Dave, Thanks for responding! I know you don't work for Adobe—I didn't mean to imply that. You just seemed to have some pertinent knowledge so I figured I'd ask (in case you or anyone else viewing this thread could shed some light). As I mentioned, I thought I was running the latest PS version (I generally install updates as soon as I see them), but when I encountered the issue—and after rebooting my Macbook—I then checked for updates and saw there was one. I applied the update, but the issue persisted. Wasn't until I turned off Open CL that the tool started working again. Just to re-iterate, it had literally just worked fine with Open CL ON on the first photo I edited, then the second photo is when I encountered the issue. I hadn't even closed the previous photo before I started on the second one (something I usually do to try and keep color adjustments consistent in photo sets), so absolutely nothing had changed on my system—the tool just stopped working suddenly. That said, I'm definitely running the latest PS version, now. I'm also running OS X El Capitan 10.11.6—haven't migrated to Sierra yet because I wanted to give Adobe time to patch any issues first. If anyone is running Adobe PS CC on Sierra, I'd be interested to know how it's working. I used to work on Windows, where I never had any real problems with Photoshop (not to say there weren't any, I just never encountered them in my workflow). Wasn't until I moved over to a Mac that I started noticing little things here and there not working—most of which I've just gotten used to working around, but nothing like this where a tool/function just completely stops working at all, right in the middle of an edit, no less. Anyways, if anyone knows anything about this topic/issue, it would be great to know what might be the cause of such an issue, so I can try to avoid it. Frankly, if I was in Terry's (the most recent comment on this thread) position, I'd be pretty ticked off right about now. At least turning Open CL off worked for me—Terry seems to be having the same issue, but caused by something else perhaps. That's even more disturbing, because there could be something else at play that we don't know about. Of course, each system (computer) is different, so it could be something local to the machine, but without knowing what to look out for, there doesn't seem to be a good way to be proactive about avoiding such a problem. Thanks again and good luck to anyone else having this issue! Hopefully, some light will be shed on this at some point or Adobe will find/fix the bug (if indeed it is one). Jeremy ... View more

I literally just encountered this issue (i.e. Select and Mask not working --- at all) while processing some photos. In fact, I had just successfully processed a photo and was working on a second one (I'm just doing product on white background photos, so using Pen tool then Select and Mask to extract the product from the background). Select and Mask worked perfectly for the first photo, but when I started the next photo (PS was not closed or anything) I got the Pen tool outline done, converted to selection, then used Select and Mask (with settings to output to New Layer w/ Layer Mask)—but it just output a layer, with a blank (white) layer mask. Tried again with a 3rd photo, and when it still didn't work, I started getting worried. Rebooted my Macbook Pro, issue persisted. Then I saw that there was a pending PS update—so I performed the update; issue persisted. That's when I came to the forum and found this thread. 1. Tried adjusting GPU settings; issue persisted 2. Tried resetting Preferences; issue persisted 3. Lastly, I turned OFF the Open CL option — THIS seems to have fixed the issue, at least for now. However, I've only tested once with a quick square selection on a single layer. WHY this would have had any effect, I do not know. As I said, it was working fine up until today—and the first photo I processed did not encounter this issue. SO, what's the deal? Why would it work perfectly for one photo, but then suddenly stop working literally minutes later when I hadn't changed anything or even closed the application. I've been shooting and processing these product-on-white photos for years—and while I didn't care for the Select and Mask tool replacing Refine Edge, I've been able to make it work for me. However, I've never had an issue like this occur and it's quite troubling, to be honest, that a process/feature I regularly use could just randomly stop working mid-edit and require me to change the PS settings that were working just fine moments before, with no real reason why. Please explain what could cause this and how I can avoid problems like this in the future. Thanks! Jeremy ... View more