What happens when Photoshop freezes with a very large file?

[tsinsf]

I forgot that I was trying to save a file bigger than 4 GB. My post was not about trying to figure out how to save large files, but what happens when Photoshop freezes when it is attempting to edit a huge amount of data. Why did it freeze rather than give me the message that I was trying to save a file larger than 4GB, which is not possible as a tiff? I'm trying to understand what is going on under the hood. Is it a Photoshop software issue, a Max OS issue, a Ram issue, a hardware issue, etc.

[Jim Kasson]

I forgot that I was trying to save a file bigger than 4 GB. My post was not about trying to figure out how to save large files, but what happens when Photoshop freezes when it is attempting to edit a huge amount of data. Why did it freeze rather than give me the message that I was trying to save a file larger than 4GB, which is not possible as a tiff? I'm trying to understand what is going on under the hood. Is it a Photoshop software issue, a Max OS issue, a Ram issue, a hardware issue, etc.

I tried to save a file >4Gb as a TIFF from Ps under Win 10 Pro x64, and got the attached error message. I suspect your issue has to do with the fact that you have so little RAM for such large files.

[mdelrossi]

I’m going take a stab at this, I’m sure I’ll be corrected if I’m wrong.

With any application, if it does not have enough ram to work with it uses the hard disk as ram in the form of page swaps.

So let’s say photoshop was working with a 40gb file and you only have 32gb in the machine, it will constantly move information back and forth between the hard disk page file and ram.

Remember that the operating system and any other apps are also using ram, and they might also be doing pages swaps in the background, making it seem like your computer has crashed.

The best way to observe this is to open activity monitor and the photoshop file and look at the memory usage.

Back in the good ole days, this was just something we had to live with and wait till photoshop did it’s thing, usually without any notification that it was still working.

Hope this helps.

[Jim Kasson]

I’m going take a stab at this, I’m sure I’ll be corrected if I’m wrong.

With any application, if it does not have enough ram to work with it uses the hard disk as ram in the form of page swaps.

So let’s say photoshop was working with a 40gb file and you only have 32gb in the machine, it will constantly move information back and forth between the hard disk page file and ram.

Remember that the operating system and any other apps are also using ram, and they might also be doing pages swaps in the background, making it seem like your computer has crashed.

The best way to observe this is to open activity monitor and the photoshop file and look at the memory usage.

Back in the good ole days, this was just something we had to live with and wait till photoshop did it’s thing, usually without any notification that it was still working.

Hope this helps.

True. Mentioned in my July 1 response on the first page of this thread.