P: Photoshop Action: 'Set current adjustment layer' does not apply to Levels and Curves

bellevue scott,

From which source are you using the Adjustments Layers to record your actions?

Is it Window>Adjustments, Layer>New Adjustment Layer or the fly-out menu from the bottom of the Layers panel?

Using the Adjustments Panel must be the missing piece and why i couldn’t replicate the issue?

I was using the Layers Panel and the Layer>New Adjustment Layer menu.

If i use the Window>Adjustments then i can easily replicate the issue, however if i use either Layer>New Adjustment Layer or the Adjustments Layer menu at the bottom of the Layers panel all the steps are recorded.

In my test screenshot below the top set of actions were recorded using Window>Adjustments

and the outcome was as davescm got, however, the second action set recored from the bottom of the Layers menu seemed to record all the adjustments.

I can replicate this, in 27.3 on Windows 11, and can also add a step that gets around it.

If when recording the adjustment layer actions, I add the layer make the adjustment then move straight to add the next adjustment layer then the step to make the adjustment is not recorded (except for the last added layer).

However, if I add the layer, make the adjustment then click on the adjustment layer in the layers panel, then move on to add the next adjustment layer, the adjustment step is recorded correctly. The actual adjustment is recorded on clicking back in the layers panel.

I suspect that is the difference between the OP and others testing. I just checked v26.11 and it works the same way there.

Dave

Well, this is easy enough to test, so I did, on a 16 bit TIFF.

All the adjustment layers were correctly recorded, with adjustments.

So this is clearly corrupt preferences. Before resetting, make sure you have all your actions saved out to .atn files, so that you can reload them after resetting. 

The most complete way to reset preferences is to move the whole “Adobe Photoshop 2026 Settings” folder in your user account to your desktop, so a new one can be rebuilt.

It might help us find a cause if you could record a video of the process your using to record the actions.

Also, what happens if you try to record and playback the action on some other file format like jpegs?

it would be nice if someone from Adobe could reply to this. I’ve tested on several versions, windows and mac, on 4 computers now. It’s not a specific computer. I’ve reproduced this four times now on four different machines, so this is clearly reproducible. I can’t be the only one. And yet, from Adobe, crickets….

I would try a preferences reset on the Photoshop 27.3 version and see if that makes a difference.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/desktop/get-started/settings-and-preferences/reset-preferences.html

There has been an ongoing issue with actions and documents in the Grayscale color mode, but i haven’t seen or heard of any in the production version of Photoshop 2026 in the RGB Color Mode and/or 8 bits/Channel.

What is the Image Mode and Bit Depth of the tif file used for recording the initial action?

If it’s something other than RGB Color and 8 Bits/Channel, try converting to those values before recording the action, then do the same for the other test tif and see if that makes any difference.

We just did a test where we make one adjustment layer, stop the action recording, then restart action recording, do another, stop, restart action recording etc, and that works. So what we’re seeing is that actions only record and remember one adjustment layer at a time. 

Again, any help or confirmation would be appreciated. 

We just tested this on a Windows machine  too and had the same results. Windows PS version 26.11.2 on Win 10 pro version 19045.6466.

The thing is, we have tons of actions. We’ve made actions for years, and now across several newer versions of PS actions just aren’t working? So weird. Any help would be much appreciated. 

I have PS on several computers, and all are now exhibiting this behavior where new actions don’t record the adjustments made. I’ve tested this on three versions of PS (26.8.0, 27.3.0, and 25.12.4), on Mac OS 15.7.2 and 15.7.3. This of course confuses me because it’s now across versions, but it’s a new behavior. But it’s helpful to know it’s not one computer or one version. 

Open new TIF file

Create new action

Create several adjustment layers, levels, curves, selective color, hue

Make adjustments in each adjustment layer as you create them

stop recording

Open new TIF file

run previous action

expected: adjustments will be made

actual: adjustment layers are created, but the adjustments are blank. No adjustments have been made, EXCEPT the very last layer adjustment made. 

Has anyone else seen this? What is causing this?