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Anonymous

Answered

Keyboard not working properly in Photoshop CS5 (Mac OS)

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
September 25, 2010
24 replies
121357 views

Hi, I am having issues with my newly installed Photoshop CS5. Most of my keyboard functions are not working, as if Photoshop did not recognize that keys were eing pressed.

When creating a new document or saving a file, I cannot type anything into the document name field. Same happens when trying to create a new folder to save in.

No tool shortcuts work (M for marquee, B for brush, V for move, etc.). On-canvas brush changes ([ and ] for size, { and } for hardness) also do not work.

Most regular shortcuts do work (Cmd+Z, Cmd+S, etc.) but "advanced" shortcuts do not work (Cmd+Alt+Z, Cmd+Shift+Z, etc.).

Any idea on why this might be happening? I used Photoshop CS4 before with no problems. Other Adobe programs (Dreamweaver, Flash, Acrobat, etc.) are working normally.

Thank you.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer c.pfaffenbichler

Do you have access to a second keyboard you could switch with your current one just to make sure it is not a hardware-issue?

Other than that: have you updated Photoshop yet?

Show previous replies

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DanaHallTSS

Participant

This is not a bug with apple drivers. Based on all the reports in your forums, people with different video card solutions are experiencing the same issue. Windows and OSX operatings systems spanning everything from 10.6.1 and up as well as WinXP and Win7. Can one one please give a technical answer instead of pointing fingers? If it were a driver issue, which I do not believe it to be, then what about the driver is causing the marquee tool border to be invisible during selection? One of my end users reported that the tool broke after running the latest set of updates via Adobe DLM. Is it possible one of your updates created this issue? What files were modified in that update? Thank you in advance for your assistance in resolving this issue.

DanaHall Desktop Support Specialist

System:

Lenovo M91p

Intel i5

Intel generated graphics

Photoshop CS5 and CS5.5

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briandkatz1

Known Participant

I had this problem and then realized my keyboard was set to a different language.

I set it back to English (American, Canadian, either) and then it worked again.

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briandkatz1

Known Participant

i was on CS4 but similar stuff. Specifically none of my command-key shortcuts worked.

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computerwerk

Participant

Also software like Bamboo Dock by Wacom has caused problem like this.

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Mama Shan

Participating Frequently

We juat started having this problem with the tool shortcuts not working on 2 of our Windows Vista Computers. One computer has Photoshop CS5 and the other has Photoshop CS3. The shortcuts for resizing the brush (the bracket keys) do not resize anymore, the adjust the opacity/flow instead. Pressing any of the keyboard letters like V or J or B do nothing. I deleted Prefs on both systems and this did not solve the problem. Re-booted and everything! Pressed down real hard a few times on the Spacebar (as sometimes this works to release the omnipresent hand tool).

The temporary solution I found to work, in both cases, was to "Run As Administrator" those respective Photoshops. On PC, you right click on the Photoshop application icon and choose that option to "Run As Administrator" and even though it's the same program, running in this fashion restored the normal functions of the tool shortcuts and use of the bracket keys to resize a brush. But launching the programs the normal way, and it's right back to the non-functioning or out of whack tool shortcuts. The biggest annoyance is the bracket keys affecting the flow rather than size of the brush diameter.

Now, let me say this, on both computers, we did recently download Comcasts, Constant Guard with Norton, and we've run all the scans and a clean up Registry task on both computers. I am wondering if the Registry cleanup process is the culprit. Any takers?

Mama Shan

Chris Cox

Legend

So I doubt if it is the same cause as was being discussed here in the Photoshop Macintosh forum.

And somewhere on your system you have another program/utility or setting that can still mess up keyboard shortcuts.

And, as noted in the Windows forums, the Comcast "utilities" are known to cause keyboard conflicts.

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Mama Shan

Participating Frequently

Thanks Mr. Chris! After doing a search on this new platform, I just picked the most recently dated post having to do with keyboard shortcuts not working.

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nikbon

Participant

Well, after spending some time on the phone with Adobe trying to resolve this issue, then spending hours at the Genius bar at an Apple store, it turned out to be something on my Mac reacting with Photoshop. I had to do a complete back-up, then Erase and Re-install of my OS. Extremely time consuming and annoying, but did the trick. The issue is gone. Apple said that sometimes plugins or other applicaiton preferences can cause corruption. One of the Geniuses I met with said he actually does a complete erase and reinstall every year to prevent things like this from happening. Yuck!!

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darrenwhitley

Participant

I found that by uninstalling the plugin for my Logitech Nulooq controller, I was able to get my Photoshop to begin working properly with the keyboard. Because this device has programmed buttons, I believe that's why my keyboard was not functioning properly with Photoshop. If I had unplugged the device, it's likely PS would have worked fine as well. I love this tool, it's really too bad that it never went totally mainstream.

I use Photoshop CS3 on a Windows 7 32-bit machine. Note that if you are interesting in using a Nulooq on Windows 7 64-bit, you're very likely to have problems. Sadly, I don't believe there will ever be a driver for it.

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matja78

Participant

My fellow worker had the same kind of problem with her Mac and Phostoshop CS5 and we managed to fix it this way.

When you are in Photoshop and editing text, try pressing Mac-command key and space-bar at the same time. These keys are shortcut keys for both Phostoshop and OS X operating system. Somehow if you press them when editing text in Photoshop, the default input device is also changed on operating system. This is why keyboard does not work properly with Photoshop anyore, at least it was like this in our case and as i said, you can change this back to normal by pressing Mac-command key and space-bar when working with Phostohop.

You can change command-key + space-bar shortcut settings on operating system in the System settings menu -> International -> Input Menu.

Anastasiy Safari

Inspiring

I'm having the same issue for maybe a month with PS CS5. Not sure, what triggered the bug.

Cmd-Z and many other shortcuts are not working.They stop working randomly.

I'm not using Spaces or any thing like that...

Jesper's utility doesn't help. What helps - is switching to other Application and then back. But it does help for 2 minutes or so.

P.S. It seems to me in case of Photoshop the problem has something to do with PS's Workspaces. When I switch Workspaces the problem sometimes vanishes away. And I defined a lot of workspaces these days (that don't redefine keyboard though).

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Reimund T

Known Participant

I'm also having problems as described here http://forums.adobe.com/message/3586185#3586185

Basically I lose keyboard focus after I've clicked in a HTML panel and then switch application back and forth. It can be temporarily resolved by clicking the panel again. But switching application back and forth once more will trigger the bug once more as well.

I'm on Mac OSX 10.6.7.

Photoshop CS5

Things I've tried to no avail:

Deleting the user pref folder.
Reseting with shift+opt+cmd
Changing to english keyboard in Mac OSX
Quitting all other applications.

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nhale1775

Participant

Hello, I had been researching this issue because something similar happened to me in Illustrator CS5.

When the program would start, I would get an unknown error message while fonts were loading. I tried trashing my AIprefs file first, by renaming it Aiprefs.old, that didn't work. I tried holding down CTRL + SHIFT + ALT while restarting the program, that didn't work.

Here's what DID WORK.

Rename the entire "ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS5 SETTINGS" folder to have a .old extension.

Restart Adobe Illustrator while holding down Ctrl + Shift + Alt.

Voila!

This successfully fixed my problems, as Adobe will create a brand spankin' new Settings folder when you do this.

I imagine this works for Photoshop and InDesign as well if people have a similar problem.

All my best,

J

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yo_paisan

Participant

I'm having the same problem... at first everything was fine, then one day I was not able to hold the shift key down and draw a perfect circle/square, etc.. I couldn't hit the space bar to initiate the hand tool, I couldn't zoom with the space+alt key... so I decided that I would uninstall CS5 and reinstall it and then everything seemed to work fine.

Then I started using Photoshop and within the first few minutes the key command for the hand tool appears to have broken again, however I can still use the shift key to draw a perfect shape.

I'm using an iMAC with OSX 10.6.6 and Creative Suite 5 Web Premium... it's driving me fricken NUTS!!!!

WTH?! Am I just retarted? Is there something new going on in CS5 that wasn't happening in previous versions?

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yo_paisan

Participant

OK I just ran some Adobe Software updates since I reinstalled CS5... and then I rebooted... and then I re-opened photoshop and the shortcuts began working again. I'm pretty sure it was the reboot that did it, but... I don't know. I'll re-post if I find any more quirks to talk about that might help other users investigate or trouble shoot their problems with it.

GOOD LUCK, I hope I don't have to come back here.... LOL

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nikbon

Participant

I actually have the same problem in CS4. Keyboard shortcuts work for a short time after launching Photoshop, but then stop responding. The Quit menu item is also greyed out, so I have to 'force quit' Photoshop to relaunch it. I've reinstalled Photoshop twice, and the problem is still not resolved. Photoshop is the only program that's doing this, all other CS4 apps are fine. I'm running OSX 10.6.6.