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PixMarko
Inspiring
May 24, 2017
Answered

Photoshop shortcuts sometimes don't work

  • May 24, 2017
  • 6 replies
  • 5599 views

Hi,

I've this issue for a few years already and still is not fixed.

Sometimes shortcuts stop working and for example when I press "F", file menu open. "b" for brush don't react at all.

When I manually press the brush button, then right click and manually select any different brush. Shortcuts works..until they stop again and so on.

I've tested many different drivers from wacom, I've been restoring photoshop defaults, even total re installation of windows.

Sooner or later this issue always happen, no matter what.

Also tested if there is a conflict with different apps/plugin, but nope. Even if everything except photoshop was closed, sometimes issue happens.

It happens randomly.

Specs:

Windows 10

cpu: 4930k

gpu- gtx 1070

tablet: wacom intuos 4m

photoshop ver: always the newest CC

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Trevor.Dennis

The File menu opening when pressing the F key is what we associate with Windows and the Alt key.  Are there any common factors if this has been ongoing for 'a few years'?  A wireless keyboard for instance?  If you have a wireless keyboard does it have a wired option, oan you try another?   I'd start with pointing devices if you have them.  (keyboard, mouse, touchpad, tracker ball, etc.)

6 replies

Joshua James Harvey
Joshua James Harvey
Participant
January 24, 2023

I use alt+tab to quickly restore functionality...but it is EXTREMELY aggrevating to have to do this constantly on some larger files. Seems to be worse with larger files and that makes me think it has to do with GPU acceleration. Going to experiment there.

Joshua James Harvey
Joshua James Harvey
Participant
January 24, 2023

GPU settings don't fix the problem, but it does happen every time I touch the Libraries window to switch colors.

Horshack
Horshack
Legend
July 23, 2023

You and the others in this thread are hitting the issue because the input focus is on a control in one of the palettes (the Libraries window in your example), which prevents the main application window from seeing keyboard events. A control receives input focus when you click on it. Adobe should be able to fix this by having controls forward their keyboard events to their parent windows. In the meantime the workaround is to hit ESC, which will force input focus back to the main application window. Switching to another application and then back to Photoshop achieves the same result, which is why Alt+Tab has worked for you. I've attached a screenshot showing when a control has input focus, in this case the blending mode dropdown I've circled in red. You can tell a control has input focus when it has a blue border around it (at least for my color scheme - yours may differ).

A
Anonymous
January 15, 2020

what helped me was to rightclick on tab with filename and use "Move to New Window" option

P
PixMarkoAuthor
Inspiring
May 25, 2017

For now the only way to make them work again is still as I've stated before: "manually press the brush button, then right click and manually select any different brush. Shortcuts works..until they stop again and so on" + solution from JJMack do the same, after pressing on photoshop shorcut, shorcuts works again for some time (between 1h-4h, randomly).

I know that it's always some way but still it's a bit of distracting to doing that from time to time.

About devices:

keyboard has a wire, tested also other keyboard same thing happens.

During this time I've been also upgrading some parts of my pc : cpu,gpu,motherboard,rams,hdds.

So I don't think hardware is an issue, because I had same problem earlier.

My guess is it's photoshop issue (since I've read that some people had similar problems, without any solution in the past) + maybe wacom.

    O
    okapia
    Participating Frequently
    August 9, 2017

    I have the same issue. It has persisted through multiple versions of photoshop and multiple versions of wacom tablets. The shortcuts just stop working, so I usually click between tools/layers a few times and eventually they work again, but then they usually stop several more times during my work session. It's really annoying. I don't notice a pattern with them stopping, and this isn't an issue that pushing escape or alt fixes.

    I've also been searching for a solution for a long time and although I can usually turn up people describing the same problem, there's never been anything in the responses that actually fixed the problem. One thing I see in common with people reporting the problem is the usage of wacom tablets. I have a wacom cintiq now, but had the same problem when I used the intuos 3. I've tried changing drivers and all sorts of wacom configurations but the problem persists.

    Currently using Windows 7. Every piece of hardware I'm using now has changed since I first experienced this problem, including brands, so I don't think it's related to that.

      Trevor.Dennis
      Community Expert
      Trevor.DennisCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
      Community Expert
      May 25, 2017

      The File menu opening when pressing the F key is what we associate with Windows and the Alt key.  Are there any common factors if this has been ongoing for 'a few years'?  A wireless keyboard for instance?  If you have a wireless keyboard does it have a wired option, oan you try another?   I'd start with pointing devices if you have them.  (keyboard, mouse, touchpad, tracker ball, etc.)

      barbara_a7746676
      Community Expert
      barbara_a7746676Community Expert
      Community Expert
      May 25, 2017

      On Windows, you can usually hit the ESC key to refocus your cursor. Let us know if that works for you.

        eduards72982855
        eduards72982855
        Participant
        December 15, 2020

        This has helped me, thank you.

          JJMack
          Community Expert
          JJMackCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          May 24, 2017

          I think sometimes Photoshop looses System focus when it should still have it,  I find clicking on Photoshop Image window will sometime get the shortcuts working.

          JJMack
            dev_willis
            dev_willis
            Inspiring
            April 23, 2019

            I think you may be on to something with the system focus idea. Photoshop has always had weird focusing behavior, especially when closing and opening, and I could see this being related. It's not as simple just losing focus because changing focus doesn't help but maybe something about Photoshop's understanding of the focus state is getting screwed up. There's the added wrinkle of tool behavior changing during this time as well, e.g. when this is happening the hand tool changes behavior from simply panning to zooming out to fit when the button is down and showing a box indicating what it will zoom back in to when the button is released.

            If it is focus-related I don't know what to do about it. I too have had this problem for years and occasionally I'll get fed up and spend some time Googling it but I've never found a solution that works.

              C
              Corniger
              Inspiring
              May 30, 2019

              Same with me. It's happening on ALL Computers I regularly work at. Win 7, Win 8.1, Cs2, Cs4, CC. I'm really fed up with it today after having to mess around with the preferences file and GPU again, so I happily chime in to the whining choir of shortcut aficionados

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