P: Photoshop 26.11 freeze at launch on Reading Brushes & Building Color Conversion Tables

[Ged_Traynor]

Just installed version 26.11 on Windows 10 and Photoshop is freezing on reading brushes, have already tried manually resetting the preferences, uninstalling version 26.11 and deleting the Adobe Photoshop 2025 folder from the appdata folder, reinstall version 26.11 same issue.

Reverted back to version 26.10, and it's working fine.

[thorstent40082701]

There's a bug in there. I've now installed the latest beta version, and it has the same error as 26.11.
What's going on with the programmers at Adobe?

[Sameer K]

Hi All! Thanks for reaching out. At the same time, I don't experience the same behavior on two of my machines, work and personal. I've shared this with the team for review. Please add your vote from the top and comments if you see this issue. 

Thanks!

Sameer K
(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

[ardinv30942724]

I should note that I'm able to launch and use 26.11 on my laptop with no problems at all. I only get this error on my desktop, which ironically has better specs.

[thorstent40082701]

I found out that if you disable “GPU Composing Performance,” everything starts normally. I use an RX 7800xt 16gb as my GPU.

[Christopher21944009g1wh]

I have precisely the same issue. Win 11, 26.10 works fine, 26.11 locks up at the same place when opening. However, 26.11 works fine on my other Win 11 machine. Have no idea what's going on.

[Christopher21944009g1wh]

This is usually where mine hangs up as well, though once it did get through to building brushes. 

[ralftones_8288]

Hi! I was having the exact same problem here, and after hours trying to figure out what to do without having to reinstall, I followed these steps and it worked for me:

Step 01:
Go to the folder where the file "brushes.psp" is located and make a backup copy of the file somewhere else.

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2025\Adobe Photoshop 2025 Settings

Step 02:
Then, delete "brushes.psp" from the Photoshop folder and run the program — it should open normally.

Step 03:
Go to Preferences > Performance > Graphics Processor Settings > Advanced Settings and disable "GPU composing".

Step 04:
Close the program, copy the "brushes.psp" file back into the Photoshop folder, and run the program again.

Everything should be back to normal. At least for me, it worked 🙂

[Ged_Traynor]

@ralftones_8288 I skipped steps 1, 2 and 4 and just disabled GPU compositing and Photoshop is loading fine, thanks for the tip, let's hope Adobe can narrow it down and find a fix for the issue

[TAROJIRO]

私もGPU合成を無効にしたところ、Photoshopが正常に起動するようになりました。

アドバイスありがとうございました。

[Adam Jerugim]

If you are still expeiencing this hang on launch on Windows, can you please try right-clicking on the app icon and choosing Run As Administrator? Does that allow PS to launch without error? Thanks.

[tslewis123]

@Adam Jerugim It works the first time, then crashes every time after that.

[ardinv30942724]

Replying to myself since I can't edit my initial post. Windows pushed an update through overnight (26100.6725) that seems to have fixed this issue for me completely.

[Imaginerie]

I have been experiencing  a bug where when I launch Photoshop, the splash screen get stuck on "building colour conversion tables, just before "reading brushes" should happen)
after a while, I get this error message

It's have been happening only since the last update, 4 days ago

It resolves itself after re-starting the computer...

On a PC, Windows 11
Here are my system specs
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core Processor (4.50 GHz)
Installed RAM 128 GB (127 GB usable)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Performance in Preferences

[Ged_Traynor]

@Imaginerie you're not alone, as a workaround try disabling GPU compositing in the Photoshop preferences, as mentioned in the below thread

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-bugs/p-photoshop-26-11-freeze-at-launch-on-readin...

[Imaginerie]

Thanks Ged. I have been busy lately so I didn't spend the time to research if it was already logged (beyond the first page of the bug reports)

I wanted to still report it.

Thanks again!

[Imaginerie]

Just adding my name to the list
I created a post here, but will follow the advice kindly given in the replies.
https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-bugs/photoshop-stuck-on-splash-screen-pc/idi-p/15...

[Ged_Traynor]

It only affects one of my installs, the other is loading fine with GPU composting enabled, so it seems to be a random bug

[ob_default40392640]

저렇게 로딩창만 뜨고 안 켜집니다.

그래서 인터넷에서 봤던 방법들로 다시 삭제하고 잔여 파일들 삭제할 수 있는 부분들 다 삭제하고

다시 설치했으나 여전히 로딩창은 그대로입니다.

처음에 다시 설치했을때는 켜졌는데 또 껐다가 다시 키니까 안 됩니다.

왜 이런지 모르겠습니다. 

쓰던 브러쉬 폴더를 덮어쓰기를 했는데 그거 때문에 원점으로 돌아간건지 의문이 가네요.

[CrashOver1D]

I just tried the 26100.6725 Update, nothing change for me

As soon as I reactivate the GPU Compositing, startup stuck on Building Color Conversion Tables

And as soon as I inactivate it, launch perfectly

[Photograph France]

@Sameer K I have the same problem on one of my machines a Geekom A6 mini PC Ryz7 32GB AMD Based with AMD Graphics. However the problem does not appear on my ten year old way older Intel i7 16GB + Nvidia 1650 machine.

[santan87656998]

I have the same issue now that I updated to Photoshop v26.11..... PLEASE FIX THIS!!!! 

[Jandersson22]

Adding my name to the list. Reverted back to 26.10 and problem solved.

[luca_4290]

Same here. I'm having the exact same issue on Windows 10 with version 26.11. Photoshop freezes on "reading brushes". Reverting to 26.10 fixed it for me as well.

[MratajczakPhotography]

install photoshop 26.0 and it will work. 26.11 and 26.10 won't work on windows 11. as per their "tech support" install 26.0 is the best option for windows 11. I asked what version 26.10 and 26.11 versions for who? he didn't answer. this is what they are hiring now.

[Jettubby]

This is happening to me as well about 50% of that time that I launch PS with the latest update. Freezing "reading brushes" and I have NO added brushes. Also freezing on Building Color Conversion Tables. 

Come on Adobe! This is seriously impeding this past weekend's wedding workflow!

Windows 11 and everything updated.

AMD 9950XD system with NVIDIA 5080 GPU. 

No other software running besides LRC