Photoshop crashes on start up

[weyrmos8765]

I tried to launch Photoshop earlier today, but as soon as the startup screen reaches 'measuring memory' it crashes. I don't get any error code, it simply disappears. 

I've tried updating Photoshop, resetting preferences, launching without plugins, downgrading to a different version, updating my Nvidia drivers, none of that works. I managed to launch through Windows 8 compatibility mode but it was really slow and I'm worried it could mess things up more relying on that mode.

I tried to install Photoshop Beta, crashed at the same 'measuring memory' point. Uninstalled it and any other Beta programs, didn't work.

Used the Creative Cloud Cleanup Tool to completely get rid of Photoshop, didn't work. 

Went through multiple different versions of Photoshop, all of them crashed at the same point. Sometimes it gets further into the launch but then I receive an error pretty much saying  'Something has gone wrong, Windows will report it to Microsoft' (I can't remember specifically what it said, I haven't had it come up in a while with trying to launch again and again. Either way, there was no error code with it)

I really hope someone can help, I have a deadline coming up and I really need access to Photoshop!

[weyrmos8765]

I realised ive posted this on the wrong forum, im going to copy it over to the photoshop forum. Sorry!

[Nancy OShea]

Ensure that your device exceeds the basic system requirements, including plenty of available hard disk space for Photoshop's Scratch Disk, RAM and VRAM for performance.

Most Creative Cloud apps work on these systems, no more than 2 versions back:

• Windows 11 (64-bit) versions 24H2, 23H2; Windows 10 versions 22H2, 21H2;
• MacOS 15 (Sequoia), 14.7 (Sonoma), 13.6.7 (Ventura).

- https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/system-requirements.html
- https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html
- https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html

[Moderator moved this topic from Using the Community to Photoshop.]

[weyrmos8765]

My windows version is 24H2, I have 300GB Storage on my main hard drive and an extra 1TB on an external hard drive (I boot my adobe products from the 1TB drive), and I have 16GB RAM. I have never had issues with any adobe software up until now, my specs are above whats required. It seems like the issue has come out of nowhere

[Nancy OShea]

How much empty HD space do you have on the main hard drive?  I ask because that's where apps are downloaded and unpacked from.  If there's not enough empty primary HD space for downloading & unpacking, you might encounter memory issues.

[weyrmos8765]

312GB specifically (its a 500GB system)

[kglad]

make sure your video card's driver is an updated studio (not gamer) version.

[weyrmos8765]

Yep, its fully updated with the studio drivers. Makes no difference sadly

[D Fosse]

I boot my adobe products from the 1TB drive

By @weyrmos8765

That sounds like one of those things that work until one morning they don't. I'm pretty sure this is the reason. Uninstall, and reinstall on the system drive.

There's a lot of memory management and disk organization that happens on the main system drive and under your Windows user account, regardless of where the application itself is installed. That's why it's recommended to install on the system drive. A large chunk of the application will go to your user account anyway.

[weyrmos8765]

When the problem first started it was downloaded on the system drive, I switched it over to the external since it had more space to see if it would change anything. 

Just uninstalled it off the external and back onto the main system in its original file location, still crashing at the same point 😞

[nikunj.m]

Hi, thanks for reaching out, and we're sorry about the trouble! 

Going through your first post, I saw that you mentioned this message: "Something has gone wrong. Windows will report it to Microsoft." This indicates a Windows crash report rather than an Adobe crash reporter pop-up.

It would be helpful if you could copy the crash report and share that with us here. 

Thanks,
Nikunj

[weyrmos8765]

Sure, not sure if this is right, but I found a report through the event viewer. I've removed the 'user' and 'computer' part just because they have my name there and I don't want to post that to the internet, hope that's alright. I'll paste it below:

Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Date: 24/10/2025 11:49:03
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: Application Crashing Events
Level: Error
Keywords:
User:
Computer:
Description:
Faulting application name: Photoshop.exe, version: 26.11.0.18, time stamp: 0x68cc583b
Faulting module name: OpenCLOn12.dll, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x68c489a5
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x00000000000eb305
Faulting process id: 0x84
Faulting application start time: 0x1DC44D3CA1CE299
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2025\Photoshop.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.D3DMappingLayers_1.2510.1.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\x64\OpenCLOn12.dll
Report Id: 9f6303e7-d3f2-43dd-a9fe-17ca50ffe661
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Application Error" Guid="{a0e9b465-b939-57d7-b27d-95d8e925ff57}" />
<EventID>1000</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>100</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2025-10-24T10:49:03.6241533Z" />
<EventRecordID>8419</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="11836" ThreadID="19412" />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>GLaDOS</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-21-1269187842-3169736359-351926658-1001" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="AppName">Photoshop.exe</Data>
<Data Name="AppVersion">26.11.0.18</Data>
<Data Name="AppTimeStamp">68cc583b</Data>
<Data Name="ModuleName">OpenCLOn12.dll</Data>
<Data Name="ModuleVersion">0.0.0.0</Data>
<Data Name="ModuleTimeStamp">68c489a5</Data>
<Data Name="ExceptionCode">c0000409</Data>
<Data Name="FaultingOffset">00000000000eb305</Data>
<Data Name="ProcessId">0x84</Data>
<Data Name="ProcessCreationTime">0x1dc44d3ca1ce299</Data>
<Data Name="AppPath">C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2025\Photoshop.exe</Data>
<Data Name="ModulePath">C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.D3DMappingLayers_1.2510.1.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\x64\OpenCLOn12.dll</Data>
<Data Name="IntegratorReportId">9f6303e7-d3f2-43dd-a9fe-17ca50ffe661</Data>
<Data Name="PackageFullName">
</Data>
<Data Name="PackageRelativeAppId">
</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

[nikunj.m]

Thanks for sharing this information! The crash seems to be caused by a low-level graphics driver issue. Which GPU do you have on the computer? Do you have two GPUs on the machine?

Meanwhile, you can check: https://adobe.ly/3L6SUdl

Thanks,
Nikunj

[weyrmos8765]

I do, I have AMD Radeon (TM) graphics and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU

[nikunj.m]

Thanks for the info! Please check out: https://adobe.ly/479FsOx

Let us know if optimizing the GPU settings for the machine makes a difference. You can also try disabling the AMD GPU to test. 

Thanks,
Nikunj

[weyrmos8765]

Sadly, it hasn't made a difference. I tried both options of changing the GPU setting through Nvidia and changing through Windows settings and Photoshop is still unable to open

[Srishti Bali]

Hi @weyrmos8765 

Thanks for sharing this info. Here are a few steps I suggest for further troubleshooting:

• Since you’re on a Windows machine, it’s possible that your graphics drivers are not up to date. Please share your System Info from Help > System Info in Photoshop.

• Try booting your system in Safe Mode and see if Photoshop opens.

• Did this issue start happening recently, for example, after an OS or app update?

Once we have this info, we can suggest the next steps.

Regards,

Srishti

[weyrmos8765]

I have updated my NVIDIA drivers to the latest studio update, and I have double checked that my AMD drivers are up to date and they are. The only recent change I can think of was a Windows update, but that was around a week before this problem started from what I remember. I updated Photoshop after the problem started because I thought it was an update issue but that never fixed it. It only started crashing yesterday.

[Nancy OShea]

It's true that a recent update of Windows 11 has some known problems— 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/10/24/unusable-microsoft-issues-emergency-update-for-al...

In the meantime, you might be able to restore to your previous version before the update occurred.

On Windows 11, navigate to Settings ⇒ System ⇒ Recovery and select Go back, if the option is still available. If the option is not available, you may be able to uninstall the latest update from Settings ⇒ Windows Update ⇒ Update history ⇒ Uninstall updates.

Good luck.

[weyrmos8765 · Accepted solution]

Turns out the solution was to install the AMD driver software for my internal graphics, it said my drivers were fully up to date but whatever it did fixed the problem 🙂 thank you everyone for trying to help 

[kglad]

(ahem)

[weyrmos8765]

?? I tried what you recommended, you said update the drivers with studio version and I did. Those were the nvidia drivers, and my laptop was telling me there were no updates available for my internal drivers so I figured it wasnt a driver issue at the time of your first comment since it didnt fix the problem. So whats the 'ahem' for?

[kglad]

because i suggested updating your video drivers 1 week ago.

[weyrmos8765]

Yes I literally just said I tried that and it didnt work the way I thought you meant. I wasnt aware there were apps for internal drivers, all I knew was that Nvidia had an app. I updated through the Nvidia app and through the windows driver panel (which told me the internal didnt need an update) so yes you did suggest that but at the time it didnt work cause I wasnt aware of the other app, sorry I cant read your mind! Anyway this is the last time ill respond because the issue is solved.

[kglad]

glad it's resolved.