Creative Cloud Desktop app error 184 is causing Photoshop to launch slowly

[J Isner]

Photoshop used to take under ten seconds to launch on my Windows 10 PC.  Starting late last year, it began taking four minutes to launch.  The  splash screen showed that it was spending almost all of this time in the Initializing... phase.

Because of ongoing problems I have had over the years with the Creative Cloud Desktop app (update failed, error 184), I tried the following experiment just now:  I removed Creative Cloud from the Windows Startup menu and also turned off "Launch Creative Cloud at login" in the Creative Cloud settings.  I restarted my computer, verified that Creative Cloud was not running, and launched Photoshop.  Photoshop launched in under ten seconds.

I suspect the following problem: when Creative Cloud runs at startup, it sees that an update is available and tries to update itself.  The update fails with Update Failed, encountered issues in updating Creative Cloud.  Error 184.  After the error, Creative Cloud is not cleaning up after itself, and leaves something broken that causes the Photoshop slow launch. 

This is not a real solution, since I will need to run Creative Cloud to update apps when updates are available.  I'll get Error 184, but as long as Photoshop is already running, the 184 error won't be a problem  This is just a termporary workaround.  The real solution is for Adobe to fix whatever is causing the 184 error, or at least to clean up after itself when the error occurs.

Can anyone offer insight into this problem?

[Sahil.Chawla]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear that Photoshop loads slow on your computer, the Error 184 occurs because a necessary file is locked by another process.  As you have already tried restarting the computer, we can try launching the computer in safe mode and check if Photoshop loads faster in safe mode.

Please check the steps here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode

Also, what exact version of Photoshop you're working on?

You may try optimizing Photoshop's performance by following the steps mentioned here: 

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-photoshop-cc-performance.html

For more details on Error 184 see Creative Cloud download and install errors .

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,
Sahil

[J Isner]

Thanks, but your reply suggests that I am dealing with two independent problems: CC Error 184 and slow Photoshop launch.  Before I discovered 184 was causing the slow launch, I was directed to the same links you provided by others in this forum.  But now that I have discovered  that Error 184 is causing the slow launch, I'm looking for an answer that explains why it happens and what I can do to fix it.