Lagging tools in latest Photoshop on Mac

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
August 15, 2025
2 replies
144 views

Anyone have any fixes for lagging tools (specifically clone stamp)? Photoshop 26.7.0 Release on a high powered Mac Pro M4 Max with 64GB Ram

Using a wacom pen and tablet on latest driver, have tried adjusting all settings in the Adobe Help discussions, to which none make any difference, had a call with an Adobe agent who took control of my Mac and changed a load of settings, permissions on folders etc etc. It seemed to work for a minute and then when straight back to where I was.

I've been using Photoshop since the earliest days, professional retoucher for more than 30 years, using airprushes before computers came in. Recently bought a new mac and monitor and specced up at great expense as thought that would help. I know I clone quiet fast but this is getting unusable. Any ideas? open to any suggestions

It may get to the point I need a different software just for the cloning (Gimp or something like that) and then bring in to Photoshop for finishing.

macOS

E

ExUSA

Legend

Sometimes we see issues with insufficient scratch disk space. A USB-C or Thunderbolt SSD works well for scratch space. Are your documents on a local drive or network?

J

Joseph ThomasAuthor

Participant

I have a huge amount of scratch disk space, I don't think it's that. As a test I've paid for a rival software (Affinity) and it does the same on that. I think the issue is with the Wacom tablet and have raised a ticket with them.

I don't even own a mouse to test that theory but will get one at the weekend and give that a go.

Anshul_Saini

Community Manager

Hi @Joseph Thomas, thanks for clarifying. Since this appears to be linked to the Wacom, please try the following in parallel with your Wacom ticket:

Please update Photoshop to the latest version (v26.10) via the Creative Cloud Desktop app and confirm if the issue persists.
For the Wacom driver, try installing the latest driver directly from Wacom’s support page. If that doesn’t help, consider rolling back to an earlier version that worked well for you in the past, if available.
Has Wacom support provided you with any updates or suggested fixes yet?
Where are your working files stored? For best performance, keep your active files on a fast local SSD rather than an external or network drive.

Please copy and paste your Photoshop System Info here (Help > System Info > Copy). Does this happen with some specific file or a new file as well?
Also, test with a mouse. Since you’re on a very high-end Mac Pro M4 Max, the hardware doesn’t seem to be the bottleneck here.

Best,

Anshul Saini

Sameer K

Community Manager

Hey, @Joseph Thomas. Welcome to the Photoshop Community. Please share the system info from Photoshop Help > System info > Copy and paste into a text document > Upload and attach here.

Does this happen with a specific document after you've created a structure of layers? Do you have any clipped layers?

In this case, you can begin by resetting the Clone Stamp tool itself. Right-click on the Clone Stamp tool icon in the Toolbar menu and select Reset Tool.

Photoshop v26.9 is available via the Creative Cloud desktop app. Check if the issue exists in the latest version of Photoshop.

Thanks!
Sameer K
(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

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