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Tranquil_Wish4be9
Participant
Sep 30, 2026 2:36 PM UTC
Answered

Photoshop 2026 - Filter Dialog Boxes Not Opening

I'm having a problem with several filters in Photoshop 2026. My document is set to RGB Color, 8 Bits/Channel, so it meets the requirements for these filters to work.

The filters are not grayed out or disabled in the Filter menu. They are available and can be selected, but when I click them, their dialog boxes simply do not appear.

For example:

• Smart Blur: the dialog box does not open.
• Radial Blur: the dialog box does not open.
• Median: the dialog box does not appear, and the filter is immediately applied to the image at what seems to be maximum intensity.
• Distort filters: none of the ones I've tried display their dialog boxes, so I cannot adjust their settings.

I also have plenty of free scratch disk space, approximately 300 GB.

The main issue seems to be that Photoshop recognizes these filters as available, but is either skipping or failing to display their configuration dialogs.

What could cause filter dialog boxes to stop appearing even though the filters themselves are enabled? Is there a preference, setting, GPU issue, corrupted configuration, or other known problem that could cause this behavior?

    Tranquil_Wish4be9Correct answer
    Participant
    Oct 16, 2026 12:04 PM UTC

    Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, disabling the graphics processor didn't solve the issue for me.

    What did solve it was increasing the amount of RAM allocated to Photoshop. After giving Photoshop more memory, the filter dialog boxes started appearing again and the filters began working correctly.

    However, I find this quite frustrating. Older and lighter versions of Photoshop were able to run these exact same filters while using considerably less RAM. Having to allocate even more memory just to get long-established filters working properly feels like a step backward in terms of efficiency.

    So, although I managed to solve the problem, I'm disappointed with the memory requirements and overall resource usage of Photoshop 2026.

    View reply

    7 replies

    justlearn
    Community Expert
    justlearnCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    Oct 1, 2026 9:03 AM UTC

    ​@Tranquil_Wish4be9 I am curious to know if this has always been an issue or just recently. If it’s recently, i would think it’s corrupted preferences. I tried and opened an image and wasn’t able to replicate your issue (I am using Photoshop v27.10, and there is an update). If it’s recent, I would reset the prefs. Command K (MAC) or Control K (PC)  - General - Reset Preferences on Quit. 
     


    Not knowing if your PS is an older or newer OS, you could Toggle Use Graphics Processor off. 

    Relaunch Photoshop and test the filters. If they work, update your GPU drivers (or roll back if updated recently).

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      Tranquil_Wish4be9AuthorCorrect answer
      Participant
      Oct 16, 2026 12:04 PM UTC

      Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, disabling the graphics processor didn't solve the issue for me.

      What did solve it was increasing the amount of RAM allocated to Photoshop. After giving Photoshop more memory, the filter dialog boxes started appearing again and the filters began working correctly.

      However, I find this quite frustrating. Older and lighter versions of Photoshop were able to run these exact same filters while using considerably less RAM. Having to allocate even more memory just to get long-established filters working properly feels like a step backward in terms of efficiency.

      So, although I managed to solve the problem, I'm disappointed with the memory requirements and overall resource usage of Photoshop 2026.

      Translate
      Anshul_Saini
      Community Manager
      Anshul_SainiCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      Sep 30, 2026 9:06 PM UTC

      Hi @Tranquil_Wish4be9,

      Thanks for the detailed report. I understand how disruptive this is when the filters work, but their settings dialogs don’t appear.

      Could you please try the following:

      Go to Preferences > Technology Previews, uncheck Enable Modern User Interface, and then restart Photoshop for the change to take effect.

      After restarting, please test Smart Blur, Radial Blur, Median, and one of the Distort filters again and let me know whether their dialog boxes appear.

      If the issue persists, please also share Help > System Info so we can investigate further.

      Please let me know how it goes, and I’ll be happy to help further.

      Best,
      Anshul Saini

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        Trevor.Dennis
        Community Expert
        Trevor.DennisCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        Sep 30, 2026 11:08 PM UTC

        ​@Anshul_Saini I am pretty sure I saw a similar post very recently.  Of course, I can’t find it now.

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        Spas K.
        Community Expert
        Spas K.Community Expert
        Community Expert
        Sep 30, 2026 3:25 PM UTC

        What happens if you apply them on a smart object? Can you apply them on one and double-click the icon in the layer panel to try and open them? 

        I assume you've checked that they are not opening off screen / on another monitor.

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          Tranquil_Wish4be9Author
          Participant
          Oct 16, 2026 12:05 PM UTC

          Thanks for the suggestion. I tried applying the filters to a Smart Object, but unfortunately the problem persisted. The filter dialog boxes still wouldn't appear, including when I tried accessing the Smart Filter settings from the Layers panel.

          I eventually managed to solve the issue by increasing the amount of RAM available to Photoshop. Once I allocated more memory, the filter dialogs started working normally again.

          That said, I'm frustrated that this was necessary. Older versions of Photoshop were much more memory-efficient and could run these same filters without requiring so much RAM. These are long-established filters, so I wasn't expecting Photoshop 2026 to need significantly more memory just to provide the same functionality.

          The issue is solved for me now, but the increased memory requirement is definitely disappointing.

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