Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts Not Working With Wacom Tablet

[HenryB115]

Hi Everyone,

I'm having a problem which apparently used to be very common. Maybe not so much anymore since my software is now a bit on the old side. Anyway, I'm using Photoshop CS6 with MacOS Sierra, and El Capitan, along with a Wacom Intuos Pro tablet. The tablet used to work fine in Sierra with PS CS5. But upon "upgrading" to CS6, the keyboard shortcuts are very frequently (though not always) unresponsive while I'm using the Wacom tablet (though they show no problems when using just a mouse). I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling CS6, and have also tried the "White Window Workaround" plugin, all to no avail. The keyboard shortcuts remain unpredictable, and often unresponsive.

Wacom was kind enough to send detailed instructions of which com.wacom files to delete from my Mac's Library folder, and steps to follow to uninstall and reinstall the Wacom driver, hoping that might help. Unfortunately it didn't.

As a final idea, Wacom suggested that I reset my Photoshop settings. They recommended contacting Adobe for help with this. But of course CS6 is no longer supported, so I'm appealing to the Adobe community here for any help with how to safely do this.

Or if you have any other suggestions that might fix the Wacom-related keyboard shortcut issues in Photoshop CS6, that would be appreciated. As many of you know, it's pretty hard to work without those shortcuts functioning reliably.

Thanks in advance!

[Just Shoot Me]

I moved your post over from the poorly named "Using the Community" forum, which is for getting help using this forum system, to a better forum.


I hope this helps. Best of luck to you.

[HenryB115]

Thank you! I sure appreciate that.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

You can reset your Photoshop preferences by holding Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+Shift when you open the app. It should come up with a window asking if you want to delete your prefs.

[HenryB115]

Thank you so much for sharing that info! I put it to use and it worked like you said. Unfortunately, the problem with the keyboard shortcuts persists. But I still appreciate the help.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

To clarify - if you disconnect your Wacom tablet, the keyboard shortcuts work as expected?

[HenryB115]

Yes, that's correct. In fact, whether the Wacom tablet is connected or disconnected, the keyboard shortcuts seem to work perfectly when just using the mouse. The problem definitely appears to be specific to using the Wacom tablet with Photoshop CS6.

Additionally, the tablet appears to work fine with non-Adobe apps.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Not sure if this still works but you can try this solution:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/photoshop-tablet-bug-keyboard-shortcuts-temporarily-won-t-w... 

[HenryB115]

Thank you so much for that link. Yes, I'd already checked out that discussion and installed the "White Window" plugin according to the instructions. Unfortunately that didn't eliminate the problem either, even though it apparently worked well for some other users. I sure appreciate the suggestion though!

[defaultnrf7rt9gicxt]

I just came across your situation as I've been working on the exact identical problem for 2 days now - about to give up!  Saw your post and thought I'd reach out and see if you ever solved this issue.  I think it's because I have the disk version and not the subscription but really have no clue.  I've - like you - tried everything thrown at me and nothing worked - as soon as my pen touched the tablet it was totally unpredictable and unresponsive.  

So if you ever did find a solution I'd sure appreciate it - I've rebooted my computer more times in the past 2 days than I do in a years time.  Surprised the Mac is holding up!

Thanks in Advance for your time if for nothing else!

[HenryB115]

Hi. Thanks for checking in on this. The update is that nothing has changed, so far as I know, regarding the keyboard shortcuts not working reliably with Photoshop CS6 combined with Wacom Intuos Pro. Thanks for letting me know you're having similar issues.

I say "so far as I know" because I've largely stopped using PS CS6 due to this recurring problem. However, I've installed PS CS5 and the keyboard shortcuts work fine in there. There are unfortunately some other drawbacks to running CS5 on my Sierra OS. So I've taken to working between CS5 and a third party app which is similar to Photoshop to get my work done (relying most heavily on the other app).

Another course I'm thinking of trying is having Mountain Lion OS installed on an extra hard drive and using PS CS6 there. Perhaps using that ancient OS (along with an old Wacom Intuos II I have lying around) might be a way to get CS6 to run smoothly. I think Mountain Lion wouldn't be compatible with Intuos Pro, nor would Sierra be compatible with Intuos II. Whether having a smooth-running CS6 would be worth having to work with an entirely vintage setup, I'm not sure. It's strange that CS5’s keyboard shortcuts work better with Sierra + Intuos Pro than CS6’s do. But that seems to be the case, at least in my situation.

Hope these observations might give you some ideas you could try as well.

[MJFeliciano]

Fastforward to the year 2022. I'm having exactly the same problem as the original poster. My system is a 2012 Macbook Pro running Mac OS 10.13.6 High Sierra, Photoshop CS6, and a Wacom Intuos Pro Small. 

[heidilouw]

Im stuck with the same. Brand new M2 macbook, new photoshop, new wacom driver... no shortcuts working with the pen tablet...shortcuts do work when it is unplugged, so my guess is - it is perhaps a wacom issue? Ill contact them and when I find out the fix will let you know.

[Sarah29718723x004]

I'm having the same issue, and it started yesterday. I'm on a MacBook Pro using macOS Monterey version 12.5.1 and using the lastest version of Photoshop through Creative Cloud and downloaded the latest Wacom driver. So frustrating!

[heidilouw]

I managed to sort my issue out and hoping it will help you too. I realised it is a wacom driver issue, as my other computer reacted in exactly the same way. I am on  Apple IOS .... Go to the wacom website and download an older version of the wacom driver. (https://support.wacom.com/hc/en-us/categories/1500000195821-Drivers-Software) I went back about 3 versions and dowloaded the one from February (Driver 6.4.1-2 (macOS 10.15 - 13)). Remove the current version and install this older version. This sorted out all my issues and they were resolved! Just make sure to make a backup of your wacom settings, so that you can apply them once installed and are up and running. I recon I'll wait 6 months before upgarding any drivers to avoid the same happening again. 😉 good luck!

[Sarah29718723x004]

Thank you so much, that totally did the trick! Good call on waiting a bit before updating the driver, I'll be doing the same. I appreciate your help and am so happy everything is back to normal 😁

[heidilouw]

Yayy!! Thats great news! I'm glad you managed to fix your issue too!   

[markd57273624]

I had the same problem and used heidilouw's solution - uninstalled the new wacom driver and installed the older one (6.4.1-2). Problem fixed! Hopefully wacom will address the issue and fix the new driver, but in the meantime the old one works. 

[heidilouw]

Awesome! Happy i could help you too! I actually contacted wacom and they are aware and working on the issue...so hopefully it will get sorted in the next month or two.

[arambasil]

To reset your Photoshop preferences, hold down the Ctrl + Opt + Cmd + Shift keys when you open the app. A window will appear asking if you want to delete your preferences. Click Yes.

[Angela29080790p226]

This happened to me today, restarted photoshop, restarted wacom, restarted machine nothing worked. I didn't want to reset my preferences for PS unless absolutley necessary so I restarted the Wacom driver in the Wacom Centre and that worked perfectly. You can find it in Settings, General, under Troubleshooting options, Restart Driver and that worked for me without having to restart photoshop or machine. 

[sanbarex]

I had the same problem and did not want to reset my photoshop. But this trick works for me! THANK YOU!!