icon covering layer masks

[Rachel.kleinman]

I'm not really sure how to describe this problem.  I believe it is part of the latest Photoshop CC release for Mac.  I noticed today that all of my layer masks have a weird square icon with a circle in the center, in the preview.  It's covering up about 50% of the mask, so i cant tell which mask is which by lookign at them.  I'm not sure what this is supposed to indicate but it's really annoying and I am looking for a way to turn it off, so i can see my layer masks.  see screenshot below.

I'm running Photoshop 2024 25.1.0 release on Mac running Ventura 13.6.1

 

[meyrickgj]

Having updated to PS25.1 today, I see the layer mask icon has changed and there is now a mask icon bottom right of the mask icon. 

This means you have no quick check as to how your mask looks in entirety - you have to view it full screen. 

Which is a real nuisance. I wonder whether it was actually asked for, or whether someone just had a bright idea? Maybe they thought that no one knew what the layer mask icon meant?

Is there any way we can restore the legacy and much more useful plain mask icon which gave an adequte preview, or do we have to roll back to 25.0. (Which then disables auto updates!!!) There has to be a little folder of icons somewhere, where one can go and swap the old for the new. 

[Ged_Traynor]

@meyrickgj you'll either have to wait for a future update or downgrade to version 25.0, not sure why Adobe thought the icon was a good idea as it serves no purpose that I can see

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-beta-discussions/layer-mask-icons-in-25-1/m-p/14189781

[J E L]

I agree, it would be great if we could have a legacy option to turn this off. I'm also noticing some different behavior with masks since 25.1.0 and I am continuing to test them.

[Jim24574974ofzk]

I find this very disturbing that the layer mask is now partially blocked.  I am hoping there is a way to turn it off.

[@mj]

Hi @meyrickgj ,

Thnx for flagging.

Hopefully an oversight.

Best

mj

iMSD

[meyrickgj]

Not being unkind at all, but why add yet another preference that has to be read, slows startup and just adds bloat
It would appear to be an utterly useless addition: get rid of it in entirety. Just put it down as a bad idea.

Get Outlook for Android<>

[J E L]

Oh, no worries, I know you aren't being unkind. I would rather not have the icon at all, either. But if it must be there, setting a legacy preference is the next best thing. I once joked that we might be offered a legacy version of Photoshop to install one of these days.

[J-T-C]

+1 to remove this icon change. What is the point of it? It totally obsructs the view of the mask!

[Ric Cohn]

What a terrible change! Creative cloud just updated itself and I find this change which breaks my workflow of many years. I can't believe it was implremented without a way to keep legacy behavior. +1 for a quick fix. Luckily I still have Photoshop 2023, but it looks like I need to uninstall 2024 since it sets itself as the default application. I hope we will be notified if/when this is fixed.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Along with rolling back to the previous version, you can also use the beta version that has an option to disable the layer mask badges, or, if you have the screen space, set thumbnails to large which makes the badges far less intrusive.  I am sure the option to turn off will be available real soon.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Rachel.kleinman We're all adjusting to this - its an icon indicating a masked layer. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a way to disable at this time. Since this isn't really a bug - I can move this to the Ideas forum where if users can upvote a control, it may help.

[Rachel.kleinman]

Not sure where someone got the brilliant idea to cover ½ of the mask preview with that….isn’t have the mask itself, enough to indicate it’s a masked layer??? My team are all reverting back to older versions of photoshop. It’s insane.

Thanks.

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[Primary22381017g6ii]

Yes, please let the user turn this icon off - it is extremely annoying not being able to see which mask is which

[James Brown Photo]

Agreed, this is a step back IMO and serves no purpose for people who know what a layer mask is. If someone is confused what that layer is just press the backspace key (\), the masked areas will show up. This 'new' badge is annoying, please Adobe make it a Preference to turn on or off.

[m_johann]

Agree; get rid of it or at least provide an option to do so and revert back to just a layer mask icon indicating the mask

[TrikinDave]

It's worse than that, I  can no longer paint on the mask; trying to do so invokes a new blank layer and applies paint to that.

[marco ams]

i agree, don't see any use of adding this icon. I just hides a part of the mask.

[Trevor.Dennis]

It's worse than that, I  can no longer paint on the mask; trying to do so invokes a new blank layer and applies paint to that.

By @TrikinDave

I'd be interested in what workflow is causing that to happen for you?

Can you describe the steps so we can test it?

[立华3362463068vb]

[Ged_Traynor]

@立华3362463068vb see this thread

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/layer-mask-icon-changed-ps25-1/m-p/14...

[StephenWebster]

Adobe- Stop "fixing" issues that were not broken. Please allow those of us who know it's a mask to see the mask. 

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Primary22381017g6ii @StephenWebster this is an option in the panel menu in an upcoming release.

EDIT - version 25.2 has been released and the option can be found in the layers panel menu. By default it is now off.

[barbara_a]

I agree, Rachel. The mask badge is extremely annoying and distracting!!! I hope that there will be a fix very soon !!!

[Olaf33759075bk99]

Completely obsolete function without any other purpose than stealing 1 hour from my morning at work after the old version magically dissappeared from my CC App and I had to install the current version only to then install an older version again. I would be very interested in an explanation by Adobe, somehow the requirements for commercial users seem to be irrelevant. This function has no purpose, it only slows Ps even more and makes my companies workflow impossible. Also looking forward to the 25th legacy option in the settings.

[JL0428]

Unbelieveable, I wasted all morning trying to figure this out after I did the latet update. WHY MESS WITH SOMETHING THAT DOES NOT NEED TO BE MESSED WITH!