Shortcut for Content Aware Fill doesn't work shortly after opening Photoshop with a PSD file

[morphinapg]

I often use content aware fill in After Effects, but when it creates artifacts that don't look great, I often try to fix these by creating a reference frame, which opens a PSD file in Photoshop. From there I select the messed up part of the image, and then press F5 on my keyboard, which I've associated with Content Aware Fill. Content Aware Fill doesn't open. I tried this opening a PSD file directly from windows and the result is the same. Opening other formats however seem to work correctly, so this may just be affecting PSD files. I don't know whether this is specific to the custom keyboard shortcut I have or not.

If I minimize photoshop and then bring it back into focus, the shortcut works fine, but not the first time I try to use it. Because of this I tend to just leave Photoshop running in the background, as once it starts working, it will keep working, but when I first open Photoshop, that shortcut doesn't work the first time I try it. So if I'm attempting a content aware fill right after opening photoshop now, I've been just manually using the drop down menu and selecting it with the mouse instead of my keyboard shortcut. But occasionally I forget, and of course run into this bug every time I try this sequence of events. 

1. Adobe Photoshop Version: 23.5.1 20220907.r.724 5600b96 x64 (but the bug has been happening for a while, not sure how long)

2. Windows 11 21H2

3. With photoshop closed, open Photoshop by opening a PSD file. Make a selection and press keyboard shortcut for Content Aware Fill. Content Aware Fill doesn't open.

4. Shortcut should work, and it doesn't.

[S_Gans]

I'm not a Windows user, but I'm wondering if your shortcut is also used by another app, or your OS? So, maybe PS isn't using it at first, until your system recongizes the focus for that shortcut? Not sure I'm wording that well, but perhaps check for other apps using yrou F5 - or maybe try just changing PS's use to something like ctrl+shift+F5 or something?

[morphinapg]

This isn't the issue, because the shortcut works just fine in most usage of the app. The only time there's a problem is specifically when I open photoshop by opening a PSD file, make a selection, and press F5 to try to trigger conten aware fill. If I open photoshop with a PNG or JPG, and do the same, it works perfectly fine. If I open photoshop with a PSD, but minimize photoshop and bring it back into focus before pressing F5, it works just fine. If I use a different function in photoshop first like a filter or really anything in the menus, and then press F5, it works just fine. If I open Photoshop first, and then File->Open my PSD, make selection and then F5, it works just fine. It's just this very specific order of operations that causes the bug.

Also, the reason I set it to F5 is because I wanted a very simple shortcut for something I use all the time.

[jane-e]

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@morphinapg wrote:

...then press F5 on my keyboard, which I've associated with Content Aware Fill. ....

...Shortcut should work, and it doesn't.

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The first thing to try is to see if the shortcut works when you hold down the "fn" key and press F5.

Some keyboards have dual controls for the function keys. They can either act as standard function keys or as brightness, sound, et cetera. They do one by default and the other in conjunction with the fn key.

If you were on macOS, I could tell you exactly how to toggle this behavior because it's built into macOS and the same on every Mac. On Windows it's not part of the OS — so the method to toggle the behavior varies by manufacturer. 

This may or may not be your issue, but if fn + F5 works, then seek out how to change to Standard Function Keys for your computer.

Jane

[morphinapg]

This doesn't fix anything, and it doesn't surprise me either. As I said, it works fine when opening an image that's not a PSD file, and it also works fine if I minimize photoshop and then restore it. The shortcut USUALLY works fine in Photoshop. It's just this very specific order of operations, opening photoshop with a PSD file, making a selection, and pressing F5, that causes photoshop to ignore the shortcut. If I also use some other function in photoshop first, like a filter, then the F5 shortcut will also work just fine. It's just if content aware fill is the first thing I want to do where there's trouble.