Watercolor Artist Action Freezes and will not complete the action

[Rosalie L]

I installed the watercolor action and all is fine. It runs but will not stop. I have never gotten the ending message. The screen freezes and I have to force close down photoshop in order to get control of the mouse. Then of course the photo I was using the action on is gone. I have tried five different photos.

I have consulted a tutor, removed and reinstalled photoshop, and the action several times.

Can anyone help? I was unable to get help from the photoshop support case I filed. I am out of options.

I have a new very good computer, the newest version of photoshop and a lightning-fast internet connection. What am I doing wrong?  

Any help is appreciated.

[Roberto Lazary]

Hi,

I have had the same problem with my Win 10 PC. Newest Graficdriver for my 2080ti. I solved the problem by unchecking OpenCL (under advanced graphic-settings). Now the action runs.

Hope it helps a bit.

[default20ect5oqpr7m]

Same problem (action freezing, and needing to restart PS); Win 11 Photoshop 2022. I disabled the OpenCL and action ran without problem.

[defaultla3fp8u44vqv]

Disabling OpenCL also solved the problem for me on my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) with 

Radeon Pro 570 running Big Sur and Photoshop 2022. 

[defaultuztvnr34u2bv]

I tried everything as well, but finally, I disabled the Open CL in the advanced menu of the Performance section and it worked! 

[starfishmoments]

yes, that works, shouldn't have to do this, but . . . . it's a work around 🙂

with what adobe charges each moth, the software should work 100% - that's my opinion  . . . 

[MsMichelleNL]

Thank you, unchecking OpenCL was what solved it for me.

Preference > Performance > Graphic Processor Settings in the upper right corner > Advanced Settings.

[CharlieCam]

Hi All

Thanks very much for your help. My Macbook Pro M2 Max was hanging part way throught the PS watercolour action. Solution Settings/Performance and uncheck box 'Use Graphics Processor' fixed the problem. Not sure why, but I'm now editing the finsihed watercolour and so far very impressed.

[raulcalderon.es]

Hi community and DavidC,

In version 25.0, the solution has been the "same", only that the "Drawing Mode" option is missing, so the solution is to temporarily disable "Use Graphics Processor" (in Preferences>Performance - Graphic Processor Settings) before using this action. This way it works perfectly.

I hope this helps some of you.

[Eric_Vaughn]

A little late to the party, but I remember reading somewhere in these forums that you could get the action to complete by disabling the graphics processor.

Photoshop > Preferences > Performance: deselect 'Use Graphics Processor'.

Not sure if that's good or bad, but it worked. When I was done I just went back and selected that box again.

[starfishmoments]

Thank You!!! 🙂

Photoshop > Preferences > Performance: deselect 'Use Graphics Processor'. . . . that worked for me . . . thank you!

When PS 22.x first came out, I had the freezing problem running Watercolor Artist Action.

I went back to using PS 21.x . . . all was good in my PS world . . . . 

Then when the Apple MacBook M1 chip came out, I purchased one of these machines . . . . guess what? . . . the same thing again happens on the new machine with PS 22.x enhanced for M1 chip . . . . so back to the Apple Shop and got a refund.

Now I am working on my older MBP (Intel) and it works after deselecting 'Use Graphics Processor'. . . . 

So . . . the big question is . . . . will PS 22.x work well on an M1 MBP . . . will it stable and faster?

Gee . . . one would think that Adobe would fix this bug . . . . I have wasted so much time on this issue . . . does Adobe read these posts and action this issues?

[ReynardFx]

I had the same freezing problem with photoshop 22 on the M1 mac. Found this thread and tried the same: Disabling graphic card acceleration, and confirmed it worked as well for M1. 

[starfishmoments]

Has Adobe got a fix for this issue yet?

[defaultque8ez7c5xrt]

I just started to use this app over the last two days.  I have the M1 chip in a MacBook Air.  NOTHING worked to stop the freeze until I turned off the Graphic Processor.  I'd like to thank the contributors because Adobe clearly hasn't worked on this yet.  Very very frustrating and wasted time-consuming but thanks again.  At least I have my first very nice looking watercolor rendering.  If anyone hears that Adobe has found a fix for the M1 issue please post.  

[starfishmoments]

all fixed now by Adobe in latest update for PS - thank you Adobe 🙂