P: Intersect Mask With causes three-dot menus and eyeball icons to stop appearing

[johnrellis]

Right-clicking a mask and doing Intersect Mask With causes the three-dot menus and eyeball icons to stop appearing when you hover over any mask or mask component. The bug recipe below faithfully replicates a common way of configuring the LR UI. With this config, it's very easy for the bug to occur, and, while it's a simple bug with a now-known trivial workaround, it is quite annoying (as it apparently was to Conrad).

To reproduce on a virgin LR 14.5.1 / Mac OS 15.6.1 (both freshly installed in a virtual machine):

1. Download and open this small catalog:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/okzrplm6igsst4an71xpm/intersect-bug.2025-09-05.zip?rlkey=xhxs6es9e56w...

2. Click the window's green button to fill the screen with LR.

3. Take one of the photos into Develop and create a mask. If the Masks panel isn't docked in the main Develop column, dock it.

4. Click the three-dot men in the lower right corner of the Masks panel to ensure you have the default options:

(The bug doesn't seem to occur if Automatically Toggle overlay is off and Show Overlay is unchecked, but I haven't tested the other options. This step shouldn't be necessary if you have a truly virgin install of LR.)

5. Make the Develop column as wide as possible.

6. Reset Develop settings.

7. Create a Subject mask. Subtract from that mask a Background component. Observe that if you hover the mouse over the masks and components, you can see the three-dot menus and eyeball icons magically appear (correct).

8. Create another Subject mask. Click its three-dot menu and do Intersect Mask With > Select Background. Be very careful not to move the mouse outside of the Develop column while you're doing this (which is why you clicked the green button and made the Develop column wide). Observe that hovering over masks and components no longer shows the three-dot menus or eyeball icons (incorrect).

9. Hover the mouse over the Loupe view, ensuring the masking icons appear over the masks in the image.  Move the mouse back to the Masks panel and hover it over the masks and components. Observe that the three-dot menus and eyeball icons are once again appearing (correct).

See the attached screen recording.

To reproduce on LR 14.5.1 / Mac OS 15.5:

1. Create a Subject mask. Subtract from that mask a Background component. Observe that if you hover the mouse over the masks and components, you can see the three-dot menus and eyeball icons magically appear (correct).

2. Create another Subject mask. Right-click it and do Intersect Mask With > Select Background.  Observe that hovering over masks and components no longer shows the three-dot menus or eyeball icons (incorrect).

See the attached screen recording.

[drtonyb]

@johnrellis 

I am not seeing this on my Windows 11 PC with LrC 14.5.1. Mouseover masks works as expected.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I also cannot replicate this on Mac. 

[AxelMatt]

Try resetting the preferences of Lightroom Classic:  How to reset Lightroom Classic preferences (adobe.com)

It's recommended to backup your preferences before you reset the preferences to the default settings: 

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/preference-file-and-other-file-locations.html

[Conrad_C]

I’ve been seeing this behavior happen for a while, but I haven't been able to reproduce it consistently and that’s why I haven’t reported it. I never know when it’s going to happen. I am not sure if it happens only when using Intersect, but I do use Intersect a lot.

When it does happen, I have to right-click those masks to be able to hide/show them or use the ellipsis menu commands because I can’t find a way to make the eye and ellipsis show up again.

Aside from right-clicking, the only other workaround I use to get those icons back is to restart Lightroom Classic.

Lightroom Classic 14.5.1

macOS 15.6.1

(but I have observed the disappearing icons in earlier versions)

[johnrellis]

@Rikk Flohr: Photography, I refined and updated the bug recipe above to reliably reproduce the bug on a virgin installation of Mac OS and LR. I've updated the screen recording.

The conditions I've identified are: a docked Masks panel (rather than floating); Show Overlay checked; not moving the mouse outside of the Develop column.  These conditions explain why the bug appears "intermittently". I always have the Masks panel docked and keep the Develop column wide, so I usually don't move the mouse outside of the Develop column after doing an Intersect.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Thank you for the additional steps @johnrellis  I am having the team review.