Curious as to why Photoshop 2023 24.0.1 will every now and then jump to backgroud behine other apps

[Sandy27239270ouhp]

Hi, having a strange problem that happens several times a day, that I will be retouching an image, and all of a sudden, I am not facing photoshop, even though I was working eg with clone too on something say in the middle of the image, not near the edges, and next thing am not looking at Photoshop, but whatever program I have behind is now to the front. and I have to either Command-Tab (M1 imac) to bring it back to the front, or mouse down to the menubar I have at the bottom of the screen.

very disconcerting... and puzzling.. don't know why.

only on the rare occasion that I have not yet saved the image I am working on, will it crash photoshop.

I breaks my concentration...

any clues...??

I mainly have Music playing in the background. 

Regards, Sandy

[Sameer K]

Hi there, I've tried using Photoshop with a music service in the background & I could not recreate this during my test.

What version of macOS are you working on?

You can go to Preferences > File Handling & set up Auto-save.

Ensure there are no stale preferences in your Photoshop. Go to the location of the preference folder mentioned below and rename it to backup. 

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html

• macOS: In the Finder, hold down the Option key when using the Go menu > Library > Go to Preferences/Adobe Photoshop [version] Settings
• Rename the Adobe Photoshop folder by adding a .old at the end. (Adobe Photoshop 2023 > Rename > Adobe Photoshop 2023. old)

These changes will give a fresh start to Photoshop as a fresh install & you'll have to set up the auto-save settings again.

Let me know how it goes. Thanks!
Sameer K

[Sandy27239270ouhp]

Hi, while I am sure you are correct. the last ti,e I renames a folder in the Applications and systems folder, I ended up in a nightmare situations, that has put me off doing any such high teck stuff ever again.

I deleted the Photoshop 2022 (folder and and all it files by uins the Adobe un-install) and the Bridge 2023 (Folder and Files by using the Adobe un-install) (only using Bridge 2022, see questions in another posting) BUT the same thing happened when I was using Bridge 2023...  I would be happily photoshopping along and blink it of to the background. (Never happen on my old 27" imac, but that was running HighSierra and CS 6... the problem is my new iMac M1 is so dam fast that the switch is instant... that is why I say it is disconcerting, and I have to chest that it has not quit. (had that happen a few times also, and that has put by blood pressure at stroke level, having worked hours on a image... but we have all been there. regards, Sandy

[Sandy27239270ouhp]

Hi, while I am sure your are may be right, past experience ages ago of fiddling with things in System folders, left me with such problems that I will NEVER EVER touch them again, sorry. scared me for life... (we had hacers in the Macintosh computer club probably could do it ins a wiz.. I was Tec support on Image scanning & photoshop & Fonts. ONLY.

it still happens several times a day, and is annoying... but new to Monterey, and am one of those "it is ant broke don't fix it guys".. well it is sort of broken, but livable with.

thanks for the input.

regards, Sandy

[gary_sc]

Hi @Sandy27239270ouhp 

I'm not saying you have to or should do any of this but what Sameer is suggesting you do is to have PS self-generate a new preferences folder. 

By placing the word "old" in the name of the file, it forces PS to create a new one. If you manually removed that folder, PS would also make a new one. The difference is that the folder with the "old" in the name is still there, and at any time, you can remove the "old" and return to your original settings. 

This is a standard detection process, nothing more. 

But again, if you do not wish to do this, that is your pleasure. All I'm doing is elaborating on what it was that he was suggesting.