How to Troubleshoot Common Issues in Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is arguably the most popular picture editing software in the world. With millions of users globally, Photoshop has been regarded as very easy to use and generally free of major issues. However, there are a few commonly occurring problems that have been reported by regular users. This article focuses on some of these issues and the best known solutions.

When using Photoshop, an error message or disruption can be frustrating and reduce your productivity. Some of the issues experienced in Photoshop are so common, especially in older versions. Here are some of the common problems in Adobe Photoshop.

Some Photoshop files are not opening

This is because those PSD files are corrupted. Corruption of data in Windows can be caused by one of very many possible causes. However, regardless of the cause of the corruption, a good data repair tool can help repair and recover the file.

Artboard transparency is not working correctly

This is a problem that has been experienced by Photoshop version 21.2 of MacOS. When you change the art-board background to transparent, it doesn’t show the transparency correctly.

To work around this problem, all you need to do is update to version 21.2.1. This issue has been fixed in the update.

Layer changes don’t update correctly

This happens when you make layer adjustments and they do not reflect in the final image, or they are not visible at different zoom levels. The main cause of this anomaly is legacy compositing being enabled when you make the changes. This could have been done accidentally because legacy compositing is off by default.

To turn it off:

1. Open the preferences tab on Photoshop.
2. Go to performance.
3. Uncheck the Legacy and compositing checkbox.

Photoshop is freezing, hanging or is not responding

There are many causes that can be responsible for this very common Adobe Photoshop issue. The most common one is interference from third party applications or add-ins. This issue has especially been heavily reported by users who also had Lavasoft software. The first step would therefore be to uninstall any of that software if you have it installed.

Since there are many possible causes of this issue, there are equally as many possible solutions. If your Photoshop has been very sluggish, hanging or freezing or displays a blue screen (For Windows 10), you should try one of the following solutions.

1. Update Photoshop: Hanging can be caused by using outdated software with many bugs that have been fixed in recent updates.
2. Start Photoshop in safe mode: This is to establish if third party applications or add-ins are the reason behind Photoshop’s malfunction. Follow the following steps to launch it in safe mode in Windows 10. The process might be slightly different in other Windows versions.
3. Press Windows key + I to open the settings application.
4. Go to update security.
5. Click on Troubleshoot then advanced options.
6. Select startup settings and then click Restart.
7. After restarting, choose safe mode in the list of startup options.
8. Try running Photoshop.

 If Photoshop runs properly, it means that the problem could be a third party application or add-in. Restore the add-ins one by one until you find the problematic one. Alternatively, the file could be damaged and tools like DataNumen PSD Repair may be just what you need to resolve the issue.