I started up my iMac where Safari and Office 365 products opened up as normal but any Adobe app opened only as far as the splash screen (with the spinning ball of death) and so had to Force Quit them. Memory issues may be at the root of the problem.
When this screen shot was taken only Safari, Outlook, System Settings and the Activity Monitor were open.
I cleared the Adobe Cache in Library but am at a complete loss as to what to do next.
iMac 24″
I know you're up and working again, but I reached out to tech support myself. After a quick OS version check they said "May I inform you that the issue regarding Adobe applications not launching is known and has been reported as a bug. The engineering team is working to fix it up. In the meanwhile, could you please uninstall all the Beta applications and check if the regular apps work fine after that."
I uninstalled all my beta apps and it worked! Can't use beta apps while they fix it, but at least I'm up and running again, and a quick and pain free solution too
May be useful for someone else
I know you're up and working again, but I reached out to tech support myself. After a quick OS version check they said "May I inform you that the issue regarding Adobe applications not launching is known and has been reported as a bug. The engineering team is working to fix it up. In the meanwhile, could you please uninstall all the Beta applications and check if the regular apps work fine after that."
I uninstalled all my beta apps and it worked! Can't use beta apps while they fix it, but at least I'm up and running again, and a quick and pain free solution too
May be useful for someone else
I doubt it's a memory problem.
What version of macOS do you have & what are the versions of the Adobe apps you are using? Is your Mac logged into your Adobe CC account?
Is this a new problem ... meaning the Adobe apps were running fine & now they aren't? If so do you recall any change(s) you may have made to your Mac or apps prior to the Adobe apps acting up?
How about if you download & run Etrecheck and post a copy of the results here? (Use the Additional Text button). Etrecheck is a diagnostic app written by one of the contributors to these forums. It does not report any personal information.
First off, thanks for everyone's contributions
I can now confirm that, in their infinite wisdom, Adobe felt they didn't need to bother informing their worldwide customer base that there was a major ongoing outage from Tuesday affecting three of their major apps. So apologies for wasting everyone's valuable time chasing down phantom OS memory issues. It's still much appreciated and only goes to show what a great community this is.
I found a solution!!
I also experienced this exact same thing yesterday afternoon. I have access to Adobe Beta apps and my whole suite wouldn't open.
I went to my local Apple Store and they said to just delete adobe and try again - so that's what I did. Deleted everything and emptied trash. Only Creative Cloud app won't delete, it's "being used" but other apps. Anyways, I deleted every Adobe app accept CC. Went back onto adobe.com, downloaded Photoshop just to test it out to see if it had worked.
My creative cloud opened back up and said all apps were installed. I then uninstalled one app, which made creative cloud recognize that all my apps were uninstalled.
I downloaded regular photoshop 2024 again, and boom I got back in like nothing ever happened. I'm going to download and work with the regular apps for now and see if it happens again. So far so good!
Use the Activity Monitor application and make sure to use View >> View All Processes
What process or processes are using the Most CPU and Memory.
Often times, the issue maybe a combination of Processes
If there are any Third Party Security Software, Third Party Disk Cleaners / Optimizers running in the background they too can and do consume Resources , CPU Processing Power, Memory for very little gain
When the computer is using so much CPU / Memory, it can be an indicator of a Lack Of Empty Space on the Drive.
In which case, the CPU and Memory usage would become much more .
This would because it is searching for Empty Space to save all the Changes the user is performing.
How many Web Browser tabs are in usage.
Each tab may have content that is consuming great amounts of CPU / Memory .
Update: This may be a Creative Cloud problem. Other users are reporting the same issue today with Id, Ph and AI and Adobe accept that there's a known issue – an outage in their parlance – with these three apps.
It's nothing to do with Mac OS and everything to do with Adobe Creative Cloud having a major outage without informing customers. I called Adobe tech support (in UK) who can ran through the method of using CC Cleaner tool and archiving existing Preferences and Caches etc and then, and only then, reinstalling CC apps. They'll offer to do it remotely but I don't like strangers taking over my desktop and messing around with my Mac.
Prime candidates for Un-Needed Third Party Security Software, IMHO
ClamXAV, and Malwarebytes
Michael McMann1 wrote:
Thanks for getting back.
I checked the Activity Monitor and WindowServer is using the most memory at 1.13Gb. Chrome isn't open but I did have a lot of tabs on the go. If nothing except Safari, Outlook, System Settings and the Activity Monitor are the only things running why is Memory Used 8.4 Gb?
Should I delete all Cached Files which is 4.25Gb?
User wrote “ Thanks for getting back.
A - Your are welcome
“ I checked the Activity Monitor and WindowServer is using the most memory at 1.13Gb. Chrome isn't open but I did have a lot of tabs on the go. “
A - Quote from @ Grant Bennet-Alder
“- WindowServer is the task that makes sure the right stuff is in every window, manages multiple windows in multiple positions on the screen, possibly overlapping or not, and generally manages all issues related to drawing the stuff on the screen. " end Quote
“ If nothing except Safari, Outlook, System Settings and the Activity Monitor are the only things running why is Memory Used 8.4 Gb? “
A - RAM is managed by the Operating System and is always being filled up and emptied. RAM is much faster than caching or creating a Swap File in the worst case.
A - RAM is to be used and Un-Used RAM is wasted RAM
“ Should I delete all Cached Files which is 4.25Gb? “
A - You can try deleting the cache files for a temporary relief.
A - Though, not sure this will provide a permanent solution. System cache files or Application caches files will be recreated as the Operating System or Applications deem them necessary.
Michael McMann1 wrote:
I called Adobe tech support (in UK) who can ran through the method of using CC Cleaner tool and archiving existing Preferences and Caches etc and then, and only then, reinstalling CC apps.
I would not trust CCleaner for two reasons. One, is that these types of apps usually cause more problems than they solve. Second, CCleaner was bought out by Avast an anti-virus software company which has been known to sell user information a couple of times in the past. CCleaner is not the app is once was when Piriform was the owner & developer of the software.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCleaner
If anything needs to be deleted, then it is best it is done manually so you know exactly what items have been modified. If Adobe cannot tell the user exactly what to delete, then I would not trust that tech.
They'll offer to do it remotely but I don't like strangers taking over my desktop and messing around with my Mac.
Very good advice. Those people (Adobe) are only concerned about making their own app work....best case scenario, but could cause issues with other apps or macOS itself when they do so. Most companies outsource their support to third parties....who knows how well these third parties have been vetted or trained.
If anyone needs someone to assist them, then they should find someone local with the necessary experience & hopefully from a trusted & respected vendor. I don't know how much help an Apple Store will be for a third party app issue, but an Apple Authorized Service Provider will likely have some experience with troubleshooting third party software.
No matter who works on the computer......the user should be there right beside them watching everything they do. Plus user should be entering the admin password for the tech.....never give out the admin password (or at least change the password temporarily to a throw away password). Sometimes you can create a new admin user account with a throw away password which you give to the tech.....you can change that password once they are done working on the computer. The tech will need to work within your macOS main user account, but should be able to use the admin password from the other user account to authenticate to make system changes.
Thanks MartinR.
I'm running Sonoma 14.5 and all Adobe CC apps are current and I'm logged into my account. I've just checked to see which of apps will open, and all work except InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop (the ones I use every day) which freeze on the spinning ball of death at start up which only started with this morning's boot-up. They were all running fine yesterday and no, there are no changes I've made since shut down yesterday. So today when Force Quitting Apps I sometimes get this message:
But you're right about the memory because Dreamweaver, a much heavier app opens up perfectly in seconds so I know it's definitely something to do with the most regularly used apps.
I will download Etrecheck and get back to you with any results.
Great to hear you're up and running too. However, simply uninstalling the Beta apps may have worked – panicked a bit and just delete them from apps folder (the improper way) – but in the end tech support guided me through the process of deep clean/renaming folders with '.old' before reinstallation.
One thing is, I won't download Beta apps again until they're fully tested.
Thanks for getting back.
I checked the Activity Monitor and WindowServer is using the most memory at 1.13Gb. Chrome isn't open but I did have a lot of tabs on the go. If nothing except Safari, Outlook, System Settings and the Activity Monitor are the only things running why is Memory Used 8.4 Gb?
Should I delete all Cached Files which is 4.25Gb?
Sorry don't know here my reply disappeared too.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.5
CC apps: Up to date and logged into my account
Fine yesterday and haven't made any changes since shutting down last night. App problems only started after booting up this morning and only with the most used ones: InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop (InCopy as well but never used). Etrecheck report sent.
The Built in Security is all that is required.
Malware would require the user to have Allowed the software to download
Then, to have Granted the Malware Software Permission to Install by putting in the User Account Password
This would have effectively Bypassed the Builtin Malware Blocker build into Sonoma
Memory issues means Adobe Apps won't open
