Smudge tools breaks layer and moves it?

[leannz30751615]

All of a sudden (long past last update) any attempt to use the smudge tool fragments the layer and moves the fragment. It is impossible to "smudge" anything. No recent system updates, hardware changes. 

PhotoShop 23.4.1

Mac Monterey 12.4

Just try and use the smudge tool. Should smudge but "breaks" the layer apart and moves it. Impossible to smudge anything. Screen recording attached.

[CoryShubert · Accepted solution]

Sorry to hear this @leannz30751615. Testing here shows it working as expected.  Would it be possible to share your file so we can test to see if there is something corrupt with it?

Let's make sure we're in a default state and there are no stale settings somewhere: 

Restore your preferences using this manual method:  

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html#Manually  

Does it work correctly? 

If that doesn't solve it, you can quit Photoshop and put the Settings folder back. 

It may help if we could see your Photoshop System Info. Launch Photoshop, and select Help >System Info...and copy/paste the text in a reply.  

Thank you,

[leannz30751615]

Thank you, Cory, that fixed it but now I have to recreate my workspace, which was very complicated 😞