Adobe Photoshop Not Opening? 7 Ways to Fix

Are you having trouble opening Photoshop on your Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac computer? If so, your app may be problematic or your operating system may have minor glitches. We’ll look at the available ways to fix this Photoshop error.

Many items can cause Photoshop not to launch on your computer. For instance, the app’s core files may be corrupt, your app preferences may be problematic, and more. Let’s review each available solution.

1. Check if Your Version of Photoshop Supports Your Windows or macOS Version

Each app has minimum requirements that your computer must match to run that specific app. The same goes for Photoshop, where the app requires particular hardware and software elements to run on your machine.

One way to check that compatibility is to head to Photoshop’s system requirements page on the Adobe website. You’ll find the minimum and the recommended system requirements for this app.

Make sure your computer meets at least the minimum specifications. If this isn’t the case, you’ll have to upgrade your machine’s elements to be able to run your Photoshop version.

2. Force Close and Restart Photoshop

If you’ve confirmed your computer meets at least the minimum requirements of Photoshop, then the app not opening issue could be a minor glitch.

The app may be running in the background, which you may not be aware of. One way to fix this is to force close and reopen the app on your Windows or macOS computer.

On Windows

1. Right-click the taskbar (the bar at the bottom of your screen) and choose Task Manager.

2. Right-click Adobe Photoshop on the Task Manager window and choose End task.

3. Relaunch Photoshop on your PC.

On macOS

1. Press Option + Command + Esc at the same time.
2. Choose Photoshop on the app list and select Force Quit.
3. Reopen Photoshop using your preferred method.

3. Run Photoshop With Admin Rights

Photoshop isn’t opening on your PC because the app lacks certain permissions. In this case, you can run the app as an administrator, allowing the app to enjoy superuser privileges on your computer.

You only need to do this on a Windows-based computer.

1. Open Start and search for Photoshop.
2. Select Run as administrator on the right pane.

3. Choose Yes in the User Account Control prompt.

If Photoshop successfully launches in admin mode, set it up so that it always opens the app with admin privileges:

1. Right-click your Photoshop shortcut and select Properties.
2. Open the Shortcut tab in Properties.
3. Choose Advanced.

4. Enable Run as administrator and select OK.

5. Choose Apply followed by OK on the Properties window.

From now on, Photoshop will open with admin rights each time you launch the app shortcut.

4. Launch Photoshop Without Plug-Ins

Photoshop supports plug-ins so you can get more out of this image editing app. It’s possible one or more of these installed plug-ins are causing Photoshop not to launch.

You can verify that by launching Photoshop without loading third-party plug-ins. If the app loads, you can proceed to remove the problematic add-ins from the app.

1. Locate the Photoshop shortcut on your Windows or macOS machine.
2. Press and hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and launch Photoshop.

3. Select Yes in the prompt.

5. Reset Photoshop Preferences

Photoshop saves your app customizations in a preferences file on your computer. This file may have gone corrupt, causing the app not to launch as your customizations can’t be loaded.

In this case, you can delete the Photoshop settings file and try to launch the app. You can do this on both Windows and macOS.

1. Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift on Windows or Command + Option + Shift on Mac and launch Photoshop.
2. Select Yes in the prompt.
3. Photoshop will open with the default preferences.

6. Remove Photoshop Font Cache

Photoshop saves your fonts’ cache, allowing you to work with your fonts faster. This cache can become problematic, causing various problems.

You can delete this cache without affecting your installed fonts or Photoshop functionalities.

On Windows

1. Close the Adobe Creative Cloud app if it’s running.
2. Open a File Explorer window and navigate to the following path. Replace C with your Windows drive and Username with your username in the path.
   C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop
3. Right-click the CT Font Cache folder and choose Delete.

4. Launch Photoshop.

On macOS

1. Quit the Creative Cloud app if you’re using it.
2. Open Finder and head to the following path. Be sure to replace Username with your username in the path.
   Users/Username/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop
3. Find and delete the CT Font Cache folder.
4. Open Photoshop.

7. Uninstall and Reinstall Photoshop

Photoshop’s problematic core files can cause the app not to launch. Since you can’t fix these files manually, you’ll have to uninstall and reinstall Photoshop on your computer to resolve the issue.

The process for uninstalling and reinstalling the Photoshop app is the same for both Windows and macOS.

1. Launch the Creative Cloud app on your computer.
2. Access the All Apps page and select the three dots next to Photoshop.
3. Choose Uninstall in the menu.
4. Select Remove in the prompt.
5. Restart your machine when you’ve uninstalled Photoshop.
6. Reinstall Photoshop using Creative Cloud.

Let Photoshop Open Without Issues on Your Computer

Photoshop is an excellent tool for editing and retouching your photos. If you rely on this app for those tasks, it’s easy to get frustrated when the app won’t launch on your machine. Luckily, most causes of this issue are easy to deal with, and you can resolve your Photoshop not launching issue in pretty much no time.