
Adobe XD is a fantastic software that can do so many things, but sometimes it has little snags and hiccups. A more common problem is that the program hangs and you are left with a white screen. This can be frustrating, but there are a few fixes for it.
The easiest and most common fix for Adobe XD being stuck on a white screen is simply updating the Windows and Video card drivers. There are some more complex solutions such as changing the file permissions.
I’ll be going through the steps you can take to troubleshoot the issue and do them from the most common fix to the less common ones. A step-by-step guide will also be included for how to properly do these fixes.
Update Drivers
This is an easy fix and drivers can be the biggest reason why software isn’t wanting to cooperate with your computer. It is really one of the easiest things to fix.
Depending on your video card depends on how you will install them. I’ll show you the steps for AMD and NVIDIA
AMD
You can go to their website here. This is the direct link you need to use to find the driver’s website. It may feel like common sense to some to download drivers but if you aren’t tech-savvy you probably don’t know these need updates.
- Select “Graphics”.
- Select whichever card you have.
- Download and then install the drivers!
That is all there is to it. All you have to do is follow the on-screen install instructions and you will be good to go. The computer will need to restart once you install the drivers though.
NVIDIA
So, anyone with a newer video card is going to most likely have the GeForce experience. It allows you to scan and install new updates from the desktop app. It will require you to sign in with an account though, which is frustrating.
If you don’t want to use that, this is the direct link to their downloads. Simply go through the options until you find yours. Follow the on-screen instructions when you go to install and be aware you will need to restart your computer.
Windows Updates
Windows updates have been the cause of so much grief over the years. Sometimes just updating regularly can cause software compatibility issues. Which is why it’s important to stay on top of the updates because they will do patches for things that may be broken.
Updating Windows is very simple:
- Search “Updates” in the windows search/magnifying glass.
- Wait for it to download the updates.
- After that, install the updates.
- Let it restart your computer and that’s it!
If Windows was out of date, you should expect the installation to be somewhat slow and it may even restart your computer several times before it shows 100% installed. Don’t worry about it, this is fine.
Clean Install
If there are any issues with the software, sometimes uninstalling and reinstalling can be the solution. Things can get messed up during updates so if it isn’t drivers, you may just need a fresh install and hope it fixes whatever is causing the program to hang.
To uninstall Adobe XD follow these steps:
- In order to uninstall follow these steps:
- Use Windows Search to look up “Control Panel”.
- Select “Uninstall a program”.
- Search to find Adobe XD.
- Right-click to uninstall.
- Restart your computer.
After you have this done, go back to Adobe’s website and install XD like you did last time, and hopefully, it fixed whatever caused your program to white screen.
Registry Edit
When you are doing anything with the registry, you need to be careful with things you change or delete because it can cause system failures. It’s good to have a system restore point just in case something happens. This fix has been reported by users and many have had good luck with it.
- Search “regedit” in the Windows search bar.
- Open “Registry Editor”
- Search for “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\adbxd.helper.app”.
- Delete it.
What is happening here is that sometimes it can be trying to load an older release and obviously you don’t want that. So, deleting this may be one of the better fixes for XD only showing a white screen. If nothing else has worked, this is likely your best option to fix it.
File Permissions
If you’ve been using it just fine until it just stopped working, this may not work for you because the permissions should already be granted, but just in case:
- First, go to “C:\Windows\System32”.
- Then look for “msvcp140.dll”.
- You need to right-click on it and choose “Properties”.
- Click on the Security tab.
- Select edit.
- Select “Add”.
- You’ll need to type “ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES”.
- Then select “Check Names”.
- Click on Locations and choose the name of your computer, and then select “Ok”.
- Select “ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES”.
- Select the check box for Allow next to both Read & execute and Read.
- Select “Apply” and “Ok”. And then “Ok” one more time.
- Do this again for “vcruntime140.dll”.
- Try to launch XD now.
That should have done it for you. If none of these have worked, reach out to Adobe support and see if they are aware of any other reasons Adobe XD may not be working properly. Sometimes updates come out and cause issues and all you can do is wait for a hotfix.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a lot of fixes for Adobe XD hanging on a white screen, but hopefully one of these has worked for you and you can start using it. However, if none of these have worked for you, the best option is to contact Adobe support and get some help.
Software is finicky and may be a pain to deal with sometimes, but there are a lot of resources out there to get you to where you need to be. Adobe XD has had a lot of issues and there are a lot of troubleshooting options, just be patient and try not to get too frustrated.