P: Spring-loaded tool feature is misbehaving

Hi, 

Can folks here let me know if this occurs only when using a pen/stylus on tablet or it occurs with mouse on PC as well? Based on current replies it appears to happen on both macOS and windows.

The more people that reply to this, the better it'll be for us to try to investigate this issue.

Thanks.

Just wanted to chime in that this has been happening since 2019, i remember it was before covid and i was still working from the office, and i think it started in january that year or similar. The sensitivity of the spring loaded function has been up and down a rollercoaster since then, first it was unusable, then it was bearable, now it occurs sometimes but it still is annoying. I really just wish they added an option to disable this, because if this is an issue with tablet/keyboard shotcuts bug i bet with each wacom update and photoshop update it will just get messed up again. just please add an option to disable this, this function is just something no one who used photoshop for a long time uses or wants.

@Vaibhav5FE5 Hopefully we can have this issue resolved once and for all

It's difficult to debug such issue. But my guess would be that some event - keyboard event or tablet touch - reaches application after some delay, or there's some event repeated. This could also be due to hardware, using BT keyboard but that's highly unlikely since without tablet issue doesn't occur.
Anyway, I'll try to check from app side also, and find if there had been any changes related to event handling before PS version 21.x
Thanks for your input!

@Vaibhav5FE5 

Hmmm interesing, I tried with my own mouse, and I couldn't replicate the issue. So I guess we can zero it down to tablet+software compability issue ?

I also tried swapping the tool while the tablet stylus are in the tap state, it does felt like the bug, with the tool immediately switching to the tool that's hit. But then again, it doesn't explain why the second stroke of the tools will switch. In the video, I only hit "E" once to switch to Eraser, and didn't hit "B" during the tapped state of the first stroke to turn it into a brush on the next...

@leosn56185363 
I do not have a drawing tablet(wacom, xp-pen etc.) right now to compare the behavior exactly. But I tried on a Mac in PS version 21.x and the latest one using my touchpad and bluetooth mouse. With current resources I'm unable to reproduce the issue. But noticed one thing that in case keys('E' or 'B' etc.) are pressed while mouse/touchpad are in tapped state(clicked and dragged without lifting.),  swap is not done which is normal behavior.
Were you able to get the issue without using a drawing tablet? It might be possible that a delayed event occurred due to it. Let me know about it and I'll check comments from other users to see if I could find something useful.

@Vaibhav5FE5 

Forgot to add, the test I did is very simple, just switching between the Brush tool, and Eraser tool. doing multiple strokes with each tool before switching to other. From my experiences, other tools will get triggered too, from lasso to wand, but I just use brush and eraser because that's the most common tools combination, we, digital artists will use.

I am using a wacom cintiq 16 tablet, but I encountered the same problem with other tablets (old and newer models) before in case you're wondering

@Vaibhav5FE5 
Hi I am glad someone from engineering is looking into it. I pretty much described it as clear as i could from previous replies. I attached a video of it happening, it happened at the 8 sec to 10 sec mark, when the second stroke with the eraser switched back to the brush tool without me doing anything (fingers were away from neither keys ("E" and "B"), it is quite hard to capture on video because it really seemingly only get triggered on random as you can see from the rest of video. 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B7x-G9yvvk6UcJqJm_FF2_KTQCd7_xms/view?usp=sharing 

This test wasn't in done in real work condition where I switched multiples tools around rapidly, so it actually occurred more often because of it. 

As for which was the last version that I didn't encounter this, I really can't remember, because for the longest time it doesn't occur to me that this is a software bug as I always worked and switch tools fast, so I had never assumed it's a bug but more of an issue of mis-hitting a shortcut or a lagging hardware, until after multiple hardware/OS updates later that's when I notice it more frequently even when I slow down my tool switching. 

@leosn56185363 
Hi,

I am from the engineering team that has started investigating the issue, and tried the scenarios presented below:-
1. press B(changes to brush tool) > press E(eraser tool) > press I(Eyedropper tool) : changes tools seemlessly when key pressed and lifted within ~1 second.
2. press B(changes to brush tool) > press & hold E for ~2 or more seconds(eraser tool) > use mouse to use erasor on sheet > lift mouse button > lift key & tool reverts to brush
3. press B(changes to brush tool) > press & hold E for ~2 or more seconds(eraser tool) > use mouse to use erasor on sheet >  lift key > lift mouse button : does not revert to brush tool

I would like some help from you -
1. I need a more detailed description(if possible, please include scenarios like I mentioned above) of the problem you're facing.
2. If you could attach a video of the problem with your comments while recording, it would further help me better understand the difficulty you are facing.
3. The last PS version when you think everything was working fine(as per previous comments PS 2018 or 20.x)|

Let's have a fresh start and get to the root of this issue. Other users can provide input from their side as well.

I was wondering why I stopped getting updates 2 months ago, y'all closed the original thread. Cool.

This was 6 months ago, as I'd repeatedly attempted to get Adobe to notice that Photoshop's "Spring Loaded Tools" feature is the most garbage feature in any art program out there, and we NEED the ability to toggle it off. This is crippling my work flow.

You know when I wanna switch back to the eraser? When I press E.

NOT WHEN I LET GO OF B.

I PRESS B TO SWITCH TO BRUSH

NOT TO SWITCH TO ERASER AFTER ONE STROKE

LET US TOGGLE IT OFF AND STOP LYING TO US SAYING YOU'RE WORKING ON IT, YOU ABSOLUTELY ARE NOT