Layers don't update

[clbutler69]

I've come across this issue lately and I have no idea how to fix it. I have experienced on my old MacBook Pro and my new and improved MacBook. When I'm working with layers Photoshop has stopped updating the appearance of the file when I turn on/off layers, use healing brush or clone brush. I have to zoom in or out for the screen to refresh to show me the current state.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Any solutions?

[Rob16321]

Thank you very much, DigitalWheelie, for posting this bug onto twitter.

Really astonishing that Adobe folks IMMEDIATELY read it and answered there whereas they haven't given a penny to customers reporting this bug within Adobe's own forums. I do hope they start now what they had to have started weeks ago.

[MediaManDan]

Yes. thank you!

It's a little sad to realize it took a simple Twitter post to have the "Adobe engineers will get back to you as soon as possible." but this thread has been been going for a month!

Why the heck do I even post here?

[DigitalWheelie]

You're very welcome.

Hope it helps us all (me included)!

Sadly, I'll believe they'll look into this when they get here.

That could also just be a matter of keeping up appearances...

[Pete.Green]

Hi all,

Sorry about this bug where Photoshop isn't updating as frequently as it should.

We're looking into it but don't have a fix quite yet.

We're tracking this issue here: Photoshop CC 2017: The edited image isn't updated in a window | Photoshop Family Customer Community

I've also responded there with instructions on how you can help our investigation of a bug fix if you'd like to help out.

When we have a fix, we'll also be providing that thread with an update, so click the "Me Too" button and Follow so you can be notified of any updates regarding this one.

Regards,

Pete

[MediaManDan]

Thanks Pete. We kind of felt like we were on an island here and nobody knew. I guess we should have assumed that if we were having challenges there was another thread somewhere.

I've already done a ton of trouble-shooting and will go over there and see if any of it applies. (The Get Started screen disappearing is one unusual symptom).

[MediaManDan]

Pete, I just took a peek at the thread you posted.

It's not very heartening to see that thread was started over a year ago. <{:-o

[Pete.Green]

The behavior has popped up and gone away over time, I'm wondering how many are seeing this with Wacom drivers installed.

I was able to reproduce this bug or something similar with Wacom's latest drivers, and had better results after reverting to a previous version of Wacom drivers.

Are you using Wacom drivers MediaManDan? If so, can you let us know which version is currently installed?

Regards

PG

[MediaManDan]

Yes I do! 

v 6.3.27-2

And I would be very happy to lose them if it meant getting PS back in line. In fact I'll do it now as a test and report back. I can do a clean  uninstall of Wacom.

That might also explain why I can get PS to behave if I create a new Mac user and log on with that profile. I'll have to see of the Wacom drivers are loading for that user.

[Rob16321]

Yes, I also have a Wacom driver installed (version 6.3.10w2) which I haven't updated for years.

What makes me feel a bit strange is the fact that Photoshop 19.0.0 runs without any problems whereas its successor 19.1.0 does not. But it is the very same Wacom driver installed!

So something between 19.0.0 and 19.1.0 must behave differently regarding the Wacom driver. If that really should be the right track. After downgrading to 19.0.0 Photoshop runs flawlessly again. That's my current working environment.

[Pete.Green]

Interesting, thanks for reporting your results.

In my testing, 6.3.27-2 created the behavior for me, whereas uninstalling that version and installing 6.3.25-2 fixed it for me.

Mind testing that on your end MediaManDan?

Rob, you seem to have an older driver version, would you try installing 6.3.25-2 and see if that helps you as well?

Here's a link to the download page for 6.3.25-2: Driver 6.3.25-2 | Wacom Asia Pacific Customer Support

Regards,

Pete

[MediaManDan]

Rob16321, That's a good observation.

Unfortunately I have to report that a clean uninstall of Wacom didn't help. Well, at first it did but after the second start-up of Photoshop things were right back to before. . . no start-up screen ("Get Started") and same behavior with crawling ant selections disappearing and layers not updating any edits.

Pete, when you installed the older version of Wacom did you re-start Photoshop a couple times in your testing?

[DigitalWheelie]

Not to burst any bubbles, but I don't have any Wacom drivers but still experience the problem sometime.

I have a HUION tablet and drivers, but that doesn't seem to affect anything.

I uploaded my debug output to the other forum.

[MediaManDan]

I kind of suspected that after rob16321 noticed that PS 19.0 and 19.1 were both using the same tablet driver and only one version of PS works.

I just tried reverting back to Wacom 6.3.24 and as before, Photoshop works on the first start, including the start-up screen but after the re-launch it's back to no start-up screen and the same issues.

Gotta say that after a few months of this I was kind of enjoying the feeling of almost having it solved. 

[Pete.Green]

Thanks for trying -- It's ok to have the bubble burst if it's not the solution.

Was a shot in the dark since I was able to get it to reproduce in my testing with a particular Wacom driver.

Did I restart Photoshop a couple times in my testing?

Maybe a couple times, but not over and over to test each launch, so it's possible the behavior would have shown itself there again in time.

Does a complete uninstall of the Wacom driver help at all with Photoshop over multiple launches?

You'll want to use the Wacom utility found in Applications to do this.

It's at least interesting that a different driver "fixed" it for a first launch. Seems only semi-related, and I'm not sure to what extent.

Regards,

Pete

[DigitalWheelie]

FWIW Thanks for actively helping, Pete. We were getting a bit desperate.

Here's hoping the solution is simple and found quickly...

[Rob16321]

Hi everybody,

I can confirm that RightFont (even its latest version 4.7) makes Photoshop behaving that strange with not updating layers etc.

What I did:

- updated PS from 19.0.0 to 19.1.2

- updated RightFont from 4.5 to 4.7

- rebooted my iMac

- closed RightFont after its automatic launch after start-up

- opened Photoshop: "Get started" appeared, everything went fine, layers updated as expected

- closed Photoshop

- launched RightFont, waited some seconds

- opened Photoshop: no "Get started" appeared, no updates of layers changes, no marching ants etc

- cloded Photoshop, closed RightFont

- opened Photoshop again: "Get started" appeared, no problems with updating of layers

Well then, I am so thankful to @larsattackz - this should not get lost here. See this thread Re: Photoshop CC 2018 does not update hide/show layers on Macbook Pro 15" 2017  (post #14). He was the very first to find a connection between Photoshop's behaviour and the running font manager RightFont.

And yes, I feel disappointed by Adobe staff (sorry, Pete) because they were visible ONLY after @DigitalWheelie had written one single message on social media. After that, they at once became busy and hyperactive.

Nevertheless, the most important is that we now know what caused this misbehavior of Photoshop. Until RightFont fixes its bug this app has to be closed while working with PS.

[atomiccherry]

Just updated to RightFont 4.8, now experiencing serious issues with Adobe InDesign, worse than the previous Photoshop issues. RightFont persists to the front and will not allow me to select or work with any document in InDesign. If I attempt to select the open document window RightFont activates and takes over.

Anyone else experiencing this issue?

[Rob16321]

Sorry but I don't know if I correctly understand your problem. You don't mean that RightFont's window always stays in foreground, do you? (Which would be a setting in Preferences -> Advanced: untick "Keep RightFont on top of all other windows".)

Just tested: the auto-activation with InDesign does not work automatically (don't know if it had worked before). I have to pull the running RightFont window into foreground which immediately causes the message that fonts were activated now. Without this action missing fonts are not activated.

[atomiccherry]

Thanks for the reply. I'm going back and forth with RightFont support. Seems that certain InDesign documents are not playing well with RightFont when previously there were no issues with these very same documents.

Essentially, RightFont does not allow me to interact with the InDesign documents. It continually jumps to the foreground and overrides any click event on the InDesign app window. All fonts are active. So for example, RightFont is in foreground. I click on InDesign window which should move it to foreground but RightFont overrides the action and persists to front, making me unable to interact at all with the InDesign document.

I reverted to 4.7 but the problem persists. Tried other font software (FontBase, trial version of FontManager and Fusion) and all work fine. Still troubleshooting.

[atomiccherry]

Just received another reply from RightFont team. They fixed the bug and will be releasing a new version shortly. Whew!

[MediaManDan]

Yes I was having some InDesign weirdness and just being painfully unresponsive when RightFont was open in the background.

I worked with the RightFont guys about a year ago on another system level bug and they were very eager to make it good. It's good to hear they're on it and will have an update soon.

[atomiccherry]

They've released 4.9 which seems to have fixed the issue. Their support is top notch.

[DigitalWheelie]

If you can, let people know on social media!
I agree, they've been awesome.

Ted Kusio on Twitter: "Two thumbs up shout out to @RightFontApp, makers of a well-priced, solid Mac ...

[Rob16321]

Just updated to RightFont 4.9. Everything all right, no problems so far.

Yes, I completely agree with you: RightFont people really do a great job. As soon as their font management tool seemed to be the cause for Photoshop's misbehaving they immediately fixed the bug and did it again with the latest problem (font activation). Hats off & thumbs up!

[Rob16321]

Pete, I'm sorry that just now I cannot be of further help because of an urgent task I have to finish the next few days.

Currently, 19.0.0 runs without problems along with the old Wacom driver 6.3.10w2. So it would take me some time to uninstall / reinstall both Photoshop and Wacom driver and probably revert to the previous stable status again with uninstalling / installing.

The Wacom driver might not essentially be seen as the culprit since users with newer driver versions than mine do have the same problems with layers.

The question: why does 19.0.0 work but 19.1.x does not? (with the same Wacom driver, either my very old one or even newer ones, see @MediaManDan)