Photoshop and Office 2016 Stability Fixes in the Works for macOS Sierra Users

[MacRumors]

Following the release of macOS Sierra last month, the latest operating system has caused some compatibility and stability issues with Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac that both companies are working to resolve.

A growing number of users on Adobe's support community claim that Photoshop CC crashes when attempting to print projects after updating to macOS Sierra. Doug Thomson, for example, is unable to print to his Epson 7890, while some other Epson and Canon printer models appear to be affected.

Installed macOS Sierra and now Photoshop 15.5.1 crashes when attempting to print. Print dialogue opens and settings can be modified, but when attempting to print Photoshop crashes perhaps 9 out of 10 attempts. Most frustrating. I'm printing to an Epson 7890, but I have seen the same issue cited for Canon. Adobe support told me that Photoshop has not been tested on Sierra, but in reality Adobe has had Sierra for months and have even published known issues. I pay a ton of money for this thing to work and this nonsense from support is very annoying.

Adobe has since acknowledged the issue in a support document, noting that Photoshop CC version 2015.5 or earlier may crash while printing to some printers from Macs running macOS Sierra. Adobe said its engineers are working on a solution for a future update to Photoshop CC, as echoed by Adobe product manager Pete Green.

@walkyourcamera @Photoshop @EpsonAmerica @AppleSupport We're working on it from our end, watch this thread for more: https://t.co/JPw38b7r0I - Pete Green (@_petegreen) October 1, 2016

Adobe recommends users make sure their printer driver is up-to-date. "Just updating the driver may not work," said Adobe, adding that users "need to delete the driver, delete the printer, install the latest driver then install the printer." Adobe points towards an Apple support document on troubleshooting printers on Mac. If all else fails, Adobe recommends users print from Photoshop Lightroom in the meantime.

Separately, Microsoft has acknowledged that Office 2016 for Mac closes unexpectedly, or crashes, for some macOS Sierra users. The company's engineers are working with Apple to investigate and resolve the issue.

MacRumors reader Adam C. emailed us about his problems on macOS Sierra:

Office for Mac is causing me heaps of trouble. Computer hangs, and I can't even force quit the applications. Have to rudely switch off computer and restart.

Until a fix is released, a new support document suggests turning off "Auto Proxy Discovery" or "Automatic Proxy Configuration" as a possible workaround, if allowed by your personal or organization's network configuration.

Article Link: Photoshop and Office 2016 Stability Fixes in the Works for macOS Sierra Users

 

[jakeowens]

Rule of thumb... don't install a first version of an OS on a production machine and expect everything to work. Apple changes things in every build so Adobe can't test it fully until the final build is released.

 

[dannyyankou]

Microsoft office hasn't really ever been stable for me, even after I upgraded my ram and installed a SSD.

 

[blackrabbit1000]

I have found that Indesign CS6 has slowed down by 4 fold when loading. Just sits there optimizing menu performance. I am using an SSD and it was working fine till the update.

 

[Traverse]

I get a good number of Word and Excel crashes in Office 2016 under 10.11.6. It usually happens when I save/close/or quite the app. To Microsoft's credit, I've yet to lose data, but it's annoying when I close Excel, it crashes, then it reopens a blank or "Last saved by user" and then I have to close the windows again.

 

[moreMacs]

Hard to believe that these issues, on two well-known applications, weren't discovered in beta. And I do understand Apple is constantly tweaking, but these are major breaks. APPLE, people are trying to make a living here!!

 

[MH01]

Never install a new OS if you use your machine for productivity , always wait 2-3 major releases in, once it's stable.

The gimmicks and perceived upgrades are not worth stability issues in the short term

 

[Traverse]

I wanted to add: a few years ago when computers were more fun and not as much serious work oriented I updated everything on day 1. I still do that for iOS since my iOS devices are extension of my computer not mission critical devices in themselves. But for my Mac, my uses are more advanced and I use several advanced apps and apps to modify OS X such as:

• Bartender
• Moom
• Flux
• Office 2016
• Scrivener.
• Adobe PS/LR until a few months ago (may reinstate my subscription)

The more advanced your uses are, the more sensitive you are to updates. It would be a huge headache if any of my systems or workflows stopped working, so I've stared holding off. I wanted until 10.10.3 to jump from Mavericks, waited for app updates for El Capitan, and I plan to stay on 10.11.6 until at least 10.12.2.

I know no body cares, but what's a tech forum for other than to discuss tech thoughts!

 

[ctphoto]

Rule of thumb... don't install a first version of an OS on a production machine and expect everything to work. Apple changes things in every build so Adobe can't test it fully until the final build is released.

This is very true, but many of us made the mistake of only test printing one or two prints from the Sierra beta and then the final release, it worked fine, then the issue shows up. There are some workarounds, deleting Photoshop prefs and .plist, but that only gets you a few prints before the issue shows up again. Using a third party RIP is also possible, proving its not the printer manufactures printer driver, but Photoshop. Check out Quad Tone Rip PrintTool.

 

[satchmo]

I have found that Indesign CS6 has slowed down by 4 fold when loading. Just sits there optimizing menu performance. I am using an SSD and it was working fine till the update.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't expect a fix, given CC is where Adobe wants its users to be.

 

[ghostface147]

I guess I've been a lucky Office for Mac 2016 user. Not even the insider builds caused issues for me as far as OS stability, just regular bugs. On the other hand, my damn laptop itself has gone through three logic boards and I'm still not convinced it's fixed. Early 2011 17" MacBook Pro with the nvidia extended warranty.

 

[Feenician]

I guess I've been a lucky Office for Mac 2016 user. Not even the insider builds caused issues for me as far as OS stability, just regular bugs

Me too. Ran Office (standard build for most of that time and insider slow ring latterly) daily throughout Sierra's beta period. Photoshop 15.5 has been fine too but I don't print from it so I escaped. Apart from that most of my work ends up being done with VMWare (good as gold throughout), MS RDP (running the beta version with no problems), Paw for API testing (god I love that program), Textwrangler (fine) and Yummy FTP (ditto).

A few things that needed updated which meant running beta versions. Little Snitch, Carbon Copy Cloner and I think iStat Menus (could be wrong on the latter)

Sierra has been good to be me. Touch wood and all that.

 

[now i see it]

This was as predictable as the sun setting. Every new OS breaks photoshop way or another.
But you get Siri and your desktop in the cloud. It seems that the real intention of Apple is to constantly stir the pot. Continually create mayhem and disorder. To ensure that things are never quite good enough. To create a desire for something better.... forever

 

[RichTeer]

Rule of thumb... don't install a first version of an OS on a production machine and expect everything to work. Apple changes things in every build so Adobe can't test it fully until the final build is released.

I know this is common--and on the balance, good--advice for macOS, but it really makes me miss my Solaris days. I regularly ran Beta and pre-Beta version of Solaris, and installed new versions as soon as they came out, and not once was I bitten by the OS breaking a 3rd party program. OSes are complicated so of course bugs will happen, but I really think Apple needs to pay more attention to not breaking compatibility between releases, and do more regression testing.

Assuming 3rd party authors adhere to published APIs, there should be no reason why newer version of macOS should break them. Sadly, that has not been my experience with macOS... (Sierra also seems to break LibreOffice...)

 

[joueboy]

Rule of thumb... don't install a first version of an OS on a production machine and expect everything to work. Apple changes things in every build so Adobe can't test it fully until the final build is released.

But Apple announced the developer beta over a year ago. Epson has the updated driver too. Adobe has all the resources and I don't see any reason they're not keeping up with it. I understand small developers because their applications are way cheaper than Adobe. Some of them tend not to release an update unless it's a paid one. But for an $800 software that shouldn't be the case. How much more for the Creative Cloud customers, because the service promised an updated software all the time. I assume just lazy programmers and engineers waiting for somebody to report the bug then work on it. SMH!

 

[weup togo]

Why is this buried in the Mac section while the Sierra Automatic Download story is front page? Ya think maybe the two are connected? It looks like the engineers are finally getting their way and Mac app compatibility is being treated with the same shoddy effort as iOS.

 

[edgonzalez32]

Hard to believe that these issues, on two well-known applications, weren't discovered in beta. And I do understand Apple is constantly tweaking, but these are major breaks. APPLE, people are trying to make a living here!!

It's not like Adobe is jumping on fixing issues. We (work) keep having problems with Libraries not working. Can't edit, add or apply colors from the panel. Can't add any assets actually. It worked when the 2015.5 update came out, for about week. Then stopped.

So I'm not surprised Photoshop is ******** the bed in Sierra.

 

[Feenician]

It's not like Adobe is jumping on fixing issues. We (work) keep having problems with Libraries not working. Can't edit, add or apply colors from the panel. Can't add any assets actually. It worked when the 2015.5 update came out, for about week. Then stopped.

So I'm not surprised Photoshop is ******** the bed in Sierra.

Pre 2015.5 Export As and Save for Web for completely broken too. In among the fantastic parts of it it does seem like Photoshop is held together with spit, duck tape and hope and it has for as long as I can remember. It's not quite as bad it used to be (or maybe I just don't use it as much these day) but I remember there like 5 different dialog styles, none of which used native controls and, worse, each used a different (and differently broken) custom control that sorta, kinda looked like native if you squinted really hard and ignored that they didn't work properly.

There used to a funny blog about the vagaries of the interface, though I can't locate it now.

 

[KindredMAC]

I've been Beta Testing Sierra and am a Creative Cloud pro-level user, along with Office 365 user, and have not had any issues.

 

[SiriusExcelsior]

The more advanced your uses are, the more sensitive you are to updates. It would be a huge headache if any of my systems or workflows stopped working, so I've stared holding off. I wanted until 10.10.3 to jump from Mavericks, waited for app updates for El Capitan, and I plan to stay on 10.11.6 until at least 10.12.2.

I know no body cares, but what's a tech forum for other than to discuss tech thoughts!

I'm still on 10.6.8, with CS 6 and Office 2011 That's how much I hate workflows breaking haha. (Well that and all the money I sunk on those two suites while I was just starting work)

But I'm looking forwards to the new MacBook Pros, might have to set up some kind of virtual machine to keep them non-subscription software working . Both Firefox and Chrome killing support for 10.6, plus the age of my 2011 MBP (with USB 2...), has changed the decision to "just stick with what works". Just hope Sierra has been refined enough by then.

 

[JosephAW]

Reminds me of the OS 9 days where GOLive would crash the computer every so often.

 

[stiligFox]

Does Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 (not 2015.5) have this issue?

EDIT: Sorry, I should have read the article. It says it affects 2015 and earlier. Boo! I wonder if it affects CS6?

That said, I did a clean install of macOS Sierra on my MacBook Pro and a clean install of Office 2016, no issues at all for me.

 

[verniesgarden]

is anyone else having issues with Typekit on Sierra public beta? Seeing if it's isolated to my machine or not.

 

[smacrumon]

Kudos to Microsoft for at least updating their flagship software and moving with the times. For the most part Adobe has heavily relied on products that haven't changed all too much since the 1990s. Bloated disorganized menus. Tiny icons and tiny panels. Inconsistent dialogue boxes. Where's the love for this software, Adobe? An overhaul is needed badly.

 

[ignatius345]

SO glad I saw this story. Staring down the barrel of a bunch of PowerPoint and Illustrator freelance stuff and was just thinking "maybe I'll upgrade my iMac to Sierra just for the hell of it"