Layer thumbnails not accurately representing their layers Photoshop 2020 on macOS Catalina

[Brobel Design]

Ever since Photoshop 2018 I've had this problem where the thumbnails for layers no longer represent the actual art on the layer– when working in RGB. In CMYK they look fine, but in RGB the thumbnails either appear as solid squares, ignoring transparency details, or the thumbnails appear with the backgrounds solid black. See the attached for an example. This is the exact same PSD file but the left is RGB and the right has been converted to CMYK.

Also worth noting, this problem existed on my older Mac running Mohave, but I'm now on a brand new Mac Pro running Catalina. So completely different machines, and different operating systems and same problem. Never happened until Photoshop 2019 and now it continues with 2020.

Anyone else encounter this?

{Thread renamed by moderator}

[Sahil.Chawla]

Hi there,

As Layers as not accurately displaying the changes while working in RGB color mode, does it happen with every file or some specific files?

Also, could you please try enabling "Legacy compositing" located in Photoshop's Preferences > Performance, then relaunch Photoshop and let us know if it helps?

You may try resetting the preferences of Photoshop and see if it helps. https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html

Note: Make sure that you back up all your custom presets, brushes & actions before restoring Photoshop's preferences. Migrate presets, actions, and settings

Regards,
Sahil

[Brobel Design]

Hi Sahil–

Thank you for the speedy reply. Resetting the preferences solved it!

But...

I noticed when the preferences were reset, the tranparency grid reappeared in my layers and in my layer thumbnails. It's a personal preference of mine to have the grid set to "none" in preferences, and as soon as I did the problem returned. Thus, the problem (at least for me) lies in working in RGB with the transparency grid set to "none." My work-around will be to set the grid back on, but then setting both grid tones to white– so the grid is on, but visually it's the same as having it off (which I've tested on a couple files and seems to work).

Thank you, again. I believe I'm set.

[katie_bernarding]

There is a work around, if you want to maintain your layer previews, but have it view as if your transparency grid is set to "none."

Go to preferences, and instead of chosing "none," choose a custom color.

The color window pops up and you will choose pure white.

Then click on the light grey swatch next to the white swatch, and change that color to white.

Now you have a grid that is white and white, therefore you can't see the grid, and it's all white.

When I tried that it looked like white as if I had "none" checked, but my layer thumb nails worked instead of being little squares.