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A
Anonymous
September 25, 2010
Answered

Keyboard not working properly in Photoshop CS5 (Mac OS)

  • September 25, 2010
  • 24 replies
  • 121357 views

Hi, I am having issues with my newly installed Photoshop CS5. Most of my keyboard functions are not working, as if Photoshop did not recognize that keys were eing pressed.

When creating a new document or saving a file, I cannot type anything into the document name field. Same happens when trying to create a new folder to save in.

No tool shortcuts work (M for marquee, B for brush, V for move, etc.). On-canvas brush changes ([ and ] for size, { and } for hardness) also do not work.

Most regular shortcuts do work (Cmd+Z, Cmd+S, etc.) but "advanced" shortcuts do not work (Cmd+Alt+Z, Cmd+Shift+Z, etc.).

Any idea on why this might be happening? I used Photoshop CS4 before with no problems. Other Adobe programs (Dreamweaver, Flash, Acrobat, etc.) are working normally.

Thank you.

      This topic has been closed for replies.
      Correct answer c.pfaffenbichler

      Do you have access to a second keyboard you could switch with your current one just to make sure it is not a hardware-issue?

      Other than that: have you updated Photoshop yet?

      24 replies

      P
      plumsauced
      Participant
      March 6, 2015

      Hi Guys,

      Try pressing alt five times - this enables and disables the "mouse keys" function which disables the keyboard.

      I have to credit this to brownknee at mac forums: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-...ml#post1436578

      additional: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT203157

      I thought this was an issue related to photoshop, and have been searching for a fix for a long time, I just found brownknee's answer today and thought I'd share.

      A
      andyh79190
      Participant
      February 22, 2015

      This worked for me, 2014 macbook pro on mavericks.

      Tried everything else and it seemed only a temporary solution, only a reboot would get the keyboard working again, this worked straight away -

      OS X: Unable to type while Mouse Keys is enabled - Apple Support

      P
      Phoebe K
      Participant
      January 28, 2015

      I've had similar experiences, I cleared my preferences and that seemed to help.
      I had it again recently after it just working, then realising I a very silly and stupid thing I somehow entered into quick mask mode. Must've pressed the shortcut accidentally, double check you are not in that mode (check bottom of your photoshop tool panel, circle inside the square) as its a silly but easy mistake and that mode will not allow you to delete.

      This may help or it may just be my random experience and solution.

      J
      jarretv
      Participant
      January 23, 2015

      Here's what works for me.

      Sometimes my keyboard language gets changed from ENG US to Canadian Multi...whenever it's canadian multi all kinds of craziness happens and it doesn't seem to respond properly (IE, right control doesn't work...etc)

      A
      alearizaga
      Participant
      October 15, 2014

      Hola, espero que puedas entender esto que te escribo, yo tuve la misma falla y mi solución fue borrar este archivo: "com.apple.PreferenceSync.plist".

      Ahí se encuentra la falla.

      Saludos.

      Hello, hope you can understand that I am writing this, I had the same fault and my solution was to delete this file: "com.apple.PreferenceSync.plist".

      Therein lies the flaw.

      Greetings.

      (Google translator)

      D
      dbuchter
      Participant
      March 4, 2014

      I replied to a similar issue in the InDesign forum.

      I have been occasionally having a problem with the spacebar when trying to use shortcuts for the zoom tool in Photoshop and Illustrator CS6. I read that some people thought the issues were coming from FireFox and/or Chrome. They thought it had something to do with their extensions. I use Safari normally (OSX 10.8.2), so I just shut it down - and that fixed the problem. I even started it back up and PS and AI continued to work normally. There could be a Safari extension causing the problem as well - I will investigate the next time this happens.

      Hope this helps you guys!

      M
      Marieke100
      Participant
      August 16, 2013

      I know it's a very old threat but the easy answer is not in it.

      This is for Windows, so I am sure you can work it out for Mac.

      Press CTRL+ ALT + SHIFT and open Photoshop

      A popup appears asking you if you want to delete PS settings -> click yes

      Photoshop and it all works again

      E
      etherize
      Participating Frequently
      December 17, 2014

      Sorry, but that doesn't work for me, and a bunch of other people in other threads ... neither does a half-dozen other suggested fixes.  And yes, it's an old thread but here we are in 2014 and there is still no solution from Adobe.  I'm beginning to hate using Photoshop.

      J
      J453
      Legend
      December 17, 2014

      What version of Photoshop are you running? What OS/version? Are you using a tablet? Have you tried the suggestions in this document? Keyboard shortcuts stop working in Photoshop: http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/keyboard-shortcuts-stop-photoshop-mac.html (Solution 2 is usually the answer)

      StephTPax
      StephTPax
      Participant
      March 6, 2013

      Had all kind of shortcut issues in Photoshop with Default Folder X installed on os X

      E
      emrahT
      Participating Frequently
      May 2, 2012

      Solved. i had the same problem cause ps cs5 gave error while quitting, i came here and saw a post. it was saying update and reboot. but no need to update, i just rebooted and solved.

      JUST REBOOT.

      A
      alexisrachel
      Participant
      November 4, 2013

      The reboot worked for me! but what a pain!

      C
      CraveDigital
      Participant
      April 13, 2012

      This is going to sound a little crazy but do any of you with the keyboard problems have gmail running in a browser? I was getting plagued by this frequently in CS5 and out of the blue it happened in CS6 beta. I noticed the moment I closed Gmail my cmd-opt-space zoom tool started working again.

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