PS CC crashes on load after Mac security update

[Hunseder]

Running the current version of PS CC on a Mac with 10.15.7. All was fine until the latest security update was applied. Now PS crashes on load every time. Other CC apps are OK. Here's the top of the error when loading, any ideas?

Process: Adobe Photoshop 2021 [10806]
Path: /Applications/Adobe Photoshop 2021/Adobe Photoshop 2021.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Photoshop 2021
Identifier: com.adobe.Photoshop
Version: 22.3.1 (22.3.1)
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: ??? [1]
Responsible: Adobe Photoshop 2021 [10806]
User ID: 501

Date/Time: 2021-05-02 21:32:47.561 -0700
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.15.7 (19H1030)
Report Version: 12
Bridge OS Version: 5.3 (18P4556)
Anonymous UUID: 396558EC-1980-1489-D803-A1B07E121CA0

Time Awake Since Boot: 4000 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread: 12 GPU Sniffer Launcher

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x00000000000004e0
Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal: Segmentation fault: 11
Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xb
Terminating Process: exc handler [10806]

[LuminousWorks]

Same here. Same OS, same immediate crash after the update. I can install PS 2020 and it runs, but I need and teach 2021.

[Hunseder]

I spent 2 hours with Adobe Tech Support yesterday. Apparently it’s a known issue. I had to drop to 2020 as well. I think it’s related to the recent Apple security update, everything was fine until I applied it. I hope they fix it soon, I do photO restoration and depend on all those new features in 2021.

[Conrad_C]

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@Hunseder wrote:
I spent 2 hours with Adobe Tech Support yesterday. Apparently it’s a known issue. I had to drop to 2020 as well. I think it’s related to the recent Apple security update, everything was fine until I applied it. I hope they fix it soon, I do photO restoration and depend on all those new features in 2021.

---

Was Adobe Tech Support specific as to what the problem was with the security update? After seeing reports around the web that Apple Security Update 2021-002 broke OpenCL, I decided to try turning off OpenCL in Photoshop, and now Photoshop 2021 works again. [Edit: No, it did not keep working; it started crashing again. I was unable to resolve this fully until Apple released Security Update 2021-003 which appears to contain the real fix; see my later reply in this thread.]

If you are wondering how I was able to change a Photoshop preference when it won’t finish launching, I also found that Photoshop is able to start completely only the first time after a restart. So I restarted the Mac, which allowed me to start Photoshop once, and during that session I turned off OpenCL.

But I’m not sure if this is the real fix that works for everybody. Does this fix the problem on your Mac?

If the breaking of OpenCL by the Apple Security Update is the cause of the Photoshop crash, then the permanent fix might have to come from Apple, not Adobe. Because right now this bug is also crashing other Mac image editors that use OpenCL, such as Acorn and Retrobatch.

[LuminousWorks]

Alas, Photoshop doesn't launch under any circumstances, right after restart or no.

I suppose one could install 2020, change prefs, then install 2021 with the import prefs from previous versions option selected...

[sandman1278]

I just tested this method and I was able to relaunch Photoshop after closing the app, OSX 10.15.7
Thanks for the advice!

[LuminousWorks]

Well, I tried my own suggestion and it failed. Now, I'm hoping Apple releases an update to their update soon.

[sandman1278]

it worked yesterday and then it failed today, i think i need to roll back to an earlier version of photoshop and turn off auto-update as well.

[Conrad_C]

Has anyone here tried today’s new macOS Security Update 2021-003 Catalina?

I just installed it and now Photoshop is starting up fine again, multiple times per session. This suggests that if the Photoshop launch was caused by a bug in the previous macOS Security Update, Apple might have fixed it in Security Update 2021-003.

The reason I say “might” is that if that fix did happen, I did not see it documented in the Apple release notes.

[Hunseder]

Hmmm, I don't have a pending security update today. Is this a new one just now? I'm very hopeful this will correct the issue and let me get back to work again!

Thanks for the heads-up, Conrad!

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

Yes, Security Update 2021-003 is very new, it was released in the last 24 hours so it may not yet be staged to all update servers around the world. If you do not see it in your Software Update preferences pane, see if it shows up after you force reload it (press Command-R while in Software Update). I just did that again and now it is offering Safari 14.1.1…

When Apple releases updates for other OSs and versions like macOS 11.4, iOS 14.6, etc. which were all released today, it often means there is also an update for other supported OSs like macOS 10.15 Catalina. That is what got me to look for a new update for Catalina.

[Hunseder]

YES! I did the refresh and installed the security update. IT WORKS!!! That was a painful 3 weeks without having all the tools I am accustomed to. Thank you for updating the thread and bringing it to my attention.

[Chris Mollenhauer]

Adding my thanks to you too Conrad, the new security update worked for me too. Fortunately PS only started this fatal crashing a few hours ago on my machine so I've lost only half a day, though I've had crashes using Liquify and other randoms recently.

Sadly, though this appears to have been a known issue for several weeks, there might not have been a warning from Adobe. Surely that would be a proper thing to issue as a 'Notification' in the CC Desktop App?

Any Adobe Moderators reading this?

Can you please advise/explain why Notifications appears to NOT be used to warn of issues such as this, and/or advise solutions. I'm assuming you can tell which version and OS we're all using and send only to those who might be affected. I do usually read the release notes before installing updates - maybe I missed a warning there?

[Hunseder]

You have a good point, Chris. However, I doubt they will do anything. The support rep I worked with had me on the phone for almost 2 hours, and insisted that the only solution for me was to upgrade from Catalina to the current OS! He was firm in his attitude that if I didn't upgrade, they could not help me. It didn't make any sense to me, and I refused. On one hand, he acknowledged that there were many reports of the issue, and on the other hand, insisted it was an issue with my Mac. There was no reasoning with him.

So, numerous people affected, yet no statement from Adobe. Just take the individual, put them through the wringer, and leave them. Some people wrote that turning off OpenGL let them use it, but we couldn't launch the program to turn it off! Was there no way to manually edit a preference file to disable it?!? 

The whole situation really left me feeling like I pay every month, but I'm just a $$$, not a customer.

[Conrad_C]

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@Hunseder wrote:

So, numerous people affected, yet no statement from Adobe. Just take the individual, put them through the wringer, and leave them. Some people wrote that turning off OpenGL let them use it, but we couldn't launch the program to turn it off! Was there no way to manually edit a preference file to disable it?!? 

---

I posted that OpenCL idea earlier in this thread, and yesterday I edited the post to retract it because in the end the crashes came back regardless of the setting. I had read that Apple broke OpenCL (not OpenGL) in Security Update 2021-002 and that is what led to me try disabling OpenCL, but obviously changing that preference was not enough to avoid the crash.

I have seen multiple cases in the past where an Apple bug in macOS broke something in an Adobe application such as Photoshop or InDesign. On several of these occasions, neither Adobe nor Apple mention anything publicly; an Apple update comes out some time later and things are fine again. It is not clear if this silence is a policy the two companies have, but it definitely doesn’t help when a crash is preventing work from getting done.

Consistent with that, there never was official confirmation about what was behind this crash. Apple does not mention anything like this in the release notes for Security Update 2021-003. We are having to assume it fixed the crash only because the Photoshop crashes stopped after installing 2021-003.

[orsobou4]

Is this typical on Apple machines? I tried to run Bridge and Photoshop on a Windows installation in my now defunct MacBook Pro, and then it suddenly became a lot faster. Why does Adobe make it perform so slowly on Apple computers running Mac OS, no matter which version. Even the latest machines have problems running Adobe software, and now I have been blocked from further use of my Creative Cloud software, because I have installed it too often on my new Mac mini M1. When I tried it on Windows through Bootcamp, it worked flawlessly. Mac users also matter!

[Derek Cross]

I don't think most Mac users would recognise your analysis of Adobe software running on Macs.

How much RAM and spare hard disk capacity do you have?