Participant

Answered

Unlocking a "partially locked" layer

Forum|Forum|17 years ago
June 5, 2008
7 replies
78084 views

I have a little "lock" icon in the right side of the layer, next to the fx. Rolling over it tells me the layer is "partially locked". How do I unlock this?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Welles Goodrich

Look in the Layers palette for the word Lock just below the blending mode menu. One of the lock options represented by the 4 icons next to Lock is activated. Click on the darkened one.

K

Keshav_Kumar

Participant

I had the same issue & this solved it.

Top Menu >> Image >> Mode >> Change to sRGB

L

Lorraine25463597p5j7

Participant

Mine was already sRGB. I can't use certain tools but can use others. Lock is faint and can't be changed. I tried naming the only layer as suggested, and it unlocked but the sames tools wouldn't work. I saved it and opened it again and the layer name was gone and it was original.and locked again. Same tools won't work (blur and smudge tools). This has been happening randomly to jpg photos I want to fix flaws on. Some I can use all tools and others I save I can't use the two tools mentioned. I can't find a reason why. They aren't on read only and the spot healing brush works fine in the set but not the two mentioned.

jane-e

Community Expert

@Lorraine25463597p5j7 wrote:

I saved it and opened it again and the layer name was gone and it was original.and locked again. ... This has been happening randomly to jpg photos

That's expected behavior for JPEGs, as JPEGs do not support layers. When you resave a jpeg, you:

flatten the layers, leaving only the Background layer
lose information every time you work on the jpeg and resave

JPEGs are lossy and are not meant to be worked on and re-saved. Save to .tiff or .psd as your working file, then use Save a Copy to create a JPEG one time only if you need the JPEG format. New edits are made in the non-lossy file formats, then saved to a new JPEG.

Jane

A

Acarna

Participant

Man, Why don't you just duplicate it and then delete the lock you don't want? And leave the mystery behind.
Hope it solves your problem

P

Photos Man

Participant

excellent

M

mybrotherbob

Participant

if it's the backgrond layer that is always locked. double click on the layer and rename it that should unlock it

S

Sverk

Participating Frequently

Yes, thanks, that unlocks it.

But then comes the next problem:

On top of that layer I have an adjustment layer (Curves), looks fine, but when I merge it down or flatten the image
the effect of the adjustment layer disappears.

I've been merging adjustment layers down like this for many years, all ok.

So why not now?

S

Sverk

Participating Frequently

Hi,

None of the proposed ways works for me.

The little lock icons do not repond and the word Lock: is grayed.

Could it be because it is a .pdf document?

Doesn't work after I Save As .jpg either.

Nor if I first save it as .psd.

A

Anonymous

You could check your document setup (bit size)

and if it is set at 32 or 64 bit, make it 8 bit and this will unlock the doc.

K

KC29

Participating Frequently

On the layers palette, at the top of the list of layers is a heading called "Lock" with various symbols after it. One of them will be highlighted. Click on it to un-highlight it. Then the layer will be unlocked.

See also the Photoshop - Help section under "Locking layers"

W

Welles GoodrichCorrect answer

Participant

Look in the Layers palette for the word Lock just below the blending mode menu. One of the lock options represented by the 4 icons next to Lock is activated. Click on the darkened one.

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