OS 12.4 recognition glitch?

Have you tried the first responder fix?

Boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

Next log into a new, basic, admin user account, Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac,  and see if the problem persists. This tells us if the problem is limited to your user account or is system wide.

If PSE works normally in the other user account then there's something in your user account that causing the problem. In that case ownload and run Etrecheck.  Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

IMPORTANT:

Before running Etrecheck assign Full Disk Access to Etrecheck in the first window that comes up so that it can get additional information from the Console and log files for the report:

Also click the About… vurron and read the info to further permit full disk access.

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to include the report in your reply.

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine the cause of the problem.

I don't see any of the usual suspects but do see some software may be part of the problem.

First how much memory have you allocated to PSE in PSE's Performance preference pane? If it's most of the available memory reduce it to around 4 GB in Safe Mode and see if that makes a difference.

Also you don't need to use the Memory Clean software as that will conflict with the System's memory management scheme.

Where are the files you're trying to open located? Does PSE crash when trying to open without opening an existing image file?

You have some WD and Seagate disk management software installed and it's not needed. The system can manage external disks fine without the manufactures software (except for RAID and NAS drives).

Taking the shotgun approach you might disable all apps in the System/Users & Groups/Login Items preference pane and see if that helps. If it does you can add them back one at a time to find the culprit.

Any Third Party Applications that will interfere with the normal operation of the OS,  is an invitation for disaster and comprising the Operating System

Any of the below should be removed as per Developers Instructions 

This will include CleanMyMac , This will include BitDefender , 

This will included Norton Antivirus , Sophos Av Software

Intego AntiVirus, McAfee, MacKeeper, Avast AntiVirus

Ad Guard, Webroot , ESET

Thanks for the feedback. Glad to hear you got it working.