Lighting Effects not working

[Ash.Leigh]

I use Windows 10.

Ever since I updated to 22.4.1, my Render > Lighting Effects isn't working. There's no guide to move the light and I keep getting two baffling errors.

The first error insists that "Use Graphics Processor" should be checked... It is checked. I've even unchecked and rechecked it.

The second error insists I don't have enough RAM... I have 32 gigs of RAM.

When those two errors pop up it outright refuses to open the Lighting Effects workspace altogether but sometimes it WILL open it... only I won't be able to make any changes on the image. It'll show that there's some kind of spotlight out but there's no way to move it and the sliders do nothing to change it.

Repair attempts I've made:

1 - I've made sure that my video card driver is up to date. It is.

2 - I've selected View > Show > All to see if the UI was hidden. The controls still refuse to show up and the sliders still don't work. They move, but the light doesn't actually change.

3 - I've uninstalled and reinstalled Photoshop altogether. Still getting the errors and inability to manipulate the spotlight in any way.

I am a graphic designer that uses photoshop practically daily. I took a couple days for myself and when I came back it updated to 22.4.1 and now this is happening. Please help, I need to be able to use lighting effects for my job!

[Michael24575109bqzp]

Thanks so much for this quick fix, you saved me a lot of trouble!

[juliamarques]

I combined different suggestions from this forum and found a solution that worked for me:

1) [Edit > Preferences > Performance]
🗹 Use Graphics Processor
Click in Advanced Settings below: 
🗹 Drawing Mode: Advanced
🗹 Use OpenCL
 
2) [Edit > Preferences > Technology Previews]
🗹 Deactivate Native Canvas

3) Close and restart Photoshop -- don't skip!

4) Make sure [Image > Mode] is 8 Bits/channel, otherwise Lighting Effects will be disabled. 

5) Let's check the effects quickly with [Filter > Render > Lighting Effects] 

6) Finally, I clicked on [View > Show > All] and disabled Grid and Slices. 

7) Don't forget you can find the Reset button by holding Alt. 

All these steps combined worked for me. I hope it helps! 🙂
__ 
Microsoft Windows 10 64bit 
Adobe Photoshop 2021 22.4.3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Memory: 16GB

[marzo19]

Thanks for these detailed steps. On my Windows 10 machine I got the Lighting Effects to work simply by checking  Deactivate Native Canvas.

The issue is with MAC OS.

Also, disabling Grid and Slices would take away functionality to make another function work -- that would be another Adobe flaw. 🙂

[juliamarques]

I had to try different suggestions to make it work, but it finally worked. Yay! ~ I'm glad you solved the problem on your side too.

Turning off the Grid and Slices view isn't a requirement to make the control handles appear -- I just wanted to keep  the view as clean as possible and that's what worked for me at that particular moment 🙂

Thanks for your reply! ^-^ 

[Bman007]

I just read something by Adobe that says they're removing Render Lighting Effects and 3D from version 22.5 on. For a short time it can be worked around, but will be permanently deprecated soon. They say that 3D will be handled by the Substance software (probably something else they can sell you a subscription to). 

[RexRon]

I have the same problem. In addition to the error message you got I´ve got several others after trying out sollutions found on Google. This did not work either. 

I´m actually getting a bit annoyed. I was supposed to do a project today that really neaded this feature. Instead Im surfing the web for a sollution to a problem that I see so many others have.

I´m paying for PS, but not able to get payed using it.