Photoshop is extremely slow

[M1cr0ft]

Ive seen other posts here regarding photoshop running slow, but here's my 2 cents worth.

The new 2020 update is just cripplingly slow. I have a really fast PC as well as the benefit of a server farm for processing and rendering.

I've switched to legacy compositing, altered the ram usage, added, removed, and added scratch disks again and I don't use my C:\ drive for any scratch disk, also switched off PSD Compression.

Opening a file takes anything from 2-5 mins, even for a small 1mb file. Dragging a file from a folder or the desktop, takes again, anything from 2-5 mins. Clicking the visibility of Layers takes ages too, click the eyeball and nothing happens for quite a while, same re-enabling the layer or resizing something with a smart filter or that's a smart object.  I cannot work this way.

The Creative Cloud App itself, is also a bloated, slow resource hog. Rebooting, the app almost always doesn't load properly, stating that it's being slow and I have to click restart. Just recently, my Libraries failed to load and I had to update the library plugin, surely, this could have been done via the million updates the CC App does, yet always has the same issues.

System Specs:

• Windows 10 Pro, 64bit
• Intel® Core™ i9-9900K Processor 5.3ghz
• 64 Gig DDR5 Ram
• 2 x nVidia 2080 Ti's (Bridged together) giving me 22Gig DDR 6 Video Ram
• 2TB Samsung 850 EVO 2 SSD
• 3 x Asus 4K Monitors at 3840 x 2160px

So, with these specs, why is photoshop so slow? No other CC Apps does this, only Photoshop and the CC App itself. I know it's not my PC or the build, it' has to be Photoshop because there a many, and I mean MANY posts like this one with Photoshop 2020. I hope it's fixed in the 2021 release or I'm cancelling my subscription.

[clarenceg88901489]

I just updated to 2021 v22.3 five days ago and I'm losing my mind. I cannot get anything done. I've tried pretty much everything offered in these forums and elsewhere including uninstalling and reinstalling, changing Performance settings to completely reloading and cleaning up fonts to running diagnostics on my MAC. Opening a 175 mb file took 3 minutes and moving a fairly simple layer can take over a minute and then it jumps and ends up in a random spot. Clicking on another layer lags for up to 10 seconds. I find it hard to believe this is anything other than a PS issue. Every single other app is functioning fine. I'm ready to go back to PS 2019 but I hate losing features. This is unacceptable considering the monthly cost. Not to mention I have a deadline this Friday.

[M1cr0ft]

It shows, with all of the responses here, that it isn't an isolated problem -- tied to just one user or one platform. But multiple users across different OS's and most of us with fast machines being able to cope with Photoshop, yet, the performance is terrible for many users.

It really needs looking into and for Adobe to acknowledge that there is indeed a problem. It's in their interest to fix this and it's been a problem for the last few versions, with many posts just like this one complaining.

I too struggle to get work done and I'm in the motion picture industry, where deadlines are always due, and the performance issues with Photoshop could end up losing us contracts. It's not good when an industry standard application fails us.

[clarenceg88901489]

I was unable to complete my project using PS 2021 but was fine using PS 2020 v21.2.6.
I've spoken with others who are friends in the field and they are all experiencing performance issues.

[clarenceg88901489]

Over a month later and two updates and things are no better. Still using an older version to get work done. Why am I now paying a monthly subscription rate for something I can't fully use is a big issue for me.

[brigancook]

Never liked subscriptions.
Reeks of sales rather than engineers and design...
I've had to waste many hours explaining the same difficulties but at least
got two refunds. I cannot say the same for others. and they want us to rely
on a cloud based system, which is contrary to what companies like Pixar and
countless others do.
They need their backups ready and waiting because if the "cloud" gets slow
or just fails they could be losing millions. Wish Adobe would treat us less
like customers they drilled for cash and more like they used to do:
As a creative market that they felt was underserved and took up the
challenge to fill that market with evermore useful tools.
If only they worked on the release day.
Here's to my back-up PS2019.
Best of luck.

[personal information removed as per forum guidelines]

[clarenceg88901489]

Over 2 months later and I'm still unable to run PS 2021. I've completely given up and I'm only using 2020. It's sluggish at times but it works.

[Alen Opsar]

Hey there, I am having the same problem with my high-end pc. Though this seems like only happening in Windows. I am using MacBook pro at the office and it is not even close to my specs but runs faster compared to my set-up. It is really frustrating.

My specs are,

i9-9900K

RTX 3090

32GB RAM

2TB SATA SSD

[defaultfbmd63x032di]

Same here, but on my work MacBook Pro it runs okay for the most part but often somthign as simple as making a selection with the marquee tool is super slow and the selection moves in slow motion lagging way behiong the mouse movement. My screen color also seems to change color temperature in a flickerign manner also when making a selecetion. Extreemly annoying. But on my high end PC, it is just so slow to load and open any file even asmall 2MB picture and it is just a piece of garbage. I had to resort to using y old CS5 on my PC to get things done quickly.  So dissapointitng!!!

[Farrellart]

Use the Grammarly filter. It helps you.

[Joel5E82]

The Grammarly filter helps with photoshop? Was today years old when I learned that.

[ohnie]

It's happning with iMac too.

[Dietrich5FB0]

Same problem here.  Photoshop is laggy, to the point some tools are not even useable.
I have an older computer with an install of CS6 that I've been forced to use instead of my newer machine.  The olds machine has 16 GB of RAM - the new one has 32GB.  Photoshop CS6 on the old machine runs like a dream. CC on the new machine is unusable.

[Sander, Koppen Europe]

Hi all, just posting to say I have the same problem over here. Photoshop has been incredibly slow and sluggish over the last months. Opening a low-res file takes up to a minute, making a brush stroke takes several seconds for the stroke to show. Unworkable. The only thing that seems to lessen the pain is completely disabling the GPU acceleration. And it's just Photoshop, other apps like AE, InDesign and Cinema 4D are running smoothly.
Photoshop v22.3.0

Adobe CC 5.4.1.534

Windows 10 x64 20H2 with latest updates
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 12 GB with Nvidia studio driver v461.92
Intel i9-9900K
32 GB RAM
M.2 1 TB SSD

Dell U3219Q 4k monitor + an el cheapo Full HD 24" monitor

[franciscop27163664]

Hi everyone, a little update here from my side.  Our IT department developed an update to the Intel chipset for my machines, ( Laptop with Quadro RTX 5000 and Dell Desktop with RTX 2080ti) they also thought that the problem with the new Adobe software was some software compatibility issue. They took two Intel chipset software and force installing the update into our machine and Bingo, Photoshop is working again.

I am comparing it with my untouched older version of Windows and Photoshop and the performance is almost identical.

I would recommend to any of you that work in a corporate environment to talk to your IT dept and tell them to force Windows and Intel chipset updates.

If you own your own computer check updates of your BIO, Chipset, Windows, and drivers.

We have a Mac user that also was having some problems, and sure enough, it was also an Intel CPU.

Hope this also helps you guys, Best luck.

[franciscop27163664]

Today I received this message from Adobe regarding a new update for the latest Photoshop.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/whats-new/2021-2.html

if you see the list there is nothing related to performance issues.  Everything is related to collaboration and Ipad features.

Needless to say, I don't use any of those.

and here is the problem Adobe, I don't know if I want to use this update, because I just got my version of Photoshop working, finally after 4 months of being forced to use an old version on an old computer.

There is clearly a performance issue, you can even read the several threads in your "Suggestion page' You need to look into this, we need high-performance software for our daily jobs, Photoshop is barely fitting this bill today.

You know that the AEC industry ad a whole is moving away from Adobe products, your Cloud subscription-only option is not sustainable for medium or large companies. Please listen to your customers.

[Mdentonetc]

I tried this last night.  Tried using the Intel auto updater and manually downloaded an Intel update for my processor.  No luck.  

The best I can do for now is use Photoshop 21.2.7.  It runs way better than 22.3.  But it's the last version on the list and I'm afraid soon it will be off the list and I'm going to be stuck with the new buggy Photoshop that runs terribly.  If Adobe isn't going to make their latest version run as well as the old versions the least they can do is let us download older version of Photoshop.  I don't know why I can't just use 2019 if I want to when I'm paying a monthly fee.  Unity lets me download almost every version of their program they've ever released.  

I dismissed an earlier poster's comment, but maybe my company will think about switching to Affinity if Adobe doesn't fix this.

[NS23]

I totally agree with you! Why they aren't giving access to an extensive
list of Photoshop versions?

*Nick Sullivan | Carnival Studio*

*Digital and Motion Graphics Designer*

[personal information removed as per forum guidelines]

[Glenn 8675309]

Hold down your left shift key, then click on the icon you use to start PS.  It's a troubleshooting step. 

[Joel5E82]

That was also suggested by "Joely" when we were told--by an Adobe Community Professional--that there isn't an issue for most users. 

In the case of everyone I've spoken with, this particular solution does not help. I have at least 150 PCs (various specs but most are Dell Precision 8th-10th gen with 16GB Ram and a modest video card. 

[Pixel King Designs]

So I found a work around to this issue. I noticed when I tried opening any file low or high res it would take a pretty long time. But If I click anywhere outside the program the photo would open right up. I tested it many times and even counted to 10 but once i clicked outside the program the photo came right up. This is def an adobe issue seeing my 2019 version works better. 

[Joel5E82]

Our district's use of SentinelOne is the potential culprit. Our ITS department is investigating writing rules to fix it. I know that won't apply to all in this forum, but definitely could help some. 

This forum was helpful. 

[Sander, Koppen Europe]

Thanks, that was unexpected. My machine is running SentinelOne too. This gives me a direction to look for a solution!

[Sander, Koppen Europe]

Posting to confirm that making an exception for Adobe Photoshop in SentinelOne has solved most of our problems. There is still a slight delay when opening a document for the first time after having started Photoshop, but after waiting that out, the responsiveness is back as it used to be. GPU accelleration has been enabled again without any issues. Thanks for the pointer to S1!
Cheers,

Sander

[Kelim5C82]

What type of exclusions did you add? I have S1 too and users are reporting PS being slow since it was installed.

[Sander, Koppen Europe]

Please refer to this for the complete answer:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/fix-for-photoshop-issues-with-sentinelone/m-p/11919135#M524...

There are six possible locations mentioned to exclude in S1, but not all may be in use in your specific case:

Users/[user name]/Library/Preferences/

Users/[user name]/Library/Application

C:\Program Files\Adobe\

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe

Applications/Adobe Photoshop

Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe