All tool icons missing within canvas

Question

This morning after firing up Photoshop, I discovered my brush tool icon was missing from the canvas so I had no way to know what size it was. Were the + icon present instead, this is a known issue where the Caps Lock is active and is a simple fix.

However, I have no cursors at all. The brush size is normal and would typically be visible on screen, yet is completely missing. Digging a little bit, I discovered ALL of my tools are missing their associated icons when on the canvas. None of them show up.

Double checked my cursors preferences settings, they are exactly where I left them. Default setup.

Hand tool, paint bucket, cropping tool, none of them. All are present and accounted for within the tool bar, just don't show on the canvas when being used.

I wiped out the preferences file so PS could rebuild it from scratch. No change.

Going the nuclear route and uninstalled. Is reinstalling as I type this.

I don't typically allow the tablet ( Wacom Studio Pro 16 ) to get on the internet until Adobe requires it so nothing has changed OS wise that I'm aware of. ( OS is Win 10 )

Anyone else ever run into this issue ?

KLyles · Accepted Answer

The way I typically go about deleting the preferences file is to simply rename the existing preferences folder. I'll typically append a .old suffix to it. Photoshop will not find it upon restart and will create another.

I did also try the other method as well.

After a complete reinstall, it was still behaving the same way. I fired up Corel Painter 2017 and all the icons were there so I started brainstorming and went through the Cintiq screen calibration process once again.

When the on screen icons were not showing up there, I zeroed in on the Pen Settings within Windows 10.

Specifically, under Pen & Windows Ink -> Pen -> Show Cursor

I had disabled it while trying to remove the annoying Circle that pops up on screen when you touch it within the OS.

It is my guess that Photoshop, unlike Corel Painter, utilizes the Windows Ink settings and is impacted by any modifications there.

So just an FYI to you tablet users out there

Benjamin Root · Answer

Just out of curiosity, how did you delete your preferences? The safe way is to move the preference file to another local and let Photoshop create a new one on startup. The downside to that method is not everything is recreated. If things don't change after reinstall, you might try the keyboard shortcut method:

Win: Press and hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift immediately after initiating Photoshop's startup. A box will appear asking if you want to continue with the reset, select "yes." If you don't see this, you weren't fast enough...Try again.

Mac: Press and hold Cmd+Opt+Shift then start Photoshop. A box will appear, asking if you want to continue with the reset, select "yes."

One other thing you might check into would be GPU acceleration. Edit > Preferences > Performance > Use Graphics Processor (un-check). Restart Photoshop.

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