Quick Mask Mode stops working frequently

[Florian228416488x03]

Hi everyone,

I've been experiencing some issues with the Quick Mask Mode. I use it all the time, and sometimes, for no reason that I can tell it stops working completely.

The layer selected will still have the color overlay as usual, but when I paint, there is no red preview. Pressing Q again results in no selection at all.

I have black or white selected, capslock is off, I'm on a pixel layer. Opacity etc is also not a problem.

The only "solution" I have found is to reset the preferences, but doing that every single day is tedious as it also resets things like selection preview colours, and restores all windows you can click "do not show this again" on.

I use Photoshop professionally, so this causes me a lot of lost time.

I'm on OSX 15.0 on a Mac Studio. Issue happens with both Photoshop 2024 and 2025 (most recent versions for both).

[Sameer K]

Hey, @Florian228416488x03. Welcome to the Photoshop Community. I'll need more information to help you figure this out. Please share the system information from Photoshop Help > System Info > Copy and paste into a text document > upload and attach here. 

Does the problem exist if you use Photoshop (beta) v26.2? Get Photoshop (beta) from the Apps section > Beta Apps in the Creative Cloud desktop app.

If that does not help, please ensure there are no stale preferences in your Photoshop. 

You can go to the location of the preference folder below and rename it to back it up. (https://adobe.ly/3u7u84j) This method is more effective compared to the in-app Reset Preferences at quit method. 

macOS: Hold down the Option key in the Finder when using the Go menu. The library will appear below the current user's home directory.

Library > Preferences > Adobe Photoshop [version] Settings

Rename the Adobe Photoshop folder by adding a .old at the end. (Adobe Photoshop 2025 > Rename > Adobe Photoshop 2025.old)

This will give a fresh start to Photoshop as a new installation.

Let me know if it helps. Thanks!
Sameer K

(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

[shannonb43751399]

This is happening to me too. I have to log out and back in to lightroom in order to reset this and see the mask overlay again. Happened within the last couple of months--not sure if it was a LR update or a mac OS update.

[D Fosse]

@Florian228416488x03  What's the brush blend mode?

@shannonb43751399   This is the Photoshop forum, you want the Lightroom forum.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Hi Florian.  Great that you are a big Quickmask fan.  It's one of Photoshop's unsung heros IMO and super useful.  I have found that the new(ish) Selection Brush (L) can confuse things as it has a similar overlay colour, but the way you describe your issue, doesn't fit that.  Definitely check Dag's brush blend mode suggestion, but here again, resetting Preferences would return all tools to their defaults.

The next time it happens, grab a full res screen shot of your entire workspace with layers and Channels panels showing, and paste to this thread.  I have to say, if you have repeatedly already reset Preferences, and use Quickmask regularly, this could a tricky one.

[D Fosse]

@Trevor.Dennis 

I think I read somewhere that when they first wrote Photoshop, there was a long and heated debate whether the default selection method should be marching ants or quick mask. In the end the ants won, but when you think about it, it could have gone both ways.