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Inspiring
July 3, 2025
Answered

photoshop killing itself for no reason

  • July 3, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 560 views

I was editing a picture in Photoshop, and it was going completely normally. Then I went to Quick Export as PNG, and when I pressed it, it said, "Can no longer use GPU, so will use CPU to export. You can re-enable GPU acceleration in Preferences." So i pressed ok then, I went to Preferences, and Use GPU is still checked, so I unchecked it and re-checked it, and then I pressed OK. And then Photoshop gave me an error saying, We're unable to complete this action due to an error, and it didn't say what the error was or anything. And then I checked my desktop where I was exporting it to, and it just exported the base image, like, the background image that I started with, with none of the edits to it or anything. And it didn't even have the name I gave it when I pressed Export, it just had the normal name it started with. And the preview in Photoshop just randomly went black after closing preferences, and then I tried to save the project so I don't lose it and when I pressed Save, it says, We're unable to do this due to an error it didn't give me an error code or anything, it just said, We're unable to do this because of an error. And then, I couldn't figure out why and couldn't get it to work. so I went to Task Manager and checked, and my CPU, disk and everything were completely normal, but my memory was at, like, 97%. But it said Photoshop was only using, like, 600 mb, and there was nothing else running other than photoshop, chrome, task manager and my anti virus all taking up normal amounts and nothing else was using any memory, so I was very confused, i still had 25gb free on my disk and 75gb left on my computer. I also tried to purge all so i could clear my cache and stuff but it said unable to complete this action for no reason And then I ended up just force-closing it using End Task. then my memory usage dropped to like 40% which is pretty normal and then I decided to restart my computer, just in case something else was going on in the background. And then when I restarted my computer and opened Photoshop, it said, Unable to read device-specific preferences. So will go back to Default, and then I just pressed OK, and it reset all my preferences. Then it also reset my recent files and everything weren't in Photoshop. So I had to go to where I keep my files on my computer, and I opened a random file, and it was completely normal. It asked me if I wanted to add a new tool to the toolbar or not, and I said, Sure, reset the toolbar to Default, and add the new tool. then it did that, and it was fine. And then I was just hovering over the tools on the bar. I didn't click on anything. I was just hovering over them to like see what the name of the tool was and what it did. And then it randomly just said, Photoshop encountered an error and needs to close, and didn't tell me why or give me an error code or anything. then i tried to reopen it and it said the same thing about not finding prefernces but didnt crash this time. So my Photoshop's basically broken for no reason.  I have 16 gigabytes of RAM, and graphics card is a rtx4050 also my graphics card and Photoshop are both fully updated. I wasnt even doing heavy editing just had a couple masks and only like 5 layers that were all just masks of different images. please help.

Correct answer cole gaming a37551120moyj

Hi, sorry that you continue to experience the issue! 

Let us know how it goes after you reinstall the application after removing it using the Creative Cloud Cleaner tool, as suggested by c.pfaffenbichler. 

If you continue to experience the same behavior, let us know if you get any crash report or any prompt. If you don't, sharing a small screen recording of the behavior might help us figure things out. 

 

Thanks,
Nikunj


seems to be working fine now not sure what happened.

2 replies

Nancy OShea
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 20, 2025

Sounds like a low memory issue. 

Rebooting your computer usually helps. 

 

Make sure your computer meets the minimum CPU & GPU requirements. 

  • 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

Obviously, the more layers & fx you work with chews up system resources.

Having a bigger scratch disk helps.

 

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 3, 2025

Please read this (in particular the section titled "Supply pertinent information for more timely and effective answers”):
https://community.adobe.com/t5/using-the-community/community-how-to-guide-tips-amp-best-practices/td-p/11601738?page=1

 

What have you done for all-purpose trouble-shooting so far?
Restoring Preferences after making sure all customized presets like Actions, Patterns, Brushes etc. have been saved might be a good starting point:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/basic-trouble-shooting-steps.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-gpu-graphics-card.html

Inspiring
July 3, 2025

i have no plugins or custom brushes or anything, idk what other info you want. I said literally everything that happened and the only relevant stuff in any of the links you sent just says update gpu or update photoshop or update system and i said everythings fully updated.

c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 4, 2025

»fully updated« is relative and not a version number. 

 

Have you restored the Preferences yet?