Inspiring

Question

Contextual task bar disappears

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
February 4, 2026
6 replies
319 views

I'm running the latest available update of Photoshop Beta (27.4.0) on Windows 11. Starting with the last 2 or 3 updates, the contextual text bar disappears at random times. I've tried the suggested ways of restoring it, but nothing works other than shutting down & restarting Photoshop. I've never had this problem until the last few updates.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Sorry, I can’t give you a fix, but I can confirm that I see the same thing a lot of the time. I also have an issue that I have seen other people report on this forum, that being that after making a selection and clicking on Generate in the CTB, the input field does not accept type.

My workaround in both cases is to open the Generative Fill panel (Alt Ctrl B)

It’s a nicer way to work anyway, having the larger input area.

Note: It is greyed out unless you have an active selection

Nikhil Maid

Participant

"Is anyone else facing the same issue? I've been struggling with it! Has anyone found a solution?"

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Teri5F92

Participating Frequently

No solution yet - I suspect that my work-provided computer is geriatric.
I’m running Photoshop 27.4.0 on a PC with 32 GB of RAM, an Intel Core i5-8400 CPU, and Intel UHD Graphics 630 integrated graphics. My system was recently upgraded to Windows 11 Pro. Photoshop performance has been intermittent. I think the older CPU/GPU combination may be contributing to the issue, especially when multiple applications are using memory at the same time.

I’ve already uninstalled and reinstalled Photoshop, and I removed older Adobe app versions to reduce background resource usage. I still receive low-memory warnings on my PC. Also, after the computer sleeps for an extended period, the Photoshop contextual task bar disappears and only returns after I restart the computer.

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Teri5F92

Participating Frequently

I just installed it and it does this after 1 week of use. Version 27.4.0

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gradycoug

Participating Frequently

You’re not the only one this is happening. How annoying… typical Adobe product glitch, costing me more time - AGAIN. Watch, someone at Adobe will ask me to clear my cache or reset preferences in 3-2-1...

MarekMularczyk

Community Expert

Have you tried resetting Photoshop preferences?

Adobe Community ExpertAdobe Certified Professional

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eyeland99Author

Inspiring

Which particular preference settings related to the conceptual task bar would you suggest checking & changing?

MarekMularczyk

Community Expert

I would just reset Photoshop preferences which would give you a fresh start. It would be like having a fresh install of Photoshop without actually reinstalling it ;-)

Adobe Community ExpertAdobe Certified Professional

Ged_Traynor

Community Expert

@eyeland99 you’d be better off reporting the issue on the Photoshop Beta forum

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