Photoshop: Disable "Could not use the move tool because no layers are selected." Message

Report · Mar 14, 2013

Get rid of the "Could not use the move tool because no layers are selected." message that pops up when you click anywhere with no layer selected. Or, at the very least, make an option to disable this dialog. In an effort to improve the Adobe cross-platform experience, please disable this pop-up message. I actively use Illustrator and Photoshop together literally every day and in Illustrator, you click off of an object to deselect it. If I do the same thing in Photoshop, I get the redundant dialog. I don't need Photoshop to deselect layers when clicking elsewhere on the canvas, but I do need it to stop showing a message every time I click, either on purpose or on accident, without a layer selected. Seriously, if I click and nothing happens, I know it is because I don't have a layer selected - I don't need a stupid window to pop up every single time to tell me no layer is selected.

Please... make it stop. Thank you.

Report · Jun 17, 2019

Hello, Matej Kriz.

Unfortunately, again, your suggestion is a workaround and not an actual fix. Adobe has not fixed this issue.

Report · Sep 02, 2019

JUST PRESS THIS EVERYTHING WILL GO BACK TO NORMAL AGAIN

Report · Sep 09, 2019

@Noor Al Yaseen - like a few other incorrect suggestions below, the button you are referring to is the layer filtering toggle switch, which has nothing to do with the issue we are experiencing. Your suggestion is definitely not a fix and barely even counts as a workaround.

Report · Jan 28, 2020

I'm using Photoshop CS6 and would almost be willing to pay a hundred bucks to get an update that would disable this useless popup box. It's one of the most pointless and annoying popups I've ever seen in any software I've ever used. I DON'T NEED TO BE TOLD THAT NOTHING IS SELECTED.

It's like hitting "a" in a text editor and getting a popup saying: "The letter "a" will now be appear in your document. Click OK."

PLEASE give us the possibility to turn this nonsense message off.

Report · Feb 13, 2020

with only 7 votes over 7 years Adobe aint even looking at this in our lifetime.

Report · Mar 20, 2020

worked for me @paul

Report · Apr 05, 2020

Worked for me too 🙂 Thx!

Report · Apr 06, 2020

Again - using "Layer Filter Options" does NOT fix the problem in the Original Post. The toggle switch in Noor Al Yaseen's comment enables the ability to filter the layers panel in order to search and/or organize layers. When you enable this, all you are doing is blocking the ability for layers to be selected. Not being able to select layers does not fix the problem in the OP.

Feel free to read about what the "Layer Filter Options" feature actually does here:
https://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/2018/03/select-and-filter-layer-options-in-photoshop-cc.html

Report · Jun 17, 2020

wow.. you was help me
Thanks bro!

Report · Oct 29, 2020

do like what in this pic

Report · Oct 29, 2020

*HaithamDowia I don't see how deleting all of your user settings makes a persistent notification from showing. Sorry - this does not appear to be a solution.

Report · May 23, 2021

OMG make this go away, this dialog is making me sick. Totally useless and disrupting my workflow

Report · Feb 28, 2024

I can't believe that after 11 years of using PS, I still have to put up with this sh*t around 100 times a day. Thanks for nothing, Adobe. Adding insult to injury is that you can't even close the pop-up with Esc. This is such a horrible UX design blunder. How has this only 15 upvotes in 11 years... at least (and I can't believe I am saying this) it is now possible to close the dialog with Enter. This used to not be possible... so I guess little tings, eh?

Report · Feb 28, 2024

I've been using photoshop regularly for almost 15 years and I've just now started having this error pop up and its making me crazy. I don't know how you all have lived with it this whole time and I feel lucky that I haven't. I'm just commenting here in hopes that I will be notified if this issue is ever/finally resolved. I spend at least 15 minutes of my day just canceling this box. Its a ridiculous waste of time.

Report · Mar 28, 2025

I'm back here in 2025 and this pop-up still happens. Adobe, Adobe....

Maybe eventually their AI will wise up and mention its a terrible feature, too.

Report · Apr 08, 2025

Hello. I found a solution for this. I've had this same exact issue whenever I click ANYWHERE on my workspace, and it just pops up for no special reason at all, it just does.

You will have to delete the SETTING FILES of your photoshop. It's just like resetting your workspace.

How to do this is

once you click on the app to open it/once you run photoshop, immediately

press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS)

a pop up window will say "Delete all Setting Files?" or something like that. Just click Yes.

Once you've done it, the error box should be gone. Let me know if this helped.

Report · Apr 10, 2025

@jimuelle_lorenz_1142this solution would suggest that there is a setting that allows you switch off this warning. I went through the settings in the latest PS version and couldn't find such an option. As such, I suspect resetting your settings simply set your Selection tool options back to the default "Auto-Select: Layer On".