ESC, Delete/ Backspace no longer working with the Polygonal Lasso

[GoodBullyLLC]

When creating a selection with the polygonal lasso I used to be able to use the ESC key to exit out of the selection. Also, using the delete or backspace key used to allow me to go pack to a previous point in my selection. Neither of these functions are working for me anymore on Windows 10 Pro 64bit and Photoshop 23.4.2

[CGdesigner72]

I tried resetting all of my settings and then setting up Photoshop again to fix this issue, but it didn't work. What I did instead was to enable the Flick Panning feature to fix the issue.

Personally, I use Flick Panning with it turned off, and when it's turned off, the Lasso tool has issues. 

If I re-enable Flick Panning and then re-launch Photoshop, the Lasso tool works fine after that, at least to some extent. I'll have to test this further to see if it's a perfect fix, but so far it's working for me. 

________

In the end, it failed. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the Flick Panning feature. The most effective method so far seems to be to try resetting the settings at least 3 times and then letting Photoshop run, which seems to minimize the problem.
That doesn't eliminate the problem, but it does minimize the frequency of occurrence.

[VideoJQL]

Photoshop 26.0.0 - the same bug! Hey, developers, it's ridiculous, many years and the bug is still here, fix it already!

And more to it - problems with eyedropper tool. When painting with brush you could have pressed Alt and pick the new color to paint, but now it picks a new color as a background color, not foreground as it used to be before! Why!?

[ceesrad]

I believe, the color picker issue you mentioned is not a bug, it's a "feature".
Open the color window (F6) and click on the foreground color square there, so that it gets the border and is "activated" again. Then your color picker should work again normally.

For the lasso tool issue: Still present here, so annoying. About 70 to 80% chance to get this bug with every new selection.

[VideoJQL]

Oh, you are right about color picker. Now I vaguely remember that I came across this feature a long time ago and simply forgot about it)))

[Sivv.Ai]

I just found a fix—though I’m not sure if it’s permanent or temporary.

What I did was close OneDrive, and then the backspace/delete shortcut worked normally with the Polygonal Lasso tool. I’ve also closed and reopened Photoshop, and the backspace/delete function still works normally with the Polygonal Lasso. I relaunched OneDrive, and it’s still fine. Then I restarted Windows, and it continued to work normally. Not sure if the issue will come back, though.

Can anyone else try this fix?

[ceesrad]

I don't even have OneDrive running at all. Could you please test your "fix" over a longer period of time before you post your "fixes" in public?

3 months ago you told us that the language setting was the cause and solved the problem 100% for you. And now you are telling us, OneDrive was the cause and solves you problem?

[Sivv.Ai]

Well, that fix actually worked until my Windows crashed, and I had to do a fresh install. On this new setup, I made sure to have only one language installed, but the problem reappeared after 2-3 weeks.

I still don’t know the exact cause, but something must be getting triggered by either of these fixes—switching the language setting in the previous Windows install, and now, quitting OneDrive.

[nihalk62588727]

Hey Guys! Try this Reset All Tools, and it worked for me. 🙂

[vladislav_6409]

No, dosen't help

[ImepLRSY]

The "Left Alt + Space bar" shortcut suggested by Sivv.Ai, worked fine for me as long as I don't quit PS (thank you!).
I'm on Win 11 64 bits / Photoshop 26.0.0 and an Azerty keyboard if that can help.
I don't know why / how the shortcut works but I was then able to use the "Esc" / "Backspace" / "Delete" again while making my selection with the polygonal lasso tool.

Precisions in order to make this fix work:
- When doing the shortcut, a submenu pops (the one that normally appears when you click the little top left PS icon on Windows). Then, you need to press Esc to leave that submenu. And then the fix works.
- It didn't work when I did the shortcut while making a selection with the polygonal lasso tool.
- If you are in the middle of a selection and then can't leave it, you just need to double-click anywhere on the document to auto-close the selection and thendeselect (Ctrl + D), so you can try the "Left Alt + Space bar" shortcut.
- It didn't work when my focus was active on the main menu bar. To know if you are currently in that state, check the items of the main menu : if they have one letter underlined, this is it. It's an accessibility feature enabled when pressing "Left Alt" once. Just press "Left Alt" (again) to disable that accessibility mode (main menu item should not have any letter underlined).
- If I quit PS and relaunch, I will have to redo the shortcut because the polygonal lasso tool bug has come back.

I hope it will work for you as well.

By the way, I also tried the following method, suggested by Sivv.Ai as well:
"decide a start point on the image, then hold the shift key, click the start point with the polygonal lasso tool, release the shift key", but it worked (weirdly) only once, and then didn't work anymore.

[CGdesigner72]

The most important part of this is to press alt+Space once before using Lasso Tools, and then use Lasso Tools, which will at least minimize the frequency of the problem. It won't work every time, but it's a good idea to get in the habit of pressing alt+Space once before working. 

Here's how I found it.
First, with the file you want to work on open and the tool specified as LassoTool, try pressing the Alt+Space shortcut. This will change the mouse cursor to a magnifying glass, and LassoTool will work as normal. If the pull-down menu appears in the top left corner of the screen when you press Alt+Space, go to the tool's settings and click Reset All Tools. If the pull-down menu does not appear when you press Alt+Space and the mouse cursor changes, you should be able to work with Lasso Tools from then on.

This can happen again if you change layers or zoom out or in on the screen. With this in mind, if you change the layer you're working on or work on a different image, you'll need to redo the above method.

[CGdesigner72]

The most effective, albeit temporary, workaround we've found so far is to press Alt+Space before using Lasso tools to make sure the shortcut works as expected.
Pressing Alt+Space with the Lasso tool selected should, under normal circumstances, change the mouse cursor to a zoom out icon. In this case, you can use the Lasso tool's BackSpace, ESC, and the + and - keys on the numpad as normal.
However, if you press Alt+Space and a pull-down menu appears to resize the Photoshop window, you will not be able to use the normal keyboard shortcuts in LassoTool.

The workaround that others have suggested is to run Reset all Tools to reset the tools, but this is not a perfect solution because it is specific to the layer of the image you are working on. When you select a different layer or work on a different image, it will be turned off again and you will have to run Reset all Tools again.

This is the best method .  Press the Windows key to make the Windows menu window appear above Photoshop, then press the 'Windows key' again or press 'ESC' key to make it disappear, then press alt+Space and check  mouse cursor changes to the zoom out icon.

I've used the Windows key as an example, but the bottom line is that any method of refreshing Photoshop's memory that resides in Windows memory will work. For example, Alt+Tab to open another program window or launching the Task Manager can be a good way to refresh Photoshop's tangled memory.

[wemodkung_5475]

'Windows key' and 'ESC' key Worked for me!!

[toddmcminiment]

FIX / WORKAROUND: Hold SHIFT on your first click, then release shift. I can't take credit, someone else, somewhere posted this, but when I logged in to upvote and reply, this forum, works about as good as their software and put me on some other random page. BUT, this works, been using this method all evening on a project and is now burned into my brain / workflow. 

[Renata30751866dhix]

Same bug here!