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BW_Ellis
Known Participant
September 17, 2013
Question

Something wrong in Photoshop CC!

  • September 17, 2013
  • 6 replies
  • 20192 views

Hey,

I am running the latest version of PS CC on a MacBook Pro OS 10.8.5 with 16GB of ram. When I started my computer this morning an update from Adobe came up so I ran it.  Now the move tool and the free transform function are not working.  Literally nothing happens when I click drag with the move tool and when I try to use free transform I get an error message I've never seen:

"Could not transform because the initial bounding rectangle is empty.."

Am I the only one experiencing these peroblems?  I was working on this computer last night using PS on the exact same files and did not run into this problem.  Perhaps it was something in the update I ran this morning? The description for the update claimed it added a new version of Camera Raw and added new camera profiles. I don't see how, but its possible that the update effected the way the tools  work, or in my case not work.

Any Thoughts?

Brett

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    6 replies

    Participating Frequently
    July 26, 2022

    I experienced the same thing but it's 2022 now so perhaps the cause is different. I saved, closed, then reopened the file and I'm good to go 🙂

    Participant
    January 14, 2019

    I got this problem in for my type layers in Photoshop CC 2019. The solutions in this thread were not relevant, but I found another solution that fixed my problem on a different site that might be relevant.

    "Photoshop's preference file may have somehow become corrupted. To the best of my knowledge, Reinstalling Photoshop does not create new user preferences. If the problem is due to corrupted preferences, they are probably still corrupted. So, try re-creating the preferences yourself:

    Note: This will set your preferences back to the default of course. So, before re-creating them, you may want to write down some of the preference changes you've made previously. That will help when you redo them after the re-creation.

    To re-create the preferences files, start the application while holding down Ctrl+Alt+Shift. Then, click Yes to the message, "Delete the Adobe Photoshop Settings file?"

    Hope this helps."

    dcr222
    Participant
    November 12, 2019

    I get same message when trying to trim a video in Photoshop on a Mac.  Your solution worked for me.  Thanks! 

    By the way:

    1.  For a Mac it's Ctrl+Option+Shift

    2.  I needed to press Ctrl+Option+Shift immediately after clicking to start Photoshop.  

    Participant
    October 10, 2015

    I am new to using photoshop, I cannot get the content aware tool to work and am getting this same error.  Can someone please explain this corrupted file issue that Brett is talking about and also the quick mask in the channels palette.  I am running Photoshop CC with bridge and lightroom.  Trying to figure this out asap.

    Thanks so much.

    Deb G.

    Participant
    February 19, 2014

    I have also experienced this problem using Photshop CS6 and was getting a warning box when trying to select a layer that says: "Could not transform because the initial bounding rectangle is empty."

    Issue was resolved by deleting the extra channel "Quick mask" in the channels palette. I must've accidentally pressed the Q key by mistake.

    Chris Cox
    Legend
    September 17, 2013

    Double check that you're targeting the correct layer -- that error sounds like you were targeting the wrong layer  (an empty area).

    BW_Ellis
    BW_EllisAuthor
    Known Participant
    September 17, 2013

    Actually I found the problem.  The file I was working with last night has a corruption in its build code.  Whenever I opened any other file the corrupted function disabled certain tools.  When I closed the corrupted file the other images began to work perfectly.  I am thinking the last time I saved the file last night it made a mistake in the write process and a bad line of code landed on the document.

    This morning when I opened the doc the bad line of code started wreaking havoc on the tools and free transform funtions.  Once I closed the file and opened an earlier one the problem went away.

    I am an Adobe Certified Expert on PS 6 & CC, the reason I posted this here is because the programmers from Adobe look in every once in a while and this forum is far more likely to produce results than calling the often inadequate tech support Adobe maintains abroad.

    No worries though, I figured out the problem and was able to recover the work.  Thanks for the reply.

    Chris Cox
    Legend
    September 17, 2013

    Do you still have a copy of that "bad" file?  We'd like to examine it and see what is causing problems?

    Email/dropbox/whatever to ccox (at) adobe (dot) com.

    BW_Ellis
    BW_EllisAuthor
    Known Participant
    September 17, 2013

    Wow, and individual file corruption.  I have not seen one of these in over a decade.  The file that I was working with was corrupted and any other file I opened while the file was up also behaved the same way.  When I closed the offending file the rest worked just fine. Talk about a weird one.  Thanks anyway but I got this.

    valeriyar27079422
    Participant
    January 31, 2016

    HI,

    How did you figure out of the file corruption?

    I am experiencing the same problem, and getting frustrated here.

    I have PhotoshopnCC and Windows 7.

    What else can i do to fix the problem?

    Thanks