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jeromea13244388
jeromea13244388
Inspiring
August 27, 2026
Answered

Brush flickering to arrow when drawing on a layer with a mask in Photoshop 27.9.1

Hi,

I’m not sure when and how this bug appeared but I noticed today that the brush is flickering to an arrow cursor (similar to this bug 

 )  when I’m drawing on a layer with a mask on. I don’t know why but it’s extremely annoying, please fix this.
I’m on Windows 11 and the latest version of Photoshop.
Here is a video/screen capture showing the problem, notice how the bug disappear when the mask is disabled and reappears when it is activated :
 

 

hiroki_0820
hiroki_0820Correct answer
Participating Frequently
September 21, 2026

Solved: Disabling “Enable Generator” fixed the brush cursor flickering to the Windows arrow

I believe I have finally identified the cause of this issue, at least in my environment.

Solution

Go to:

Preferences > Plugins > uncheck “Enable Generator”

After disabling Generator, the cursor flickering completely stopped.

I was also able to reproduce the issue consistently:

Generator OFF → No flickering
Generator ON → Flickering occurs
Generator OFF again → Flickering disappears

The problem was especially noticeable when painting on or working with layers that had pixel layer masks enabled. The brush cursor would briefly change to the standard Windows arrow while painting.

How I found the cause

I had been experiencing this issue for a long time and tested many possible causes, including GPU acceleration, OpenCL, GPU compositing, cache levels, cache tile size, document resolution, number of layers, and various layer mask settings.

Some settings, particularly Cache Levels, seemed to affect how frequently the flickering occurred, but none of them were the root cause. The issue could also occur with GPU acceleration completely disabled.

Eventually, I replaced my current Photoshop settings folder with a backup from a time when the problem was not occurring. The flickering disappeared completely, even in a large working document.

I then compared the working and problematic preference files and narrowed the difference down to MachinePrefs.psp.

Replacing only the working MachinePrefs.psp with the problematic version immediately brought the flickering back.

Comparing the settings stored in the two files revealed this difference:

Working: generatorEnabled = OFF
Problematic: generatorEnabled = ON

I then tested this directly in Photoshop by changing only the Enable Generator option. Turning it ON caused the problem, and turning it OFF fixed it again.

I had actually enabled Generator recently because I needed to use Photoshop’s image asset generation feature, but I had completely forgotten about changing this setting.

So, if you are experiencing a similar issue where the brush cursor briefly flickers to the Windows arrow—especially when working with layer masks—I strongly recommend trying:

Preferences > Plugins > Disable “Enable Generator”

This may not be the cause of every cursor-flickering issue, but in my case the Generator setting was reproducibly responsible for it.

View reply

10 replies

hiroki_0820
hiroki_0820Correct answer
Participating Frequently
September 21, 2026

Solved: Disabling “Enable Generator” fixed the brush cursor flickering to the Windows arrow

I believe I have finally identified the cause of this issue, at least in my environment.

Solution

Go to:

Preferences > Plugins > uncheck “Enable Generator”

After disabling Generator, the cursor flickering completely stopped.

I was also able to reproduce the issue consistently:

Generator OFF → No flickering
Generator ON → Flickering occurs
Generator OFF again → Flickering disappears

The problem was especially noticeable when painting on or working with layers that had pixel layer masks enabled. The brush cursor would briefly change to the standard Windows arrow while painting.

How I found the cause

I had been experiencing this issue for a long time and tested many possible causes, including GPU acceleration, OpenCL, GPU compositing, cache levels, cache tile size, document resolution, number of layers, and various layer mask settings.

Some settings, particularly Cache Levels, seemed to affect how frequently the flickering occurred, but none of them were the root cause. The issue could also occur with GPU acceleration completely disabled.

Eventually, I replaced my current Photoshop settings folder with a backup from a time when the problem was not occurring. The flickering disappeared completely, even in a large working document.

I then compared the working and problematic preference files and narrowed the difference down to MachinePrefs.psp.

Replacing only the working MachinePrefs.psp with the problematic version immediately brought the flickering back.

Comparing the settings stored in the two files revealed this difference:

Working: generatorEnabled = OFF
Problematic: generatorEnabled = ON

I then tested this directly in Photoshop by changing only the Enable Generator option. Turning it ON caused the problem, and turning it OFF fixed it again.

I had actually enabled Generator recently because I needed to use Photoshop’s image asset generation feature, but I had completely forgotten about changing this setting.

So, if you are experiencing a similar issue where the brush cursor briefly flickers to the Windows arrow—especially when working with layer masks—I strongly recommend trying:

Preferences > Plugins > Disable “Enable Generator”

This may not be the cause of every cursor-flickering issue, but in my case the Generator setting was reproducibly responsible for it.

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    jeromea13244388
    jeromea13244388Author
    Inspiring
    September 22, 2026

    Thank you ! You are right, it’s the same thing with me, the flickering appear and disappear whether I check or uncheck “Enable Generator”. I don’t even have to close and reopen Photoshop to see the difference, the flickering appears right after I check “Enable Generator” and make a brush stroke on a layer with a mask.

    After I reset preferences, the flickering disappeared and I didn’t understand why, and now I see that I indeed had all the plugins options unchecked.

    Again thank you, you found the root of the problem ! I hope that someone from Adobe will read your message and that the bug will get solved accordingly.

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      hiroki_0820
      hiroki_0820
      Participating Frequently
      September 22, 2026

      Dear jeromea13244388,

      I’m very happy to hear that this solution worked in your environment as well!
      Thank you very much for taking the time to reply and let me know that the issue has been resolved.

      I truly hope this information will also help others experiencing the same problem.

      Translate
        jeromea13244388
        jeromea13244388Author
        Inspiring
        September 8, 2026

        ​@AxelMatt So here is a strange thing : the bug disappeared when i reset preferences, all well and good. And then I upgraded to photoshop 27.10 and the bug reappears ! And it stays when i downgrade to 26.9.1… I had to reset preferences again. I think it’s linked to some preset especially but I can’t figure which.

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        Community Expert
        AxelMattCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        September 8, 2026

        ​... I think it’s linked to some preset especially but I can’t figure which.

         

        Maybe or not. I can be also a setting in the prefrences which is reset to a default value on preferences reset.

         

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        My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 26H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 9 - PureRAW 6 - Topaz Photo AI
        Community Expert
        AxelMattCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        August 27, 2026

        Unfortunately you haven't given us any information about your system. Therefore, all proposed solutions are a look into the crystal ball

         

        Please provide a copy of your 'System Info'. This can be get from the Photoshop menu item Help > System Info. There's a copy button in the System Info dialog. Press this button and paste the info into a text file and attach it to your next forum post.

         

        In the meantime try to reset the Photoshop preferences

        https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/photoshop/using/preferences.html#Manually

        Remember to back up your settings before doing the preference reset

        https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/photoshop/using/preset-migration.html

         

        Try also to disable the option to "Use Graphics Procesor" from Photoshop by going to Preferences, then Performance. Once done, quit & relaunch Photoshop to check if that helps.

        If it helps, you can check out the steps suggested here:   https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-gpu-graphics-card.html

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        My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 26H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 9 - PureRAW 6 - Topaz Photo AI
        sbn85
        sbn85
        Inspiring
        August 27, 2026

        that doesnt metter if person gave information about system or not because still the only response you will give him is to reset preferences. Crystal ball is only needed to possibly find single person who solved photoshop problems with resetting preferences. Well maybe just in case if you notice that someone use GeForce game ready driver then you would say never install game ready driver.

        Btw. ​@jeromea13244388 you can also try to clean mouse ball, experts here says it maybe be a problem too.

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        jeromea13244388
        jeromea13244388Author
        Inspiring
        August 27, 2026

        @sbn85 Funnily (?) enough, i reset my preferences out of desperation and it did the trick… And I did the test : when I copy/paste my old settings, the bug reappears so I don’t know what’s in those settings but it’s causing the bug somehow… Crossing fingers that it doesn’t come back.

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