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Participating Frequently
October 18, 2018
Question

Photoshop cc 2019 Brush Lag and Bugs

  • October 18, 2018
  • 54 replies
  • 44117 views

Hey guys, after updating to PS CC2019 I'm having a ton of issues with the brush tool.

1. After I make multiple consecutive brush strokes photoshop cant seem to quite keep up, if I make 5 brush strokes in rapid succession the first one may appear in real time but they rapidly begin to fall behind where my cursor actually is. This does not happen in cc2018 where i'm using the exact same brush on the same document size. These are simple round brushes on small documents, I'm really not pushing it. (This may have improved with a preference reset its hard to tell)

2. It seems to occasionally (every 3rd to 5th input) skip a brushstroke, making only a single low opacity circle or no mark at all without drawing the rest of the line. I can scrub the cursor across the document at full pressure and it makes no mark till I lift the pen off the tablet to make a new mark.

3. If I hold a brushstroke for any more than a second or two I get a busy cursor (a ring of rotating dots) this happens no matter if Im using my mouse or the wacom. It no longer allows me to see the brush tip shape but will continue to make the brush stroke just fine. This happens no matter how small the document or how simple the brush.

To clarify I have reset my photoshop preferences repeatedly, made sure I have updated wacom drivers. These seem explicitly connected to 2019s brush engine because I can compare them side by side and not have any of these problems in 2018. Also their performance preferences are set up identically but I have tried increasing them in 2019 and it seems to make no impact. Thanks for the help!

-Ben

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)
macOS Mojave 10.14

4 GHz Intel Core i7

32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096 MB

Wacom Cintiq 27QHD

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54 replies

Participant
November 2, 2018

I am another that has the lag using Mojave, Wacom tablet and PS 2019. Turning rulers off didn't matter. I never had them on, to begin with. Did the chat with tech support for about 2 hours to have the person tell me everything I already tried. He/she claimed it was a performance issue. Maddening. Yesterday I saw Wacom came out with a new driver update and was optimistic this might be the solution even though the mouse was still lagging. Downloaded and it made no difference.

As others have said, I uninstalled 2019 and went back to 2018 and much better though occasionally get some lag. But I can live with it.

Daniel E Lane
Inspiring
November 7, 2018

Unplug your tablet, uninstall all things Wacom. Download newest drivers from Wacom.com and install. Should fix the problem right up. Worked for me and a few others I know. Seems to be something to do with the install order for the drivers in comparison to the photoshop update on Mojave. Kind of nuts, but not too bad to fix

Participant
November 10, 2018

I did that too. Deleted everything and reinstalled the latest driver. Did that before I went back to 2018. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. But happy to hear it worked for you.

justphotograms
Inspiring
October 30, 2018

HERE'S HOW I SOLVED:
I just downgraded to Adobe CC 2018.

If you think this is a stupid answer go on reading.

Ok guys, my name is Steve and I am a retoucher, so you could imagine how important is working in real time for me.

I have experienced the same sort of problems of you guys, I lost one entire WORKING DAY trying to solve this and that to me means I am losing money, making clients unsatisfied and missing the deadlines.

HERE'S THE TEST I RAN:

Every time a new release is dropped, some sort of issue comes out. I didn't initially know wether it was Mojave or Wacom or Adobe.
But my Suite was totally unusable. Consider with High Sierra and CC 2018 I was smoothly retouching PSB files exceeding 5-7 GB size!
So After talking with Adobe, Wacom and Apple support I moved the following way:

1) Try every "via-software solution" (smoothing, performance, undo counts, getting rid of rulers, quitting all apps but PS, turning on legacy compositing and stuff...)
2) Uninstall Photoshop removing all the preferences and any left folder Manually (screw me!).
3) Re-install Photoshop 2019
4) Remove Wacom preferences and removing any leftover file manually (some guy posted the process up above)

not any darn improvement so far... so I went on

5) reinstalled PS CC 2018 thinking it was Adobe's issues - same problems (notice I did not uninstall 2019 I had them both)

now things began to get serious so....

6) I Formatted my Mac and downgraded to High Sierra, thinking it was Mojave's fault but when I Installed CC 2019 guess what? Same Problem!  SO IT IS NOT MOJAVE!
7) I finally uninstalled the PS 2019 removing all the preferences.
8) I installed PS 2018 and Voilà!!!! Back on track! Everything is working super smoothly!

Here's where something lighted up, what about trying Mojave again? Yes I did it!

10) I re-updated to Mojave and everything is working even better!!!


CONCLUSION:

It is NOT Mojave! Mojave is super smooth and powerful. The problem is absolutely Adobe Suite 2019.
After asking some friends and colleagues, it seems to have problems also on Illustrator, Indesign and Premiere, with the most lagging software being PS and ID.

So my set up now is:
MacBook Pro 2018 (the top pimped one)
Wacom Intuos Pro 2017 Large
Mojave OS
Adobe CC suite 2018


MY SUGGESTION:
Apparently the 2019 suite is one of the worst ever released in the history it just doesn't "have some bugs" it is almost useless.
If you are a professional and need to get the job done, downgrade to 2018 and you will be more than happy.
If you are a hobbyist, you can choose to stay up with 2019 and maybe be active on the forum to give you contribute to adobe's staff so they can fix the problems as fast as possible. Our contribution and feedback is fundamental by the way.

Personally I'll will continue to work with 2018 and maybe come back in some months and see if something has improved.
That's it for now, I hope this is  of any help for you guys.
Cheers!

Steve

sorenj17536308
Participant
October 30, 2018

I can only agree with everything! Have spend hours chatting with Adobe without getting any results.

Downgrading to CC 2018 seems to be the only solution at this point. Not good enough Adobe.

Florend
Participating Frequently
November 1, 2018

I agree regarding the downgrade to CC2018 being the only currently viable option. I've removed 2019, re-installed, deleted preferences etc, etc. and lost several hours of productive time.

I'm experiencing the same issues on a Windows 10 machine and a Mojave MacBook Pro 2018 high spec version.

Very disappointed with the release of the buggy 2019 version - I hope Adobe will rectify this soon - it appears to have  some interesting features when it's working properly.

davide50540760
Participating Frequently
October 30, 2018

I'm in the same boat.  Tried all suggestions here including the steps from Wacom support and still have the busy cursor popping while up while using my Wacom tablet and the brush tool to refine masks.  Never had this problem before.  Have latest and greatest MBP with i9, 32MB RAM, etc.  Very frustrating since it seems like there's always some annoying bugs like this that get through Adobe's QA every single major release version (PS and LR).

Iwan Zeller
Known Participant
October 30, 2018

Same here. Total BS. the  rotating circles are driving me crazy, not able to work with precision.

Overall performance dropped significant!!

Inspiring
October 26, 2018

Same problem. Total BS. I sketch really fast and the little rotating circles are driving me nuts. I hope this is solved soon.

iMac 2017

Radeon Pro 560 4096 MB

Wacom intuos 6X9 2015 model

Participating Frequently
October 23, 2018

Count me in here.

Wacom Intuos with Adobe Photoshop 2019.

TOTALLY BUGGIN.

Yesterday I received some strange message in multiple languages in the Wacom preferences pane of systems preferfences that my pen was Kaput or something. WTF! I had to re start. But didn't really help...

All day long the pen lags and eventually becomes useless.

Yesterday, I chatted with Wacom support and was told that this is some new bug that somehow has to do with Mojave.

Sounds like a Wacom driver bug.

I was told to re-install the driver, whenever this happens and to wait for the driver update to be released.

This totally blows if you ask me, cause I have to ask my manager to type in his admin PW everytime I want to re-install the driver which needless to say, is annoying for everyone.

And what really really sucks, is that not being able to use my pen with PS completely slows down my work progress.

Wacom needs to get their act together .

I recommend bitching about this to Wacom, cause this is only an issue when the Wacom Tablet comes in to the equation!!!!

Participating Frequently
October 24, 2018

Wacom sent me these instructions earlier, so I thought I share.

I haven't tried this yet, but if it works please update the thread.

Thank you for contacting Wacom Customer Support. It is a pleasure to assist you.

In this case an outdated or corrupt preference file could be causing an issue, please follow the instructions shown below:

  • Go to the Wacom Folder and open Wacom Utility (you can also find it typing "Wacom" on the operating system search).
  • Under "All User Preferences", please select "Remove".
  • Disconnect the tablet from the computer and remove the driver using the Wacom Utility. After removing the driver with the utility, you can manually check to see if anything is left behind in the following folders. So while in our desktop we want to click on ‘Go’ (upper left corner), then on ‘Computer’. Once inside, please access your main hard drive (by default should be named Macintosh HD). Once we’re here anything that’s related to Wacom, would need to be removed from the folders. The same will have to be checked in any respective User’s folder on the system. On OS X 10.7 Lion or later, the User Library folder has been hidden. To access it, you must select 'Go' from the top of Finder and select 'Go to folder...’. Here, enter ' ~/Library ' to access the current user's Library folder. Please check for Wacom related files and remove them from inside the next folders:

Applications/Wacom TabletLibrary/Application Support/TabletLibrary/Frameworks/WacomMultiTouch.frameworkLibrary/Internet Plugins/WacomTabletPlugin.pluginLibrary/Launch Agents/com.wacom.wacomtablet.plistLibrary/LaunchDaemons/com.wacom.displayhelper.plistLibrary/LaunchDaemons/com.wacom.RemoveTabletHelpter.plistLibrary/LaunchDaemons/com.wacom.TabletHelper.plistLibrary/PreferencePanes/WacomTablet.prefpaneLibrary/Preferences/TabletLibrary/PriveledgedHelperTools/com.wacom.RemoveTabletHelperLibrary/PriveledgedHelperTools/com.wacom.TabletHelperUsers//Library/Preferences/com.wacom.ProfessionalTablet.plistUsers//Library/Preferences/com.wacom.wacomtablet.prefsUsers//Library/Preferences/com.wacom.wacomtouch.prefsAfter this is complete then there should not be any leftover files of a previous Wacom driver file. A restart and a repair of your disk permissions would be important steps before installing a driver. Again, make sure that the tablet is plugged directly into the computer, not into a USB hub or keyboard/monitor.Next, please proceed with the driver installation:A restart will be required after installing the driver, please make sure to close and save all your work before following these instructions.

As always, make sure your tablet is connected directly to your computer. Avoid using USB hubs, keyboard/monitor ports, or docking stations with the tablets, as they can cause inconsistent behavior.If there is still any issue after that, please do as follows:

  • First, please go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Accessibility. Once here, click the unlock icon, you will need to enter your admin credentials. Once unlocked check WacomTouchDriver.
  • Next go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Automation. Again, click the unlock icon and enter your admin credentials then check Wacom Desktop Center and WacomTabletDriver.

Thank you for choosing Wacom Customer Support. Please let me know if there is anything else that I could assist you with.

Participating Frequently
October 23, 2018

im on windows 10. edit>purge>all

worked for me

Participating Frequently
October 23, 2018

Nevermind, purge doesnt work

Inspiring
October 23, 2018

Have you also reinstalled MacOS software?

If so, you may have confused your preferences or if you've not updated PS in a while you may have a new (old) feature. Brush smoothing.

I like the smoothing feature and use it between 5-25% for regular use, however if you change it to 0% does the issue still occur? If so, can you share a screenshot of your photoshop set up and then it may highlight some settings.

Participating Frequently
October 24, 2018

For those suggesting brush smoothing, I know what my smoothing is set to and these problems persist whether it's on or off. This isn't a performance issue, it's a set of bugs that strictly occur when rulers are visible. Have a look: Photoshop CC 2019 Busy Cursor - YouTube

Inspiring
October 26, 2018

Damn the switching off of the rulers helped! That's a strange thing. I didn't uncheck the graphic card box though, it didn't matter once the rulers were hidden it "seemed" to not show busy cursor

justphotograms
Inspiring
October 23, 2018

Same Problem!

my set up:
Macbook Pro 2018
Mojave OS
Wacom intuos Pro 2017

I didn't experience this issue with PS CC 2018 and Mojave. But now I definitely am. And my set up is too new to have this kind of problem so it's definitely stuff to be fixed.
Illustrator 2019 and Premiere 2019 work smoothly though. Photoshop is always a pain in the ass when updating.
Cheers.

Steve

Participating Frequently
October 22, 2018

UPDATE #3: Alright I saw somewhere else that I should try hiding rulers, and it made a HUGE difference. I can't speak to the more inconsistent bugs but the busy cursor is definitely influenced by ruler visibility. Hide those and it goes away and doesn't lag anymore! It would also explain the inconsistency of the bug if I sometimes had the ruler on or off.

MoosWu
Participant
October 23, 2018

Thanks for the updating for this spinning wheel issue! However, my ruler weren't on, and even after I switched the ruler on & off, it still doesn't help, . Many people have this problem, and it seems to do only with the Mac OS Mojave. The problem is really inconsistent, it's just annoying while retouching photos. Anyway, thanks a lot benzweifel