Cannot open any file even after reinstalling

[Atharia88]

My Photoshop (both Beta and normal) stopped working suddenly. They cannot open any single file and i tried so far:
- updating all drivers (yeah, graphic card included)

- reinstalled all the apps

- used the "AdobeCreativeCloudCleanerTool" to clean literally everything

In between all of these i restarted my pc after each operation. The program itself will start but it will remain stuck when trying to open even the smallest jpeg. It cannot be closed unless you stop it from Task manager.

In terms of device....well, i have a little beast (i'll leave the dxdiag attached also).
Operating System: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 26100) (26100.ge_release.240331-1435)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: X870 AORUS ELITE WIFI7

Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16-Core Processor (32 CPUs), ~4.3GHz
Memory: 65536MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 63092MB RAM
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080

[Aleke]

Hi @Atharia88! Welcome to the community — we’re really glad to have you here!

Sorry to hear you're running into trouble with Photoshop. Just to help us get a better idea of what’s going on — did the issue start after a recent update or change to your system? And when the app stops responding, do you see any error messages?

Appreciate sharing your specs, could you also share your System Info as it's read by Photoshop, that would be super helpful! You can find it in Photoshop by going to Help > System Info. Just copy the details into a text file and attach it here, or feel free to share it via Google Drive, WeTransfer, or any file-sharing service you prefer.

Thanks so much! 
Alek

[Atharia88]

Hi @Aleke,! Thanks for the fast reply. I updated all drivers and windows updates are the latest. I don't recall doing anything else since the previous day when it was working just fine. I'll upload the system info file as requested.
Considering any relevant details...i just go and either try to drag and drop my photo or have it opened by selecting the Open option (tried both ways same behaviour) -> i see the loading circles for a brief second and then the program just hangs there and i see no visual error but i cannot select any other option either (like click on File for example after some good 5 minutes of waiting where i hear a sound for clicking it similar to the error sound). In Task Manager the app keeps some of the memory occupied. 

[Aleke]

Hi @Atharia88! Thanks so much for sharing your System Info

It looks like Photoshop is detecting two different graphics cards on your system — your NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 and the AMD Radeon Graphics. Photoshop can sometimes get a bit fussy when multiple GPUs are involved, especially if there are conflicting drivers or if it ends up using the less powerful one by default.

To help with this, here’s a guide with the best settings for systems with multiple graphics cards: https://adobe.ly/3ZgmRff

Let me know how it goes or if you need help adjusting the settings!

Cheers,
Alek

[Atharia88]

Hi @Aleke !

I cannot find the step 2 shown in the link + video in my system:

What i see:

[Atharia88]

Hi @Aleke ! Found the option but was moved in Windows now but PS is still not working (same behaviour):
* Microsoft decided that Windows 10/11 would control GPU selection per application, so NVIDIA (and AMD) had to adapt their control panels accordingly.

[Aleke]

Hi @Atharia88! Thanks so much for the update!

Quick question—do you happen to have any third-party extensions or plug-ins installed in Photoshop? Sometimes those can cause unexpected issues. If you do, could you try disabling them one at a time to see if one of them might be the culprit?

Let me know how it goes!

Cheers,
Alek

[Atharia88]

Hi @Aleke! I disabled the Pro Panel plug-in and same thing happens. I reinstalled once again everything yesterday (even adobe creative cloud app itself) and still have the same issue.

[Atharia88]

Hi @Aleke! I repaired my windows meanwhile (however my pc is new so everything was installed 1 month ago only). I tested with PS Beta, PS (classic) - both hang the same and then with Lightroom. LR worked and allowed me to edit my photo but somehow it also appears as crashed app in the Event Viewer:

I wasn't able to open any file in PS. The only file that i can open is one that is in Cloud, but nothig from my local machine.

[Atharia88]

Hi @Aleke! Any help would be much appreciated as i am paying for a product that i cannot use 😞 

[Aleke]

Hi @Atharia88! Thanks for sharing those details. Just checking — have you seen any crash report dialogs pop up? If so, it would be super helpful if you could click the button to send the report to Adobe. That way, we can take a closer look at what’s going on from our side.

Also, if you haven’t tried it yet, you might want to give the Creative Cloud Cleaner tool a go. It can help repair your installations in case something got a bit scrambled behind the scenes.

Really appreciate your patience while we sort this out!
Alek

[Atharia88]

Hi @Aleke! I don't get any crash report option (the app doesn't crash, just hangs with no response).
I did try the Creative Cloud Cleaner tool as the 1st option and that wasn't helpful either. 

[Aleke]

Hi @Atharia88!

Thanks for your patience

It's possible something might be damaged with your Photoshop installation. Could you try these steps in order?

1. Try renaming the “Adobe Photoshop 2025 Settings” folder to something like “Settings Backup” and then relaunch Photoshop. This should prompt it to create fresh default settings.

2. If that doesn’t help, go one level up and rename the “Adobe Photoshop 2025” folder to something unique. Then reinstall Photoshop and give it another go.

This last step is complex, and can be somewhat destructive unless some care is taken.

3. Navigate to the “Adobe” folder inside your Roaming directory. Rename it (e.g., “Adobe Backup”) to set it aside. Reinstall Photoshop — and possibly Creative Cloud as well. If this works, we can assume something in the original “Adobe” folder was causing the issue.
Be sure to keep the original folder untouched as a backup. You can then make a copy and try moving files from the new install into the backup to repair it.

Let me know how it goes or if you’d like help walking through any of the steps!

Thanks again,
Alek

[Atharia88]

Hi @Aleke! So here's the status:
1. Step 1 you shared - failed (same outcome)

2. Step 2- failed

3. Step 3 - failed

I uninstalled everything, ran the Cleaner Tool, reinstalled Photoshop back and now i can only open jpg files. I cannot open any raw file (.nef) files that were previously working on my pc (in order to have them pg i had to start from a .NEF file). So this partial fix is still useless for me since I'm only editing raw files. I didn't touch any setting so i can eliminate 1 by 1 what causes the issue. But apparently i am not able to open at least jpegs. 
Again, this is useless for me.

[Atharia88]

Hi @Aleke ! I think I've found the problem! It's the camera raw. So when i open a regular jpg by draging and dropping it i can open it, right? However, opening a raw will require camera raw so there it will hang. 
Based on that i opened a jpg file, made a duplicate of the background and went to Filters - Camera raw. And there's the hang/crash (not an actual crash 'cause the app never closes with or without an error).

[Atharia88 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Aleke! I fixed it myself!!!!!!!!! Hoooray to me!

The fix is here:
Hold down the Ctrl key (command on Mac) and select Edit > Preferences > Camera Raw (Windows).
Click Yes in the dialog that asks "Delete the Camera Raw Preferences?"
Then click: Edit > Prefercences > Camera Raw > Performance and then press Purge Cache.

Now all my files open correctly.