Keystroke to switch between open windows not working

[johnnyoakes1]

Hi Everyone, When using Photoshop and having two or more image windows open I was able to move between the windows using the keystroke CMD + Tide. This has stopped working for some reson and everyhting I have tried has not succeeded in bringing it back. I tried resetting keyboard shortcuts and reintalling the application but nothing works. I have to manually click on each open window to see it. Using the tab key doesn't work either but switches between applications.

I'm on Mac Sequoia 15.1. Anyone had this same problem and fixed it.

Thanks

Jonathan

[Aleke]

Hi @johnnyoakes1! 👋

What version of Photoshop are you using? Are you referring to the Cmd + Tab shortcut? That's what works for me to switch between Photoshop tabs. If that doesn't work, we can try resetting your preferences. This will restore Photoshop to its default state and can help with any unexpected errors. Just make sure to back up your preferences for brushes or anything else you don't want to lose. Here's how to do it: Reset Preferences.

Thanks a lot! 😊

Alek

[Conrad_C]

Hi @johnnyoakes1! 👋

What version of Photoshop are you using? Are you referring to the Cmd + Tab shortcut? That's what works for me to switch between Photoshop tabs.

By @Aleke

Command + Tab should not cycle Photoshop document windows or tabs, because Command-Tab is the standard macOS shortcut for the Application Switcher, as documented in the Apple help article linked below.

Mac keyboard shortcuts – Apple

Command + ` is one of the traditional Photoshop shortcuts for cycling through document windows or tabs, and is the shortcut the user is asking about.

[Conrad_C]

That’s unusual, not sure why that’s happening. Have you recently installed any new software that might have taken over that keyboard shortcut?

Also, do the windows/tabs cycle if you press Ctrl + Tab, or does that also fail?

(And yes, that is Ctrl + Tab on the Mac, not Command.)

What happens if you add Shift to either shortcut? For example, Shift + Command + ` is supposed to cycle in the other direction. I’m just wondering if only Command + ` isn’t working, or if both are blocked. Same with Shift + Ctrl + Tab, does that work or not?

Background:

The earliest versions of Photoshop on Classic Mac OS (in the 1990s) used Ctrl + Tab to cycle through windows. After Apple released Mac OS X and declared Command + ` as the system-wide shortcut for cycling through app windows, Photoshop added support for that too, while also keeping the old shortcut.

So today, the way it’s supposed to work is that the latest version of Photoshop still supports both Ctrl + Tab and Command + ` , and adding Shift to both shortcuts should cycle in the opposite direction. So it would be interesting to know if any of those work, or if only some are blocked, in case that helps narrow down what’s blocking Command + ` .

Both Command + ` and Ctrl + Tab still cycle through Photoshop documents on my Mac on macOS 14.7.4 at least.

[Stephen Marsh]

Not an answer, however, a Photoshop script can overcome this issue until you have it fixed.

[johnnyoakes1]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm erring towards another application stealing the shortcut. I do have TourBox console installed. That hooks onto various applications maybe that has somehow done it. I'll check and report back.

jonathan

[Conrad_C]

It sounds like you’re heading in the right direction for troubleshooting, but my guess is the cause probably isn’t TourBox. I have a TourBox too, and the way TourBox Console works is that its software can map a button or dial to an application’s keyboard shortcut, but I don’t think there is any way to define keyboard shortcuts in TourBox Console itself, so I don’t think it can take over any keyboard shortcuts. When you enter a keyboard shortcut in TourBox Console, that doesn’t define the shortcut, it only tells TourBox Console which keys to simulate pressing. If it simulates a key press that isn’t already an existing keyboard shortcut in the receiving application, nothing happens.

By the way, I mapped one TourBox button+knob combo to the document cycling shortcuts in Photoshop. I mapped counterclockwise to Shift + Command + `, and clockwise to Command +` . Works great, when I turn the knob it switches documents.

One place where you do want to inspect shortcuts is in macOS System Settings / Keyboard / Keyboard Shortcuts. Specifically, see if the OS default shortcut for Move Focus to Next Window has changed or been removed. If it has and you never intended to change it, click Restore Defaults, then you can map TourBox Console to that shortcut.

If that macOS shortcut looks OK but doesn’t work when you press it in Photoshop, then keep looking for other software that might have taken over the shortcut. Maybe start with the list of apps in Login Items because software that changes shortcuts system-wide is often set up to run all the time.

[johnnyoakes1]

Hi All for your comments, and thank you to Conrad. I finally resolved this. I realise I had enabled Stage Manager and it seems that was the cause. I disabeled Stage Manager in "Desktop & Dock" I still had to mess around with the settings in "Keyboard" in "System Settings" and finally I renabeled "Keyboard Navigation" again and the shortcut works again. 

Hope this helps someone else.

Jonathan

[Conrad_C]

Thanks for letting us know what it was. That'll probably help someone else later who searches about this same problem.