Actions disappeared now transform will not work

[debraw13903969]

Last week my Photoshop appeared to do a complete reinstall, all my Actions disappeared. I reinstalled an older version hoping that would help but it did not, I have had to reload all my Actions. But also if I want to select ALL to transform or flip an image, instead of the dotted line around the image it places a complete transform sold line with little squares at the corners, but I cannot flip or warp etc. Please help

[kglad]

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

<"moved from cc desktop">

[Bojan Živković]

Could you please post some screenshots to illustrate the issue with the transform?

[Stephen Marsh]

@debraw13903969 

It's likely that your application preferences spontaneously reset, most likely due to corruption.

One should manually save each action set "folder" individually to a .atn file using the menu on the upper right of the action panel window. Loaded .atn files or newly created and unsaved action sets are temporarily stored in the Actions Palette presets file (Actions Palette.psp). This file should be considered temporary and may be subject to corruption or loss, which is why making an explicit save to .atn file for each action set is strongly advised.

I doubt that you can recover the lost actions panel contents, unless you can find an old copy of the The Actions Palette.psp file from before the preferences were reset, perhaps in an older version folder or from a full system backup.

If you did save the actions to .atn file, then it's easy to reload them.

The Actions Palette.psp file can often be used to migrate the entire panel/palette or to possibly retrieve unsaved actions. This is by no means a replacement for saving each Action Set as an individual .atn file. The location of the Actions Palette.psp file can be found in locations similar to:

Mac:

• /Users/username/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CC 2022 Settings⁩/Actions Palette.psp

Win:

• C:\Users\username\appData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2022\Adobe Photoshop 2022 Settings\Actions Palette.psp 

(Replace “username” with your user account name and also replace 2022 with your version name/number. The Windows appData or Mac Library directory may be hidden. You can search the web for how to make hidden folders visible for your OS if this is the case).

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/01/photoshop-custom-action-file-backup.html

[jane-e]

But also if I want to select ALL to transform or flip an image, instead of the dotted line around the image it places a complete transform sold line with little squares at the corners, but I cannot flip or warp etc.

By @debraw13903969

Hi Debra,

Since you were able to reload all of your action sets, it means you had them properly backed up using the panel menu. That's good news!

I can think of one possible reason for the transform issue. With the Move tool selected, is "Show Transform Controls" enabled? For a short time, the developers moved this to a cog icon, so if you don't see it then show a screenshot of your options bar.

What I do is turn "Show Transform Controls" off and use Cmd+T (macOS) / Ctrl+T (Windows) to bring up Free Transform (also in the Edit menu). This will give you access to flip, warp, etc. Flip and Warp are also available as sub-items in Edit menu > Transform if you prefer.

Jane