The background in PS no longer appears. The image and all the windows show on the MAC desktop

[pbziegler]

On my Mac I no longer see the grey background on which the image appears. The toolbar and all the open windows--layers, actions, properties and the image show up on my desktop. The grey interface doesn't appear I can get it if I go to screen mode and hit full screen with menu bar it does appear but then it's locked as full screen and I can't reduce it in any way. I have been at this for 8 hours without success. I have removed PS and reinstalled it. I give up. Hope someone has the answer.

[c.pfaffenbichler · Accepted solution]

Are you talking about Window > Application Frame? 

[pbziegler]

I guess I was because when I clicked it on there it was. I have no idea how that got unchecked. I was humbled since I have become a very advanced PS user as a photographer. I have started teaching PS for photographers. And suddenly the background frame disappears and I have no idea what to do. So thanks

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I am surprised that you, as a Mac User, miss the Application Frame – it was introduced for Mac only a couple versions back (not sure with which version it acually happened) as it appears to mimic a standard Windows appearance. 

[pbziegler]

The strange thing is that a number of things have changed and I didn't change them. I have spent a lot of time trying to find where options are so I can get things back to where I want them. How that box got unchecked is a real mystery to me. Since I have never payed attention to it I had no idea what it did, Anyway thanks for helping me solve that problem. I now have to figure out why, when I open an image into PS from ACR it shows only a half or a quarter of the image. I can get it to show the whole image but it doesn't open as a whole image automatically. Also weird

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Does turning off »Use Graphics Processor« under 

Photoshop > Preferences > Performance > Graphic Processor Settings

and 

Photoshop > Preferences > Camara Raw > Performance 

and restarting Photoshop have any bearing on the issue? 

[baloo97229]

Thank you for posting this! I have the same problem and wasn't even sure what to name what had disappeared. I sent screenshots to other Mac users, and they had no idea, either. Thanks!