If you find yourself suddenly unable to Open or Create New Files in Photoshop, know that you are not alone. I have personally also encountered this issue after a recent update. Fortunately, fixing the problem is quite simple. In the following section, I show you how.
Fixing Can't Open or Create New Files in Photoshop
- Launch Photoshop
- Once it is up and running, press Ctrl+K to open the Preferences page.
- Tick the box to Use Legacy "New Document" Interface, and then click OK
- Now try to press Ctrl+N to Create a New File or Ctrl+O to open an existing file. If all went well, you should once again be able to Open files or Create new files in Photoshop.
Side Note: I have encountered cases where the above fix did not work for opening files. In which case uninstalling and reinstalling Photoshop did fix the problem. Photoshop can very unstable and tends to crash on Windows 11. So if you are planning to upgrade to Windows 11, be aware that you might be in for a bumpy ride.