What to do When Photoshop App Crashes or Freezes on Windows?

Updated on May 28, 2022

If you are facing an unexpected crashing or freezing on Photoshop, this may be due to corrupt files on the app. It is common that Adobe Photoshop freezing/crashing causes your files to be corrupt and become inaccessible. This article explains various methods to stop and fix the Adobe Photoshop application crashing.

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular graphics designing applications. With the help of the app you can create multiple graphical designs that incudes posters, banners, logos and more. However, the application is not free from any corruption. A lot of users have reported experiencing crashes with Photoshop. It can be distressing if the work done is not saved before the crash happens.

Why is my Photoshop crashing?

There are several reasons due to which Photoshop crash or freeze. Most common of them are listed below.

How to Stop Photoshop from Crashing/Freezing?

Here are a few methods discussed to stop Photoshop from crashing or freezing. Initially you can try closing unwanted background apps, updating your GPU card drivers, or making sure you have updated Windows.

If that doesn’t fix the problem, you can clear the font cache for Photoshop, reset its settings, or run an SFC scan.

If you were unable to open a file due to adobe Photoshop corruption, here is your best bet. Download the SFWare PSD File Repair Tool to fix corruption on PSD files. The software not only fix the file but also keep your data intact. Once your file is safe, you can try fixing the application that stopped working.

7 Methods to Fix Photoshop crashing or Freezing

Method 1: Close All the Unnecessary Programs using Task Manager

To stop Photoshop from crashing, you can close the unnecessary running programs

    1. Right-click your taskbar, then select Task Manager

    2. Go to the Processes tab, look for the program that you don’t need at the moment. Right-click then select End task

If opening too many programs is what causing the application crash on Photoshop, this should help you fix it. if the problem still persists, try the next fix.

Method 2: Graphic Driver Update

A faulty or outdated graphics driver could make your Photoshop application crash. To troubleshooting crashing issues, check & update your device drivers, this could save you a lot of trouble.

You can update Graphics drivers using any one of the following methods. You may check for Driver Updates in Windows Update. You can visit the manufacturer’s site to download the drivers or use a free driver update software.

When you are done updating your GPU card drivers, simply reboot your PC and then launch Adobe Photoshop. Hopefully, the app won’t crash anymore.

Method 3: Reset Photoshop Font Cache

Corrupted font cache could cause performance issues for Photoshop. You can try to delete it to allow Photoshop to create a new one.

    1. Press Ctrl and E to open the file explorer, and navigate to C:\Users\[Your Username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop versions

    2. Delete the CT Font Cache folder. Make sure you empty the Recycle Bin as well.

Method 4: Disable the Faulty Plugins

Identify if there is any plug-in causing the problem and disable it.

    1. Hold down Shift on your keyboard, and launch Photoshop.

    The message pops up: Skip loading optional and third-party plugins

    2. Click Yes to launch Photoshop without loading optional and third-party plug-ins.

If Photoshop still crashes randomly without these plug-ins, then they were probably not the culprit. You can jump to the next fix.

Method 5: Reset Photoshop preference settings

Before you change anything in the setting it is always important to backup your application setting.

Backup your Photoshop preference settings

    1. Press Ctrl and E to open the file explorer.

    2. Navigate to C:\Users\[Your Username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop version

    3. Copy the Adobe Photoshop version Settings folder to somewhere safe.

Reset your Photoshop preferences

1. Launch Photoshop >> Click Edit >> Preferences >> General

2. Click Reset Preferences on Quit >> Click OK

Method 6: Run an SFC scan

    1. First, Open the Command Prompt as an administrator

    2. Now, type and enter the below command:
    SFC /scannow

    3. Wait for the scan to be complete and then reboot your system.

    4. On the next startup, try launching Adobe Photoshop and see if it still crashes randomly or not.

    With the help of this method, you can repair corrupt PSD files when Photoshop shows errors such as not a valid Photoshop document.

    What to do when PSD file is corrupted?

    If your PSD files become inaccessible due to Photoshop crashing, all you must do is, repair the PSD files. To repair corrupt PSD files, download the SFWare PSD File Repair Tool to fix any corruption on the file. The software fixes the file and keeps your data safe and intact.

    Step 1: Download SFWare Repair PSD File software and Run on Windows Operating System

    Step 2: Browsw the corrupt/damaged PSD files and click on Repair button

    Browse corrup PSd file to repair

    Step 3: Quick scanning and repairing will take place, once it completed then it will display all repaired files

    Repaired file can be viewed using Preview option. To save the files in your desired location.

    preview the repaired file

    If you are facing errors such as unexpected end of file error, you can rely on the tool to fix the issue.

    Safety Measures

    • Maintain regular backup of important PSD files in various external storage devices
    • Install good Antivirus to your computer system and update it at regular interval of time
    • Do not abruptly switch off system while working on Photoshop Application

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