Skip to main content
Participating Frequently
April 23, 2024
Question

A few seconds using Free Transform causes Photoshop to stop responding (but not crash)

  • April 23, 2024
  • 6 replies
  • 3770 views

After a few seconds of using Free Transform, Photoshop stops responding. It doesn't crash - it still looks like it's functioning as the marquee black and white dots still move, buttons respond when I hover over them etc. - but I can't click or interact with anything.

 

Things I have tried so far that didn't work:

  • Reinstalling Photoshop
  • Deleting preferences
  • Disabling Flick Panning (suggested here)
  • Disabling Anti-Alias Guides and Paths (also suggested there)
  • Disabling Use Graphics Processor
  • Updating graphics drivers
  • Deleting a lot of files to free up disk space

 

Things that kinda worked:

  • Windows + E to open up Windows Explorer lets Photoshop respond for maybe half a second. If I mash buttons, I can do a single move in this window, such as Undo, Save, or exit the Free Transform tool (which doesn't unfreeze Photoshop)
  • Windows + arrow keys to move and resize the window does the same thing

 

Photoshop is totally unusable because of this and it's driving me crazy.

 

Version is 25.7.0 on Windows 10.

6 replies

Participant
May 28, 2024

Having the same issue, photoshop seems to be fine, icons animate when i hover on, but i cant click anything, this happened when trying to use the perspective crop tool, now i cant do anything after a short time even when starting a new blank job.

Participant
May 28, 2024

Also cant close photoshop, have to do it with task manager.

Windows 10

Photoshop version 25.9

 

Participant
April 27, 2024

I'm facing the same issue, PS version 25.7.0 on Windows 10.  

 

What i found out that, the software is not freeze or crash or unresponded, because when you rollover the tools, the top bar the layers, it's still shown hover effect/caption/highlight, it's just unclickable or no action is able to be done when you click around.

 

I suspect is some unseenable CTA layer/windows (example: yes, no, cancel etc) is open on top of PS and cause the software unusable unless the layer/window is closed/dismiss.

 

Photoshop is getting more and more unusable with this kind of irritating bugs, and we paid for the expensive subscription fee! Please fix it!

 

P/S: same issue happens in Illustrator too!

Participant
April 29, 2024

So I got here by a Google search becasue I'm trying to research an issue that one of our employees is having. His computer would 'freeze up' when using Photoshop. I ended up trying to test as Remote Desktoping in as the user and found that Photoshop worked fine in Remote Desktop. 

 

His computer had been set up a loooong time ago, and I hadn't had anyone else with the error, so I wiped the computer and started over and it has some back a few days later. I suspect it's likely a bug in a recent update, so we'll try rolling back versions until it stops.

 

So 1) there's likely a bug with recent updates that hasn't been squashed yet and 2) Remote Desktop from a different computer might help as a workaround if you desperately need to save before rebooting.

Participating Frequently
April 25, 2024

Issue does not occur in 24.7.2.

Peru Bob
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 25, 2024

What are the complete computer specs, including hard drives (how many, what kind, what is on each, what capacity, and how full)?

Participating Frequently
April 25, 2024

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9750H CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.59 GHz
Installed RAM 24.0 GB (23.9 GB usable)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

The only hard drive is C: which has 178GB free of 952GB.

 

I've attached a video of the issue happening, with the task manager visible so you can see memory use. After the click selecting the subject's skirt, Photoshop locks up and no amount of clicking will get a response.

Peru Bob
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 25, 2024

Is the C drive an HDD or SSD?

Pete.Green
Community Manager
April 23, 2024

Hi @HarryBonyari ,

 

Sorry about the freeze behavior.

Have been trying to reproduce this on my Windows 10 system with 25.7, and so far have been unsuccessful.

 

Can you help provide some additional steps to reproduce this one?

Do you have more info on the type and size of the file you're working on?

Does this happen with all files? or any in particular?

 

Regards,

PG

 

Participating Frequently
April 24, 2024

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the reply.

After some more testing, I have found that Free Transform is not relevant as this issue happens when using a variety of tools including Marquee and Magic Wand, and across different files. Photoshop just locks up after a random amount of time.

I know such vague info isn't particularly useful when it comes to troubleshooting - I'm really not sure what else I can do to diagnose the source of the issue though... The fact that using Windows shortcuts causes it to unlock for half a second seems to be the only real clue.

Participating Frequently
April 23, 2024

Addition: This freezing is not limited to the Free Transform tool. It just happened while adjusting curves in the Curves window.