Problems with cropping in photoshop

[Chai Pyle]

Hi - I am having a bizarre experience. I am attempting something that I've done tons of times before.. trying to crop a multi layered image by using the marquee tool to select the area I want for the new dimensions, then 'image - crop'. Weirdly the allignment of layers changes - as if it is only cropping some of the layers. Whenever I've done this in the past it simply crops the whole image- all layers at once. 

Shown, you can see the first shot is me about to 'crop'/ The 2nd shot is the result - the blue circle and text dont allighn anymore. Any ideas?

[Bojan Živković]

I don't have any problem here, even with a Smart Object in the composition. However, I can't crop Smart Object content, by the way.

Photoshop 25.4.0 on Windows.

[c.pfaffenbichler · Accepted solution]

Could you please post screenshots taken at View > 100% with the pertinent Panels (Toolbar, Layers, Options Bar, …) visible? 

The Layer Style Gradient Overlay seems to be one problem. 

You can rasterize it, convert to a Smart Object, … to avoid the issue. 

[Chai Pyle]

Thank you for this - you are right. I'm new to using Gradient Overlays... I don't get why this happens, but its useful to know how to get around it.

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

Toggling between your two images, and after doing some experimenting, it looks to me like all layers do in fact get cropped, and the text layer appears to maintain its positioning, but…the layer with the radial gradient appears to not be cropped because, after the off-center crop, the gradient effect is re-centering itself within the smaller cropped layer dimensions. The text layer, of course, doesn’t move, so the radial gradient becomes un-aligned with the text and the document.

In your document it looks like the radial gradient applied as a Gradient Overlay layer effect. I don’t see any options that can “lock” the positioning of the gradient overlay effect. So I am not sure if there is a way to make this not happen.

(A Gradient Fill layer, which does not appear to be used in your document, can have an Align to Layer setting, but when I try it, that also does not seem to prevent a radial gradient from re-centering after crop. That might be a bug.)

So what can you do? If this was happening to me, I would work around it by adding one of these steps (not both):

• Before cropping, select the layer and choose Layer > Rasterize > Layer Style. Because this will convert it from a nondestructive effect to rendered pixels, it will stay where it is during cropping like any normal image. The problem with this workaround is that the gradient will no longer be editable except by doing it over. 
• After cropping, open the Gradient Overlay effect, move the pointer outside the Layer Style dialog box and drag the gradient to reposition it where you need it to be after the crop. But this is a hassle too. 

Consider submitting this as a bug in the Bugs section of this community.

[Chai Pyle]

Thanks for taking the time.. much appreciated. And you're right about the Gradient Overlay being the issue. Not sure why it is, but useful to know - and now I can get around it.