Toolbox is messed up

[MGill0524]

I know this has to be a bug because the design of the Toolbox has been pretty much the same for thirty years. You don't switch it up like this. The Paint Bucket and the Gradient tool are always together. Now the Gradient tool is alone - right clicking doesn't give you additional options - and you can't access the Paint Bucket (which is a really important tool) unless you click the three dots at the bottom of the Toolbox panel.

I had to ask Help to find it. Help then displayed the icon for me under the three dots. So yay. Now I know where the Paint Bucket is. Not sure why it's there, but okay.

I needed to use the Wizard tool to highlight an area and then apply Paint Bucket to fill it with another color. Once I'd selected Paint Bucket, that was the only tool that displayed when I clicked the three dots at the bottom of the panel. There was no list of tools, as I noticed there is when I don't select and use one.

So, now I couldn't find the Wizard tool (it also wasn't where it belonged further up on the panel) so I had to ask Help again, and it displayed the icon for me at the bottom of the Toolbox panel - also under the three dots. But by doing this it REMOVED the Paint Bucket tool and only gave me the Wizard tool.

I had to go to Help again to have it highlight the Paint Bucket tool, at which time I lost the Wizard tool and had to go to Help again to redisplay it under the three dots.

If you click the three dots without having asked help for a specific tool, it displays a whole list of tools - but it then removes the entire list after you select one, and leaves you only with the tool you previously selected. There is no toggling.

Surely this isn't your intended design, right? Something went wrong? Because it's clumsy and frustrating. I should be able to toggle back and forth, and the tools should all be where they belong - where they've always been - so a very simple task doesn't take all this additional effort. 

Could you please fix this? Please put the tools back where they belong. Thank you.

[Glenn 8675309]

screenshots of all this sure would help.

[MGill0524]

I went back in again and the three dots (. . .) redisplayed. However, when I clicked them I only got the Paint Bucket again. The list of tools - and in particular the Wizard tool, which I had also requested through Help - is gone. 

[MGill0524]

Here is the panel after I went to Help to find the Paint Bucket. Notice that the Gradient tool does not have a down arrow indicating additional tools. That is where the Paint Bucket belongs. I can't show you an image of what you see when you click the down arrow on the Paint Bucket under the three dots ..., which no longer display, because nothing happens at all. It's a dead link. 

I don't recall which other tool is usually paired up with the Wizard tool toward the top of the panel, but none of the tools displays the Wizard tool when I right click it. 

Even closing Photoshop and reopening it doesn't clear the Paint Bucket from that space on the toolbar. I can't access the list of All Tools anymore. I would probably have to go to Help and ask it for each individual tool as I need it, based one what has happened to me today.

[ExUSA]

Have you reset preferences?

[MGill0524]

No I have not reset preferences. This is a new software upgrade from four days ago, I see (September 25, 2025). If Adobe now requires us to reset our preferences each time it gives me an upgrade to software I have used since the nineties, I would appreciate a Heads Up that I need to go into the software and mess around with it to get it to work the way it always has before. 

Question for you: Who would "prefer" it to work this way, and even if someone did, why is this the DEFAULT functionality instead of the way it was before? As a former software designer, I am bewildered on a number of levels. 

[ExUSA]

I have no idea what you are talking about. I have several machines, both Mac and Windows, that get regular Photoshop updates and I haven't had to reset preferences in ages. I also haven't seen any changes to the Tool palette recently. Try resetting tools and if that fails, a full preferences reset.

[MGill0524]

No. I opened up Photoshop, which was updated four days ago, I see. So, this is a new change that has nothing to do with what I prefer. If it does, I would appreciate a Heads Up from Adobe that my software, which I have used since the nineties, now requires me to go into it and reset my preferences whenever they give me an update.

Is that what you mean?

[Jeff Arola]

Sometimes the choice of Workspace changes the tools available in the Toolbox.

You can reset the Tools panel (Toolbar) by going Edit>Toolbar, clicking Restore Defaults then clicking Done.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/tools.html