Why my Photoshop eyedropper tool not working outside the app? I already turn on all the Privacy Security on Mac but nothing happened

Forum|Forum|25 days ago
August 15, 2026
5 replies
65 views

I already turn on all the Privacy Security on Mac but nothing happened. Full disk access, accessibility, record, anything. It’s still cannot using eyedrop tool outside Photoshop. I’m using Photoshop 2026 with Macbook

Correct answer Jeff Arola

LAMY2017,

If you go to Apple>System Settings>Privacy & Security>Screen & System Audio Recording, is the

Adobe Photoshop 2026.app listed there?

H

helpful_determinationed4f

Participating Frequently

It may be related to macOS permissions or how Photoshop 2026 handles screen color sampling. After changing the permission, try restarting your Mac & Adobe Photoshop and that you will also have to update Adobe Photoshop, if it still not working, then reset Adobe Photoshop preferences that would be helpful for you.

John

Jeff Arola

Correct answer

Community Expert

LAMY2017,

If you go to Apple>System Settings>Privacy & Security>Screen & System Audio Recording, is the

Adobe Photoshop 2026.app listed there?

L

LAMY2017

Legend

Adobe Photoshop 2026.app wasn’t. Now is. And now the tool works outside Ps. Thank you!

I apologize for intruding; I mistakenly thought I was contributing.

Larry

Jeff Arola

Community Expert

Try this PSUserConfig

Enable Eye Dropper outside Photoshop on macOS

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/enable-optional-extensions-photoshop-cc.html#enable-eye-dropper

The linked page explains how to create that PSUserConfig.txt

L

LAMY2017

Legend

I just tried using the instructions from that page, @Jeff Arola. No Go.

[by the way, I don’t know where the OP came to their conclusion about security. Out of curiosity, I did check file info [command+I] after I created the txt file; “staff” and Everyone permission were set to Read only. I changed my file to Read&write. Made no difference.]

I still can’t use Option+Eyedropper to sample outside of Ps 27.9.1. I did restart Ps, but did not think a system restart was necessary.

Many Ps versions ago, one used to be able to turn off the Application Frame in Ps/MacOS then sample colors from the application below. As I remember, that functionality wasn’t available for Windows.

Larry

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