P: Photoshop can't open, freezes on splash image, uses all of ram trying to open then crashes.

[Bella5CE6]

I have googled every possible variation of this problem and tried every fix for this problem, none of them worked. I have tried reinstalling photoshop, deleting everything even remotely related to photohop in the appdata, deleting custom fonts, restarting the computer, updating graphics and computer, and holding every possible combination of alt, ctrl and shift while trying to launch in administrator mode. The result is always the same. It opens the splash image, gets to loading preferences or brushes, spikes RAM usage to every last byte of RAM I have, freezes the computer, then crashes.

And no i'm not running it on a potato i'm running it on an Alienware Aurora 4090, it should have more than enough power to handle this and Photoshop ran perfectly fine for months. Then just today it crashed and has never started up again.

Photoshop version 25.11

Help.

[Sadim]

Thank you

I use Clean Up and reinstall Adobe cloud and photoshop and now it works 

[gundalf]

Hi, i just wanted to add in here to confirm the issue and the solution.

After an update on Monday Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign and Incopy stopped working. Even older versions which i had installed.
They froze at some point on the splash screen, RAM was filling up to 100% (32GB) and evantually crash the system.

After Effects, Lightroom Clissic, Animate, Premiere for example weren't affected.

I tried several methods (un-reinstall and what not) - but the ONLY solution was to use the cleaner tool and COMPLETELY CLEAN ALL Adobe apps from my system. First i tried to clean selected apps and services but that didn't work.

For support team i uploaded a Log Collector File before clearing the issue (AdobeLogs_20240806_094648_101-win-GS.zxp). Maybe that helps somehow idk.

I lost 2 days in fixing this and restore my settings and i still need to get older apps versions from support (since adobe locked them away) to get me back on track working again. Consider me as a very angry person.

Thanks. bye.

[Tisbury]

I attempted to open v25.11 on MacOs14.6. It goes into a hang and wont load. 

[Tisbury]

I did a restart, but get an error msg 'error enabling sync'. Why? Where? How?

[ajonespdx]

Same here. I had Beta Media Encoder and Beta Premiere and unistalled both, restarted and all is back to normal. What a frustrating morning of not getting sh!t done at work!

[Joshua37741206ruiv]

So I have to delete every single beta application? I'm only having problems opening Adobe Illustrator and photoshop. After effects and premeire pro are working fine.

[emmgee2004]

That seems to be the only known fix that works without having to delete anything else. Just the beta apps.

[Barrett30170481nwg3]

I've been trying to open to Photoshop, Beta and Standard, all day with no luck. Both apps stop on the "Reading Preferences" portion of the initial startup and then crashes. I've updated my MacOS to the most recent version, I've used the adobe cleaner, I've gone to previous versions that worked and nothing has been successful. Please help!

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Joshua37741206ruiv start with just the Media Encoder Beta.

[peterg2036972]

Why are Beta releases crippling start-up of Stable versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign?

Even more concerning: Beta versions installed on one’s system are affecting start-up of completely separate applications. I had Beta After Effects & Media Encoder installed. Apparently, these were preventing Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign from opening. All versions of After Effects, Media Encoder, and Premier Pro themselves, however, were able to open without issue on my system. The current Adobe screw up only seemed to affect Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, which freeze at the splash screen and also cause RAM usage to climb through the roof resulting in screen redraw issues and an unstable computer.

This post is testament to the number of Creative Cloud subscribers suffering from this problem. It also reveals that the temporary fix is to remove ALL Beta applications one might be using. Sure enough, as soon as I uninstalled the Beta versions of After Effects and Media Encoder, my Stable versions of Photoshop and Illustrator opened normally (I have not tried InDesign yet because I have not re-installed that program yet).

I am wondering about a few things here, which hopefully those more informed and technical than myself can give feedback on. Perhaps the discussion can contribute to Adobe implementing some positive changes to prevent such troublesome updates from occurring, or at the very least keep users better informed when such issues happen.

First, there is what I feel is Adobe’s unsatisfactory response in not properly addressing this problem. Instead of posting or sending out some kind of notification to users about the issue, they let their subscribers find out the hard way that some applications will fail to open under a specific condition. This causes users to waste inordinate amounts of time trying to figure out what is wrong and, after performing the usual trouble shooting, wasting even more time with tech support!

Yesterday, after an hour on chat with lackluster support, I was told the issue was on their side and to wait 4 hours. It has been almost 24 hours without any kind of response or follow-up on status of this critical issue. Certainly, they must know by now that the immediate workaround is to remove all Beta Apps. And yet, no such official communication has been issued that can help those whose work has now come to a standstill.

The second, more important issue I see from this fiasco, is the wisdom of having an ecosystem so tightly integrated that program errors to one aspect of it affect such a broad range of applications. Exactly what is adobe doing in their code that ties these programs together so that program errors critically affect them all at once? Is it some kernel that controls the start-up of all applications? Is there some kind of overreaching data sweeping going on during start-up that they recently implemented? Why would a Beta version of After Effects prevent start-up of a stable version of Photoshop?

[shayhcl]

The latest Photoshop update "destroyed" my Photoshops

I can't open both Photoshops - the new Photoshop 25.11 and the Photoshop Beta 25.12.

It doesn't mean it reduced my productivity, it ruined my work!!

They just DON'T OPEN (don't work)

What can I do????

Can the next update solve this?

*and why did my Illustrator and Indesign stop working too? because of the updates?

Very, very, very sad situation!

[@chebainstagram]

The same thing happens to me. Overnight, when I tried to open the Beta version, it didn't get past the splash screen. It froze there and consumed all available RAM until the system (macOS) suggested force quitting the application. I assumed it was an error typical of a Beta application, something we might be exposed to as part of the Beta applications program. The biggest surprise and disappointment came when I tried to use the final version of Photoshop, and the same thing happened.

I tried restarting the computer, clearing preferences, using the Adobe Cleaner, uninstalling and reinstalling (both versions), and nothing worked. The problem ruined my ability to use Photoshop.

The other applications I've used so far are working correctly (After Effects Beta, Media Encoder Beta, Lightroom Classic).

Please provide an urgent solution.

[Ej5D42]

My Photoshop is freezing when it gets to reading font lists and I've tried deleting all the font folders. PLEASE HELP!

[peterg2036972]

For now just uninstall any Adobe beta apps. Then Photoshop and Illustrator should start opening again. It worked for me and many others on this thread.

[ajonespdx]

Agree. I'm personally done with the Beta App experience. I was super annoyed by the fact the Photoshop Beta kept getting set as default app to open applicable files. I would set the Photoshop as default app to open files and with a couple days I would double click to open a file and Photoshop Beta would launch. Annoying and inconsiderate.
And now this. Beta? paaaaasss....

[Rafael Mancini VFX]

I'm having the same issue on my computer. It uses 100% of RAM and then I can't even force quit the App using the Task Manager. This is very very bad for my business... Hey Adobe, please give us a solution with urgency.

[Greg Bracco]

Same here all of a sudden PS 25.11 wont open, freezes on open screen. I tried holding shift to not open 3rd party apps. But no avail. The only 3rd party app I have  Nic Collection 6. Previous version of PS was no problems. Now having issues, even with PS Beta.

I have Mac running Sonoma 14.5 96gig RAM. AMD Radeon Pro Vega II 32 gig. 

[peterg2036972]

Just uninstall any Beta Apps then it should start opening again.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Greg Bracco see the answer above...

[tom31230076zib5]

Today both my PS apps on PC (2024 and Bata) stopped opening and got hung on the Splash screen Reading Preferences.   I tried deleting the settings folder for both, reinstalling them, updating Windows, and rebooting repeatedly.  nothing seems to fix what was working this morning.    I did install an old copy of 2021 that works but is missing a bunch of AI tools I use now.      i have looked online but can't seem to find a fix for this

[jimmybla]

Can’t seem to uninstall the PS Beta App. Keeps telling me there’s a conflict and hangs.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@jimmybla Use the CC Cleaner tool.

[schubertt20436865]

Same here.  Using Windows 11.  It just freezes in the app opening screen.  

[UncleWaldo62]

Hey guys, it's not just Photoshop. This latest update broke the whole damn suite.

This Cleaner Tool is for advanced players. I'm not about to go in and start eliminating stuff.
Can't you folks just fix this and give us an upgrade?

[UncleWaldo62]

I'm posting here because there's no general discussion for the entire suite.

I've recently did the latest Creative Cloud update and now the entire Suite will not load.

I'm running an iMac with Ventura 13.6 and 72 GB of Ram.

The affected apps are:

Photoshop 25.11

Illustrator 28.6

InDesign 19.5

Animate 24.0.4

After Effects 24.5

Media Encoder 24.5

Premier Pro (Beta) V25.0

Photoshop (Beta) 25.12

After Effects (Beta) 25.0

Illustrator (Beta) 28.8

Media Encoder (Beta) 25.0

I already read about using some Creative Cloud Cleaner, but that's for advanced users and I don't want to have to delete and reinstall everything.

Can't you just fix this and give us an update?

My entire Adobe Suite is down and of no use to me.