How to Fix "Photoshop Freezing or Crashing"
Freezing or crashing in Photoshop can be incredibly frustrating and may be caused by a number of issues, including corrupt files, incompatible plugins, or conflicts with the graphics card driver.
Start by ensuring that your operating system and Photoshop are both up to date.
Adobe regularly releases updates to address bugs and improve stability, so keeping both your system and Photoshop updated is essential.
If Photoshop crashes while opening a specific file, it’s possible that the file is corrupted.
Try opening the file on a different machine or use Photoshop’s File > Open As option to open the file in a different format to see if it resolves the issue.
If Photoshop is freezing or crashing while performing certain tasks, such as applying filters or using the brush tool, it could be due to a problematic plugin or extension.
Disable any third-party plugins and check if the issue persists.
You can do this by holding the Shift key while launching Photoshop to disable plugins temporarily.
If the issue is resolved, enable plugins one by one to identify the one causing the crash.
Another potential cause of Photoshop crashes is an outdated or incompatible graphics card driver.
Ensure that your graphics drivers are up to date, as old drivers can cause conflicts with Photoshop’s GPU acceleration.
You can also try turning off GPU acceleration in Photoshop’s Preferences > Performance settings.
Disabling GPU acceleration can help if your graphics card is incompatible or if there is a driver issue.
If Photoshop continues to freeze or crash, try resetting the preferences as described earlier.
You can also run Photoshop in Safe Mode by holding Shift while starting the application.
If these steps do not resolve the issue, uninstall and reinstall Photoshop to ensure a clean installation.
If the issue persists after reinstalling, check the system’s Event Viewer (on Windows) or Console (on macOS) for any error logs related to Photoshop, as they may provide further clues.
