Photoshop keeps crashing or freezing on Windows PC

Does Adobe Photoshop keep crashing or freezing on your Windows 11 or Windows 10 PC? Here is a full guide to troubleshooting and resolving the issue. Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular graphics designing applications. It lets you create professional graphics designs, including posters, banners, logos, and much more. However, a lot of users have reported experiencing crashes with Photoshop. While the app crashes on the startup for some users, many have faced crashes while working on the app. It can be annoying and frustrating as the work done might not be saved before the crash happens.

If you are one of those who are facing crashes or freezing issues with the Photoshop app on your Windows PC, this post is for you. You can follow this article to fix the problem.

Why is Photoshop crashing when I open it?

There can be several reasons due to which Photoshop might crash when you open it:

If you have too many unnecessary apps running on your system which are eating up your system resources required by Photoshop, it is likely to crash or freeze. So, close all the unwanted apps that are not required at the moment.
Another reason for the same problem can be outdated or corrupted graphics drivers. If the scenario is applicable, update your graphics drivers to the most recent version and then see if the problem is fixed or not.
It can also be caused due to corrupted Photoshop font cache. In that case, you should be able to fix the problem by clearing the Photoshop font cache.
The crashing and freezing issues can be very well facilitated by problematic plugins you are using in Photoshop. If the scenario is applicable, delete the plugins and then relaunch the Photoshop app to see if the problem is resolved.
The corrupted Photoshop preference settings can be one of the reasons causing the issue at hand. So, reset Photoshop preference settings to fix the problem if the scenario applies to you.
The outdated Windows system and corrupted system files can also cause the problem.

In any scenario, you can try the below fixes to resolve the crashing and freezing issues with Adobe Photoshop.

How do I stop Photoshop from crashing?

To stop Photoshop from crashing, 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. We have discussed these solutions in detail, so check out below.

Photoshop keeps crashing or freezing on Windows PC

Here are the methods that you can try to stop Photoshop from crashing on Windows PC:

Close unnecessary applications.
Update your graphics drivers.
Clear Photoshop font cache.
Check optional and third-party plugins.
Reset Photoshop preference settings.
Make sure Windows & PhotoShop is up-to-date.
Run an SFC scan.

1] Close unnecessary applications

In case you have too many applications running in the background on your PC, it might cause Adobe Photoshop to crash. This is because the resources required for Photoshop to run smoothly might be occupied by other programs and thus causing it to crash. Hence, you should close each and every program that you don’t need to run at the moment.

To close unnecessary programs, open Task Manager using Ctrl+Shift+Esc hotkey. And then from the Processes tab, analyze the unnecessary tasks and then use the End Task button to close the program. After that, relaunch the Adobe Photoshop application and see if it crashes or not. If not, well and good. In case you still get the same problem, move down to the next potential fix to resolve it.

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2] Update your graphics drivers

Graphics drivers play an important role in the smooth working of Adobe Photoshop and other graphics-related applications. So, if you have outdated or faulty graphics drivers, there are high chances that you will experience crashes with Photoshop. If the scenario is applicable to you, update your GPU card drivers to their latest version and then see if the problem is resolved or not.

Follow one of the methods below to update your Graphics drivers:

You may check for Driver Updates via Windows Update to update your drivers
You may visit the manufacturer’s site to download the drivers.
Use a free driver update software
If you have the INF driver file already on your computer then:
- Open Device Manager.
- Click Audio input and Outputs to expand the menu.
- Then choose your speaker and right-click on them.
- Select Update Driver.
- Follow the on-screen wizard to finish updating your audio drivers.

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.

See: The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000022) when opening Adobe apps.

3] Clear Photoshop font cache

One of the reasons behind Photoshop crashing can be the corrupted font cache. It can cause performance issues with the app. So, to resolve the problem, you will need to clear the Photoshop font cache. Here is how you can do that:

First of all, exit the Photoshop and Creative Cloud applications and all related tasks.

Now, open File Explorer using Win+E hotkey and then navigate to the following location:

C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop <version>

Add your username and Photoshop version in the above path.

Next, locate the CT Font Cache folder and select and right-click on it.

After that, choose the Delete option to clear the font cache.

Also, make sure to delete it from Recycle Bin as well.

Now, launch the Photoshop app and then see if the problem is resolved or not.

In case if Photoshop still crashes, you can try the next potential fix.

4] Check optional and third-party plugins

The random crashes with Photoshop can be a result of problematic plugins installed in Photoshop. In case you use some plugins, you can check whether or not the plugins are causing the app to crash. To do that, you can follow the below steps:

Firstly, press the Shift button on your keyboard and hold onto it. Meanwhile, launch the Adobe Photoshop app.
Next, you will be prompted with a “Skip loading optional and third-party plugins” dialog. Simply choose the Yes option.
Now, see if the app still crashes without plugins.

If Photoshop works fine without plugins, you can be sure that the problem was triggered due to some problematic plugin you are using in the app.

To resolve the problem permanently, you can follow the below steps:

Firstly, open File Explorer and navigate to the following location:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop <version>\Plug-ins

Replace <version> with the version of Photoshop you have installed.

Now, analyze the plugins that might be problematic and then move them to some other location like Desktop.

Next, start Photoshop and then see if the problem is resolved or not.

See: Fix Photoshop Scratch Disks are full issue on Windows and Mac.

5] Reset Photoshop preference settings

The problem might also be caused due to the corrupted Photoshop preference settings. In that case, clearing Photoshop preference settings must help you fix the issue. Here is how to do that:

First of all, you need to create a backup for settings. For that, go to the below location in File Explorer and locate and move the Adobe Photoshop <version> Settings folder to some other location.
```
C:\Users\[Your Username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop <version>
```
Replace [Your Username] with your username and <version> with the Photoshop version.
Now, try opening Photoshop and once you get inside the app, go to the Edit > Preferences > General option.
Next, on the Preferences window, press the Reset Preferences On Quit option.
After that, click the OK button.
Finally, relaunch Photoshop and then see if the problem is fixed or not.

6] Make sure Windows and PhotoShop is up-to-date

If none of the above solutions work for you, there are high chances that the problem might be with your outdated OS. In case you are not using the latest OS build, consider updating your Windows. New updates resolve compatibility issues and enhance system performance. So, make sure you have installed all the pending Windows Optional & Driver Updates.

You should also update your PhotoShop software to its latest version.

Then, reboot your system to update Windows and on the next startup, try relaunching Photoshop. See if it still crashes or not.

7] Run an SFC scan

System file corruption can also cause problems with your apps and interrupt their normal functioning. So, you can try running a System File Checker (SFC) scan and then see if the problem is fixed or not. SFC is a command-based utility that comes in Windows. It lets you scan and fix corrupted or missing system files. You can run it using the below steps:

Firstly, open the Command Prompt as an administrator.
Now, type and enter the below command:
```
SFC /scannow
```
Wait for the scan to be complete and then reboot your system.
On the next startup, try launching Adobe Photoshop and see if it still crashes randomly or not.

If nothing helps, you may need to share the PhotoShop Crash Reports on their forums and seek their help.

All the best.

Now read: Illustrator keeps crashing or freezing.