Reading Preferences taking forever

[Randy...@adobeforums.com]

Up to about 2 weeks ago when I fire up PS the opening splash window only took about 15 - 20 seconds to cycle through and PS opens up. Since then it takes a very long time to open. The "Reading Preferences" takes nearly a minute or so then all the other race through and PS opens. Why would the "Reading Preferences" take no time at all one day then the next take over a minute? I haven't changed anything to my knowledge in the Preferences tabs to cause this.

Any ideas?

R Mohr

[Myle...@adobeforums.com]

Why would the "Reading Preferences" take no time at all one day then the
next take over a minute?

Because the prefs are damaged, most likely. In such cases the program will test each option and compare it with defaults. It's just odd that it does not repair the damage on program exit by writing clean files. Try to reset the file as per the instructions provided in this forum and elsewhere. Also reset your brushes and actions palettes. If you have customized them heavily by loading a ton of extra stuff, they may take forever to load.

Mylenium

[John Joslin]

Resetting your preferences as described in the FAQ.

<http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.ef4a07f/1>

You either have to physically delete (or rename) the preference files or, if using the Alt, Ctrl, and Shift method, be sure that you get a confirmation dialog.

This resets all settings in Photoshop to factory defaults.

A complete uninstall/re-install will not affect the preferences and a corrupt file there may be causing the problem.

[Don_Mc...@adobeforums.com]

Also, if resetting the prefs does nothing, you might have a bad font, and it is holding up the system just before the message about fonts comes up. Did you load any new fonts lately?

[Randy...@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for the suggestions! However, resetting the preferences didn't work. I tried both Alt/Ctrl/Shft and physically deleting the psp file and still the opening hangs with Reading Preferences. I haven't added any new fonts and my brushes and actions haven't been added to recently (I don't have that many besides the default sets). I haven't tried resetting my Brushes and Actions palettes ... how is that done (and will I lose all my custom brushes/actions?)

R Mohr

[Gernot_...@adobeforums.com]

Preferences are something beyond Information Technology.
They don't obey common programming laws. One should consider
them as a kind of witchcraft.
Whereas a program file or a data file is never corrupted (at
least not here in the recent 10 years, with the exception of
one hard disk crash), a preference file is easily corrupted
simply by using somewhat modified preferences.
Twins of Preferences are Fonts. These can be corrupted as well,
but nobody knows why and how. Opposed to Preferences, Fonts
can be considered as Read-Only files, though not literally
defined as such.

Adober users had learned to respect the somewhat fragile or
volatile characters of these obscure twins.
My hope is, that Adobe users will shout once (in near future)
unisono:
As long as these idiotic problems are not cleared away, we are
refusing to update & upgrade.

Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

[En...@adobeforums.com]

@Gernot

Hmm... So you think Adobe needs to get up an fix this? Have you considered that Preference File corruption can happen to any program from any company, not just PS?

@Randy

a) Go to your Run Command. (So far you haven't said whether your on XP or Vista, so getting to your Run Command is on you.) Type %appdata% and press OK. Your either going to be in a folder called Application Data (XP) or Roaming (Vista). Go inside of the Adobe folder. Take the PS folder (whichever version your are using, since this also has not been specified.) and drag it to the Desktop. Restart PS.

If PS does the same thing, shut it down. Move the folder back where it was to get all your settings back.

b) Go to c:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop (Your version here)\Plug-ins

Remove ANY 3rd party plugins. It doesn't matter when you added them, how well it has been working for however long. Just take them all out if they didn't come with PS in the first place.

Restart PS. If it works, put your plug-ins back one at a time until the issue reoccurs to find the problem plug-in. If not, put them back.

c) New administrator account. Goto Control Panel>User Accounts. Create a new admin called "test" (or whatever you want, really).

Log onto that admin. Does it happen there?

d) Report back here with your results.

[dave_...@adobeforums.com]

i've been using photoshop since 5.5 and have NEVER corrupted my prefs gernot! :) most prefs problems are either user or flaky machine errors.

[J_Ma...@adobeforums.com]

Fluser?

[Randy...@adobeforums.com]

Ender,
Thanks for giving me a systematic plan of attack!

Yep, i forgot to say I'm using PS CS2 in XP sp2 ... results:

a) I removed the PS 9 folder from the app data folder ... no change

b) I removed all third party plugins (fortunetly I don't have too many) and PS starts up normally and quickly so it's definitly a plugin.

I put them in one by one, startup is fine except for:

Akvis Noisebuster slows startup just a bit (it's a ten day demo which has run out) ...
Photographic Edges is the culprit slowing the startup like I described before ... which is curious since I've had it installed long before this slowdown started. Is there a fix for this or will I just have to reconcile myself to a long startup (as long as I insist on keeping PGE)?

R Mohr

[Randy...@adobeforums.com]

I also noticed in the PhotoGraphic Edges folder there is a TruType font all by itself (I'm guessing PGE uses that font in its interface) ... could that be adding the problem

R Mohr

[Randy...@adobeforums.com]

Well, I answered my own question. It's not the font. I removed the PGE.8bf file and the 1.5 gig PGE folder (contains all the edge templates etc) ...when I put the plugin file back in there's no hang, it's the big folder slowing things down. And I bet that folder needs to stay there for PGE to function properly, right? Plus, it's a demo version. Now that I think of it I wonder if I installed the plugin AND the standalone version into the same PS plugin folder. I don't find the standalone version in my programs folder.

R Mohr

[dave_...@adobeforums.com]

and the 1.5 gig PGE folder

wish i had gotten here earlier. that's a known problem. put the data elsewhere and point to it from within the plugin. if that data is in the plugin folder structure, ps will scan through it every startup looking for plugins.

I THOUGHT there was a PGE update for that...? do you have all the patches from the manufacturer? check their website...

[Randy...@adobeforums.com]

"put the data elsewhere and point to it from within the plugin."

I thought that might be possible but I'm not sure how to do that. If I move the data folder out of the plugins folder up one level to the PS root folder would that do, or do I need to move it somewhere else? And then how do I point to it from within the plugin?

AutoFX may have a patch but since this was a demo I don't think I'd qualify for it ...

Thanks for the help!

R Mohr

[dave_...@adobeforums.com]

I'm not sure randy, i don't have the plugin, but i've read about this issue here. i think you just need to move it someplace out of the plugin structure, c:\mystuff for example. then from within the plugin you need to load edges or something. sorry, but maybe an autofx user can pop in and give you a clearer answer.

[Randy...@adobeforums.com]

Thanks, Dave! I'll move the folder up one level and deal with it when I need to use it!

Thanks all for the help.

R Mohr

[dave_...@adobeforums.com]

no prob. good luck!
dave