PixelSugar's plugin for Photoshop can be, well, a pain in the butt to get working properly. It's an area we are constantly working to improve, and we're sorry if it doesn't work right out of the box.
If you are trying to use PixelSugar as a Photoshop plugin, and are seeing errors along the lines of "Error connecting to plugin" or "Could not establish XPC connection to broker service", then this guide's for you.
Ensure you're up to date
Open PixelSugar, and from the PixelSugar menu, select Check For Updates to make sure you're using the latest. If there's an update available
- Install the update
- Re-run the Photoshop plugin installer from the PixelSugar menu
- Restart Photoshop.
Check your Mac's Login Items
Open the System Settings app, and under General -> Login Items, look for an item under Totally Rad! Inc. Make sure it's turned on.
Start the XPC service manually
Open the Terminal app, and paste this command in, then press Enter
launchctl bootstrap gui/501 /Library/LaunchAgents/com.gettotallyrad.PixelSugar.ConnectionBroker.plist
That should get things started, even if you see an error message
What's the problem, anyway?
PixelSugar and Photoshop run as separate apps, and they communicate with one another through a third app, called a XPC service (actually, the PixelSugar plugin for Photoshop uses the XPC service to communicate with PixelSugar... it's all quite a lot of hassle). Sometimes, the installer fails to start that service, and when PixelSugar and Photoshop try to talk to one another, well, they can't (MacOS won't let them talk directly to one another.
If you're technically apt, and have a better solution than the ones listed above, feel free to reach out. I've spent way too many hours of my life trying to make this work properly, and I'm frankly out of ideas.