Copy Merged shortcut should work even when there is only one layer.

[morphinapg]

Obviously, when there's only one layer, you don't need copy merged, but sometimes you may still use the keyboard shortcut out of habit or muscle memory, and then become disappointed when you go to paste and it's a completely different image than you expected. While Copy Merged is not needed with only one layer, I think it's fair to say that it would be expected to still copy. Maybe it can stay disabled from the edit menu (as you'd have visual feedback that it's unnecessary) but if used with a keyboard shortcut or action or some other automation, then it should still copy the selected image.

[Stephen Marsh]

Until, if ever, Adobe implements this idea/feature request as a native feature, if this is critical then it should be possible to do this via a simple custom conditional script and custom keyboard shortcut.

Edit: Something like this –

/*
Copy Merged or Copy.jsx
Install this script in to the application's Presets/Scripts folder and reassign the custom keyboard shortcut for copy merged to the script
https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-ideas/copy-merged-shortcut-should-work-even-when-there-is-only-one-layer/idc-p/14742806
*/

#target photoshop

try {
    executeAction(stringIDToTypeID("copyMerged"), undefined, DialogModes.NO);
} catch (e) {
    executeAction(stringIDToTypeID("copyEvent"), undefined, DialogModes.NO);
}

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/11/downloading-and-installing-adobe-scripts.html

[morphinapg]

Thanks, I'll try this for now