Participant

P: Photoshop drawing random lines when using tools (Remove, Brush and other drawing tools)

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
January 28, 2026
158 replies
4550 views

Bonjour,

Quand j'utilise l'Outil Correcteur Localisé en cliquant avec ma souris sur une zone de la photo à l’écran, une multitude de lignes partent dans tous les sens. Donc cet outil ne fonctionne plus depuis plusieurs jours. Est-ce un bug ?

Pinned Reply By Bkelley01

I was having the same issues with multiple tools in Photoshop. Finally after a day of trying all things, we have found a solution on Reddit. I tried it and it fixed it right up. This is for PC only.

Create a text document with Notepad. Name it “PSUserConfig.txt”
Write “UseSystemStylus 0” in the text body (that’s a zero not an “O”)
Save it in “C:\Users\*YOUR USER NAME*\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2026\Adobe Photoshop 2026 Settings

(In step 3, *YOUR USER NAME* is unique to whatever your username is.)

Restart photoshop and the tools should work again.

Credit to u/Professional_Use442 on Reddit for sharing this fix. Note: If you want to use the stylus again you’ll have to follow their instructions on how to re--enable the stylus mode.

Ged_Traynor

Community Expert

@Bettybbb your issue may be related to this thread, have a look at the pinned answer to see if it helps

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

What have you done for all-purpose trouble-shooting so far?

Restoring Preferences after making sure all customized presets like Actions, Patterns, Brushes etc. have been saved might be a good starting point:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/basic-trouble-shooting-steps.html

What is your input device?

Bettybbb

Participant

Why are Photoshop tools suddenly becoming uncontrollable, forcing me to scribble randomly the first time I click the button? They're just drawing randomly following the mouse cursor.How can I do??😭 I already try to restart computer and PS but still no use.

It suddenly turned like this when I was using the software.

Please, can someone help me? It's urgent.🙏

anthony_9108

Participant

A combination of Resetting All Tools, Uninstalling and Reinstalling Photoshop (twice), and restarting my computer (twice) finally fixed it for me.

Ged_Traynor

Community Expert

@anthony_9108 your issue may be related to this thread, have a look at the pinned reply to see if it helps

anthony_9108

Participant

I have uninstalled and reinstalled the latest version of photoshop, and I have reset all tools. Neither helps.

P

Propaganda

Participant

Hello, I have the same problem, photohsop has become unusabled….. how come such a company destroy their own product??????? I’m not an IT specialist and do not intent to become one to solve the problem. Is there a simple way to fix it? i’ve tried simple different things (update pilot GPU, reset brush, disactivate GPU, resintalled older version that used to work but do not work anymore….. etc.) but nothing works. should i switch to Affinity??????? Completly frustrating, is there any any help desk on Adobe????? Best regards

P

Pom_9Ming

Community Manager

Have you tried the pinned comment above?

1. Create a text document with Notepad. Name it “PSUserConfig.txt”
2. Write “UseSystemStylus 0” in the text body (that’s a zero not an “O”)
3. Save it in “C:\Users\*YOUR USER NAME*\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2026\Adobe Photoshop 2026 Settings.

This method was quite effective.

P

Propaganda

Participant

I wanted to thanks you because it looks like it is working. Looks like everything is less smooth than before (as if there an additional layer that slow down everything, but it still works!). May i ask if i can upgrade back to latest Photoshop version (and the trick still works?) Or should i remain to old version? Many thanks again!!!!!!!

E

Elutka

Participant

Hello,

I'm experiencing a reproducible issue in Photoshop 27.8.0.

Environment:

Photoshop version: 27.8.0 Release

Windows

Original Logitech wireless USB mouse (receiver)

Adobe Illustrator and Paint 3D work correctly with the same mouse.

Problem: A single mouse click with the Brush Tool, Spot Healing Brush Tool (and other brush-based tools) creates a short random line instead of a single dot. The line direction changes randomly with every click.

What I tested:

Disabled GPU acceleration.

Reset Brush Settings.

Different brush presets.

Reduced file size.

The issue also occurs with the standard Brush Tool.

Mouse works normally in Paint 3D.

Illustrator works normally.

This appears to be Photoshop-specific.

Could you please investigate whether this is a regression in Photoshop 27.8.0?

Thank you.

ACEkin

Participating Frequently

You may want to read the article I published on my website on this specific issue and how I resolved it. The cause, at least in my case, was not related to Photoshop. The link to the article:

https://www.keptlight.com/strange-photoshop-problem/

I hope that may be of help.

ACEkin

Participating Frequently

I found a solution to my problem in a very odd way. It still does not explain what was causing the problem.

I created a new user on the same computer, logged in with the new credentials, started Photoshop, and all the tools were working fine even with scaling more than 100%. Then, I moved all my files from under my original user account to the new account, including all the AppData folders. Now, I can run it at high resolution with 150% scaling, and everything is working OK. I am still using all the applications installed on this computer under the original user. Phew! (Until the next mystery problem!)

ACEkin

Participating Frequently

I can now trigger this problem at will! I use an image viewing software, FastStone viewer, but it may happen with other applications too. HiRes screens make it difficult to see the menus and other screen elements and much advised process is to change the HiDef screen handling from the EXE file properties. Putting a checkmark in that box and selecting to override high DPI setting, and then choosing System (Enhanced) option and saving it starts the problem. Even though it is not Photoshop.exe files proerties are changed, after the above changes to FastStone.exe file, Photoshop starts showing the odd behavior along with another one I tried to solve for quite a long time. From now on, I will not override the high DPI setting in the properties. They even recommend the same change to be applied to Photoshop.exe file to enlarge the UI. WARNING, if you do this, immediately chech how Photoshop is responding.

ACEkin

Participating Frequently

I wrote an article on my site to summarize my findings:

https://www.keptlight.com/strange-photoshop-problem/

ACEkin

Participating Frequently

I tried this but my problem continues. This file changed the width of the brush a little at the far end. I am putting links to two Dropbox screen capture videos. One is how the brush behaves and the other polygon lasso. In the brush video, each click produces a diagonal line. If I hold the Shift key down, it adds a horizontal line to it. The lasso video shows a similar behavior as if the cursor is a fixed distance away. I used the touch-pad and a mouse, the behavior is identical with both. I used the polygon lasso tool on the paint brush drawings.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/e6xrczvj42fhs0rey4ycl/Photoshop-paint-brush-problem.mp4?rlkey=v5iqwr08b3mprqc276xpx5pib&dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ezo47viwab8d0yszfcn2w/Photoshop-polygon-lasso-behavior.mp4?rlkey=c7dtz096iadhd2kvqljlvkq3j&dl=0

This is happening on a laptop, LG gram, 17” screen. The same problem occurs with other similar tools like the healing brush, stamp, spot healing brush.

Looking forward to a solution.

ACEkin

Participating Frequently

I would like to add another piece of information. My laptop display recommendations are as follows:

Any Scale setting other than 100% creates these problems. If I set the Scale to 100% tools start working as expected. But, then, the interface gets too small to read. As I mentioned in my original post, my laptop is an LG gram, 17” screen laptop. I even uninstalled Photoshop and reinstalled it, but it is unusable on this computer. On my desktop, it workes even though its Scale setting is over 100%.

If I change the Display Resolution to 1920x1200 and keep the scaling at 100% Photoshop tools seem to work fine. The problem seems to be related to display scaling.

E

Erika2963947283u1

Participant

Hola tuve el mismo problema y probe haciendo esto y aparentemente funciona. De todas maneras Photoshop no deberia hacer esto arreglenlo! desperdicie horas de mi dia hoy tratando de trabajar y fue muy molesto hasta que lo pude resolver.

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