Inspiring

Answered

Select and Mask tools do not work -- none of them

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
May 5, 2017
4 replies
2752 views

I am trying to use the new Select & Mask for the first time. I have seen MULTIPLE discussion threads -- mostly complaints -- about what does and doesn't work but none have addressed my specific problem -- namely, that NONE of the tools work once I'm in the S&M (no icky pun intended) workspace.

I've tried making a selection using the Quick Selection Tool. I've tried EVERY tool. None of them does anything at all. the photo just sits there laughing at me. I've tried making my selection before entering the workspace. Nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing.

I have a 32GB ram machine, i7 processor, high-ram video card, etc., etc. I absolutely cannot figure this out. Is PShop broken or is there some setting I need to change? I've tried all the views, have tried showing/not showing "original," "edge," etc. Tried all the sliders from 0 to 100%. What in the world is going on?

Help, please and thank you!

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Derek Cross

Try resetting your Photoshop Preferences, which you can do in recent versions of Photoshop in Photoshop Preferences under the General tab (select Reset Preferences on Quit).

davescm

Community Expert

Hi

A couple of things - if the tools in Select and Mask don't do anything , try adjusting the GPU settings in preferences (e.g. from advanced to Normal (or basic) . Also try switching off Open CL in the same preferences.

However - before you do that :

Ccan I check that you are not trying to use S&M in onion skin mode on a duplicate layer. If you are , the tools can appear to do nothing as the identical layer below just shows through any masking giving the false impression that nothing has happened. Just to check, try S&M on a single layer (the only layer) with Onion Skin mode and transparency set to 50%.

Dave

S

screamkitty

Participant

I literally just encountered this issue (i.e. Select and Mask not working --- at all) while processing some photos. In fact, I had just successfully processed a photo and was working on a second one (I'm just doing product on white background photos, so using Pen tool then Select and Mask to extract the product from the background).

Select and Mask worked perfectly for the first photo, but when I started the next photo (PS was not closed or anything) I got the Pen tool outline done, converted to selection, then used Select and Mask (with settings to output to New Layer w/ Layer Mask)—but it just output a layer, with a blank (white) layer mask.

Tried again with a 3rd photo, and when it still didn't work, I started getting worried. Rebooted my Macbook Pro, issue persisted. Then I saw that there was a pending PS update—so I performed the update; issue persisted. That's when I came to the forum and found this thread.

1. Tried adjusting GPU settings; issue persisted

2. Tried resetting Preferences; issue persisted

3. Lastly, I turned OFF the Open CL option — THIS seems to have fixed the issue, at least for now. However, I've only tested once with a quick square selection on a single layer. WHY this would have had any effect, I do not know. As I said, it was working fine up until today—and the first photo I processed did not encounter this issue.

SO, what's the deal? Why would it work perfectly for one photo, but then suddenly stop working literally minutes later when I hadn't changed anything or even closed the application.

I've been shooting and processing these product-on-white photos for years—and while I didn't care for the Select and Mask tool replacing Refine Edge, I've been able to make it work for me. However, I've never had an issue like this occur and it's quite troubling, to be honest, that a process/feature I regularly use could just randomly stop working mid-edit and require me to change the PS settings that were working just fine moments before, with no real reason why.

Please explain what could cause this and how I can avoid problems like this in the future. Thanks!

Jeremy

davescm

Community Expert

screamkitty wrote
................Please explain what could cause this and how I can avoid problems like this in the future. Thanks!

Hi Jeremy

I can't explain that. I am a Photoshop user the same as you, I don't work for Adobe. In the early days of Select and Mask I did experience some crashes with Open CL enabled on by AMD graphics card. At that time I had to turn off Open CL to get it to work reliably. Updates to Photoshop followed and it is now reliable on my system with Open CL enabled. Are you using the latest version (Photoshop CC2017.1.1)?

Dave

Terri Stevens

Legend

could you post the image you are trying to mask and maybe a workflow could be created for you.

Derek Cross

Correct answer

Community Expert

Try resetting your Photoshop Preferences, which you can do in recent versions of Photoshop in Photoshop Preferences under the General tab (select Reset Preferences on Quit).

casinclaireAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks, everyone, for your great suggestions. The one that worked, finally, was to have PShop reset my preferences. I'll try to retain the preferences and see if the S&M continues to work, but if not, I will leave the "reset" option in place. I am not crazy about this new tool -- it seems to lag behind, performance wise, but it is what we have for now. Hopefully it will be refined or perhaps the hue-and-cry will get the old tool back. Again, I appreciate the replies and the help!

D

Donald J Sherman

Participant

PS CC 2017.1.1 on Mac OS Sierra: crop tool missing

casinclaireAuthor

Inspiring

What???

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