Nik Collection no longer working in Photoshop on your Mac? (by Eric Tatham)

The Nik Collection plug-in that used to be free from Google is free no longer and will not be updated by Google.

The newest version can be downloaded at a cost from https://nikcollection.dxo.com

However, the older version is still free and you may already have it but now find it doesn’t work with the newest versions of Photoshop.

But no need for us ‘Nik-ers’ to get all in a twist just yet!

The following instructions work for me on my Mac. I am not sure if the same problem exists on Windows PCs! If it does, then some of the instructions below may still apply.

Here’s how to get it working again.

1.  Get the plug-in files. Assuming you already have these in an older version of Photoshop, find the older Photoshop folder and open it. Then open the Plug-ins folder. If you have it, the Nik Collection will be in a folder named Google. Check inside and make sure it has all the Nik components.

If you don’t have the files you should still be able to find an archived version online.

2.  Copy the whole Google folder. Now find the folder for the latest version of Photoshop. Open the new version’s Plug-ins folder. e.g. Finder->Applications->Adobe Photoshop CC 2019->Plugins

3.  Restart Photoshop and you should find Nik Collection under the Filter menu.

4.  Older versions of the Nik Collection cannot automatically create new layers in Photoshop and, as this is the default setting in Nik, Photoshop crashes when trying to save a Nik adjustment.

To work round this;

  a.    Open your image in Photoshop

  b.    Make a copy of the image in a new layer

  c.    Open the Nik filter and select Settings in the bottom left of the Nik screen.

  d.    Select AFTER CLICKING OK

  e.    Choose the option apply the filtered effect to the current layer and then OK.

Now it should work and save back to Photoshop without crashing.