2021 iMac Cant drag and drop photos into Photoshop

[willmasterpsoneday]

Hi all - looking for a fix - cant drag and drop photos into photoshop. Also when I go to Photos through Finder when trying to place an image - I only get shown a couple of random photos from the 1000s I have. Any suggestions? Thanks 🙂

[Guest]

Hi,

Where are you trying to drag and drop the photos from? Finder, the Photos app, or somewhere else? If it's the Photos app, have you tried using the 'Edit With' option when right-clicking (ctrl-clicking) on the photo?

For the problem with seeing the photos in the Photos Browser when using the place function, I have a few thoughts. Are you having this problem in any other app that accesses the Photos browser (e.g. In Mail when trying to attach a photo to an email)?  How long have you had your Mac? Did you transfer the Photos to the computer directly via a hard drive etc, or have you synced it with iCloud? If it's through iCloud, it could be that the computer is still downloading the previews of your files. It could also be that the Photos library needs repairing. To repair the library, close the app then reopen it holding down the option and command keys. Apple's instructions to repair the library are here: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204967

Let us know if any of this helps or if you're still having problems.

[torkelgutt]

I'm having a similar problem. The mac is about a week old, I'm using Finder, and all the files are stored locally on my mac.

My problem isn't dragging-and-dropping in itself. I can drag and drop a photo into PS and have it appear as a new layer on an already open photo. And I can drag and drop a photo that will open if I have no other photos already open in PS. But I can't drag and drop a photo and get it to open on its own (rather than as a layer) if I have a photo already open. Is that not possible on PS on mac?

(I know I can use right click - open with, but after 15 years of dragging and dropping on PC it's hard to break the habit:)

[Jeff Arola]

You can drag the photo onto the Photoshop dock icon and that will open a photo on it's own.

[torkelgutt]

That worked, thanks!

Seems a strange way to do it, but I'm sure I'll adapt to it faster than using the open menu 🙂

[Conrad_C]

On the Mac, you can open a dropped file as a new Photoshop document window not just by dropping it on the Photoshop icon in the dock, but also on any instance of the Photoshop icon: The actual application icon (in the Applications folder), or any alias (shortcut) of it anywhere. The Dock icon is simply an instance of a Photoshop alias/shortcut, so that’s what makes it a legitimate drop target.

When you’re inside Photoshop itself, drop a file icon into the empty area of the document tab strip to open it as its own document.

Or, if no documents are open, you can drop a file on the Home screen to open it in Photoshop.

In other words, the only time a dropped icon is added as a new layer in a Photoshop document is if it’s dropped inside a document window. Dropping on the empty tab strip, an empty Home screen, or on any Photoshop icon instance on the desktop opens it as a separate document, because those drop targets are outside any Photoshop document window.