Trouble With Spot Healing Tool

[jenniei57365787]

Hi there.  I am experiencing something odd which I cannot seem to fix:  sometimes my Spot Healing tool works, sometimes it does not!

I had an image with a number of scratches/imperfections which I wanted to clean up.  I created a Background Copy and did all my spot healing here, choosing size, brush tip, hardness, spacing, Colour Mode and Content Aware type.  The tool did a pretty much perfect job.

Now I have another image with more or less the same problems.  I want to clean up little scratches and imperfections.  The images are similar, with plenty of like colours in the background spaces, no tricky edges, etc. - basically just a clean image which has little blemishes on otherwise uniform areas which should be ideal for spot healing.  I also made a Background Copy to work from and chose the identical settings as the first image.  But the Spot Healing tool seems like its not even working - nothing is happening at all, no changes of any kind, like I'm clicking on a layer which is somehow unable to access the image.

I have no other adjustment layers on these images to complicate things.  They are as straightforward as can be.

Has anyone ever encountered this kind of thing before?  What am I doing wrong? 

[Peru Bob]

This is the Using the Community forum (which is the forum for issues using the forums).
Please tell us what Adobe application you are using (Photoshop or Photoshop Elements?)so that this can be moved to the proper forum for help.

[jenniei57365787]

Oh sorry!  When I go to the Adobe Community page, I did not readily see a button which said to post my inquiry to the community.  Perhaps you can direct me as to where this is?

I am using Photoshop.

[Peru Bob · Accepted solution]

Try resetting the tools and/or preferences.
To restore preferences quickly using a keyboard shortcut:

Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) as you start Photoshop. You are prompted to delete the current settings. The new preferences files are created the next time you start Photoshop.
Note: Using the keyboard shortcut, preference files for custom shortcuts, workspaces, and color settings will also be reset to default.

from here:

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

[jenniei57365787]

Wow.  That absolutely worked.  Thank you!

Do you know the reason behind this?  Does the program get hung up on its preferences/settings from time to time?

[Peru Bob]

Do you know the reason behind this? 

No .

Sometimes things just happen. 

[Diane5C1F]

I had the same issue and this worked!!  Thank you so much!

[LelyaVN]

thank you so much! I had this issue for a few days and couldn't find a solution until found your advice there