droplet cannot communicate with Photoshop

[bellevue scott]

We have Windows 10, 10.0.19045, and PS 25.2.0. We have all of a sudden started getting errors when trying to run droplets. We've tried to recreate them and we've also tried to run them as administror, but we always get this error now. "Cannot communicate with Photoshop". 

We looked through the forums and found some old threads from 2018, but this is 2023. Any ideas on how to fix this?

thanks

[Sameer K]

Hey, @bellevue scott. Thanks for sharing the details and including the screenshot, it helps.

Have you previously used Photoshop (beta) on these machines? Was a different version of Photoshop used to create the Droplets?

Droplets target the version of Photoshop that is installed most recently. When I replace Photoshop with Photoshop (beta) or the other way around, this error shows up. You can uninstall Photoshop (beta) & Photoshop 2024 and keep install only Photoshop 2024 at once and check if the issue exists.

Let me know how it goes. Thanks!
Sameer K

[bellevue scott]

This machine did in fact have beta at one time, but it's been long gone and we've had updates since then. I also tried making the droplet again and running the new droplet and I get the same error.  We also tried installing PS 2022 and running it with that version open but now get the same error. Only Windows. We have several other Macs running the latest PS and no issues. 

[bellevue scott]

I have made some progress, but this is still not resolved, and I surely can't be the only one to experience this. 

I looked around on the interwebs, and I watched some Youtube videos. One thing helped, and it was this: 

Go to the droplet, right click, select properties, select the "compatibility" tab, and change the droplet to "run as administrator". Like this: 

But that's not enough. You then need to navigate to: 

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2024\photoshop.exe, right click on the exe and select properties. 

Now you also set this to "run as administrator on the compatibility tab: 

The droplet now runs. However, now every time I use the droplet I get the popup message from microsoft saying this program is from an unknown publisher and do I want to continue. 

Also, every time I launch Photoshop now, I get the same message, and EVERY SINGLE TIME I TRY TO OPEN A FILE I GET THIS MESSAGE NOW: 

 

Again, I'm on 25.0.2

If I open PS 2021, then I don't get that message on launching PS, but I do get the "droplet can't communicate with Photoshop message".  Please help. This is making PS completely unusable. 

 

[Scott_BFAR]

I got an email asking if my problem had been resolved. It did not get resolved. I rolled back to a previous version of PS and turned off updates. Adobe support was not helpful. Still don't know if this was Adobe or Windows, but rolling back to a previous version of PS and setting Windows security to lowest setting solved this. 

[charmander4444]

I'm getting the same issues in Pthopshop 2025, is there a fix yet?

[Scott_BFAR · Accepted solution]

I recreated my droplets using PS 2025 and it works again. This time I didn't need to run as administrator. 

[gu_8758]

que version de windows tienes?,y está activado?

[bellevue scott]

I am having an issue running a droplet.
I can use the droplet once; however, when I want to use it again I get a Photoshop error message "Droplet Couldn't communicate with Photoshop". When I close and reopen Photoshop I can use the droplet again, but only once before I receive the error message. So I close and reopen Photoshop the droplet works and the cycle continues as explaned above. 

Any ideas about a fix?

Currently running verison 26.0.0 of Photoshop
Microsoft Winidows 10 Pro

[bellevue scott]

Still having Droplet issues. Now colosing and reopening Photoshop does no good. Droplets are broken and give the same error msg as shown above. 

Currently running version 26.1.0 of Photoshop.

[bellevue scott · Accepted solution]

Fixed the issue for now: Earlier in this thread there are instructions for running the droplet and .exe as system administrator. You can do this for the 26.1.0 version the only thing differnt is that you will need to do open Adobe Photoshop 2025 in the program files C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2025\photoshop.exe.