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jeromea13244388
jeromea13244388
Inspiring
April 30, 2025
Question

Color replacement tool bug on Photoshop 26.6

  • April 30, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 966 views

Hi, there have been changes to the replacement color tool in the latest photoshop update : now when you pick a color, there is a circle appearing (with a little square in the middle) colored with the same color as the one picked. I don't get why (and if you pick another color, the circle is of the color you picked BEFORE that one) but ok... The major problem is that the tool seems to not work properly : if you replace the color with the sliders, the color is replaced but the area you picked from doesn't seem to get exactly the same replacement color as the other areas which had the exact same color. It's frustrating, i had to downgrade to 26.5.

    3 replies

    Jeff Arola
    Community Expert
    Jeff ArolaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 15, 2025

    If it's an intentional change, Adobe should at least let the user change the Eyedropper Sample setting with the Replace Color dialog active.

      G
      gifted_reality4872
      Participant
      October 13, 2025

      I just updated to 26.11 and the color replace tool just straight up does not work anymore. you can select a color but you can not select a color result. please fix this. 

      Jeff Arola
      Community Expert
      Jeff ArolaCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 13, 2025

      gifted_reality4872,

       

      Go to Photoshop 2025>Settings>Technology Previews (Mac) or Edit>Preferences>Technology Previews (Windows), uncheck Enable Modern User Interface and then restart Photoshop and if that makes a difference.

        Jeff Arola
        Community Expert
        Jeff ArolaCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        July 14, 2025

        Looks like in Photoshop 2025 (ps ver 26.8.1) Image>Adjustments>Replace Color follows the Sample setting for the Eyedropper Tool.

         

        If you change the setting of the Sample for the Eyedropper Tool to Current Layer before using Replace Color, does it sample colors from only the active layer?

        jeromea13244388
        jeromea13244388Author
        Inspiring
        July 15, 2025
        1. Indeed, but i don't understand how this change can be useful, compared to how the tool behaved before (why the current layer sample is not the default/only option available in the tool).
        Sameer K
        Community Manager
        Sameer KCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        April 30, 2025

        Hey, @jeromea13244388. Welcome to the Photoshop Community. I'll need more information to help you figure this out. Please share a video of the issue and the system info from Photoshop Help > System info > Copy and paste into a text document > Upload and attach here.

         

        Does it behave as mentioned after a specific set of steps? Also, please test and confirm if the issue exists with Photoshop (Beta). You can get Photoshop (beta) from the Creative Cloud > Apps tab > Beta Apps section. 

         

        Thanks! 
        Sameer K

        (Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

        jeromea13244388
        jeromea13244388Author
        Inspiring
        July 14, 2025

        @Sameer K Hi Sameer, in Photoshop 26.8.1, I noticed that the color replacement tool was working a little differently than before. I don't know if it's a bug or a feature but now when i select a color in the color replacement tool, I must make sure that the eyedropper is only selecting the colors on the active layer and not on all layers, or else it selects the colors of all layers in the tool...

        Before, it only selected the colors on the layer that had the color you wanted to replaced : if you selected, let's say, one color on a layer at 20 %, it showed you the color at 100% opacity, now it shows you the mix of the 20% color mixed with the color of the other layer below, which is not very useful. Or it selects a color which is not on the layer you're correcting, so it's useless, as the color you're tweaking with the sliders is on the wrong layer, so not affected by the tool. .
        Also the tool is not resetting between 2 selections, so you're selecting the color that you tweaked, not the color that is on the layer, it's very confusing. Here are 2 videos where I try to show the problem :

        https://youtu.be/JtO8SkClQuQ
        https://youtu.be/SzO5w3ZjVB8

        jeromea13244388
        jeromea13244388Author
        Inspiring
        October 4, 2025

        Hi @jeromea13244388, thank you again for catching this and sharing the details. I've shared this with product team. If possible share a final small recording with repro steps for all the issues you have posted. 

         

        Please stay tuned. I’ll update this thread as soon as I have any feedback or guidance. 

         

        Best,

        Anshul Saini

         


        @Anshul_Saini There's nothing more than what I wrote. I manage to use the old interface by unchecking "enable modern user interface".
        Yet I had to roll back to photoshop 26.9, as 26.11 has some performance issues https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/photoshop-26-11-unusable-after-a-while/m-p/15530896#M884554

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