Opacity/flow shortcuts switching when turning on airbrush effect

Question

Photoshop v26.9.0 on Mac OS Sequoia 15.6

Under regular conditions, when the brush tool (B) is active, pressing 1 on the keyboard sets the brush opacity to 10%, and pressing shift-1 sets the brush flow to 10%.

Once you click the "Enable airbrush-style build-up effects" button, these keyboard shortcuts switch so shift-1 affects the opacity and 1 affects the flow.

Brush Tool Settings Troubleshooting

I was experiencing this issue previously so uninstalled and reinstalled Photoshop without any of my previous settings, and it was only when configuring my brush settings again that I discovered this as the cause of the issue.

Incredibly frustrating, please fix!

Sameer K · Accepted Answer

Hey, @EricJ32. Welcome to the Photoshop community. I'll clarify this for you.

This has been the expected behavior since years. These changes happen when you switch to Airbrush Mode, the feature being a mode, changes how the shortcuts function.

You can find this documented here: https://adobe.ly/4lj4rCR

I hope this helps. Thanks!
Sameer K
(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

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