6 May

Could not initialize Photoshop because the preferences file was invalid

Problem

When you open Photoshop on your Mac, you may get the following error:

 ”Could not load actions because an unexpected end-of-file was encountered.”

Which is then followed by another error:

“Could not initialize Photoshop because the preferences file was invalid (it has been deleted).”

Cause

This is caused by corrupt preference files.

Solution

Select the tab below with your operating system:

  1. Go to your home folder.
  2. Go to your User Library folder.
    If you are unable to see your User Library folder, please follow this post
  3. Go to the Preferences folder.
  4. Delete the “Adobe Photoshop CS5 Settings” (or similar name) folder.(Folder name may differ depending on what version you have)
  1. Click the Start button (Windows XP users should then click Run).
  2. Type %appdata% and press Enter.
  3. Open the Adobe folder.
  4. Open the Adobe Photoshop CS5 (or similar name) folder.
  5. Delete the “Adobe Photoshop CS5 Settings” (or similar name) folder.

188 Responses to Could not initialize Photoshop because the preferences file was invalid

  1. avatar
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    Anonymous June 8, 2011 at 16:01

    I just had same problem…. works fine now.

  2. avatar
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    Anonymous June 29, 2011 at 04:30

    OMG THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

  4. avatar
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    Anonymous July 20, 2011 at 18:20

    seriously….THANK YOU!!

  5. avatar
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    minh August 3, 2011 at 03:01

    sorry, I can’t find this folder. What is home folder?

  6. avatar
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    Alvaro August 18, 2011 at 06:09

    Thank you!

  7. avatar
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    David August 18, 2011 at 18:15

    And for pc users? I have the same problem…

    • avatar
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      Carl Norton August 18, 2011 at 18:41

      Have updated the article with a solution for Windows users.

      • avatar
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        Nick January 14, 2012 at 17:11

        It’s not letting me view the solution for Windows…

        • avatar
          Reply
          Carl Norton January 15, 2012 at 17:23
          1. Click the Start button (Windows XP users should then click Run).
          2. Type %appdata% and press Enter.
          3. Open the Adobe folder.
          4. Open the Adobe Photoshop CS5 (or similar name) folder.
          5. Delete the “Adobe Photoshop CS5 Settings” (or similar name) folder.
  9. avatar
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    Ahmed Hamza August 20, 2011 at 07:01

    very very very Thank u

    Thanx a lot

    :)

  10. avatar
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    Jules August 21, 2011 at 23:38

    THANK YOU!!!

  11. avatar
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    ANON August 22, 2011 at 08:29

    Thank you!!!!

  12. avatar
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    geebee August 30, 2011 at 12:57

    SOOOOOO thankful!

  13. avatar
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    enrique August 31, 2011 at 05:25

    thanks bro

  14. avatar
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    Bruno Carvalho September 1, 2011 at 18:32

    Holy s***! Tanks, dude! =]

  15. avatar
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    Maya September 8, 2011 at 23:25

    Thanks for windows solution :D , It works! (re-installation of photoshop in this case didnt help also )

  16. avatar
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    Arturo Molina September 13, 2011 at 03:47

    You need to recreate the preference file. Open Photoshop, hold down Cmd+Alt+Shift, and then click Yes to the prompt “Delete the Adobe Photoshop Settings file? This will delete all of your preference settings and set them to installation presets. (http://forums.techguy.org/digital-photography-imaging/342418-photoshop-preference-files-missing.html)

  17. avatar
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    Man September 20, 2011 at 04:36

    Great! thank you so much

  18. avatar
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    rasoolAsal September 26, 2011 at 14:18

    thanksssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
    u help me a lotttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt babyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
    aghain thanks

    ya Ali

  19. avatar
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    IY September 27, 2011 at 04:17

    THANKS MAN IT WORKS

  20. avatar
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    dornybars October 1, 2011 at 01:55

    Works great now. Thanks

  22. avatar
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    victor October 3, 2011 at 12:21

    uraaaaaaaaaaa thank you!!!!!!!!!!

  23. avatar
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    q October 11, 2011 at 09:53

    I did this and still get the same error message, with the additional error message “cant find workspace folder”.

  24. avatar
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    Collisionz October 11, 2011 at 23:52

    Thanks so much!!

  25. avatar
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    Hhj October 12, 2011 at 13:57

    I did as you said, and it was fixed!!
    Thank you very much, friend.

  26. avatar
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    Brocleishon October 13, 2011 at 07:18

    Eternamente agradecido total prooo

  27. avatar
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    Todd October 24, 2011 at 15:04

    Joining the sea of voices with a bunch of solid ‘thank yous’!

  29. avatar
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    Tebuan Jantan October 29, 2011 at 10:48

    Thank you very much! very much appreciated.

  30. avatar
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    Anonymous November 3, 2011 at 00:19

    Yes thank you!!!

  31. avatar
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    msmith99 November 4, 2011 at 09:37

    LEGEND!!

  32. avatar
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    salinda November 7, 2011 at 16:00

    thanks bro

  33. avatar
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    Nich November 10, 2011 at 16:47

    f*** yeah. that was hella easy. thanks a lot

  34. avatar
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    Anonymous November 11, 2011 at 01:08

    thanks it totally worked!

  36. avatar
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    Jason Marks December 14, 2011 at 20:35

    Thank You Carl N.

    That was right on the money!!!! you helped save the day and meet deadlines………!

  37. avatar
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    Lorrie December 19, 2011 at 14:30

    Thank You………worked great!

  38. avatar
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    Anonymous December 21, 2011 at 16:43

    Wow I almost freaked out cause re-installling was no used. THANKS

  39. avatar
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    Nita December 23, 2011 at 13:24

    WAY COOL!! Thanks so much. I thought i was going to have to uninstall and reinstall the whole program but this worked.

  41. avatar
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    Nate Long December 25, 2011 at 21:46

    You are amazing

  42. avatar
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    Jay January 3, 2012 at 23:25

    Thanks so much!

  43. avatar
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    2klaw January 7, 2012 at 16:45

    thanks a lot. happy new year

  44. avatar
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    Rick January 7, 2012 at 19:37

    Thank you so much! What a great fix!

  45. avatar
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    Monica Kressman January 9, 2012 at 22:54

    thank you, that fixed it with the command alt shift key had to reload photoshop to get it to work but worked the second time.

  46. avatar
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    Anonymous January 14, 2012 at 00:47

    Thanks, it worked for me, too.

  47. avatar
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    Cecilia January 14, 2012 at 18:37

    Thank you so much!!!!

  48. avatar
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    Elizabeth January 18, 2012 at 20:26

    Worked great. Thank you!

  49. avatar
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    Danny January 21, 2012 at 07:32

    To easy! Thanks for the easy fix.

  50. avatar
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    Sasha January 21, 2012 at 20:16

    thank you very much!!! )

  51. avatar
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    Menha Syed January 24, 2012 at 17:25

    Thank you so much ………………i participated in design contest and just one day left and my Photoshop creating this prob but fixed now ,thanks alot

  52. avatar
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    Ch3 January 27, 2012 at 18:14

    thanks , solve problem

  53. avatar
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    Andie January 30, 2012 at 11:47

    Hey! I had the same problem but when i checked on the libraries folder i didn’t find any photoshop files or anything… Help?

  54. avatar
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    Anonymous February 2, 2012 at 16:10

    Thanks so much you saved my presentation

  55. avatar
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    muslim February 4, 2012 at 05:10

    thx bro:) that was so helpful
    thx bro thx

  56. avatar
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    URGENT! February 7, 2012 at 16:52

    how about if the photoshop says, “Could not initialise Photoshop because of a program error”. plsss

    • avatar
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      Carl Norton February 7, 2012 at 17:14

      Try reinstalling Photoshop. Also, try it on another user account and without any plugins to help isolate the issue.

  58. avatar
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    Anonymous February 13, 2012 at 06:21

    Nice thanks!!

  59. avatar
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    Anonymous February 13, 2012 at 22:40

    Thank you so much, it worked!

  60. avatar
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    Anonymous February 15, 2012 at 18:36

    Thanks a lot!!!!!

  61. avatar
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    Keir February 16, 2012 at 15:03

    Worked fine for me!

    When PS doesn’t find the folder there, it just creates a new one. I think I’ve lost my preferences but that’s no big deal.

    Thanks!

  62. avatar
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    Hiba February 17, 2012 at 09:13

    It works!!!!!!! Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu :)

  64. avatar
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    Joanna March 1, 2012 at 15:16

    THANK YOU!

  65. avatar
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    Superfrog March 10, 2012 at 19:27

    Thanks, I fixed my daughter’s Photoshop app!

  66. avatar
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    me March 14, 2012 at 11:44

    THANKS! LIFE SAVER TIP

  67. avatar
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    cohale March 19, 2012 at 21:52

    Funny! I haven’t had this problem in so long, 12 years, I had completely forgotten about this bug.

  68. avatar
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    Caltat March 23, 2012 at 19:29

    Thanks. I really appreciate it.

  69. avatar
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    ekl March 29, 2012 at 09:55

    saved me a re install of photoshop, thank you

  70. avatar
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    Tidash April 8, 2012 at 06:41

    OMG Thank you so much it works! I’ve been so annoyed but this saved my life THANK YOU!

  71. avatar
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    kmurph April 11, 2012 at 12:35

    thank you!!!!

  72. avatar
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    mark April 16, 2012 at 05:44

    Dear help desk – Sorry I resent as checked to notify by email – thanks

    I did what you recommended but no improvement- perhaps this works for most others applications. I am using a fairly new Toshiba laptop that is foolproof for most anything for two years now and I do above and beyond in Photoshop as a professional photographer. I just encountered this tonight when trying to open my Photoshop CS5 64 Bit. It will not open- Even after deleting the preference files as you say- I had two of them. There was no improvement- I also find it funny that others say “go open photoshop and add “named such” new prefrences…? huh? How can you go to Photoshop and open it to add new preferences when you cannot open it to begin with? Like when you are out of gas, Go start your car and drive to the gas station to get more gas?

    Please suggest exactly how to reset these preferences files. I am stuck without being able to open my Phoptoshop CS5 on my Vista Windows now.

    Thanks
    Mark

    • avatar
      Reply
      Carl Norton April 18, 2012 at 14:40

      The instructions on how to reset the preferences are outlined above. Was it the “Adobe Photoshop CS5 Settings” folder that you deleted?

  73. avatar
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    Dave April 18, 2012 at 21:02

    Yes! Thanks…

  75. avatar
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    Bexy April 20, 2012 at 09:10

    THANK YOU SO MUCH!

  76. avatar
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    Marty April 21, 2012 at 16:40

    THX DUDE U R AWESOME !!

  77. avatar
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    Julie Martin April 27, 2012 at 14:22

    Thank you!!!!!

  78. avatar
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    appreciative gal ! May 2, 2012 at 03:04

    THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  79. avatar
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    Tracie May 16, 2012 at 03:41

    There are no Adobe or Photoshop files in my preferences folder to delete? What now????

  80. avatar
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    Johny May 22, 2012 at 12:28

    Thank you man ;)

  81. avatar
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    Osvaldas May 28, 2012 at 12:12

    Thanks, U make my day, woks fine now !!!

  82. avatar
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    mjmix May 30, 2012 at 04:53

    Thank you so much !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    You Help me a Lot! Great job!!!!!God Bless You!
    Thank you !!!!!

  83. avatar
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    Anonymous June 1, 2012 at 02:35

    Thank you so much!

  84. avatar
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    Lizzy June 1, 2012 at 11:30

    YOU’RE A *!
    Thanks SO much!!!

  85. avatar
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    lucia June 4, 2012 at 18:44

    Thank you so much.. it was driving me insane!!!

  86. avatar
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    Tom June 16, 2012 at 20:29

    Thank you. Google… your page… easy fix. Job done.

  87. avatar
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    Jeffery Dahmer June 21, 2012 at 15:08

    I love you

  88. avatar
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    Samantha June 22, 2012 at 01:09

    THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

  89. avatar
    Reply
    Emma June 26, 2012 at 08:23

    I LOVE YOU SO MUCH OMG THANK YOU

  90. avatar
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    happydude July 7, 2012 at 13:14

    THX i love it when I find the solution quickly and when the info is clear!

  91. avatar
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    Sarah July 15, 2012 at 10:12

    This is DA BEST.

  92. avatar
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    Anonymous July 20, 2012 at 17:27

    I am in awe of how simple that was to fix…Thank you!

  93. avatar
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    Lumaigo July 25, 2012 at 13:36

    Liberté, égalité, fraternité ,thanks bro!

  94. avatar
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    GHulam July 25, 2012 at 18:59

    Really Helpful.. I got mine working..!! Thanks Chap

  95. avatar
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    Maztergee July 25, 2012 at 21:54

    Thanks for sharing :D fixed the issue

  96. avatar
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    neosynergix July 30, 2012 at 15:36

    Thank you so much! Works perfectly now!

  97. avatar
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    William August 15, 2012 at 14:33

    Muchas Gracias!!!

  98. avatar
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    Nadina September 2, 2012 at 21:21

    Thanks.It works <3

  100. avatar
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    Kishore September 6, 2012 at 18:51

    Thank You Somuch

  101. avatar
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    Sean H September 21, 2012 at 03:49

    Thanks a million

  102. avatar
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    MhmdNabawy September 29, 2012 at 00:10

    Thank you

  103. avatar
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    Anonymous October 5, 2012 at 19:50

    Thank you so much !! It’s been one week I’ve been looking for it.

  105. avatar
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    Anonymous October 9, 2012 at 19:09

    I don’t know you but I love you.

  106. avatar
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    Anonymous October 25, 2012 at 16:00

    THANKS! You’re the best!!

  107. avatar
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    Shujaat October 31, 2012 at 17:11

    You saved alot.. Thanks for the good job.

  108. avatar
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    Gio Herman November 6, 2012 at 10:34

    Thanks a LOT bro! WELL DONE!

  109. avatar
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    gopal kheradiya November 7, 2012 at 06:25

    thx

  110. avatar
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    Shirin November 7, 2012 at 21:54

    ooooooooooooooooo Thank you so many much.

  111. avatar
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    joe November 8, 2012 at 18:58

    thank you sooo much!!!!!!

  112. avatar
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    Rogerio November 10, 2012 at 16:03

    Great fix it , thanks

  113. avatar
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    Rafael November 29, 2012 at 15:43

    OMG THX!!!

  114. avatar
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    Tenna Merchent December 7, 2012 at 12:21

    Thank you so much for sharing this, I was afraid to do it, but what did I have to lose as PS6 wasn’t working anyway. Very helpful!

  115. avatar
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    mnish December 10, 2012 at 17:46

    A Big Thank You. Had an emergency

  116. avatar
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    pushparaj December 11, 2012 at 13:35

    I am getting the message ” ”Could not load actions because an unexpected end-of-file was encountered.” in Adobe photoshop 7.0 . My problem was not solved by deleting ” Adobe Photoshop settings ” . I am getting message arm.dll file was corrupt. Sir , Please help me .

    My mail id : pushparaj_ece@yahoo.com

  117. avatar
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    yenny lane December 18, 2012 at 15:09

    thank you very much, you saved the day

  118. avatar
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    Haroon December 19, 2012 at 14:54

    Thank you so much..

  119. avatar
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    DeathRage December 20, 2012 at 17:12

    THANKS A LOT FOR THE HELP, FIXED and WORKING
    you saved a lot of people

  120. avatar
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    grisslypanda December 22, 2012 at 04:44

    IT WORK FOR ME!!

  121. avatar
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    Shoumik De December 24, 2012 at 09:06

    Awesome thanks

  123. avatar
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    Anonymous December 31, 2012 at 05:51

    Thank you so much! I would never of considered deleting MORE Photoshop folders in order to solve the problem! Thanks!!!

  124. avatar
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    sushma chakilela January 4, 2013 at 17:23

    thank you so much…!

  125. avatar
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    Nathan January 5, 2013 at 09:35

    I cannot figure out step 3 on Mac. I also typed out what the folder could have been and looked at each one and couldn’t figure out step 4 as well. Thanks for all the help in advanced.

    Cheers

    • avatar
      Reply
      Carl Norton January 7, 2013 at 09:17

      Sounds like you are just having some trouble getting to the User Library.

      Another way to access it is, from Finder, click Go (on the top menu), hold Alt and then click on Library.

  126. avatar
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    Hamed January 13, 2013 at 09:22

    Thanx_iT Works

  127. avatar
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    deepa January 21, 2013 at 07:43

    thank u ….it worked

  128. avatar
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    Neoklosch January 27, 2013 at 12:48

    Wunderfull, thank you. It works.

  129. avatar
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    A.M. January 27, 2013 at 21:38

    Woow! IT WORKS!
    THX A LOT, you are my hero!!!

  131. avatar
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    Sharod January 29, 2013 at 04:53

    it really worked for my cs6

  132. avatar
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    yo January 31, 2013 at 21:46

    thanks!!! it worked!

  133. avatar
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    laura February 6, 2013 at 03:16

    i deleted my preference folder but my actions are gone all of them :/ am I going to have to re load them??

    • avatar
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      Richard Cross February 6, 2013 at 16:08

      Hi Laura.

      You will have to reload them yes. Due to the deletion of the preference folder this will have removed all preferences of the program. This will include any plug-ins and actions that were priorly available.

      Deleting the preferences has essentially reset the program. Only updates and major modifications should remain unchanged.

  134. avatar
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    prithviraj February 7, 2013 at 03:53

    Thanks alott buddy… cheers :)

  135. avatar
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    Anna February 7, 2013 at 15:43

    Hey!
    I can’t find the User Library folder, when I go to my personal folder i can’t find anything with this name. I have also tried to find the photoshop setting document but i can’t find it! i’M DESESPERATE!!! ARGHHHHH

    • avatar
      Reply
      Adam Green February 11, 2013 at 11:07

      Apple removed the link by default in Lion and later. If you select the finder, click “go” in the top menu and hold the alt/option key to reveal the library link, details in this post. Alternatively follow this post.

      We will make the links more explicit in the article in the future to avoid confusion.

  136. avatar
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    Anna February 7, 2013 at 16:25

    thanks a lot!! I finally found the Library folder!
    it worked!

  137. avatar
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    dubsick February 14, 2013 at 07:41

    THANK YOUU

  138. avatar
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    Ravi john March 5, 2013 at 04:42

    Thank you dude… awsum..sexy.
    God bless you..

  139. avatar
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    Karen March 8, 2013 at 01:29

    Up and running again…

  140. avatar
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    Jacqueline March 13, 2013 at 00:12

    THANK YOU!

  141. avatar
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    parthajyoti March 18, 2013 at 17:54

    oh….. thanks a lot….

  142. avatar
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    Sudhir March 19, 2013 at 06:56

    Thank you so much friend…………….

  143. avatar
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    Gregor March 20, 2013 at 00:18

    Thanks!!! worked for cs6 aswell!

  144. avatar
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    orbiewon March 20, 2013 at 05:17

    wow…nice 1.. thank you soo much.. works great!

  145. avatar
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    saravana netadmin olympuspremedia March 21, 2013 at 10:45

    thank u so much..really it is more helpful

  146. avatar
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    kristi March 21, 2013 at 19:09

    THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been messing with this for a couple of days, even tried uninstalling and reinstalling – LIFESAVER

  147. avatar
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    Retheesh March 22, 2013 at 06:43

    Thanks a ton dude :)

  148. avatar
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    Brandon March 24, 2013 at 21:39

    YESSS!!!!
    thank you so much.

  149. avatar
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    Don March 25, 2013 at 16:16

    Thanks … it worked…… in fact… it sped up my photoshop App, didn’t realize how bloated I made it over time… thanks dude

  150. avatar
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    Jen March 28, 2013 at 21:29

    Thanks so MUCH!!!

  151. avatar
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    Migz GArcia April 2, 2013 at 09:26

    Thank You Very Much!!!! ive been finding the solution for about 2 months and no one seems to know!!!! until i get to this forum!!!! thank you very much :’>

  152. avatar
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    Hendry Willy April 5, 2013 at 18:46

    Thank you, God bless u!

  153. avatar
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    Anonymous April 6, 2013 at 18:26

    I have CS4 and it didn’t work for me

  154. avatar
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    DILEMMAX April 10, 2013 at 02:48

    Thank you so MUCH!!

  155. avatar
    Reply
    HB April 19, 2013 at 12:26

    OMG! Thanks!!! Thanks!!! Thanks!!!

  156. avatar
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    TY2 April 23, 2013 at 11:30

    It worked like magic, was already thinking of how to how to get a setup for another installation. What can without people and the internet. Thanks a lot.

  157. avatar
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    rodney Mcknight April 25, 2013 at 00:40

    Thanks!!!!!!!!

  158. avatar
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    Anna April 26, 2013 at 08:07

    WOW! Thank you big time!

  159. avatar
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    sujeenraj April 27, 2013 at 11:17

    Thanks & Thanks :)

  160. avatar
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    MG283 April 27, 2013 at 14:51

    Thank you so much! You are a life saver!!

  161. avatar
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    Mei May 1, 2013 at 17:35

    Thank you so very much!!!

  162. avatar
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    kakakkatak May 2, 2013 at 21:19

    thank dude u save my life phewwwww

  163. avatar
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    Ahamad May 6, 2013 at 17:21

    Gr8 Thank you :)

  164. avatar
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    Jay May 6, 2013 at 21:13

    OMG!!! THANKU, I had to force quit a file InDesign and my Photoshop started to display this message.

  165. avatar
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    Laurle May 6, 2013 at 22:02

    Yes, many thanks. You saved my bacon!

  166. avatar
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    Anonymous May 10, 2013 at 01:56

    omfg THANKSSS

  167. avatar
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    aseer May 21, 2013 at 17:36

    thanksssssssssssssssssss

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