PSE 2021 extremely slow upon launch

Report · Feb 24, 2021

I recently upgraded from Elements 2014 to the latest version. When I open a new file to edit, I cannot perform any functions for a fully minute. After that, everything works fine however. I never encountered this issue with previous versions of PS Elements before. It it because this version is now cloud based?

Report · Feb 24, 2021

PSE is not cloud based, it's about the only program from adobe that is not.

How old is your computer?

When I start the editor from the fancy home screen, it takes 6 seconds to fully open and load. Loading an image to edit? virtually instant (I do has a ssd).

Report · Feb 24, 2021

When I open a new file to edit, I cannot perform any functions for a fully minute. After that, everything works fine however. I never encountered this issue with previous versions of PS Elements before.

It is possible that additional media analysis is taking place in the Organizer. Although this is only supposed to take place in the background when nothing else is happening on your computer, I have found that the activity can have some effect on the Editor. I would be interested if you see any change in behavior if you turn off all media analysis by unchecking all of the boxes in the Edit>Preferences>Media Analysis dialog. Reboot your computer and then see what happens when you open the Editor.

Report · Feb 26, 2021

Thanks for the help, but I don't seen "media analysys" anywhere under
edit>preferences.

Cary "Smitty" Smithson

Report · Feb 26, 2021

Hi Cary,

Greg is talking about Edit > Preferences > Media Analysis in the Elements Organizer (not the Editor) 🙂

Report · Feb 27, 2021

Thanks Phil and Greg. I tried the Organizer, and when it opens, none of the
buttons in the upper left - File, Edit, etc. will work. I guess it's time
to uninstall and reinstall PS Elements and see if that fixes my issue?

Cary "Smitty" Smithson

Report · Feb 27, 2021

Thanks Phil and Greg. I tried the Organizer, and when it opens, none of thebuttons in the upper left - File, Edit, etc. will work. I guess it's timeto uninstall and reinstall PS Elements and see if that fixes my issue?Cary "Smitty" Smithson
By @cary5FD2

I'm guessing that you have Windows set to auto-hide the taskbar. Right-click on the Windows taskbar, click on the Taskbar Settings and turn off Automatically Hide Taskbar. You should then be able to access the Organizer's menus.

Report · Mar 04, 2021

Someone mentiones PSE is not cloud based. THat may be so, but I now have CReative Clud Desktop that I didn't have before. I have a ridiculously fast PC with two SSDs in RAID for my C drive, 64 GB of RAM, etc. So far, all suggestions have not worked. I'll try to uninstall anything that says CReative Cloud and see if that helps. If it doesn't, I'll uninstall everything Adobe, then reinstall PSE 2021 again.

Report · Mar 04, 2021

Uninstalling the Creative Cloud application will likely cause problems for Elements. By all means, do a full uninstall/reinstall of Elements, but that will reinstall the Creative Cloud application that comes with Elements 2021 to use the new Save to Cloud feature.

Report · Mar 05, 2021

I completely uninstalled everything Adobe from my PC, including Cloud stuff. Reinstalled PSE 2021, and still have the very same issue. When I open a photo in PSE, I must wait a full minute (or more) before any of the buttons will function. After that, everything works fine. Just for fun, I double checked that I'm running the latest drivers foir my nVidia M4000 graphics card. I'm also running Windows 10 Pro x64. I'm stumped. There have been no changes to my PC since running PSE 14.

Report · Mar 05, 2021

Just a wild guess: there has been many complaints in the feedback forum (for Lightroom) about a similar behaviour, and it appeared the culprit was a Logitech plugin component.

https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/lightroom-classic/lightroom-silently-installed-logitech...

Such issues are not easy to detect.

Report · Mar 05, 2021

As a follow-on to that excellent suggestion by Michel...

You've obviously been a Photoshop Elements user for some time so have probably built up a collection of plug-ins, so maybe there is an incompatible one in there causing an issue?

Try starting the Photoshop Elements Editor with the Shift key held down. You'll get a little dialog box asking if you want to "Skip loading optional and third-party plug-ins?". Click Yes, and see if that sorts out the problem.

Report · Mar 06, 2021

Hey @Phil Pickering, Thanks for the tip about starting Editor with the <Shift> key held down, There have been numerous times I've needed or wanted to do that. I've always opened the Win Explorer and renamed the Plug-Ins folder to disable the plug-ins. And then renamed back to the correct name to enable them again. A PITA. Your tip has fixed that. Thanks again!!

--
Walter in Davie, FL

Report · Mar 05, 2021

Cary,

Going out of my comfort zone here... but like Michel has alluded to above, most users (especially Windows users) have unique hardware setups, both in terms of individual components and how they are combined together to form the whole system. As such, trying to identify which component may be the culprit in this situation might take some time.

First off, disconnect from your network and see if that stops the annoying delay before being able to work in Photoshop Elements. I seem to remember someone having a very similar problem when using a NAS device.

Also, you casually mentioned in a previous reply, that you have RAID set up on your machine. Is this RAID 0 or RAID 1? I have very little experience of RAID, but is there a way of temporarily pausing the mirroring of one disk to the other in RAID 1? If so, I'd have a look at that as maybe being the source of your problem.

Sorry if these seem like shots in the dark, but like I explained above, without knowing your unique hardware set up or being in a position to replicate it, you're going to have go through a process of elimination to narrow down your field of potential suspects.

Report · Mar 06, 2021

My SSDs are my C drive and are set up in RAID 0 (striped) for speed. All of my images and other data are stored on separate spinny drives. When I slect an image, it loads immediately, so I don't think there's anything wrong with those drives. I probably should have stated at the beginning that I began have this issue with my older version of PSE 14. It had run perfectly for several years until this new issue cropped up. I had hoped that installing a new version of PSE would resolve the problem. I only run a single (noise reduction) plugin. I have not installed that plugin with this new version of PSE 2021. My next step it a Windows repair -- based on the assumption I must have changed a setting somehow that is now causing me problems. As stated before, once I wait for a minute (or longer), everything works just fine.

Report · Mar 06, 2021

My SSDs are my C drive and are set up in RAID 0 (striped) for speed. All of my images and other data are stored on separate spinny drives. When I slect an image, it loads immediately, so I don't think there's anything wrong with those drives. I probably should have stated at the beginning that I began have this issue with my older version of PSE 14. It had run perfectly for several years until this new issue cropped up. I had hoped that installing a new version of PSE would resolve the problem. I only run a single (noise reduction) plugin. I have not installed that plugin with this new version of PSE 2021. My next step it a Windows repair -- based on the assumption I must have changed a setting somehow that is now causing me problems. As stated before, once I wait for a minute (or longer), everything works just fine.

By @cary5FD2

What are you expecting for the time to open the editor directly from a shortcut and bypassing the welcome screen?

For me, with a hardware setup just above minimal specs and no SSD, that takes about 45 seconds. I have disabled all automatic features in the organizer. Greg has reported much better starting time with a much stronger hardware.

Report · Mar 06, 2021

OK, so knowing that you have a RAID 0 set up rules out pausing RAID.

Next steps:

1. Are the hard drives you use to store your images internal or external? If external, what type are they (USB, Thunderbolt, networked?)

2. How do you open the Photoshop Elements Editor? As a standalone app? Through the Organizer? Double-clicking the image in the File Explorer?

3. When does the delay occur? Before the image opens? After the image opens?

4. What happens when you try opening an image from your C drive?

5. What happens when you tty to open an image from their normal location on the other drive(s) in other apps, say Photos?

And just as an aside: if you are using RAID why are your most valuable items (your images and your data) on the non-RAID more-likely to fail parts of the system?

Report · Mar 06, 2021

Phil DC,

1. All of the platter drives are internal and connected via SATA cables.

2. I view my images using Windows Photos. When I find one I want to edit, I then right click on it and select open with PSE 2021 Editor.

3. PSE opens almost immediately with the photo there ready to edit. However, my standard arrow curser is replaced with a plus sign like symbol with a box like symbol attached to it. I can move thaose attached symbols around, but I can't open any drag down menues until it becomes a standar arrow curser again. That take 1 minute and 10 seconds. Before I began having this issue, my image was ready to edit withing 2-3 seconds.

4. The same thing happens when I try this from my C drive.

5. Explained in No. 3 above.

Only my C drive is set up for Raid 0, for speed. I intend to raid my other drives in a NAS box once I've aquired enough drives.

Report · Mar 06, 2021

Thanks for the info Cary!

So looks like it's nothing to do with your drive setup and other apps seem to be behaving themselves.

Bit flummoxed regarding your description of the cursor that appears. I suppose that means you can't take a screenshot of it either? Maybe you could take a quick photo of the cursor and upload it here?

Thanks again 🙂

And see where you going with your planned RAID set up 🙂

Report · Mar 06, 2021

Here's a cell phone pic of the cursor. I'm thinking because the first thing I usually do to an image is crop. I think it's the crop tool icon?

Report · Mar 06, 2021

Are you talking about the ACR crop tool? There is a known issue with slow performance in ACR using the crop tool since the recent update to Elements 2021. Even if you are talking about the regular Editor crop tool, the added weight of the crop previews may be slowing things down. So, definitely make sure that you have changed tools (say to the move tool) before opening your next photo and see whether it makes a difference. If it does, and you are not talking about the ACR crop tool, I would suggest disabling Crop Pre-selection in the Edit>Preferences>General tab.

Please report back what you find.

Report · Mar 06, 2021

I don't know what ACR is, but I think you're right as far as it being the crop tool icon. I deselected it under preferences, and switched the cursot to the hand. Still no better unfortunately.

Report · Mar 06, 2021

ACR=Adobe Camera Raw. This is the editor that pops up if you send a raw file to the main Photoshop Elements Editor.

Report · Mar 07, 2021

Hi Cary,

After you've chosed the Hand tool, quit Photoshop Elements, then restarted it, what is the shape of the cursor while your machine hangs for a minute or so?

Also, just in case it still has something to do with the Crop tool, you might want to turn off Auto Show Tool Options. It's in the little dropdown menu on the right-hand side of the Tool Options pane.

And try starting the Photoshop Elements Editor up on its own (i.e. not opening an image at the same time):

- from C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 2021\PhotoshopElementsEditor (just double-click the app name)

- from the Photoshop Elements Home Screen (click on the Photo Editor button)

- from the Photoshop Elements Organizer (Editor > Photo Editor in the Task Pane along the bottom of the screen)

If the Editor doesn't hang when started in any of the above ways, try opening an image by double-clicking on the blank workspace to get to the Open dialog, navigate to the image you want to open, then double-click on it.

Report · Mar 07, 2021

IT WORKS!! Someone earlier suggested I try opening PSE without the internet. I finally tried that just now by disconnecting my CAT 5e cable, and opening PSE the way I normally do. Eureka! It works just like it should. Early on I suspected it had something to do with this Creative Cloud junk trying to phone home? I only say "junk" because it wasn't associated with my earlier versions and I don't intend to use it. I couldn't uninstall it without uninstalling PSE 2021 first, which proved to me that they were tied together somehow. Maybe not "bundled together" but still reliant on each other somehow. Now the trick is, can I turn this feature in settings somehow since I can't just uninstall it?