Photoshop glitch - calling the technical gurus

[Colin Woods]

Hi all

I have a presistent intermittent glitch with Photoshop. Those square brackets that we use for increasing and decreasing brush size. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Is there somewhere where I toggling this function on and off? Or is it just nature's way of telling me to upgrade to the monthly subscription as at the moment I am on CS5.

[Michael Ventura]

Hi Colin,  I have had that happen too from time to time.  One thing that comes to mind is it could be that you have some other action going on in the background like something "selected" and that has to be turned off before doing something else.  This may not apply but I have had to do this once in a while to get a tool to work properly.

 

If a tool is not performing the way you expect, try resetting that tool by right-clicking on its' icon in the Options bar,and choosing "Reset Tool" from the context menu. Also check your foreground/background colors at the bottom of the Toolbox. They should be black/white. Press D to reset it if it isn't.

[MDM]

Thee square brackets are keyboard shortcuts that are used to vary brush size on a range of tools (brush, clone and so on) so I don't think resetting individual tools would solve the problem. I wonder do you have this as a shortcut in another app or in the OS and it is conflicting?  There have been changes in how keyboard shortcuts are managed in later versions of PS but I can't remember where or when these changes occurred and I doubt that it is an omen to upgrade. 

[Martyn]

The only time I have encountered anything like this is when I forgot that I had left the caps lock on !

[wiskerke]

Have you recently updated Nvidia drivers?

I lost a couple of function keys and shortcuts that way last week.

Uninstalled some fancy extra thingy, probably for gamers, and everything went back to normal.

 

Well maybe, because at the moment (since 3 days or so) I've lost the plus and minus keys in Google Maps.

Both in Chrome and Firefox (Chrome engine nowadays) but not in Edge. So probably unrelated.

No solution yet.

 

wim

[MDM]

17 minutes ago, wiskerke said:

Have you recently updated Nvidia drivers?

I lost a couple of function keys and shortcuts that way last week.

Uninstalled some fancy extra thingy, probably for gamers, and everything went back to normal.

 

Well maybe, because at the moment (since 3 days or so) I've lost the plus and minus keys in Google Maps.

Both in Chrome and Firefox (Chrome engine nowadays) but not in Edge. So probably unrelated.

No solution yet.

 

wim

 

If I remember correctly Colin is on a Mac.

 

50 minutes ago, Martyn said:

The only time I have encountered anything like this is when I forgot that I had left the caps lock on !

 

YES YOU ARE PROBABLY CORRECT MARTYN.

 

[Colin Woods]

Yep, on a mac, nothing new on it. I don't like messing about with software and computers so my default state is to change nothing. Its not too onerous, its not long to change the brush size with the mouse. Everything else on my CS5 works perfectly so I will keep on with it for now. I don't do much fancy stuff in PS and CS5 does everything I need so I don't feel the need to upgrade.

[MDM]

17 minutes ago, Colin Woods said:

Yep, on a mac, nothing new on it. I don't like messing about with software and computers so my default state is to change nothing. Its not too onerous, its not long to change the brush size with the mouse. Everything else on my CS5 works perfectly so I will keep on with it for now. I don't do much fancy stuff in PS and CS5 does everything I need so I don't feel the need to upgrade.

 

The system requirements are increasing all the time for Adobe CC so upgrading could mean a hardware upgrade as well. I think the biggest reason for anyone to upgrade would be Lightroom Classic rather than Photoshop (especially if you don't use it much) but you are a committed DxO user I recall so you are probably best sticking with what you have.

 

Keep an eye on that caps lock.

[wiskerke]

4 hours ago, MDM said:

Keep an eye on that caps lock.

Mine beeps. My NumLock likewise.

 

Sorry about PC/Mac. It could be just Photoshop though. A feature not a fault of course.

Someone mentioned shape dynamics on/off, but when I tested it it made no difference. You could try it. It's in brush settings.

I'm guessing that you have them assigned in Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts > Tools > Decrease Brush Size, Increase Brush Size?

Adobe Help suggests resetting preferences altogether. https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html

But before everything else, make sure it's using the right keyboard.

 

wim

 

edit: keyboard: I mean US vs UK vs International. I seem to remember there's a setting with the language different from the keyboard that causes all sorts of glitches.

edit2: wasn't there a change at some point from Command-Space to Control-Space or the other way around?

Edited January 24, 2021 by wiskerke

[MDM]

37 minutes ago, wiskerke said:

Mine beeps. My NumLock likewise.

 

Sorry about PC/Mac. It could be just Photoshop though. A feature not a fault of course.

Someone mentioned shape dynamics on/off, but when I tested it it made no difference. You could try it. It's in brush settings.

I'm guessing that you have them assigned in Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts > Tools > Decrease Brush Size, Increase Brush Size?

Adobe Help suggests resetting preferences altogether. https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html

But before everything else, make sure it's using the right keyboard.

 

wim

 

edit: keyboard: I mean US vs UK vs International. I seem to remember there's a setting with the language different from the keyboard that causes all sorts of glitches.

edit2: wasn't there a change at some point from Command-Space to Control-Space or the other way around?

 

No beeps on the Mac for either of those wim. The reason I would guess caps lock is that he said sporadic as it is very easy to turn it on without realising. Having caps lock on doesn't actually stop the shortcut working but it does change the appearance of the brush so it becomes a fixed crosshair and it looks like the brush size is not changing. Monitoring the size in the toolbar shows that it is actually working though. 

 

Resetting the prefs can be a bit drastic unless really necessary as you lose all other prefs as well. I used to have to do it a lot more frequently back in the day (on Windows XP) but I haven't had to do it in years now. 

[wiskerke]

1 hour ago, MDM said:

 

No beeps on the Mac for either of those wim. The reason I would guess caps lock is that he said sporadic as it is very easy to turn it on without realising. Having caps lock on doesn't actually stop the shortcut working but it does change the appearance of the brush so it becomes a fixed crosshair and it looks like the brush size is not changing. Monitoring the size in the toolbar shows that it is actually working though. 

 

Resetting the prefs can be a bit drastic unless really necessary as you lose all other prefs as well. I used to have to do it a lot more frequently back in the day (on Windows XP) but I haven't had to do it in years now. 

 

Nor have I. Glitches have usually been located between keyboard and chair in my case. 😂

 

The beeps come with a specific keyboard driver for my Logitech Elite keyboard with a left hand mouse wheel. It should be a regular feature though. It's really useful. I've only discovered it last year or so.

I think I have been using these keyboards since 2003. Initially the multimedia controls were great too. However most of that functionality has been missing since years. Luckily the large volume wheel still works. And that mouse wheel. The return to the previous page / folder / state, is also great and much worn. There's a mute button too. But all those old fashioned cassette deck keys although worn on some of my old keyboards have long been just sitting there.

 

I still think the language/keyboard thing is worth looking into. Colin probably has a choice of either US English or French which I seem to remember one could toggle with either Command Space or Control Space.

My 2009 Macbook Pro is running El Capitan, so it's probably not much use trying to emulate the problem. It does have a NVIDIA graphics card though.

 

wim

 

 

[MDM]

45 minutes ago, wiskerke said:

I still think the language/keyboard thing is worth looking into. Colin probably has a choice of either US English or French which I seem to remember one could toggle with either Command Space or Control Space.

My 2009 Macbook Pro is running El Capitan, so it's probably not much use trying to emulate the problem. It does have a NVIDIA graphics card though.

 

wim

 

 

 

I think we need to await Colin's input to know for sure but I seem to remember his Mac was not a newish one. I have no idea what OS he is running either. I think if there was any glitch with Photoshop and a particular language then it would probably be temporary after an update and they would fix it/

 

I can't remember how long it has been like this but you can basically choose any of a number of keyboards on a Mac - they are not restricted according to the language or location. I actually use the Irish Extended keyboard, not for patriotic reasons, but because it has quicker options for accents (as in á, é, í, ó, ú not speech 😀) than the British English one. 

 

I can't remember the last time I loaded a graphics driver - probably when I was still using Windows. I'm not sure it is even possible on a Mac nowadays as the OS updates handle all that automatically. The days of searching for graphics drivers are long gone for me. The only problem I have had with a driver in years is with the Epson printer drivers as MacOS installs its own cutdown version (AirPrint) which gives far fewer options than the Epson version. And there was no documentation about this when I first got my current Epson printer so it took me a while to figure it out. Otherwise plain sailing with hardware - one of the big +++ of being a Mac user. 

 

 

 

 

[wiskerke]

Let's not get into a Apple/PC ehhh match. They have about the same functionality and the same amount of mishaps.

One of the problems with the language and keyboard is that you can set them independently.

The other is that most programs assume a US International keyboard, while half the world uses other keyboard layouts. Hence the possibility in most software to map your keys differently.

Using more than one language always requires an amount of care on both systems.

Using more than one system on one machine can get you in serious health problems 😂.

 

wim

[MDM]

56 minutes ago, wiskerke said:

Let's not get into a Apple/PC ehhh match. They have about the same functionality and the same amount of mishaps.

 

Using more than one system on one machine can get you in serious health problems 😂.

 

I wasn't doing that intentionally wim - just late night rambling. I was just pointing out that it is very unlikely to be a problem with graphics drivers as they are handed automatically by the system. I don't think it is possible to manually update graphics drivers on a Mac nowadays. 

 

When I went back to Mac, I ran a native version of Windows using Boot Camp on the same machine as that became possible when Apple started using Intel processors. I was mainly using it for Microsoft Access which is not available for Mac.  It was fairly pain free except I had to make sure I kept Windows anti-virus software up to date on the Win partition. After a while I found myself not using Windows anymore and I reformatted the drive. I have lost touch with Windows now - not had anything more recent than XP. The latest M1 Macs can no longer run Windows natively anyway.

[Betty LaRue]

On 25/01/2021 at 05:51, MDM said:

 

When I went back to Mac, I ran a native version of Windows using Boot Camp on the same machine as that became possible when Apple started using Intel processors. I was mainly using it for Microsoft Access which is not available for Mac.  It was fairly pain free except I had to make sure I kept Windows anti-virus software up to date on the Win partition. After a while I found myself not using Windows anymore and I reformatted the drive. I have lost touch with Windows now - not had anything more recent than XP. The latest M1 Macs can no longer run Windows natively anyway.

I did the same thing when going from PC to Mac. I was afraid I’d lose some software I’d spent money on. Then I realized I almost never used Boot Camp anymore, then down to never.  The software? I found other things that worked just as well or better. It was more of a security blanket for me, to do with the unknown issues that might arise from the changeover.

Plus the guy at Best Buy was a great salesman. 😁

[Colin Woods]

On 24/01/2021 at 20:07, wiskerke said:

Colin probably has a choice of either US English or French which I seem to remember one could toggle with either Command Space or Control Space.

Sigh! It was that easy. Now I feel less than brilliant. Yes, its the language. I do most of my typing in french so the keyboard is usually in French mode, which does not work. Thanks everyone.