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MaritvanHelden
MaritvanHelden
Participant
May 28, 2016
Answered

Hand tool (spacebar) isn't working [2016]

  • May 28, 2016
  • 51 replies
  • 209020 views

Hello,

 

 

I got creative cloud with Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign etc.

But my hand tool shortcut with the spacebar isn't working

the hand does appear but when I try to move it gives no reaction

With the shortcut H it works.

I have already reinstalled everything, reset all my tools and reset my warning dialogs.

With my drawing tablet the shortcut also did work, until this morning. It stopped working.

Hope that someone got the answer for me this is pretty annoying I use the hand tool a lot.

 

Kind regards

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Trevor.Dennis

    Are you saying that the hand tool space bar shortcut has stopped working for all the Adobe apps you mentioned, or just Photoshop?  If you are using a Mac, and have a Wacom tablet, then you should probably rule out the White Window fix.  We have certainly had posts where systems only had one or two of the symptoms associated with the issue, and the White Window plug-in fixed it.

    Menus, shortcuts, Lasso tool, or Photoshop stop working when using a Wacom tablet | Mac OS

    My gut feeling is that it is not your issue, but it doesn't hurt to cross it off the list.

    51 replies

    Show previous replies
    S
    Saadawy
    Participant
    April 27, 2020

    Hey there, I think I found the solution I was playing around and when I pressed the space bar along with the Fn key! guess what! it worked.. 

     

    I hope this would be helpful. 

      D
      dwehaus
      Participant
      November 8, 2020

      this worked for me too...so weird, of course you can't press the function key and the spacebar with one hand and use the mouse at the same time (at least not very easily) so I thought this was a useless solution. BUT, now it works, with just the space bar!!!?! it's like it just needed it's little Adobe brain woken up.

        E
        es98469510
        Participant
        February 3, 2022

        Ha! Same for me, pressing Fn and spacebar. It "reset" it for me too. Now th shortcut works as it should. Thanks for posting this,

         

        jacsify
        jacsify
        Participant
        March 4, 2020

        This fixed it for me....

         

        Storytime first... The same thing just happened to me today, for the first time ever. Illustrator and Photoshop both, the space bar does nothing, though the cursor behaves normally otherwise. If I pressed (H) then I get the hand tool.

        I don't have 1Password or anything like it

        I deleted the prefs for Illustrator

        I closed Illustrator, closed Firefox, reopened Illustrator and nothing changed...

        THEN I realised that I installed Word (Office365) the day before and it was still open. Closed that, and SUDDENLY... SPACEBAR HAND TOOL WORKS AGAIN!! How the heck does that even work? Anyhoo. Just glad it's back. Hopefully this can help someone else.

          evdrguch
          evdrguch
          Participant
          April 30, 2020

          I had the exact same problem today and indeed, also just installed Word and had the program open. Closed it and the spacebar worked again in Photoshop. What the hell right? 

          M
          mercado.solutions
          Participant
          March 3, 2021

          I already quit safari and word and restarted photoshop and illustrator... spacebar is not working still

          YamesSaves
          YamesSaves
          Known Participant
          November 6, 2019

          I have had the same problem, I noticed its an error that only occurs if I am listening to music when I work, other music apps or internet browser uses the space bar to "stop and play", so I closed apps and browser and photoshop CC 19 space bar short cut started working again. Super strange error.

          tracyt36895971
          tracyt36895971
          Participant
          September 23, 2019

          Reset the NVRam (Pram) on the mac, hold down Option, Command, P, and R at restart

          danielv20957307
          danielv20957307
          Participant
          January 4, 2019

          Hi! I have a Laptop with windows and I can fix it, just when I press the space bar and make the "click" with the mouse wheel

          M
          misoa
          Participant
          December 6, 2018

          For me worked next solution: Turn off then turn on touch control on Wacom.

            M
            maxsatgwu
            Participant
            September 27, 2018

            I too was having trouble with spacebar panning in Windows 7 if I used the laptop touchpad (if I connected a mouse and used it instead, things were fine).

            I opened the Dell Touchpad program by going to the Start Menu and searching for "touchpad", then once that opened, hit the "Tapping" link next to the arrow at right, then unchecked the "Tap to click" option/setting. Now I can pan with the spacebar in Illustrator again.

            Cherieve
            Cherieve
            Participant
            September 18, 2018

            This has been happening to me as well although only in PS and AI. For some reason AE wasn't affected. Read through the posts above and terminated Malwarebytes (an anti-virus software) in Activity Monitor and voila! Spacebar worked instantly in PS-didn't even need to restart it. I did need to restart AI though. So happy I didn't have to go through the hassle of redoing prefs.

            J
            jwilliamcourtney
            Participant
            August 29, 2018

            I just had the problem that is being discussed here. Went to use the hand tool and I could not access it with the space bar. I checked some of the post here and tried to solve the problem. I discovered that the anti virus software I had just installed has an option for secure keyboard entry mode. I unchecked it and the problem was solved. I just have to decide if I will leave it off or turn it on and off before and after using Photoshop.

            coleb97779712
            coleb97779712
            Participant
            June 19, 2018

            I just had the same issue with Spacebar/hand tool shortcut. Restarted Safari and issue is solved

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