When I switch to any tool that utilizes a brush, my cursor does not change to the brush radius, but stays the standard cursor arrow.

Question

When I switch to any tool that utilizes a brush of some sort (paintbrush, eraser, clone stamp, refine edge tool), my cursor just stays as the default system mouse cursor. It’s making it very hard to correct roto mattes.

I saw someone had this problem 3 years ago in another thread, but no answer was posted.

I’ve tried restarting After Effects to no effect. I’d appreciate any input.

I’m working in After Effects 2026.5 on macOS Sequoia 15.9 with 64GB memory.

CORCTON34033231 · Answer

Hi SinghSingh,For strange behaviour like this, Adobe's official FAQ recommends resetting the After Effects preferences. The official troubleshooting steps are:1. Quit After Effects, then hold down Command + Option + Shift (Mac OS) while launching After Effects again.2. Release the keys when you see the Startup Repair Options dialog.3. In that dialog, click Reset Preferences to reset all preferences to their default settings. The same dialog also offers Start in Safe Mode, which runs a one-time session with default preferences if you want to test the brush tools first.One note from the FAQ: resetting preferences undoes most of your customizations, but it does not affect your project files.Full FAQ: https://community.adobe.com/questions-529/faq-how-to-reset-trash-preferences-in-after-effects-74030Please let us know if the brush cursor comes back after that.

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