TechNote

Edit in Photoshop command is missing or refers to Photoshop Elements (Adobe Photoshop Lightroom)

Issue

When you right-click on a photo in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, the Edit In Adobe Photoshop command in the context menu is missing. Also, the same command under the Photo menu is grayed out, and in the External Editor tab of the Preferences the upper box is labeled "Edit in Photoshop (Not Found)".

Or, if you have Adobe Photoshop Elements installed on the computer, the Edit in Adobe Photoshop command changed to Edit in Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Solution

Windows

On Windows, try the following solutions in order:

Solution 1: Uninstall and reinstall Photoshop.

Solution 2: Recreate the Photoshop.exe application path registry key.

Disclaimer: This procedure involves editing the Windows registry. Adobe doesn't provide support for editing the registry, which contains critical system and application information. Make sure to back up the registry before editing it. For more information about the registry, see the Windows documentation or contact Microsoft.

Choose Start > Run.
Type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK to start the Windows Registry Editor.
Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\.
Right-click on the App Paths folder and choose New > Key.
Type Photoshop.exe as the name of the new key, then press Enter.
Right click on the Photoshop.exe folder and choose New > String Value.
Type Path as the name of the new value, then press Enter.
In the right pane of the registry, right click on the (Default) value and choose Modify.
In the Value Data field, enter the location of the Photoshop.exe file on your computer. Include Photoshop.exe at the end of the path. For example, if you installed Adobe Photoshop CS3 to the default location, enter C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Photoshop.exe
If you have Adobe Photoshop CS2 or installed Photoshop to a different directory, change the path as appropriate.
Click OK.
In the right pane of the registry, right-click on the Path value and choose Modify.
In the Value Data field, enter the file path for where the Photoshop.exe file is located on your computer. (This is the same as step 9, except omit Photoshop.exe from the end.) For example, if you installed Adobe Photoshop CS3 to the default location, enter C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\
If you have Adobe Photoshop CS2 or installed Photoshop to a different directory, change the path as appropriate.
Click OK.
Exit the registry.

Mac OS

On Mac OS, try the following solutions in order:

Solution 1: Rebuild the Photoshop plist file.

Close Photoshop Lightroom.
Navigate to the Users/[username]/LIbrary/Preferences folder.
Drag the com.adobe.Photoshop.plist file in the Trash.
Start Photoshop. Photoshop will recreate the plist file.

Solution 2: Uninstall and reinstall Photoshop.

To uninstall Photoshop CS3, use the uninstall application in the Applications/Utilities/Adobe Installers folder.

Additional Information

When Photoshop Lightroom starts, it checks to see if Photoshop is installed. If it can't find Photoshop, it checks to see if Photoshop Elements is installed. If it can't find either, Photoshop Lightroom disables the Edit in Photoshop command. The Additional External Editor command is not affected.

On Windows, Photoshop Lightroom checks for the Photoshop.exe or PhotoshopElementsEditor.exe keys in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\ directory of the registry. These keys provide the file path to the applications.

On Mac OS, Photoshop Lightroom checks for the com.adobe.Photoshop.plist or com.adobe.Photoshop.Elements.plist files in the user's preferences folder. These files provide the file path to the applications, as well as other OS-related information about the applications. The plist files on Mac OS are created the first time applications are started, or any time the application is started and the file is not present.