Use System Info to troubleshoot Photoshop

In the unlikely event of Photoshop crashing, your system information provides clues for diagnosing what went wrong. You can share the system information on Photoshop troubleshooting communities, such as the following, to get help resolving the issue:

You can also inspect the clues to try troubleshooting Photoshop yourself.

Copy your Photoshop system info

  1. In Photoshop, select Help > System Info.
  2. In the System Info dialog, click Copy.

Read your system info

Open the system info in any text editor to further examine it. You can use TextEdit on macOS or Notepad on Microsoft Windows.

System info examples

In these examples, the text following <-- are comments/annotations to help you understand the information better.

Example 1 (excerpts)

Adobe Photoshop Version: 13.1.2 (13.1.2 20130105.r.224 2013/01/05:23:00:00) x64 <--Indicates version of Photoshop installed and whether Photoshop is running in 32bit or 64bit 
Operating System: Mac OS 10.7.5 <---Make sure your Operating System is up-to-date
System architecture: Intel CPU Family:6, Model:42, Stepping:7 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, HyperThreading
Physical processor count: 2
Logical processor count: 4
Processor speed: 1800 MHz
Built-in memory: 4096 MB <--Indicates the total amount of installed RAM
Free memory: 1969 MB
Memory available to Photoshop: 3131 MB
Memory used by Photoshop: 70 % <--Indicates the amount of RAM assigned to Photoshop set in the Preferences>Performance... panel
Image tile size: 128K  <--Indicates the Cache Tile Size set in the Preferences>Performance... panel
Image cache levels: 4 <--Indicates the image Cache Levels set in the Preferences>Performance... panel
OpenGL Drawing: Enabled. <--Indicates whether "Use Graphics Processor" is enabled in the Preferences>Performance... panel.

...

Video Card Vendor: Intel Inc. <--This line and the line above indicates the manufacturer of installed video card(s)
Video Card Renderer: Intel HD Graphics 3000 OpenGL Engine <--This line and the line above indicates the model of installed video card(s)  - make sure  your OS is up-to-date on Mac and Windows and you have the latest video driver for your specific video card if you're on Windows.
Display: 1
Main Display
Display Depth: 32
Display Bounds: top=0, left=0, bottom=900, right=1440 <--indicates the pixel dimensions of the connected monitor
Video Renderer ID: 16925441
Video Card Memory: 416 MB <--indicates which video card(s) are present and how much VRAM they have. Make sure you have sufficient VRAM for the type of work you do
Serial number: 12345678901234567890 <--indicates whether application is running in trial-mode or displays a portion of the serial # if activated
Application folder: /Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS6/ <--Verify Photoshop is installed at the default location (in this example Photoshop is installed at the default location)
Photoshop scratch has async I/O enabled
Scratch volume(s):
Startup, 233.0G, 6.39G free <--Indicates the size of scratch disk and how much free disk space is available
Required Plug-ins folder: /Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS6/Adobe Photoshop CS6.app/Contents/Required/
Primary Plug-ins folder: /Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS6/Plug-ins/
Additional Plug-ins folder: not set <--Indicates whether the preference for Additional Plug-In Folder is enabled. If it is enabled, also indicates the path to the additional plug-in folder.  Try troubleshooting plug-ins and/or disabling 3rd party plug-ins

...

Required plug-ins:

Camera Raw 7.3 (71), Copyright &copy; 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated - from the file "Camera Raw.plugin" <--Indicates what version of the Camera Raw plug-in is installed. Make sure you have the latest version of the Camera Raw plug-in installed, or use the free Adobe DNG Converter for the latest camera support in older versions of Photoshop.
Chalk & Charcoal 13.0, Copyright &copy; 1991-2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated - from the file "Filter Gallery.plugin"

...

Optional and third party plug-ins: 

Photoshop Touch CS3 (10.0) &copy;1993-2007 Adobe Systems Incorporated - from the file "AdobePSDXFileLoader.plugin" <--Indicates if any 3rd party plug-ins are installed. If any plug-ins are listed here, try disabling all 3rd party plug-ins

Plug-ins that failed to load: NONE <--Indicates if any plug-ins failed to load. Check to see if the plug-ins are installed correctly and you have the latest version

Flash:
CSS Hat
Mini Bridge
GuideGuide
Kuler
Adobe Exchange

Installed TWAIN devices: NONE

Example 2 (excerpts)

Model: MacBookPro8,2, BootROM MBP81.0047.B27, 4 processors, Intel Core i7, 2.2 GHz, 8 GB, SMC 1.69f4 <--Indicates now many CPU cores and RAM is installed on the system. Make sure you have sufficient RAM and hardware for the type of work you do.
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6750M, AMD Radeon HD 6750M, PCIe, 512 MB
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000, Intel HD Graphics 3000, Built-In, 512 MB <--This line and the line above indicates which video card(s) are present and how much VRAM they have. Make sure you have sufficient VRAM for the type of work you do - and make sure  your OS is up-to-date on Mac and Windows and you have the latest video drivers if you're on Windows.
Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 4 GB, DDR3, 1333 MHz, 0x857F, 0x483634353155363446393333334700000000
Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM0, 4 GB, DDR3, 1333 MHz, 0x857F, 0x483634353155363446393333334700000000
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0xD6)
Bluetooth: Version 4.0.8f17, 2 service, 11 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Ethernet, Ethernet, en0
Network Service: Wi-Fi, AirPort, en1
Serial ATA Device: M4-CT256M4SSD2, 256.06 GB
Serial ATA Device: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-8A8
USB Device: FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in), apple_vendor_id, 0x8509, 0xfa200000 / 3
USB Device: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad, apple_vendor_id, 0x0252, 0xfa120000 / 5
USB Device: BRCM2070 Hub, 0x0a5c (Broadcom Corp.), 0x4500, 0xfa110000 / 4
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, apple_vendor_id, 0x821a, 0xfa113000 / 7
USB Device: Keyboard Hub, apple_vendor_id, 0x1006, 0xfd123200 / 8
USB Device: Apple Keyboard, apple_vendor_id, 0x024f, 0xfd123220 / 10
USB Device: XD-0405-U, 0x056a (WACOM Co., Ltd.), 0x0041, 0xfd123600 / 7 <--Indicates there is a Wacom Tablet in use on the system. Make sure the tablet driver is up to date.
USB Device: IR Receiver, apple_vendor_id, 0x8242, 0xfd110000 / 3

See also

 Adobe

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