Rastrize smart object with brush

I realize my original post about this was moved to a discssion about similar behavior regarding Smart Layer rasterization but since the new behavior occurs more widely I feel it should be seen in the general feed.

I understand the developers' desire to "remove friction" but this particular scenario is one that occurs because of a previous misguided (in my opinion) change in behavioir, one that many users have complained about when it was implemeted years ago:

If I am brushing on an adjustment layer mask and for example go to Quick mask temprorarily (or do some other easily reversable move) and then exit out of Quickmask, I am returned to the layer without the layer mask selected. This was an unwelcome chnage for many of us who then have to manually recselect the mask and continue. Many of us were wondering why this was a necessary change in the first place. 

Now this new behavior of creating a new layer somehwere in the stack instead of the gentle reminder to reselect the layer mask compounds that confusion by creating a new unwanted layer. We now have two steps to get back to where we were now, and not one. For a change in target layer that we did not initiate, but was instead initiated for us. This is double the friction. Or rather reducing the friction on the path to an unwated place.

I would downvote this new feature. Or please make it opt-in.

Unsure if this is a bug or a feature:

With an adjustment layer selected if I intend to paint on the mask but that mask itself is mistakenly not selected, I am accustomed to getting the "layer is not directly editable" dialog box and the cursor is a circle with cross (do not enter style).

The new behavior is that instead of the warning dialog interrupting, a new pixel layer is created somewhere else in the layer stack (often many layers distant from the current layer) and brushing immediatly begins on that layer. 

I can usually detect this right away and correct my mistake and this is merely annoying. But often the new unwanted layer is clipped to another layer, rendering the new brushstrokes invisible. Thus it often takes a while, perhaps many brushstrokes before I realize what has happened. This moves from the level of annoying to the level of exasperating. Espexially in a document of several dozen layers where the new layer could literally be anywhere.

Is this the intended behavior of a new feature in testing? Or a bug?

I also notice that the initial burshstroke that creates the new unwanted layer shows up in the History Pallete as a brush stroke, but instead of the brush icon accompanying it, it has the layer icon accomanying it. Which is why I suspect this is intentional behaviour and perhaps not a bug. 

Is there any way I can continue to use the beta and disable this beahavior?


Mac Studio M1 Max
macOS 13.4.1
64 GB mem
latest 25.0.0 beta

I can upload my current setup yada yada yada but I can assure you nothing has changed on my end other than the new beta being used and I can also assure you that the release version continues to function normally in this regard, so I am hesitant to go through the whole "uploading all your data" process.

Can you comment on this assuming the usual data dump would reveal nothing unusual or new in in my setup?

One suggestion @ClaudiaR99 make the pop up a first time option - allowing the user to rasterize, create on a new layer or cancel and then add the "remember this choice".

Hi @CShubert I confirmed the same behavior in the latest beta on Mac - if you try to brush onto a smart object layer, it creates a new blank layer automatically without the option to convert the smart object layer first.

I tried to paint on MAX2022_logos2 layer and it auto created Layer 7 in the middle of my panel - not even in a logial location.

Hi @dmitryeliseev 

It may help if we could see your Photoshop beta System Info. Launch Photoshop beta, and select Help >System Info...and copy/paste the text in a reply.  

Ah this is the beta. I'll move this over to the proper forum.

Hi Kevin! Shure, this warning always apeared all my life before, but I guess in last Beta new layar is creater instead of warning and brush applyed to new layer. But I just used to rastrize smart layers through a brush stroke and warning. 

Hi @dmitryeliseev This option has not been removed. If you try to edit a smart object with a brush tool directly a warning pops up. You can choose to rasterize the smart object or cancel.