How to Fix Photoshop Crashing and Lagging: 5 Ultimate Steps (2026 Updated)

There is nothing more frustrating than Photoshop freezing or crashing right when you are about to finish a masterpiece—especially if you haven't saved your progress.

As a resource-heavy application, it's not uncommon for Photoshop to lag, stutter, or become unresponsive. However, these issues can usually be resolved with systematic troubleshooting. Here are 5 proven steps to restore your smooth creative workflow.

Why is Photoshop lagging?

• Insufficient RAM: Photoshop requires a massive amount of memory for large files. Without enough RAM, performance drops dramatically.
• GPU Acceleration is off: Smooth zooming and complex filters rely heavily on your Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).
• Scratch Disk is full: This is one of the most common reasons for abrupt crashes.

Step 1: Basic Cleanup & Free Up Resources

Before diving into complex settings, let's eliminate external interference:

1. Close "Memory Hogs": Close web browsers with dozens of open tabs or other heavy design software (like Illustrator or After Effects) while running PS.
2. Check Canvas Size: If you are editing an 8000x8000 pixel, 300dpi file with hundreds of layers, lagging is a normal hardware limitation. Try reducing the resolution or flattening layers if possible.

Step 2: Optimize Photoshop Performance Preferences

Go to the menu: Edit > Preferences > Performance (On Mac: Photoshop > Preferences > Performance).

1. Memory Usage: We recommend increasing the RAM allocated to Photoshop to 75% - 85%.
2. Graphics Processor Settings: Ensure "Use Graphics Processor" is checked. Without this, canvas navigation will be extremely sluggish.
3. History & Cache: Lower the "History States" from the default 50 to 20-30 steps to save memory space.

Step 3: Manage Your Scratch Disks

When physical RAM runs out, Photoshop uses your hard drive as virtual memory (Scratch Disk). If your primary drive (usually C:) runs out of space, Photoshop will crash instantly.

• Go to Preferences > Scratch Disks.
• Uncheck your nearly-full system drive, and select your fastest SSD with the most available free space (at least 100GB recommended).

Step 4: Update Graphics Drivers (Studio Driver)

Screen flickering, unresponsiveness, or disabled features like the "Liquify" filter are often caused by outdated GPU drivers.

Go to the NVIDIA or AMD website to download the latest drivers. Pro Tip for NVIDIA users: We highly recommend downloading the Studio Driver (SD) instead of the Game Ready Driver. It is specifically optimized for creative software and drastically reduces crash rates.

Step 5: The Ultimate Fix — Reset Preferences

If you've tried all the above and Photoshop still crashes randomly, your preference files might be corrupted.

1. Close Photoshop completely.
2. Press and hold the shortcut keys: Ctrl + Alt + Shift on Windows, or Command + Option + Shift on Mac.
3. While holding the keys, double-click to launch Photoshop. Click "Yes" when asked to delete the settings file to restore defaults.