P: Freezing, cursor stuck when scrolling/flick panning

[jethrodesign]

Hi, over the years we've generally found Photoshop to be one of the most stable of all apps we use. But lately, it's been freezing a lot when doing relatively simple editing. We've updated to the very latest version (21.1.2) on a late 2013 Mac Pro with 24GB RAM. 

What seems to be causing the freeze is just scrolling around a zoomed-in image when using the spot healing brush tool on grayscale TIF images that aren't overly huge or complex. But this may just be coincidence since it's a pretty common task. But using the space-bar scroll will just suddenly freeze and the image becomes completely unresponsive. Fortunately, I am typically still able to access menus, including 'File/Save'! Sometimes I'm able to just save & re-open the file to get it to work again, other times I must restart PS.

- Is this common? 

- Anything we can try to resolove (if clearing prefs, any specific - as they seem to be pretty widespread and in multiple places)?

Seems like this has only recently started happening, so not sure if one of the recent updates has caused this. We've never experienced this kind of thing with PS over the years.

Thanks! 

[smart_resourcefulness98A4]

Ah, well, ignore the first video, it was wrong, this video is the correct one.

The bug happens at 00:56

[J453]

Go to Preferences > Tools... and uncheck "Enable Flick Panning" and "Animated Zoom". Does the problem go away?

[smart_resourcefulness98A4]

Go to Preferences > Tools... and uncheck "Enable Flick Panning" and "Animated Zoom". Does the problem go away?

I think the problem is no more, thank you.

[kris67527204]

Still an issue in 2023. Happens reproducibly with a Wacom tablet and standard settings.

Disabling flick panning, GPU acceleration or animated zoom is very disruptive and not a solution. Using "UseSystemStylus 0" in the PS config, as some others have posted here, solves the problem seemingly without compromises.

Adobe, would you kindly fix your software bug already and remove the poor pinned solutions from this thread? This is quite an upsetting and obvious problem.

[Garnet Divine]

I am also experiencing this issue in 2023. When panning by holding Space and Left Click, when I let go of Left Click, the "hand" stays on my screen, and gets stuck, as if I'm still holding down Left Click. When panning on a large document while zoomed in, this is incredibly frustrating. I just want to be able to pan across my image without it being hung up, telling me to disable features is an unaccpetable solution, and they don't work anyway. I can't believe I pay monthly for software that still bugs out on simple things like this for YEARS without any fix provided other than "disable features." Absolutely pathetic customer service.

[Kobe29949701nmcb]

@J453 

Hey, is there anyway to fix this bug while still using flick pan? It's super annoying experiencing the bug, but I am not happy to have to hamstring control functionality just to fix it. This seems to be a several year old bug, so I'm assuming there should be a fix by now right?

[Fihn]

The offical answer is 'it's being worked on', but they don't have significant competition in the professional market so I think it just continues to get ignored. I've worked on several different computers since I first posted about this four years ago and it's been the same on all of them, so it's not specific to my personal set up. The only thing I can say for sure is that after years of this bug, I haven't grown accustomed to it - I just get less satisfied with Adobe.

[fabiocerati]

no

[JoeHoran]

WTF?? this is a 4 year old issue? Adobe why the hell do I pay you so much every month for this??? It's so %^#$ing frustrating, I think I'm just going to cancel my subscription and find alternatives.

I'm so sick of this. EVERY time I update this program just keeps getting WORSE and you guys end up changing shortcuts without telling anyone or asking IF I want to change them. I HATE paying for this

[davidg93644855]

Its truely pathetic.

They roll out shiny new tools all the time to sell the products and ignore big issues with them. They now own Figma so thats gonna go down the pan also.  

On Nov 20, 2021 They finally acknowedged it as serious problem and said 'It's an issue that is being worked on.' 

Worked on by who and how have they still got a job if its not fixed after years?! YEARS!!

[Isaiah309942860sm9]

July 2023, still a problem, using the most up-to-date version of Photoshop.

I've been using Photoshop 2018 up until last month because of so many issues like this one. Crazy this hasn't been fixed yet. Might just go back to 2018 again since it was the most stable, recent build of Photoshop.

[chromoprinter54]

I still have this issue with the latest version of photoshop and yes unchecking flick panning makes it go away. However, the alternative of disabling flick panning makes photoshop not function well when you have to click and drag at zoomed perspective. It has a lag when I click and drag with the flick panning off. Making it slow and buggy. Please fix one or the other or both! Thanks!

[fpsdemon]

I had the same problem with scrolling. I've tried disabling Flick Panning and Animated Zoom, but it's not gonna fix freezing for me. But when I disable "Use OpenCL" (Edit > Preferences > Performance > Graphics Processor Settings > Advanced Settings), Photoshop is not freezing in several days. Flick Panning and Animated Zoom is also work without freezing.

I don't know this is generic fix for this problem (I'm using GeForce RTX 3060). But I think it's worth a try when all other things are failed.

[John23793528uwyr]

I bought a new MacBook Air on the day the M2 chip was released, roughly six months ago. I use primarily Adobe apps like Photoshop, In Design, Portfolio. My issue is that when working in PS and trying to use the lasso tool, when drawing a selection line that is somewhat long, the tool freezes on me. And even when it hasn't completely stopped, it feels like it's stuck and I have to jiggle it around to get it to continue...which isn't good for the process. Been on the phone with Apple, but like an auto with an intermittant problem, it always works fine in my small window of trying to replicate the problem. Just now I saw the post about turning off Flick Panning and animated zoom (not sure what either of them does). So i'll soon find out if that helps.

[goodomenphoto]

This is still a major issue on 11/2023. What is being done to fix this??? The mouse will not release the took when trying to pan. Disabled flick panning and animated zoom is not working for everyone. It does not fix this issue for me. I am inches away from moving permanently to CaptureOne. 

[kris67527204]

Yeah, no, this seemingly small bug makes the program unusable for users with drawing tablets and should be far less effort to fix than Adobe is spending on implementing all those AI features.

Of course Adobe rather ignores this bug, because making Photoshop more interesting for the masses is much more profitable than making even the most fundamental functions, like panning or zooming the document, work correctly for artists.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@goodomenphoto @John23793528uwyr Go to Settings/Technology Preview and check "Disable Native Canvas" relaunch PS. Any improvement?

[Fihn]

Go to Settings/Technology Preview and check "Disable Native Canvas" relaunch PS. Any improvement?

This is one I haven't tried yet so we'll give it a shot tomorrow. Almsot everyone in my department has an issue with this so it shouldn't take long to get some feedback. I've tried every version of Photoshop since 2019 and this bug has persisted since then. I appreciate the new feedback, thank you!

[Fihn]

Go to Settings/Technology Preview and check "Disable Native Canvas" relaunch PS. Any improvement?
By @jethrodesign

I'm back to say that a little more than 4 hours into using Photoshop today I have a document that's locked up again, so this is not a fix. This post has been up for years so I'll recap:

• With flick panning on ,working with a document will cause it to eventually 'lock up' meaning it stops responding.
• Sometimes it take 5 minutes to lock up. Sometimes it takes hours. There doesn't seem to be connection between file size or the number of files that are open.
• This does not affect other open documents - for example, I work with two files open, side by side and only one freezes.
• While locked up, you cannot move the image, you're pointer becomes a standard white mouse pointer when over the document, but will change to whatever tool you have selected when hovering over a document in another tab/window that isn't lociked.
• Changing the tool has no effect on this.
• You CAN save your locked up file, but you can only see the percentage process of the save in the title/tab bar. The status window in the bottom left is locked up just like the image.
• You can close the frozen file and reopen it.
• Disableing Native Canvas does not fix this
• Disabling Flick Panning in Preferences / Tools does 'fix' this, but it's an unacceptable loss of functionality for those of us working on very large images.

Can we just get this thing fixed please? The 2019 version of PS was the last version that didn't have this bug.

[MicahBurke]

It's not a bug if a majority of users aren't having the problem (any longer). 

A couple things to notice, are you flick panning over other windows (especially plugins windows.)

What plugins/extensions do you have installed.  Try disabling them and see if there's any change. 

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Fihn disable Flick Panning is one of the first things I turn off for our users. That and Overscroll.

[Fihn]

@MicahBurke 

I call it a bug because Adobe acknowledged it as such in my original post, which has been merged to this one. And becauase this was moved to the bug section by Adobe, but it's just a word and I'm happy to call it anything that helps get us to a solution.

Flick panning over a second window is a great question. The whole point of using that function is to reduce the number of mostions and to be able to use a smaller motion to repositiont he canvas, but I DO work 2-up, side by side so it's far from impossible. I'm going to play with that tomorrow to see if that's an issue. I can imagine a lot of people not working this way which goes a long way to explaining why it would affect some and not others.

I have no plugins installed. Lots of brushes, but that's it.

Thank you for the reply!

[SinCr0w]

I would like to add that as of July 29 2024!! this is still a bug that I have expierenced multiple times.
Last time, I was able to fix it by disabling flick panning and animated zoom but, as of yesterday, I am once again experiencing this bug. Flick panning and animated zoom was already off when this happened. I disabled OpenCL, restarted my PC, disabled overscoll, disabling native canvas isn't even an option any more in my version, disabled zoom with scroll wheel, uninstalled and reinstalled my plugins because, at this point, I was willing to try anything. Any mention of a feature, even disproved, I tried disabling. I have spent the last two days not being able to work on my projects because of this bug.

The one thing that finally fixed it was unplugging my tablet, even though I was using a mouse at the time. It's not even a wacom tablet, and my drivers are up to date.

Tablet: XP-Pen Deco 01 V2
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
Adobe Photoshop Version: 25.7.0

[Corniger]

I've also had this happening again recently. Suddenly, the image zoomed all the way in and there was only the bottom left corner visible, no way to move it except by restarting PS. But only once, instead of several times per hour.

Also, all "fixes" were applied, I just can't update my Wacom Driver anymore, because Wacom refuse to issue an updated version so I'm supposed throw a perfectly good Intuos 4 in the trash - very "inclusive", "sustainable" and "climate friendly". Works normal in all other applications.

[Chad Rolfs]

@SinCr0w If unplugging your tablet resolves the issue, it could be a conflict with that tablet's drivers and updates with PS and the OS.  Unfortunately PS doesn't officially support XPen.  You might try using WinTab and see if that works (assuming your on a Win machine):
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/enable-optional-extensions-photoshop-cc.html#turn_off_system_st...