Photoshop and Catalina | macOS 10.15

Photoshop 21.0 & Photoshop 20.0.7 work with macOS 10.15 (Catalina) but have these known compatibility issues. You may want to remain on your current version of macOS until these issues have been resolved.

Adobe strongly recommends that customers do their own testing on a non-production partition to ensure that new operating systems work with their current hardware and drivers (printing, and so forth). 

If you do encounter issues not already documented here, feel free to report them on our feedback site.

Are legacy or perpetual versions of Photoshop compatible with macOS Catalina?

No, legacy/perpetual versions of Photoshop were not designed or tested to work on macOS 10.15 (Catalina). They are not supported in any way for use on macOS Catalina.

Adobe does not recommend that customers using old versions of Photoshop upgrade to macOS Catalina.

Incompatible versions (version 19.x and earlier) will not display in the ‘Older Versions’ list within the Creative Cloud desktop app.

Older versions use 32-bit licensing components and installers. Therefore, they cannot be installed and activated after upgrading to macOS Catalina. Upgrading to macOS Catalina with an older version already installed on your computer may allow the application to function in some capacity; however, you will not be able to reinstall or activate the application after the macOS upgrade.

Before upgrading to macOS Catalina, you may uninstall the older versions as the uninstaller will not work after upgrading. If you have already upgraded to macOS Catalina, you can use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to uninstall older versions.

GPU issues on macOS Catalina

Document contents fail to update when switching tabs and/or other panels are blank/empty

Adobe Save for Web Error

When you are using Photoshop on macOS 10.15.x and select File > Export > Save for Web, you get an error "Adobe Save for Web Error: Could not complete this operation. An unknown error has occurred."

Workaround

Make sure the name of the file you have open, the name of the file you are exporting from Save for Web, and the folder you are saving to is alphanumeric (numbers and letters only) and does not contain special characters such as # and %.

Solution

Update Photoshop to the latest version and update macOS to the current version.

Render Video starts but never completes

When you select File > Export > Render Video... the process never completes.

Solution

Update to Photoshop 21.x

Workaround for 20.0.7 or earlier

In the Finder, launch System Preferences and navigate to Security & Privacy > Privacy tab > Full Disk Access. Click the lock icon in the lower left, enter your admin username & password. Click the + icon and add Photoshop to grant access to your hard disk.

File naming options don't work correctly in the Save As dialog

In Photoshop 20.0.6, changing the file format does not change the extension of the file in the name field.

Solution

Update to Photoshop 21.x or Photoshop 20.0.7. The file extension is hidden by default but will automatically match the format selected in the Format pop-up.

Droplets don't work

Droplets launch but don't run.

Solution

Update to Photoshop 21.x or Photoshop 20.0.7 and recreate droplets.

Apple color picker causes crash

If you select Preferences > General... and set Color Picker to "Apple," the second time you open the color picker, Photoshop will crash.

Solution

Update to Photoshop 21.x or Photoshop 20.0.7.

Additional Fixed Issues

See Fixed issues in October 2019 (version 20.0.7) release for additional details.

Known compatibility issues

Adobe has discovered the compatibility issues listed below with running Photoshop 20.0.7 or later with macOS 10.15 (Catalina).

Photoshop crashes on launch or randomly during use

Photoshop on macOS 10.15.7 crashes on launch or randomly during use.

Solution

Upgrade macOS to version 11.3.

Workaround

If you can’t update macOS to 11.3, do the following:

1. Launch Photoshop.
2. Go to Preferences > Performance > Advanced Settings and uncheck the Use OpenCL checkbox.
3. Restart Photoshop.

If you cannot start Photoshop to complete step 2 above, restart your computer then try again.

Additional Information

OpenCL data on macOS 10.15.7 can become corrupted causing errors in applications that depend on OpenCL to enhance features. This issue is fixed in macOS 11.3.

Checking "As a copy" does not append “copy” to the file name

Checking "As a Copy" in the Save As dialog does not append “copy” to the file name.

Solution

Update to Photoshop 22.4 or later and use the new Save a Copy command.

To learn more, see Save your files in Photoshop.

Workaround

Manually edit the name and add “copy”, or change the name to something unique.

Cannot overwrite an existing file when saving with the same filename

Photoshop saves a copy instead of overwriting an existing file with the same name.

Solution

Update to Photoshop 22.4 or later and use the new Save a Copy command.

To learn more, see Save your files in Photoshop.

Workarounds

Do any of the following:

• Manually rename the saved file and remove 'copy' from the file name.
• Save the file to a different location.

Saving doesn't complete when saving to an exFAT formatted drive

Saving files to exFAT formatted external drives can freeze before the file is saved.

Workarounds

• Save the file to an external drive formatted with a different file system than exFAT
• Save the file to the local drive and drag and drop the file to the exFAT formatted drive through the Finder.

Plug-ins not found or cannot be verified

New to mac 10.15 (Catalina) is that plug-ins that are quarantined will return a Photoshop error that "the file was not found" or an OS error that says that the plug-in "can't be opened because its integrity cannot be verified.

This happens with plug-ins that are not notarized that are downloaded from the web or installed by other methods such as drag & drop.

Solution

Obtain updated plug-ins from 3rd party developers that are notarized for macOS 10.15. Photoshop will load plug-ins that have been notarized by Apple.

Additional Information

Customers that have plug-ins already installed and then update to macOS 10.15 should not see this issue.

Customers that upgrade to macOS 10.15 and then try to download and install a plug-in may see failures.

Workaround for old plug-ins not created for macOS 10.15

For older plug-ins that are not notarized, customers with Admin user privileges can remove the quarantine flag by using the following command if the plug-in is installed in the Photoshop application plug-ins folder:

Or, use the following command if the plug-in is installed in the shared Creative Cloud plug-ins folder:

Lens Profile Creator does not run

The Lens Profile Creator is currently 32-bit, but we are investigating updating it to be a 64-bit utility.

Eraser tool does not work with the Adjustment brush

After you enable the Eraser option for the Adjustment brush, it disables as soon as you paint and adds to the adjustment instead of erasing it.

Solution

Engineering is investigating this issue.

Selecting New when using an Adjustment Brush adds to previously selected brush

When using an Adjustment Brush, selecting New will continue the subseqent brush strokes on the previously selected Adjustment Brush instead of a new brush.  

Workaround

It is possible to click on a different tool and then back on the Adjustment Brush to add a new brush. 

Solution

Engineering is investigating this issue

Cannot brush on a gradient adjustment

After you create a gradient adjustment  you cannot select the brush to add to the gradient

Solution

Engineering is investigating this issue.

Cannot select Inside of Radial Adjustment

It is not possilble to select the Inside option when drawing a Radial Adjustment. If you draw a Radial Adjustment with the Outside option selected. It is not possible to switch the adjustment to the Inside option

Solution

Engineering is investigating this issue

ExtendScript Toolkit does not run

The ExtendScript Toolkit, which is a 32-bit application, will no longer work on macOS 10.15.

Solution

The ExtendScript Toolkit has been replaced by ExtendScript Debugger 1.1.0.

Crash with only Dark Menu Bar and Dock terminal command

See Photoshop crashes due to dark menu bar and dock only terminal command.