Wacom pen pressure not working, brushes acting strangely

[Jasper2468140311z4]

Can someone help me understand what is going on here?

I use a Wacom Intuos Pro and Photoshop 2025 on Windows 11 to draw. Everything was working fine until two days ago when the pen pressure suddenly stopped working. However it hasn't stopped working entirely - instead it acts strangely. Photoshop seems to be able to detect pen pressure and manifest it when the brush is large, but when the brush is small it's like one size only and looks very aliased. I have a recorded a video of what I mean: https://imgur.com/a/769iT8u

In the video, on the left you can see a pair of legs I drew days ago with a size 4 hard round pressure size brush. You can see that the lines are soft and feathery. At the start of the video, I attempt to make the same kind of lines using the exact same size 4 hard round pressure size brush. You can see these lines are blunt and don't seem to be able to get very small.

Also, when I switch to the soft round pressure opacity brush at a large size, it looks really weird as well. I don't even know how to explain it but it looks like it's just drawing circles. Changing the spacing does not help.

Screenshot in case the video doesn't work:

Things I have already tried:

• Uninstalling and reinstalling the latest tablet driver

• Uninstalling and reinstalling an older version of the tablet driver

• Uninstalling and reinstalling Photoshop

• Turning off Windows Ink

• Turning back on Windows Ink

• Turning off Windows Ink and using a PSUserConfig.txt file

Nothing has worked so far.

Please help?

Thanks in advance.

[creative explorer]

@Jasper2468140311z4 You've already tried a lot of the standard troubleshooting steps, which is great...curious, by any chance did you reset Photoshop preferences? Even though you have uninstall and reinstall, it is worth a shot at this stage. 

First save your prefernces so that you can re-use them if you wanted too if it doesn't work out for you.

To open your preferences, Control K and click on the button to 'Reset Preferences.' Restart Photoshop. Hopefully this  resolved it! Great! You might need to redo some of your custom settings (workspaces, keyboard shortcuts, etc.). 

If the issues still happens, you could re-load the old preferences, by copying the contents of the old folder back into the new preferences folder, or simply delete the new folder and rename the old one back to the original name.

If this doesn't work, I would look into the Wacom Desktop Center. Maybe see if you have the latest driver/firmware for the Wacom tablet and accessories. 

[Jasper2468140311z4]

@creative explorer  I've reset preferences and my tablet driver is updated to the latest version. The issue persists.

Actually, it's gotten worse - it doesn't seem to detect any pressure at all now.

Do you have any recommendations for what to do next? Can I contact someone at Photoshop or Wacom?

When I open the Wacom Tablet Properties app, there's a bar that displays the current pressure, and it appears to be working fine. So I feel that the issue is more on the Photoshop or Photoshop/Wacom integration side.

[creative explorer]

@Jasper2468140311z4 I would uninstall it from the App store, and re-install it.  Maybe a clean install will reset everything

[Trevor.Dennis]

Before we ask you a bunch of questions, have a look at this help page on the Lazy Nezumi Pro site.  It's the best guide to tablet set up I know of.

https://lazynezumi.com/tabletSetup

[Jasper2468140311z4]

The day after you replied, the issue magically resolved itself. However, about 2 days ago, in the middle of drawing, it suddenly broke again and the issue in my original post is reproducing. I've tried everything on the lazy nezumi setup guide to no avail. @Trevor.Dennis do you have any idea what we can do next?

[Jasper2468140311z4]

Ok, another reinstall of the wacom driver and photoshop today and it's working again. 🤷

[Trevor.Dennis]

I'm wondering if you have found a permanent fix because it sounds very intermittent, and they can be a pain to track down.  I wouldn't thing that Photoshop Preferences would be to blame, although it is often the answer when things get weired.  It might be that resetting the Wacom driver has also set the API, so check to see if Windows Ink is enabled?  Do you have the PSConfig text file in place?   

Or it might just keep working.  

Looking at your original post again, and specifically that pen pressure was working with larger brush sizes, I'm wondering if there is a pressure curve set. Check the properties > pen pressure profile.  I have just noticed that I have two pens, and that they have different settings!

The Windows 11 options seem to have expanded as well, unless I never looked before, so that's something else to keep an eye on.

Good luck.

[Trevor.Dennis]

I forgot to add this screen shot

[defaultpchele4im8g5]

I had the same issue and after installing, reinstalling everything several times I tried to replace the tip of my pen for a new one. This seems to resolve the issue for me 😄