P: PS 26.5 Droplets Could not complete the Create Droplet command because the file was not found.

[hadi_9157]

When I create a droplet in Photoshop 2025, it creates a folder instead of an EXE file. What is the solution?

[Christopher3440329747o5]

I guess the genius's @ Adobe have no solution to this problem. 

WOW! And I pay how much a month for Software that doesn't work 100%

I should have stayed on High Sierra and Adobe 2015 when things still worked.

[Tim-e-uk]

Hi Aleke,

We're also experiencing this issue. I've tested it on two machines:

• A brand new, clean install Mac Mini M4 running macOS 15.4.1 (24E263) and Photoshop 26.6

• A Mac Studio M2 Ultra with the same OS and Photoshop versions

On both machines , droplets are causing multiple errors:

1. Creating droplets triggers the error:
“Could not create the droplet because the file name was invalid”
(I’ve attached a video to show this)

2. Running droplets causes this error:
“Filename” is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Bin

Back when Ventura was released, you could force droplets to run, but now under 15.4.1, in some cases users can't run new droplets at all.

There are online guides (e.g. this one for 15.4.0) with workarounds, but these don’t seem reliable in 15.4.1.

When Ventura came out in 2022, it blocked droplets from running as mentioned and no fix ever came from Adobe. Now with macOS further tightening security, when we want to create a droplet, the droplet files are created at the specified location, but the app itself isn’t being packaged up.

It seems modification is required to get droplets working correctly in macOS 15.4.1.

Droplets are a basic and essential feature of Photoshop, we use them daily in our workflow. This isn’t the first thread about the issue. On behalf of all droplet users who are experiencing the same frustration with such a simple feature of the software, I’d like to request this be escalated for a proper fix in the next update.  Looking forward to hearing about your investigation.

Thanks,
Tim

[Christopher3440329747o5]

I appreciate your reply Tim! 

Ya Apple and Adobe products really [cursing removed]  these days. So many things broken and nothing gets fixed. The more updates to apps, the more issues. [insult removed] What do you expect? HAHA

[Christopher3440329747o5]

I guess there isn't anyone at Adobe that knows how to fix this!

Sad, so Sad!

[camwork]

I have the same problem.

[Aaron Tipton]

Just installed 26.7, still not fixed. I'm having to use a 6 year old laptop to make my droplets now. Ridiculous.

Hey Adobe! Photoshop Droplets are integral to many of our workflows and you've been treating them as if they were an afterthought or are being abandoned completely. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE respond to our concerns in this thread and let us know ASAP how and when this is being resolved!!!

[ron53]

Following the Community Guidelines, my only comment is Shame of Adobe. They have an obligation to provide timely support, especially to those like us who pay good money year after year for support.  

Enough already. Let's get this fix moving forward please.

[ron53]

Thanks for the temp fix. Although not as seamless or as accomodating as creating a droplet, your workaround seems to provide somewhat of a solution until the engineers can fix this.

[Aaron Tipton]

Updated to macOS 15.5, still not able to create a droplet. Updated to Photoshop Beta 26.8, still not able to create a droplet!

[Dakota_moon]

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

This situation has become truy bizare!

Going on months and months now through multiple macOS and PhotoShop™ updates WITHOUT addressing this issue. 

The droplet issue has become a major drag on my workflow. Yes, I can manually run an action from within PhotoShop™ however this is very time consuming and totally defeates the benefits of droplets.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ELEVATE THIS PROBLEM ON YOUR LIST OF PRIORITIES TO PLEASE ADDRESS OR EXPLAIN ASAP. 

THE SILENCE IS DEAFENING. 

Even a simple status or progress report, or explanation of the delay would be greatfully apprecaited. 

I LOVE PHOTOSHOP™ BUT why is this issue still unresolved? Plase explain. Thank you.

[adamehunt]

I was able to work around this by installing an older version of Photoshop (25.12.3). Here are some steps on how to do that. I am on macOS 15.4.1 and can have multiple versions of Photoshop installed at the same time this way.

[adamehunt]

On second try, this did not work with a custom action, it just did not give an error with a default action in my test. It still saved the droplet as a folder, not an app. Back to the drwaing board. Appologies for the premature reply.

[Dakota_moon]

Thank you Adam for the clever work-around. But in the end if I following your instructions you deceded that this process, of using an old version of PhotoShop,™ still does not work to create a new droplet.

I just updatead PhotoShop™from v26.6 to v26.6.1, runnin macOS v15.5, so even with the most receent updates THIS PROBLEM SITLL IS NOT WORKING, at least on my hardware.

ADOBE!  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, can you elevate this issue to fix it, and at the same time PROVIDE SOME TRANSPARENCY  to your loyal users (in my case for decades) about what's going on with this droplet issue. If it's a macOS issue, please just say so, and we will understand.

Thank you.

[ron53]

This droplet issue is not new. As I recall, there was a problem with an eariler version of PS that did not allow droplets to play well with PS/OS. It did work, however there was something screwy about creating and saving. None the less, we now have a real problem because Adobe has our backs against the wall and to make matters worse they're "radio silent", which is wrong in so many ways. 

[tommyt2000]

I have a set of droplets that still work, but I can't modify them (i.e. change folder location for output).  I started down a path on ChatGPT to see if I could somehow open I could fix it, but it was far too complicated and I don't have the time to learn Javascript or AppleScript.   

Tack me on the to the list of frustrated users wasting time trying to figure out a workaround.  Adobe - are you listening?

[mateuszc88978048]

i' m afraid all heads in Adobe works on New Fantastic Ai things, so they have no time to fix Droplets that REALLY help people automate their workflow.

[mrshoffu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hc54O9zaT8 this may help for the droplet already created that won't open

[ron53]

The community guidelines state that I need to be kind and respectful.........however, I just got off the phone with PS tech support. That's 49 minutes I'll never regain back again. Total waste of time. The tech was absolutely clueless, as if she never heard of this issue. I humored her and let her run through the entire process, including rolling back to an earlier version of PS (25.12), which proved nothing. My guess is that the OS has messed something up. Also note, Apple released a OS 26 today with no relief for the droplet issue. This is more than frustrating. 

[Aaron Tipton]

To be clear, this issue was caused by Apple with another ridiculously restrictive security update! (ie: can't open a webp image without a warning now, OMG really?!) 

As proof, I've been running PS 25.7 due to a separate issue that Adobe has yet to address. I can't make a droplet with that version either whereas I could before macOS 15.4. However…

Since Photoshop runs on macOS, Adobe needs to either figure out how to make a vital feature in their software work with the OS it's running on, or clearly tell us that the feature is now dead so we can move on and find an alternative better than activating an Adobe license on an old workstation just to make a droplet.

There may also be some confusion from the title of this thread which refers to an EXE file as if it happened in Windows, but my guess is they meant to say APP, not EXE, which is also implied with the topics tag being macos.

[Dakota_moon]

Aaron,

Thank you for the status update from your encounter with Adobe's PhotoShop.™

You are FIRST PERSON TO ACTUALLY SHED ANY LIGHT ON THE CAUSE of this issue.

Why is Adobe kicking this can down the road for so long?  It's been MONTHS! Quite a few I believe.

The droplets funtionality is CRITICAL to my workflow, as I'm sure it is to many others. Thank God all the droplets I had created prior to this problem still funtion percectly. But of course I can't create an NEW ones.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE -

ADOBE - CAN YOU ELEVATE THE PRIORITY ON THIS ASAP.

We all love PhotoShop™but not addressing such a fundatmental process as a droplet is unacceptable.

I guess I understand, afer reading Aarons's post a little better now about the .app file creation being subject to the most recent changes in macOS, but WHY THE RADIO SILENCE?

COULD YOU PLEASE AT LEAST ACKNOWLEDGE IF AND/OR WHEN THIS ISSUE WILL BE CORRECTED?

Thank you. A loyal PhotoShop™user now since it's inception. 

John

[Felix37701156ncdy]

I am also experiencing this issue, are there any updates yet?

[jarvsky]

Too bad there isn't a solution yet for creating droplets on Mac OS Sequoia. But for those who need to batch resize and format change, I found out that Adobe Bridge has a feature in the Workflow tab to do this. Go to the Workflow tab, click + to make your own and + for different steps. In each step, change to match your needs. Save that workflow, then drag your images onto that workflow and press Start Workflow.

[Aaron Tipton]

Thanks for that. Fortunately the Batch function in Photoshop still works OK too. However neither of these have the same funtionality and speed of a Droplet.

[struffsky]

Not working any longer, very sad. You can't avoid the complicated authorisation process for the first use, these are probably Apple Guidelines.

By the way, the Droplets are still Intel and not Universal Apps. Maybe Adobe could change that too?

[petrikurkaa]

The problem must be Mac Sequoia 15.4.1

After upgrading to it can't make a Droplet.

I used Bridge -Tools-Photoshop-Image processor and selected Actions I wanted to use