Do you Have Performance Issues with Adobe Camera RAW & Photoshop?

For a number of months, going back to before Christmas 2019, I’ve been having severe performance issues with Photoshop, Bridge & Adobe Camera RAW [ACR] launched from either Adobe Bridge or Photoshop.  The issues started around the time I purchased a second screen and that threw me off the scent for a while!

I’ve found these issues with two different Windows 10 PCs – a 7 year old one and a new high spec purpose built photography desktop.  There may be other reasons why you might suffer from poor performance but I have found 2 specific software applications that have dramatically slowed down ACR & Photoshop CC.

• Kaspersky Total Security
• Acronis True Image 2020

If you don’t have either of these 2 software applications installed then you need read no further.  However, if you do you and you suffer from performance issues then read on.

Kaspersky

With my older desktop, Photoshop would slow down to unusable when Kaspersky was carrying out a full scan – this does not appear to be a problem with my new Desktop.  There are 2 things you can do to mitigate the impact of Kaspersky scans slowing down Photoshop & ACR; try them in this order:

1. Schedule your scans for a quiet time when you know you generally won’t be using your computer.
2. if the above doesn’t work then in the Kaspersky Program go to Settings/Performance/Pause File Anti-Virus then add a link to the executable files for PS , Bridge & Lightroom.  You should think carefully about enabling this feature as what it does is whenever you use those photography programs, Kaspersky will stop scanning your computer for viruses etc.  You will, however, get a warning message and as soon as you close those programs Kaspersky anti-virus will automatically start working again.

Acronis True Image 2020

Acronis True Image is a file backup and disk cloning software package [you are backing up your precious images aren’t you!].  In the latest version of this software the manufacturer introduced a new feature called Active Protection to defend against ransomware & illicit cryptomining.  If this feature is activated then simple adjustments using ACR, particularly when launched from Photoshop, can take 30 seconds plus rather than being pretty instantaneous.  The easiest thing to do is to of course de-activate Acronis Active Protection and thereby get a usable system again.  However, if you want to benefit from the features of Acronis Active Protection then there is a straight forward fix as follows:

1. Launch Acronis True Image
2. Click on the Active Protection tab on the left hand side of the screen
3. Click on the Manage Processes tab at the top of the screen
4. Click on the “Add” in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and add the location of the PS, Bridge & Lightroom executable files.  On my desktop [yours may be different] they are located here:
   1. C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Bridge 2020\Bridge.exe
   2. C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic\lightroom.exe
   3. C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2020\photoshop.exe
5. Set the permission for all these to be “Allowed to Start”

I hope this helps anyone who may be having these issues.