums, and obvious that it was not due to wrong user settings or machine configuration....).

(I personally wouldn't be very happy with this kind of quality control - or better: lack of it - and update policy even if it were FREEWARE. But treating customers like that with a PAID software is beyond words...)

Sounds a bit harsh? Well, consider the background: This is going on for months. I still remember vividly rolling out a version with completely broken liquify (on 16bit images)... Just totally unacceptable, if you want yourself to be considred as aa reliable and capable business partner by professionals in the long-term future.

[J453]

Sorry you're having trouble. The program errors seen in 22.1 have been difficult to reproduce and track down. Please know that  our entire engineering department is focused on these program errors. We’d like to create a special build that we can send to users to get additional information. Would you be willing to help us by testing this build and providing us additional logging thats generated? Please add a comment if you're interested and I'll have the team send out an invite.

If you are not interested in trying out the above prerelease build:

For current workarounds see Program error when saving files

If that doesn't solve your problem, roll back to the previous version of Photoshop.

See Revert to the previous Photoshop version

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hi Jeffery,

sure thing, anything to help get this fixed.

Orion

[J453]

Thanks Orion. Will send out invites shortly.

[Fabiantech]

@JeffreyTranberry I regard this as an insult. Being asked to do your work without being paid? And framing this as an act of doing good for us?

First you dump quality control, allow sloppy programming without logging or debug information (a no-go in modern software development).

Then you want us to do unpayed beta-testing to fix your shortcomings?

By helping you NOW on an unpayed basis, we would CEMENT this horrible fashion of outsourcing beta-testing to customers.

The very least would be to offer e.g. one year free subscrpition. (Don't get me wrong, I personally don't need the money. I just think this would be a DECENT thing to do.)

[Fabiantech]

By the way, for EVERY last "update" I was able to find the bugs/program errros within the first minutes after installing it. If you had ppl like me as paid beta-testers (and asking for feedback before you roll out anything "improved"), all these desasters of the last updates would never have happened.

[Wazza999]

@JeffreyTranberry I'd help too if it would fix the issue. 

[J453]

Thanks Warren! Will get you added.

[ジョルダーノ]

I would be very happy to help you if you give me a full refund of the past year (version 21 was just a disaster, totally unusable) and a free subscription from now on.

I guess that 10$/month for a professional beta tester is a deal, don't you think?

I love this software and it's just a pain to see how the development of this wonderful program got worse and worse, not counting that feeling of fear with every single update (will it work? will I be able to work or just spend my entire day trying to figure out fixes?).

I repeat: I'd love to help and rescue this software from this decline, but Adobe has to do it's own part, and pay for the time spent (or lost..) by me/us.

p.s. I own a copy of Photoshop CS6, and now that even old tools no longer work as expected (liquify on transparent pixels, and not remembering the content of smart layers), it's very easy to go move back to the good old CS6, anytime.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I can't seem to do anything now on photoshop 22.1, no matter what image I open any tool that I try I get the same error "Could not complete your request because of a program error". I can't even create a new layer or anything. Also any time I try to update it doesn't go past 5% then crashes saying "update failed" for no reason. Tried restarting my computer but no luck. Super frustrating. 

[Fabiantech]

Very well put. me (too) invested so many years of my professional life into mastering this software. Since PS v1.0. Driving not few customers towards Adobe through my seminars and teachings. I'd even say, PS has become an extension to myself. Naturally not being happy with the mid/long term prospect of having to relearn/rethink/switch software.

And it somehow feels absurd: It's the USERS like us/me who are yearning, that PS has a future. While it's ADOBE who seems to be trying hard to become the Kodak of photo-software.

All seems to have started with Cloud version, concentrating on short-term profit, milking customers, investing in shiny new features but neglecting to modernize core components. Neural filters are cool, but would be even cooler, if I could do basic retouching with standard tools, that are 100% working...

Okay, it's not Adobe's fault to struggle with aged code, naturally the software is old and carries 'historical' baggage in it's code. Every software designer knows how messy old software becomes after several rounds of programmers working on it simultaneously...

But ALL THE MORE it would show long-term vision of senior product managers to invest into revamping core components NOW, not when it's too late.

That is, maybe it IS already too late?... Anyway, maybe - HOPEFULLY - this repeated v22.1 update desaster at last galvanizes people at Adobe who have some say within the company and aren't merely trying to keep customers happy on forums. And are able to change course ASAP.

Adobe, don't just browse over & ignore messages like that, try to transfer to strategical department. (That is, if you care as much as I do about the future of the software...)

But let's not be so negative, but constructive for a second:

Why not start a (payed!) beta-testing program? Obviously you stopped doing that, obvisouly the last versions were rolled out without more than superficial testing. IMO good beta testers would be an extremely valuable asset you urgently need now.... I'd even say: DESPERATELY need now...

Hint: It wouldn't be too hard to find people like that. You'd even find them here on the forum... ^^

[OldGreyWizard]

Another User with the same issue.

Running version 22.1.0 20201125.r.94 2020/11/25: 4b16c876033  x64.

Luckily I don't have to face the wrath of any clients. I can understand the frustration of others  with this. I've only a few competition entries at risk not my lively-hood.

When it works PS and in particular the context aware spot removal tool is excellent.

Twice this week I've got close to the end of a complicated edit when the message  "Could not complete your request because of a program error" popped up.

Given the number of posts here, I'd have thought that you could replicate this.

Happy to demo the problem if it helps get this sorted.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Also experiencing this issue as well. Brand new system a build with fresh Windows and Photoshop install, never had this issue before this version. "Could not complete your request because of a program error" every few clicks while using all healing tools, intermittently while using the stamp tool, and occasionally while saving. 

Also I can make a new post if necessary but also having severe issues with Wacom tablets; file window jumping around, rotating randomly, pointer moving sporadically (tested 3 different tablets, same results). 

Downgrading to an older version until these issues are fixed, seems like some others have had good results with that.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I was getting the "Program Error" message when trying to save a file that I had created using a PSD formatted file from Procreate. I was trying to drag layers from the Procreate/PSD file into my new file but the dragging wouldn't work, and clicked-on layers disappeared. Copying and pasting the layers worked, but the "Can't save because of a program error" turned up when I tried to save.

[jjaylad]

Was that workflow successful in previous versions?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Yes, tried it out with PS 2020, version 21.2.4

No problems there

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Same problem here with the healing and spot healing brush. In the beginning of the evening it worked fine after some spot healing I started to get the program errors.

After this I started to use the healing brush and after about 15 minutes and some program errors I couldn't heal anymore and always get a program error.

Restarting photoshop, restart Windows, resetting Photoshop settings, disable Graphics Processor,  didn't solve the issue.

Only solution I found is:

- Reduse the canvas size to 4000px max length

- or do not use more then 2 layers with sample setto current and below.

- or set image mode to 8 bits/channel

- or use only healing brush with sample to current layer.

Hope it will be solved soon. to go back to an older version is mmm for me going back to older bugs.