P: Some brush presets only work with certain tools (eraser, brush, clone, etc)

When you turn on Additional Preset Info, you'll see an icon of the tool that the preset was saved with right next to the brush stroke (or dab or name, if that's what you have chosen in the menu to show). If it shows the Mixer Brush icon and you're holding an eraser, you'll instantly know that if you click on that brush tip, your tool will  switch to the Mixer Brush. That's very convenient if you want to use it "as designed." You don't have to select the "right" tool first.

It's very inconvenient if you want to use it with the Eraser. So with that info showing, you know right away, before you select the tip, to hold down the Cmd-Option while clicking on the brush tip. You won't find yourself clicking, then saying drat and having to go back to the tools panel to reselect the Eraser.

And I totally agree with you. It would be nice if customer support really knew the software they're helping you with. As a user, I might think that should have been an easy one to help you with, but it takes a lot of time and effort to learn all the ins and outs of working with Photoshop, and that level of expertise is probably not going to be found in a call center all that often. Here we users can help with what we know, but none of us is expected to be able to answer just any question that comes our way. Unfortunately, they are.

What could help us all, users, call center folk, everyone, would be a properly indexed online Help site. Unfortunately, online Help rarely does help because it only offers interesting chapter titles for searching. It looks great—aesthetically pretty decently designed, but I age quickly trying to use it.  Without Google to help me find what I'm looking for, I probably never would.

I tried the suggestion in the top paragraph and that does work.  Thank you much!  I'm not quite sure what the second paragraph suggests and haven't tried it.  It would have been nice if Adobe tech support knew or found out the info in the top paragraph in the hour I was on the phone with them.

I suggest you read the other comments from an earlier period. You can use brushes with all the tools. If you select a tool that you want to use with a particular brush tip, simply hold down Cmd-Option or Ctrl-Alt when you click on it. Now your eraser or clone stamp uses that brush tip.

I suggest you turn on Show Additional Preset Info in the Brushes panel flyout menu. That will help you identify if you're selecting a brush tip that has other tool settings from the tool you're holding. If no tool was saved with the brush tip, you can use it with any tool. If you see another tool, then use the kbsc to switch the tip to your current tool.

Changes in the way the brush tools work.  Now you can't use all the brushes with all the tools.  Most brushes only work with certain tools (eraser, brush, clone, etc).  Whose bright idea was that?  A big step back in functionality!!!!!  Raise the price and screw up the tools.  Way to go Adobe.  A least train your tech support reps to recognize the issue and not waste an hour of my time.  Why in the world would you make this change????

Thank you!

Select the tool, then Cmd-Opt (or Ctrl-Alt) + click on the brush you want and it will stick to your tool. It overrides the brush's tool setting.

I also now see the little icon but how do you change which tool is being applied?

OH my gosh!!  You are absolutely correct!  I didn't know this and didn't notice that the "tool tip" with the brush DOES say (clone stamp tool).  As soon as I changed to the General Brush folder and chose a soft round from there, it worked fine.  Thank you SO much, I could totally hug you.  Thanks....now I have work to do!

How are you switching to a new brush? If you're using the Brush panel, there's a good chance you're selecting a cloner, since they've recently added the option to include tool settings with brushes.
The little icon in the upper right indicates which tool is being applied to the brush...

As of today, I am having this issue (PS 19.1.3), nothing seems to resolve it; I have reset PS prefs, reset tools.  If I use the clone tool, then switch to brush, choose a new brush, as soon as I do that, it switches back to the clone tool.  Right now, it is only the brush tool that is an issue, but the brush tool is completely unusable.  VERY frustrating since I have a LOT of work to do and no way to do it.   PLEASE fix this issue!