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slashpot
Inspiring
December 31, 2018
Question

Photoshop losing its mind - Help!

  • December 31, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 1482 views

Yes, it could just be that God hates me.

But my PS nightmares are getting worse, one by one.

First apart from odd glitches, I got this one not long after buying a new tablet, top spec iMac, the lot: Glitches with Photoshop CC 2018 on mac with Wacom tablet

This was where all of a sudden I got no PS. I'd be drawing away & suddenly the marks I'm making aren't showing up on screen. After months & 3 techs taking over my computer, we finally figured out that the problem lay - though we've no clue why - with the new Wacom Intuos Pro, because this problem, which would last between 10sec. & 10 min, before returning to normal, could be stopped by using the mouse. But I can't draw (well) with a mouse, so we worked out that clicking the mouse (Apple Mighty Mouse II) would fix the problem, & I could use my Wacom pen again.

nearly 2 years later I still need to have the mouse next to my Tablet. These days it happens around 3-10 times per day, but no longer as I'm drawing, more often it happens if I stop work, for a minute or an hour. Of course Wacom, contrary to my recommendations, don't want to know. If I contact them about it they screw me around, demanding serial numbers, descriptions, & video alert.png, before suggesting rebooting, another tablet, another computer, reinstalling drivers, PS, OS, You name it, until I give up. Nice. Of course I can't afford another computer or to send it all to them, or Apple, or Adobe for a month. So deal with it sucker.

Next, about 6-7 months ago, the next one started. Quite often, as I'm working, right clicking to select a colour from the canvas, no longer does that, but rather sends the active layer backward. It shows up in the undo history as "send backward". GREAT! This happens most days & can last an hour, during which time I have to click the eyedropper, select colour, then click brush again (or use kbd shortcuts, but I generally can't use my kbd, long story).

Then, a month or so ago, a new one! I can no longer transform/scale a sketch/layer/selection in just one axis. Only both axes. Its like my shift button is permanently held. It don't matter if the little 'link' icon (Options bar between Width & height ) is up or down, nothing changes this, & this one is permanent. If I want to scale in on dimension only I need to use liquify or ;distort' or 'warp'. Edit/'Scale' doesn't help. This is a ROYAL pain in the ass.

And now! Today! Just a couple of hours ago. The latest addition!

I've lost my cursor. For 20 years Ive used the crosshair with full sized 'circle'. Not anymore! I can use crosshair but no guidance as to how large my brush size is. Wow!

My workflow, as you'd expect, is about a third the speed it used to be. As of course is my income.

No, don’t feel bad for thinking it, maybe I am losing my mind. But my wife has seen all of these, so either she’s lost it too, or its happening.

Now. For all but the last problem, I’ve tried re-booting, re-starting, re-installing, I’ve tried 4 or 5 versions of PS, 3 operating systems, new drivers, pens, cables, HDD’s, the LOT. But what makes it mind-boggling is that while the Wacom Intuos is involved in all these problems, None of them occur in Painter (which I’m learning in desperation), or ANY other package of any kind. (Not Zbrush, Illustrator, Maya, nothing ), AND, I borrowed another identical Intuos tablet... SAME THING!

I am truly at my wits end. None of it makes ANY sense, & eventually, as it gets worse I’m gonna either lose my job or my mind (but I promise I’ll own Adobe AND Wacom!).

Ive been doing my current work for 10 years, and had plenty of computer problems, but nothing like this, I can’t see a fix at all. I’ll attach an example of my work to provide an idea of scale complexity etc.

Has ANYONE seen anything like this? I will name my first born after he who solves this nightmare.

(She probably won’t like it, but hey, while she’s living under my roof...)

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1 reply

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 31, 2018

What version of OSX are you using?

slashpot
slashpotAuthor
Inspiring
December 31, 2018

Ah yes, I've written basically this same thing so many times I've forgotten all the bits I need to add!

27"iMac, late 2017, 3.3ghz proc. 24G RAM, RadeonM395 2G gfx,  2TB fusion, 8TB Ext HDD.

OSX High Sierra, v10.13.6 Photoshop CC v20.0.1

Wacom Intuos Pro, small.

I think its vital to add that I've rebooted, reinstalled, re-everythinged. & am certain the Wacom is involved somehow. But any contribution is received with gratitude.

slashpot
slashpotAuthor
Inspiring
January 6, 2019

Hi, Slashdot, I have the Wacom tablet - the company is helpful, however, I only have problems if Windows also updates and it suddenly does not work with any other program. My screen would not hold still until I went to Windows and had the tech invade my computer. Finally got a download from them for fixing that specific problem. This kind of thing happens about every 10 days as all other programs catchup - then Windows does something again. I am only offering this as a suggestion and I know Mac friend-users have had lots of these problems with Photoshop and Windows together. Best regards and hope. JH


Thank you for your time Jonah, much appreciated,

I'm on Mac OSX High Sierra, and Wacom is certainly very helpful early & if a problem is easily solved, but once things drag on without a cure they tend to want to either handball the problem (usually to Adobe), or give the customer so much work to do, one eventually gives up. Each time I was passed to a different person within Wacom I had tp start from scratch & describe everything all over again. This becomes hard after a while, they wanted descriptions, more descriptions, examples, VIDEO of the problem happening, which is hard as the first 2 aren't reproducible, but I got everything they wanted, including the serial & receipt, which took ages to find, but never anything to say they were working on the problem, & if their demands weren't met swiftly they decided the problem was solved & I had to start again.

Who has that kind of time to spend looking for stuff which has nothing to do with the problem?

The Wacom Intuos Pro 5 (they keep changing the designation) is my 5th Wacom tablet. I had a graphire, an Intuos 3, intuos 4, and 2x Intuos 5's.

My next purchase will probably be a Chinese Cintiq copy. They may be rubbish, but at less than the cost of an Intuos, one would be crazy not to try one.

Anyway, thanks again for your time mate!