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Participant
March 6, 2021
Answered

photoshop starts as background process

  • March 6, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 3020 views

Until yesterday, Photoshop has been working fine. Today, it appears not to start, but it is actually starting as a background process and I can't access any of it. I've read the forums and tried:

 

-updating graphics card drivers

-disabling graphics cards

-uninstalling and reinstalling photoshop

-uninstalling and reinstalling all Adobe apps (except creative cloud)

-did a "repair" installation of Adobe Creative Cloud

-moved the settings folder and let photoshop create a new one

 

None of these worked. I'm running Windows 10 on an Alienware laptop with a Nvidia graphics card. Like I said, everything worked fine until this morning. All drivers up to date. Windows up to date. Running Photoshop 22.2

 

If it makes a difference, Illustrator and Acrobat work fine. 

 

Please help! I couldn't get any work done today at all.

Thank you.

Correct answer MarekMularczyk

I know this isn't an ideal solution but since it's been working in the past, have you tried downgrading Photoshop to previous version?

1 reply

MarekMularczyk
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 6, 2021

It's a very common glitch with Photoshop on Windows that I've seen happening for many years.

What seems to have always worked for me is to:

  1. open Task Manager,
  2. End Photoshop process,
  3. keep Task Manager open and start Photoshop again

 

This has always worked for me.

Adobe Community ExpertAdobe Certified Professional
Known Participant
April 14, 2023

Here's the question that never gets asked: If it's a known bug and has been happening for many years, why doesn't Adobe just fix it?

Inspiring
August 29, 2025

An excellent question which I'm left wondering the same thing 2 years later facing the same bug..