Stuck in Camera Raw Filter

[leighbardsley]

Photoshop v20.0.07 & v 21.0.1

macOS 10.14.6

I'm editing using the Camera Raw filter on a smart object, and after switching to another application and then coming back to Photoshop, I can no longer use Photoshop and must force quit without saving. It looks like a problem with misplaced focus, whereas normally the Camera Raw filter dialog would be in focus/in front and usable, instead the progress bar dialog for the Camera Raw filter is in front. Clicking the cancel button on this progress bar dialog does nothing (makes the OS error sound), most actions in the Camera Raw dialog dont work as everything is greyed out and this window does not have focus — I can only click and drag to zoom, or click and drag the histogram. I cannot click anything in the Photoshop application window either. This priginally happened  in v21 so I switched to v20 but now it has happened there too.

[koswalt]

Just a reminder that this is still not fixed.

FYI, I've had my entire computer reformated since my initial post. Same exact issue since the moment I reinstalled Photoshop.

[xaxer]

Cannot use Camera Raw at all on two machines. Catalina and High Sierra. Latest versions on both. Almost every time I apply CR to a smart layer, the progress bar jumps up but doesn't progress. Clicking cancel on the progress bar dialog does nothing. Sometimes I can click the cancel button on the camera raw panel, other times I have to force quit PS. 

[JOHNNY G CC]

re above reply mine works fine if i have the psd on my desktop when using camera raw but not on my hard drive, also it works either way when not using camera raw on a smart object, which yes defeats the purpose of smart objects but  im forced to save each bit of work as a preset just in case.

[aneran]

This problem SERIOUSLY needs to be adressed ASAP. We are paying customers, and Adobe is wasting our time.

My photoshop is freezing on a daily bases with this RAW $h!T. You've been noticfied about this problem for over a year now.

PUT THIS ISSUE ON TOP OF YOUR LIST!!!

[Remon123]

Just letting Adobe know, that me and some of my team also encounter this problem. 

Please find a solution 🙂

[AEmbrey]

Hi Adobe, this happens to me all the time also. Please fix!

[James5EB3]

Update:

Yesterday I spent several hours on screenshare with two separate Adobe techs trying to resolve this issue.

Here's what they tried:

—A variety of tweaks to my RAM, scratch disk and cache settings

—Turn off GPU computing in Camera Raw

—Uninstall Camera Raw then install an older version

—Uninstall then reinstall Photoshop

—Uninstall then reinstall Creative Cloud

Here's what happened:

—Absolutely nothing

I was able to replicate the problem immediately after every attempt to fix it.

At the end of the session I was told to submit this issue to the Adobe feature wishlist smh. This is a BUG not a wish.

Hope this helps anyone who has considered resolving this through Adobe support—there is no workaround and they're not going to help you.

[DJGMRF]

I have some good news, potentially. 

I think by now we have realized that Adobe doesn't care about it's customers and or it's product and only cares about our money since we have reiterated this issue over and over and over again with the only result being the confirmation that Adobe's staff is completely and utterly USELESS. Unless you ask them for a refund of your subscription, which I did and I was successful in doing so - that is what this has come to, yes, so go for it. 

However, I had this same issue pop again yesterday and I seemed to have resolved it.

First of all, I am now saving all of my work on my desktop for easy access and assurance that I have saved it and for recovery purposes. On my third photo I was editing, I had done all edits for about an hour, converted layers to smart object and opened Cam Raw and the dang progress bar showed up again. (By the way I also got on with support via phone and Adobe could not resolve it) This was about the 6th instance this progress bar popped up now so I had some restraint and tried to see if I could click anywhere...well I could and it was at the top menu bar (on my Mac) next to the Apple symbol it will say "Photoshop". If you hover over that it will only have one option when this stupid progress bar is up and it says something like "explore Plugin" if you click that then click around the page, and hit cancel a few times, it seemed to resolve the progress bar and I was able to continue working. I did this twice with success.

I hope this helps!

[koswalt]

***See below for possible fix***

Didn't work for me. Fortunately (unfortunately), the problem is so "reliable" that I was able to test your method right away (first try)...

I do have a way I've been getting around the issue... You might have to play with it but I think it comes down mostly to the pixel dimensions. Once I get over 6000 x 4800px or so (roughly 100M in size) it'll reliably crash.

Most of us are probably using Smart Objects. If so, here is what you can do.

1.) Convert to Smart Object

2.) Downsize to something closer to 50M. Cut the size down to 3000px x 2400px.

3) Run Camera Raw Filter.

4) Scale your image back to the original size.

This has worked for me since I noticed this. It's possible that it was failing at smaller sizes before I realized this was working for me. I'll be interested if this works for anyone else.

[James5EB3]

Unfortunately the menu bar solution didn't work for me either.

However @koswalt, your resizing workaround is super smart and has been working for me for the past 24 hours. It's definitely annoying having to downscale then upscale, but way less annoying than force quitting and losing hours of precious work. Thanks for sharing that.

[Grace5CB7]

I had no choice but to delete that pesky plugin, go to

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Plug-Ins\CC\File Formats\Camera Raw.8bi.

and delete that thing and you're good to go.

[Grace5CB7]

Im not an expert but i found a way to delete that pesky plugin, go to

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Plug-Ins\CC\File Formats\Camera Raw.8bi.

and delete that stupid thing and you're good to go.

[koswalt]

@Grace5CB7 Does that disable the Camera Raw Filter or just keep it from stalling?

We don't want to disable Camera Raw Filter since it's easily the fastest way to color correct images.

[Grace5CB7]

I saw the procedure here

https://community.adobe.com/t5/camera-raw/cant-uninstall-camera-raw/td-p/10590807?page=1

as i am not an expert and im used to using photoshop without plugins, igot rid of the camera raw keep taking over my screen.  I guess it will disable the plugin, but as far as what i did, i dont encounter the error anymore

[koswalt]

You shouldn't get any error if you don't use the filter. Seems like w.e. issue you were having is unrelated to this thread.

[AndoverColorGuy]

Not sure if this is just working on my machine yet or if someone else could give it a try and let us all know.

Got the pesky progress bar that was locking up camera raw / photoshop.

went into photoshop prefs / file handeling.

checked everything under file compatability / camera raw prefs except use adobe camera raw to convert doc from 32 bit to 16/8 (You can do that in PS if you need to!).

Also had (never) selected under maximize PSD and PSB file. 

shut down and reopened PS to get the new prefs to hold opened up the file in question and yep the pesky prog bar was still there, but, I was able to move it away and work normally within CR and hit the save button (twice), it was a that moment I saw the progress bar move from left to right and boom I'm back in PS.

I too have noticed that this is happening on larger files I don't seem to have any issues with the smaller ones. And until Adobe figures all this out and yes they have had plenty of time to do so and have not. I'll be saving multiple versions out A, then B, then C etc.. flatenning my progress down at the start of the next version to keep the file size down.

I'm sure a creative lawyer could come up with a class action law suit for all the time lost due to there inability to fix their software, if anyone is listening! That will light a fire!

[Jake Stanfield]

Was struggling as well. I didn't try any method but kept seeing "desktop" and "harddrive" mentioned. I moved my psd file to Desktop and Camera Raw worked. Oddest thing I moved it back to the folder it lives in and again, worked fine. I'd try moving your file(s) to the desktop and seeing if it will open, worked for me. 

This has happened to me several times in the past but seems to go away after a few tries. Maybe I got lucky and this was the last of the "few tries" and moving it to Desktop had no real effect. I'll come back if I have additional info to give. Good luck friends!

[lindes36695921]

Not sure if it relates to recurring problems with raw on photoshop, but after I opened camera raw while editing in photoshop on my mac for the first time I got stuck too. All the buttons were gray and had a hard time going back to photoshop, until I tried to move the raw edit screen away to the right and a random welcome to camera raw screen appeared. I just had to click "let's get started" and it worked. Hope this helps someone. 

[racheldemy]

This actually helped me tremendously. Thanks!

[chadvincent]

This just worked for me. After force quitting and re-opening Photoshop, I went to Photoshop > Preferences > Camera Raw > Performance and selected Off from the "Use Graphics Processor" drop-down.

[varrgo]

Worked for me, too - also recommend purging the cache (option right below it)

Thanks Chad!

[sddatadiva]

Tried that. It did not work at all. Same freeze. There is no fix for this problem because I think only those of us who work very large are affected... Turning everything into a smart layer, resizing to under 6000 pixels, THEN applying Camera Raw, and after that resizing to the larger size apparently works, so I will try that...

[wilfriedl15341374]

I find one more solution, this my camera raw config.

[cartoonasaurus]

Will this time-wasting obscure confusing bug be fixed by November 2021? I wasted HOURS fiddling with settings, etc., only to find the answer had nothing to do with logic or best practices, all I had to do was uncheck an unrelated preference WHICH IS ENABLED BY DEFAULT... 

So editing a linked or smart layer in Camer Raw is SUPPOSED to cause an "only-force-quit-will-solve-this" error?

Please fix this issue, Adobe. We all know you can. And more importantly, let the Smart Layer using Adobe community know about this embarrasment, especially because this issue seems not to be considered an issue worth your attention...

[magnusb13054409]

What box did you uncheck?