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What is this blue pulsating circle?

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This is a screenshot of the circle I'm referring to. It was changing over time, sort of pulsating. The screenshot is of a portion of the screen showing my browser window. This blue circle stayed in front of any screen I switched to, until I switched to Photoshop. Then it disappears. That leads me to believe it's Adobe software doing it. I'm using a 16" M4 Macbook Pro. Searching the internet for explanations I see other Adobe products are implicated in this same issue.

What is the animated icon meant to represent? How can I prevent it in the future? I really don't know what I did to have triggered it. Hovering over it and clicking it did nothing. So it's a useless feature. Worse than that, it's an annoyance, since it encumberts other applications.

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GauravBishtjiCorrect answer

Adobe Employee

Hey Everyone!
updating Photoshop to the latest version(27.11) should fix the issue.

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karli_7654

Participant

im having this problem too. super annoying and distracting

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leanne_5425

Participant

same issue, but it's a half-circle anchored to the center of my window, and only in photoshop

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wonderstrong

Participant

Same here! Noticed it in the last few days. Mine stays where it is regardless of if I zoom in on or move around in the image.

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Michael302964558deg

Participant

I was able to remove it by going to Window and removing the check next to Options. Hope this helps.

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leo.r

Community Expert

I was able to remove it by going to Window and removing the check next to Options. Hope this helps.

This didn’t work for me. It disables the Options bar (which I actually need), but the bizarro pulsating ring stays there pulsating over other UI elements.

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nicolasr90588425

Participant

Same issue, M4, sequoia 15.6.1

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landonk2368678

Participant

I've noticed this, too. It appears around the "Explore Starter Tutorials in Photoshop" button and takes up a spot on the dock. It seems like a glitch, but I'm not sure what you need to do to get rid of it, because it is annoying.

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Homicidal_Pixels

Participant

I'm also having this issue: Apple M2 Max running Sonoma 14.7.6 -- PS version 26.10.0
Really distracting and annoying. Though mine does not persist over other applications, it minimizes a few seconds after I minimize the PS window.

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Tom_Cheatle2588

Participant

I was also having the same issue purely in lightroom, closed and reopened and it has disappeared.

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fdch

Participant

Same problem on MacBook M4

When opening PS, no blue circle is visible around the lightbulb, but after a short time the blue circle pops up, even without working in Photoshop, overlaying every other window.

When minimizing PS, the blue circle also appears in the dock.

Yes it is the circle from the discover panel, no i did not opened PS for the first time.

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Energetic_self6989

Participant

This is also happening to me on Macbook M4 Pro, the blue ring is because of some tooltip/highlighting system, it will show through overlayed even when using other programs, extremely annoying and I don't see options to turn this off.

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mdimov

Participant

I am experiencing the same and it's really frustrating (Macbook Pro 14 inch M4 Pro). Is there really no fix for this?

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lordofdarkness

Participant

It looks identical to the blue ring around the discover light bulb in the top right corner of Photoshop 2025. It's animated on my sytem, and even gets it's own place on the dock when I minimize Photoshop. Very annoying, wish I could remove it.

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