Photoshop 22.3 slow & laggy on MacBook Pro running macOS Big Sur

[jackb6687587]

I'm experiencing a lot of slowness and lag in Photoshop with the most basic of tasks. The task I've been testing with is to open a totally blank document and try to type some text. No effects or anything. Photoshop cannot keep up with the typing and falls behind. Obviously other tasks are even worse.

Things I've tried

1. Quitting and reopening Photoshop
2. Restarting Mac, safe mode reboot, NVRAM reset
3. Starting up Photoshop without plugins
4. Deleting my preferences (in ~/Library/Application Support)

Photoshop 22.3.0

I don't have the newest Mac in the world, but I'd expect it not to be so slow. System info:

• MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
• 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
• 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
• Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

Here are my performance settings.

{Thread title edited by moderator}

[nikunj.m]

Hi,

We're sorry about the touble with Photoshop. Please go to the System Preferences for your Mac, then Security and Privacy, then select the Privacy tab. Then select Accessibility from the list to the left & check if Photoshop is added to the list with a check mark in front of it. If Photoshop is not a part of the list, please add it by unlocking the window first using the lock at the bottom left, then clicking the + icon & navigating to the Applications folder. Also, grant permissions to Photoshop under Full disk access located in the same list as Accessibility. Once done, restart the Mac & check if it helps.

You can try disabling the option to Use graphics Processor from Photoshop by going to Preferences, then Performance. Once done, quit & relaunch Photoshop to check if that helps. You can also try optimizing the preferences of Photoshop using the steps suggested here: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-photoshop-cc-performance.html

Let us know if it helps!

Regards,

Nikunj

[jackbrannen_pl]

Hi @nikunj.m, thank you.

I did everything you said. It helped a little bit, but not enough. What else can I do?

[kylejorve]

@jackbrannen_pl FYI, I downgraded to version 22.2 and it works smoothly now. So if all else fails downgrading is sometimes the best option.

[nikunj.m]

Hi,

We're sorry that the suggested steps didn't help! You can try to reset the preferences of Photoshop using the steps mentioned here: https://adobe.ly/2Qzc0K3

Please backup your settings prior to resetting the preferences. You can check: https://adobe.ly/2vNz6FG

Let us know how it goes!

Regards,

Nikunj

[jackbrannen_pl]

@nikunj.m This majorly improved it. Thank you.

[kylejorve]

I second @jackbrannen_pl 's complaint and question. I've got a newer MacBook Pro with some pretty beefy hardware and suddenly, after this most recent update, Photoshop is slow and laggy as hell, especially with documents that use artboards. This is a serious problem because I rely on this software to do my work.

Appreciate your help, @nikunj.m , but I have to say that I really wish Adobe would stop releasing updates that make their software worse. It really destroys customer confidence when we pay for not only the beastly hardware that's needed to run Adobe's products, but a subscription for the software itself, only to have it run as if our hardware were ancient. And please do not tell me that my hardware is the issue because Photoshop was working just fine until this update.

This is my system info:

• MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2019
• Processor: 2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
• Memory: 64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
• Graphics: AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

[nikunj.m]

Hi,

We're sorry about the trouble with Photoshop 22.3. Would you mind telling us if you experience the performance while performing a certain task in Photoshop? What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far?

Regards,

Nikunj

[kylejorve]

It's when doing things as simple as panning and zooming. I've noticed it with documents that have art boards, even if it's just one art board and the board is empty. I have tried granting full disk access and accessibility access, but that didn't do anything. I will try resetting PS preferences next.

[lili-marlene3945]

Hello Adobe, I have a new Macbook Pro 16", just outboxing, bought Photoshop 2022, I took the pencil with the trackpad, just to try it, telling to myself that this will be very great with my Wacom tablet and...  Surprise ! It was lagging much more  with my new computer (I bought the more expensive of the McBook Pro range, more powerful it exist...) than it did with my former one !  Please, do something or professional who work with CS Photoshop to earn money won't be able to open it at all !  Thanks !

[marcusbastelphoto]

I am running Photoshop 24.6.0 on a 2023 16" MacBook Pro, I probably should have opted for more than the 16GB of memory, but somehow everything worked fine on my 2015 MBP running an older version of photoshop on HighSierra. Running photoshop now is painfully slow and keeps stuttering and lagging. 
WHY? Are there options I can switch off that I don't need? 95% of the time I am using it to process CR2 and RAF rawfiles, I rarely use layers. The files are usually less than 100mb and all I do is process them in raw editor then scale them down in Photoshop. 
There is also a problem with opening files repeatedly which adds a suffix every time unless I quite the program every time before reopening a file. How can I switch suffix for reopening raw files OFF? I do want to overwrite files if I reprocess.

A rather frustrated customer.
Thanks

Marcus

[Celery Farmer]

After upgrading to Big Sur almost anything I did in Bridge or Lightroom was excruciatingly slow. Not just panning, but sliders in ACR as well. Crashes were frequent. I bit the bullet, erased my drive, and re-installed Mojave from a CCC clone with no regrets. Everything is as snappy as it ever was. Mid-2015 iMac, 27" Retina, 3TB fusion drive. I'm going to keep Mojave until I have to get an M1 machine.

[DaveJCummings]

What RAM and Processor are you using? I know my Late 2013 Macbook Pro had issues with the later PS.  No problems at all now with my M1 Macbook Air 

[Celery Farmer]

iMac, 3.3GHz core i5, 16GB RAM, Radeon R9 M190 (2GB on board). Recent software versions are not the issue; I've kept all my CC apps updated before and after after reverting to Mojave and still have good performance with PS, Bridge, Lightroom, and InDesign. I do expect compatibility issues with outdated hardware sometime in the future but hope that I won't be forced to update to macOS 11 or 12 or get a new machine anytime soon.

[defaultuy3ufgxyuyrb]

same here, ever since updating to big sur 11.3.1 and PS 22.3 - i can't even zoom in and out without it taking absolutely ages!

I tried deleting PS/ creative cloud, all utilities and cash to do with adobe, but after reinstalling the same issue occurs. i even deleted the colour profiles by mistake🙈

i have 0 plugins or extensions, i literally just use the standard brushes/settings.

My mac is running on 16gb ram, 2.6ghz 

what can i do to resolve this? reverse my mac to previous verision?

[Celery Farmer]

If you haven't done everything described in all the posts above (I did), try all of those suggestions. I have no idea what Big Sur did to screw up my system, including wrecking colors when trying to print from PS, but the behavior was intolerable for me. Fortunately, I'm fanatical about keeping two clones of my iMac so I was able to restore it to Mojave--with the helpful instructions on the Carbon Copy Cloner site. The idea of erasing my fusion drive caused me some heartburn but restoration went fine. Without a clone, you can revert using the instructions here: https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/downgrade-macos-3581872/. I can't overstate the peace of mind having CCC provides me, and I recommend it. 

[defaultuy3ufgxyuyrb]

thank you!
i read under other discussions that the lagging when zooming in and out as well as use of some other tools is a known bug an dapparently is being fixed (since the 7th of april)
i have uninstalled PS 22.3 and installing 22.3, hopefully it will help 🙂

[Piotr5C95]

I also have problems with PS/MAC. Zooming and selecting in PS app is laggy.
Plus when I paste print screen into photoshop or somewhere else it wrecking colors..

disabling the option to Use graphics Processor from Photoshop, helps a little bit- smoothing the selecting tool.

[Zillion1000]

I just spent 10 minutes removing all bloatware from Adobe. My fan was turning all the time on my Macbook Pro.

Why the hell do 10.000 services, helpers and unknowns apps need to get installed for a simple thing as a PDF reader or for Photoshop.

You lost me a customer long time ago already with your ridiculous prices. However my clients sometimes still deliver me Adobe designs, I will advice them to stop using Adobe, since I don't want the rubbish back on my dev machines.

Goodbye Adobe.

[Bruce15C2]

Yes I used to love Photoshop on my Mac's Not any more!! this is so sad and it makes me crazy please just leae us alone.  Apple is part of the problem to!!!  Just disgraceful !!

[rock.983]

HERE THE REAL SOLUTION!!!

It`s so f**king easy to solve.

Just go to WINDOW and open BRUSH SETTINGS.

Then in BRUSH TIP SHAPE unselect SMOOTHING.

And you are done!

[Naomi Noir]

Oh my gosh, this WORKED! I was banging my head against the wall because I just purchased a 2022 $3500 MacBook Pro with 64GB Ram and 1 TB storage and Photoshop was running SLOWER than it had on my 10 year old macbook air. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

[itsmircea]

Thank you!

[Henri298791123z39]

It did it for me too. Amazingly simple indeed.

Thxs

[Catalin26431358qq96]

Just dont use fullscreen, the smaller the window of teh software (applies to all) the more responsive it will become....