Channel Selections stopped working/ inactive

I am having the same issue. Ever since ready Photoshop Channel Chops, I have ALWAYS relied on channel operations to edit my photos. NOW however, I seem to be locked completely out of them. I can't save a selection as a channel and neither can I edit directly on a channel. For example, if I fill a channel with a gradient, it doesn't fill the channel but rather the entire LAYER with the gradient. I have uninstalled and then reinstalled Photoshop, but that hasn't helped. I feel like everything is upside down without my channels and I need this fixed ASAP!

Thank you for the reply.  That didn't resolve it.  The only work around I found was hitting Command+Shift+clicking within the masked layer to activate the channel mask.  It's atleast functional again.  I've spoken with several other people who have experienced the same issue.  Never happened before and then, within the last two weeks, it began.  I'm guessing it's a kink in the release of 24.4.1.  It's not like it's constantly crashing or ruining the entire PS experience, but maybe someone wants to get eyes on it when working on the next iteration.  Hopefully it's a minor fix.  Thanks again to jane-e and CoryShubert for their thoughtful replies.

Hi @groverq have you tried resetting your prefs to make sure you don't have anything corrupt going on?

Let's make sure we're in a default state and there are no stale settings somewhere: 

Restore your preferences using this manual method:  

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

Does it work correctly? 

If that doesn't solve it, you can quit Photoshop and put the Settings folder back. 

It may help if we could see your Photoshop System Info. Launch Photoshop, and select Help >System Info...and copy/paste the text in a reply.  

Hi jane-e,

Thank you for taking the time to respond.  Apologies for the screenshots not showing exactly what was happening at each step.  Especially the one in which Artisan Pro was covering the Channels panel - that particular screenshot was only meant to show the error message.  

The way you've described it is actually what I'm doing.  I will sometimes option+click the channel I wish to select and load.  It's never not worked.  The thing I don't understand is that I haven't changed anything in the way I have ever worked on any document in which I'm loading channel masks.  It's never once been an issue.  That's why I'm wondering if I've somehow hit some hidden keyboard shortcut that could be causing this.  Again, same workflow.  One day it worked fine, the next it didn't.

I appreciate the input and wish that had been the issue!

Still fidgeting around on my end in PS and more research online.

Best,

Mike

@groverq 

I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to do, but here are some observations:

Image 1:

you are on the channel plus you have loaded the selection. Try this: Select RGB, then press Option+Cmd+6. (Option plus the shortcut is an alternative for clicking the circle)

Images 3

You are on RGB. Click the eyeball to make the "New BG" channel visible.

Image 2

Artisan Pro X is covering your panel, but it appear to be the same issue as Image 3.

Please clarify if this does not answer your question.

Jane