Monterey/Photoshop Elements

I have been interacting on several threads within the Adobe Community and have two workarounds that generally work but do not solve the problem with PSE 2021 (and presumably also PSE 2022). Note that I am using the 27" Intel iMac from last year.

First option: Restart Monterey and try again. Generally you can get one operation of Editor per restart.

Second option: Use an executable file hidden within the PSE 2021 folder. The path is /Applications/Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021/Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021. (You get into the Contents folder by right clicking the app found within the PSE 2021 folder.) For me, this works about one out of every three attempts.

A helpful employee of Adobe who happens to follow discussions posted the second option but could not give a timetable for getting this issue properly fixed.

As a supplement to the helpful suggestion from enrico277, note the following comment I posted on a different discussion topic a while ago:

I have been interacting on several threads within the Adobe Community and have two workarounds that generally work but do not solve the problem with PSE 2021 (and presumably also PSE 2022). Note that I am using the 27" Intel iMac from last year.

First option: Restart Monterey and try again. Generally you can get one operation of Editor per restart.

Second option: Use an executable file hidden within the PSE 2021 folder. The path is /Applications/Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021/Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021. (You get into the Contents folder by right clicking the app found within the PSE 2021 folder.) For me, this works about one out of every three attempts.

A helpful employee of Adobe who happens to follow discussions posted the second option but could not give a timetable for getting this issue properly fixed.

I deleted the app about five times and reinstalled it. After about 10 minutes of watching the wheel spin, I received a message saying that a new version was available. I believe it was called Elements 2021.3 It downloaded, not sure how it happened, but it is now working. I did submit error reports to Apple and Adobe, but I doubt it resulted in any fix. I had also deleted creative cloud and the organizer app each time.

I spoke too soon - I just tried opening the app to "get info" and it froze again. Third time after force quit and it opened without restarting. Still has issues :-( It takes about three minutes to open now.

Also, note that Adobe has posted a message that they are working with Apple to resolve this issue. Check Adobe's web site.

Looking at the Adobe support forum for Photoshop Elements, it appears that Adobe has dropped the ball with checking compatibility with macOS Monterey. You're not unique with this problem as it appears PSE 2021 is not working for many. I would expect Adobe to address this shortly.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-elements-discussions/adobe-photoshop-elements-22-doesn-t-work-correctly-with-mac-os-monterey-new-os-released-2-days-ago/m-p/12479435

I recently upgraded my MacPRO OS to Monterey. The Adobe Elements 2021 program that I use for my business would no longer open. Adobe support could not help me. They told me I shouldn’t have done the upgrade. I tried to recover the older OS (Mojave) through TimeWindow backup, but it would not complete. I finally took the machine and TimeWindow drive to a service provider. They had the same problem with the backup. They had to wipe the hard drive, clean install Mojave and drag over the user data from the backup manually. I’m now having to download most of my photo files from the Cloud and reinstall Elements. Hopefully this will work. So far this has cost me many hours and almost a month of lost business, plus $200 for service.

I’ve been using Apple computers since 1984 and have spent many thousands of dollars on your products. Very recently I purchased a new iPad Pro. I’m living on a fixed income and whatever I can make from my photography business. This has been very costly and I can see no other reason for it than missteps in cooperation between Adobe and Apple.

Having searched a number of forums to solve this problem it appears that I’m not unique in having these problems with Monterey. It seems to me that Adobe is probably one of the main third party companies used by Mac users for design, etc. There is no good excuse, in my opinion for such important partners to so badly screw up a release/update through poor coordination.

I use 2022 version on MacBook Pro 13" M1 Monterey. I don't delete anything. Just restart, open Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022.app, click Editor and it works. I use it and hide it several times since couple of days.

remelcher - I agree completely with you. PSE 2021 on my Intel iMac miraculously began working properly (well, almost all of the time) when I updated to Monterey 12.1 a couple of weeks ago. However, I think the very least Adobe could do is give us PSE 2021 owners a much cheaper route to PSE 2022 than what they are doing now for everybody. I usually update on a two or three year schedule (because most updates are only incremental) and believe the current position Adobe is taking is unconscionable.

Update on Photoshop Elements 2021 - I just installed the macOS 12.2 update and the startup issue with PSE Editor 2021 recurred. This time I can get Editor to launch only by rebooting my iMac. I wish Adobe and Apple could get their act together. Adobe refuses to solve the problem with PSE 2021 and says we must purchase PSE 2022 to get things working again. Unbelievable -- and unacceptable.

dialabrain wrote:

FWIW, I have no problem running Photoshop Elements 2022 in Monterey.

Which I believe is compiled for the M1, 2021 is Rosetta'd.

RoyNN - Might want to hold off on upgrade. Apparently the problem exist with both 2021 and 2022. As I understand from a post on Adobe’s site, Adobe and Apple are working on solution. Who knows when.