MacOS Photoshop 2024 v25.11 Stuck on Splash Screen

[emilz45253183]

I honestly don't know what is going on with Adobe. This thread summed up the issue I have:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-bugs/p-photoshop-can-t-open-freezes-on-splash-ima...

Then I too posted my finding and it was closed saying it is fixed in the last release. It does not say which release it is though. I can confirm that on MacOS 14.5, with 24GB RAM, M2 CPU I cannot launch PS 2024 v25.11 as of yesterday. It has been working fine until it wasn't. No new extension installed, none removed. It is getting stuck on the splash screen by trying to load Halide Bottlenecks plugin

What I did so far:

1. Cleaned everything using Adobe Creative Cloud Cleaner (more than once)

2. Reinstalled CC with PS (more than once)

3. Reinstalled older versions of PS  (more than once)

4. Reinstalled latest versions of PS  (more than once)

5. Removed all PS preference files/folders

5. I reset preferences (Shift-Options-Command Click)

I am able to load PS by bypassing 3rd party and optional plugins, BUT I have the same problem with clean install too where there are no plugins in the plugin folder. And yet when I disable all those non-existent plugins, PS loads. So that is not a fix as I cannot use extensions at all. 

And I have NO Beta apps on my system and never had

none of the above helped!

If there is a fix for this please someone share which release is that?

As a side note I noticed that this is not a new issue. I have been on the fence for a while with Adobe and contemplating ditching it. This may be the last drop to be honest. Bugs happen, but the way Adobe handles bug reports is just utterly laughable. Adobe competitors may not offer everything that Adobe does but some of them are extremely capable and in many aspects even better. 

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@emilz45253183 did you clean then only load in Photoshop (public not beta)?

[emilz45253183]

@Kevin Stohlmeyer What do you mean exactly? So ultimately I cleaned the entire CC installation, rebooted, then reinstalled PS only. It does not start. However it does start when I bypass third party and optional plugins (Shift+Click). There are no plugins in the plugins folder so I have nothing to remove from tbere to launch it without Shift

[CShubert]

Hi @emilz45253183 wondering if your system was still effected by the freeze issue that was resolved, but in a different way?

So, a couple things, you say you do not have any beta apps, correct? This is key because the issue had to deal with a file that was in the updater process that was not complete.... if you don't have any beta apps, then we need to see what else might be up.

Since you are on a Mac, could you please:

1. Restart your computer
2. Launch Ps
3. Open Activity Monitor (in your Applications/Utilities folder)
4. Sort by name and find your Ps icon and name
5. Double click the Ps name to open the info page, then click on the "Open Files and Ports" tab

You should see a string of text and what we are looking for is TinyXML... so hit Comand +F to bring up the search window and see if you can find this file showing up.  If so, please copy all that code and send to me... shubert@adobe.com

You can also click on the Sample button in the lower left which will open another window where you can search for this XML file and you can send that as well.

This will help us find out what might be happening.

Thanks,

Cory - Photoshop Product Manager

[CShubert]

Hi @emilz45253183 thank you for the output data... one thing just caught our attention... you say Ps works fine when you start holding Shift to disable third party plugins... based on your output data we see 

Library/Application Support/Adobe/Plug-Ins/CC/DxO3/Nik Collection 7/Selective Tool/Nik Collection 7 Palette.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Nik Collection 7 Palette

/Library/Application Support/DxO/Nik Collection 7/Nik/PhotoshopUtilsNik7.framework/Versions/A/PhotoshopUtilsNik7

Could you do a search on MacOS and try to find all Nik Tools folders and delete them... it is possible there is a corrupt plugin that is causing this for you.

Thanks,

Cory - Photoshop Product Manager

[emilz45253183]

@CShubert I removed Niks collection 7 and rebooted. Now PS just crashes, not stuck on spolash screen anymore

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@emilz45253183 after you remove the NIK plugins, try using the Creative Cloud cleaner tool to clear out any residual system resources and do a fresh install of Photoshop.

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

It's unusual that third party plugins survived a cleaning as it normally would have removed the directory containing these plugins. After you run the cleaner - check the applications folder to make sure the PS folder is gone.

[emilz45253183]

At this point I uninstalled all plugins that had been on my disk. Then did a Full clean using the CC Cleaner tool, rebooted and reinstalled CC with PS. the PS still crashes

[emilz45253183 · Accepted solution]

OK, this is what I did. I went to /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Plug-Ins/CC and removed manually all references to any plugins. now PS is launching. Shouldn't those files be cleaned by CC Cleaner tool?

[CShubert]

@emilz45253183 glad to hear you are back up and running...

It is hard to say why all the plugins were not removed but please let us know if this happens again so we can investigate it further.

Thanks,

Cory - Photoshop Product Manager