experiencing a major slowdown with the Select Subject tool

[Jimyungshi]

Hello, is anyone else experiencing a major slowdown with the Select Subject tool after the latest Photoshop update? It now takes much longer than it should.

Before the recent update (and even earlier ones), I could select anything quickly in less than 3 seconds. But now it takes way too long, around 20 to 50 seconds just to select something simple, like a picture of a person standing against a white background.

Doesn’t that seem a bit strange for such a simple task to take that long?

Is there any fix for this?

Thanks.

[Sameer K]

Hey, @Jimyungshi. Welcome to the Photoshop Community. I'll need more info to help you figiure this out, please share screenshots & the system info from Photoshop Help > System info > Copy & paste into a text document > upload & attach here.

Does this happen when you use any image? Does it happen when you use Select Subject via Actions? If yes, we're tracking an ongoing issues with Selection Subject called via Actions: https://adobe.ly/3XckKaI

For now, try changing the Select Subject mode from Edit/Photoshop > Preferences > Image Processing > Select Subject to Cloud & Selection process to Stable. 

Let me know how it goes. Thanks!
Sameer K

(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

[Jim_Rick6879]

Hey @Jimyungshi,

Yes — you’re definitely not alone! The slowdown with Select Subject after the latest update has been noticed by quite a few users. It seems to be linked to how the new version handles on-device processing.

A few things that usually help:

1. Switch to Cloud processing under Preferences > Image Processing > Select Subject > Cloud. It offloads the task and is generally faster right now.
2. Reset Photoshop’s preferences (hold Cmd + Opt + Shift while launching). Corrupt prefs after an update can cause weird performance issues.
3. Disable GPU temporarily under Preferences > Performance — if speed improves, update or roll back your GPU driver.
4. If none of that helps, revert to the previous Photoshop version via the Creative Cloud app until the next patch.

Hopefully Adobe irons this out soon — the Select Subject lag seems pretty widespread at the moment.