Photoshop CC - lasso and eraser tools stop working

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
April 13, 2018
3 replies
1788 views

Does anyone know why the lasso and eraser tools randomly stop working in Photoshop CC? They always stop working at the same time. Since I started subscribing to Creative Suite CC a few years ago, I have had this issue frequently (it can happen once every few minutes I'm actively working on a file), and it has popped up on my home account and on two separate work accounts. It's incredibly frustrating and brings my projects to a standstill. They sometimes will start working again seemingly just as randomly, or I can sometimes get it to work again if I click on a different program and come back to photoshop, or if I run the latest update, but more often than not there is not update available and no amount of clicking, switching programs, restarting, or anything else will help. Please help!

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M

matthewp89040522

Participant

Check the opacity of the brush on your eraser. Mine was at 2 percent. I changed it to 100 percent, and it now works.

emily�l64367896Author

Participant

Hi matthewp89040522,

Unfortunately, the opacity isn't the issue for me. It's on 100% opacity, and it's more than just the eraser tool - it's the lasso, eraser, and the clone brush all at the same time. It's driving me crazy! I'm glad you found a solution for your problem, though - thanks so much for jumping in to help!

gary_sc

Community Expert

Hi Emily,

Making a quick stab here but is there any chance you happen to be on a layer where the lasso or eraser tool cannot do anything? (E.g., an adjustment layer). Can't tell you the number of times that has bit me.

One clue for this is that rather than see the normal cursor, you get a "null" symbol (the circle with a line through it).

Please let us know if this is the problem. Otherwise, can you provide more detail as to what you see when you are trying to use these tools. And, while this may not have anything that can help with this issue, providing your OS and verifying which version of PS you are using might be of assistance.

emily�l64367896Author

Participant

Hi gary_sc,

Thanks so much for your reply. That is a good guess but it's not the case - I am always on regular layers, and other similar tools continue to work (like the magic wand or the box selection tool). I have also made sure to deselect everything just in case I unknowingly selected something and can't use the tool because I'm outside the selection.

When the tools stop working, I still see the icons as my cursor the way I would if they were working, except nothing happens when I try to use them (for the lasso, the 'marching ants' selection line does not show up, or nothing erases when I use the eraser). I am using Photoshop CC on a 2017 iMac running macOS Sierra. Any other ideas?

gary_sc

Community Expert

Hi Emily,

I've also had some "stupid photoshop tricks" events, not this but there's times when a brush just doesn't seem to want to work.

Have you tried quitting and restarting PS? Restarting your computer? Have you tried resetting your PS's preferences? I'd suggest trying those in that order (from least to most time intensive) and seeing if any of these have any effect.

Please let us now if this does it for you or not.

Jeffrey_A_Wright

Legend

Moving this discussion to the Photoshop forum.

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