Problem with brushes when using Photoshop Elements 2020

[Bob3250]

With PSE 2020 when I attempt to use a brush like the Clone Stamp Tool the circle defining the area to be brushed quickly turns into a spinning icon without any periphery defining the area to be brushed. It’s difficult to remove unwanted items from images when you can’t tell where the brush action is taking place! I am using a 2017 iMac and upgraded to macOS Mojave on 12/14/2019. I installed PSE 2020 on 12/21/2019. From my research I understand that this problem surfaced with Adobe software when Mac users upgraded to Mojave back in 2018. I’m surprised that this issue is still hanging around! I’ll appreciate any information on how I can solve this aggravating problem.

[99jon]

I’m running Mojave on my Mac Book Pro and not seeing problems.  Select your clone tool and try a tool reset. This often fixes problems. If that makes no difference go to preferences and click the button to reset pref settings on next launch. Quit the editor app and re-launch.

[Bob3250]

Thanks for the response. I had previously reset the Clone Stamp Tool, and that did not work. I decided to reset it again, and again it did not fix the problem. Next I went to PSE 2020 Editor/Preferences and clicked the button to Reset Preferences on next launch. Unfortunately, that also did not fix the problem.

[99jon]

It could be a system memory issue. Are you running other apps at the same time. How much RAM is available ? Maybe you can post system specs. From the Editor menu go to:

Help >> System Info

Then copy & paste into a reply.

[Bob3250]

Thanks for the reply. Sometimes I may be running other apps at the some time I am using PSE 2020, but that’s been the case ever since I commenced using PSE 4 in 2007!

In October 2018 there was this suggested fix posted in the Adobe Support Community for the “spinning wheel” problem.

Correct answer by djayatadobe | Adobe Employee
Hi jameslarus,

Thanks for posting in Adobe forums.
It seems you are facing issue with spinning wheel in Adobe Photoshop Elements after upgrading Mac OS.

Could you please try the following steps :
• Click Apple icon >> System Preferences
• Security and privacy >> Click on the lock to unlock it then enter the administrator password >> Enable (check the radio button) the Photoshop Elements 2019 editor and Elements Organizer 2019 that appear in the list.
• Click on the lock again to lock it.
• Restart Mac

Hope this helps

Thanks
Regards
Dhananjay

I attempted to implement this fix, but Photoshop Elements 2020 editor did not appear on the list in Security and privacy.

Here are the system specs for my iMac which I bought new in 2017.

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac18,3
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 3.8 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Boot ROM Version: 181.0.0.0.0
SMC Version (system): 2.41f1
Hardware UUID: 17AF83C9-5E9F-5D17-BA33-D6E83D3361CF

[Bob3250 · Accepted solution]

The problem is solved! With additional research I was able to find more detailed instructions by Adobe on how to deal with this issue. From these instructions I was able to access Photoshop Elements 2020 editor when I opened System Preferences and selected Security and privacy. I allowed PSE 2020 editor to control my computer and then relaunched the program. Lo and behold I was able to use the Clone Stamp Tool to remove unwanted items without the brush circle quickly turning into a spinning icon! Whoopee!

[99jon]

Thanks for letting us know. That will be helpful to others.