Participant

Question

Photoshop freezing with Wacom Tablet on MAC

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
May 24, 2020
8 replies
5726 views

When start using the pen tablet in PS it will freeze up with the spinning color, I have to force quit the application and re-open. It does not seem to matter much on which tool or edit procedure I am doing at the time. It only takes about 1 minute before it freezes. I know the problem is related to using the pen tablet because I can open PS and work all day with a mouse and will not have a single issue. Pick up the pen and withing a few minutes it freezes. I just saw that WACOM released a new driver (6.3.39-1) and I got excited. I installed it and it seem to work for about 5-10 minutes before freezing.

I am running a MacBook Pro (8DDR3), Calalina 10.15.4, latest PS 21.1.3, with a WACOM Intuos pen tablet (6.3.39-1). I have used the computer and pen tablet successfully all last year. Then sometime when I either upgraded the operating system or the latest PS the problem started happening. As I said before, I can work all day with a mouse and no problem with the hardware/software combination listed above.

Is there a fix for this or does another pen tablet manufacturer have a better product, I miss using the pen!!

Thx

J

julia • ジュリア

Participant

Hi there.

Now I have the same problem after upgrading to Mac OS Monterey.
I use the pen a few strokes and Photoshop freezes. ...

I tried several solutions to fix it: 
- reset Photoshop Preferences 
- tested older Wacom Driver versions  (completly uninstall and reinstall)
- tested older Photoshop versions  (completly uninstall and reinstall)

Nothing works.  
So ... do I have to wait for another wacom fix or what do you think?

Thanks.
Julia

---
Hardware:
 - Mac OS Monterey 12.4 (Mac Mini 2018) 
- Wacom Driver 6.3.46-1 (newest)

Software:
 - Adobe Photoshop 23.4.1 (newest)
 - Wacom Cintiq 24 HD Touch

J

julia • ジュリア

Participant

Problem solved!
Maybe this could be helpful for you too.

The problem obviously has to do with the Mac security settings. And I also noticed the pen pressure has a warning icon in Photoshop.

These settings fixed my problem:

Go to Security & Privacy

These points have to be listed AND have a check mark.

Accessibility
- Photoshop
- com. Wacom. IOManager
- Wacom Desktop Center
- Wacom Tablet Driver
- Wacom Touch Driver

Input Monitoring
- Photoshop
- FirmwareUpdater
- Wacom Tablet Driver
- Wacom Touch Driver
- Tablet Driver

Full disk access
- Photoshop
- FirmwareUpdater
- Wacom Tablet Utility
- Tablet Driver
- Wacom Desktop Center
- Wacom Tablet Driver
- Wacom Touch Driver
- Wacom Display Settings

Some apps I had to add manually. They are easy to find in your applications folder.
Some wacom apps are hidden. Make sure that you are able to see hidden folders.

Restart your Mac, open Photoshop.
Maybe The warning icon is still there but when you use your pen it will dissapear.

I

Ingrid2732261763iv

Participant

THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUU! I have been tearing my hair out for YEARS over this.

E

ellian5FDB

Participant

Same happening with me can anyone guide me what is the reason

No one replaying here I posted twice for my issue and underlined also

Lisabearin

Participant

Dear community, i solved the problem with the freezing Photoshop. The latest driver from wacom was the

Driver 6.4.2-4, but a friend of mine is working with the 6.3.44-1 so i tried it - and it worked. No freezes at the moment, and no mouse-loosing.

result: the latest driver is not always the best

happy painting, all the best lisa

imac 21,5'' 2017, cintiq24protouch

josephlavine

Community Expert

I've learned over the years that it is common to experience Wacom Tablet issues after update Ps. I suggest reinstalling the tablet drivers. This generally fixes the issues.

warmly/j

poeda

Participant

With me the problem just started after installing PS 2021 on Mac OS Catalina. No problems with Wacom before, so this is an Adobe issue I would think. Grateful for a solution

J

jjividen123

Participating Frequently

This fixed my freezing pen problem after many other methods were tried and did not work...

From what you described, this could be due to some driver or preference file that is outdated or corrupt and it needs to be removed. Please follow the steps outlined below in order to completely remove the current driver and install the recommended driver:
https://www.wacom.com/en-us/support?guideTitle=How-do-I-uninstall-(manually)-and-re-install-the-Wacom-driver-on-Mac-OS-for-a-Pen-Tablet%2C-Pen-Display%2C-or-Pen-Computer%3F&guideId=002-235
Please be aware that you should have your tablet disconnected from your computer during the driver installation process and the restart of your computer, you may reconnect your tablet once the computer comes back on totally functional and after you are logged into it.

Also please take a look at the information on next link and set accordingly: https://www.wacom.com/en-us/support?guideTitle=Is-there-a-driver-for-macOS-11%2C-Big-Sur%3F&guideId=151-673

A

Anonymous

Before doing this, people need to be aware of the fact the removal process shown on Wacom's site is for Sierra or High Sierra. Things changed a lot with Catalina and onwards. I did this process twice and some of the files that need removing are not listed in the removal process, and a number have changed their names. Unfortunately I did this a while back so I can't give details, but proceed with caution. Sadly too, this did nothing to fix my issue. I thought it did, but the issue came back reasonably soon after. Now I use Photoshop and my Cintiq daily so others who use it less often may not see the issue for a bit longer. Anyway, I'm not saying don't do it, but just be careful. It is about time Wacom designed a full and proper uninstaller and updated their instructions on their site.

A

Anonymous

FYI, I have not had the spinning ball since the release of PS 2021. It would appear as though this was an Adobe issue. Hopefully as I use the program more, it won't reappear, but so far (after 2 fairly extensive days in PS), so good. Fingers crossed.

C

chrisYSA

Participant

The problem occured after updating the Wacom driver. Then I updated to MacOS PS 2021 and I still get the revoing ball after using the pen, but the mouse is fine.

A

Anonymous

Yeah, I've started getting it again too. I haven't tried using just the trackpad to see if it's PS or the Wacom, but it wouldn't surprise me if it is the Wacom. Since the last Wacom driver update where they "fixed" the keys programmed into the Pen and EK remote, I now can't use any of the buttons because the keys "stick" worse than before. I've disabled all the buttons on the pen and remote now. The point is that I believe it's very possible this is a Wacom driver issue given the multitude of driver issues that Wacom seem to suffer from.

A

AndrewBlickUser3

Participant

I'm happy and sad about this. I'm happy because now I know I'm not the only one having this exact same problem, but sad because Adobe doesn't have a fix for this. I even took the steps of going through their IT for help. Their IT is so bad that I had to explain what a tablet was and then I got passed around to about 5 different people until they decided to schedule a call with me the next day to talk over the phone. The next day came and went and no phone call. They totally ghosted me and won't return any messages I send them about it. Their IT is a disgrace.

W

wirebrushAuthor

Participant

I bought a XP-Pen Star G640 to replace the Wacom and it works perfectly and was inexpensive. Got tired of waiting on a solution.

Sent from my iPhone

A

Anonymous

Well, this is really interesting. I have been plagued with the spinning ball since the release of PS2020, but I never tied it to the Wacom. There are innumerable threads in here about that very problem. However, I've been working all day today in PS but always using the trackpad, which I don't usually do (just the way things worked out) and not a single spinning disk. I think this warrants further investigation. That said, what I can tell you to not force quit the program until you are absolutely certain the program is permanently locked. Typically for me I see the freeze for 2 to 4 minutes (that's a long time to sit and twiddle your thumbs!), and I get it fairly frequently. However, recently I had one that lasted 22 minutes! So maybe just wait it out so you don't lose any work over it. In the meantime I'll start working on some tests to see if I can isolate it to the Wacom system (remember, Wacom drivers came out about the same time as Catalina and PS 2020, so I think there may be a connection there). I will say, Wacom's drivers aren't known to be the best in the world. Thanks for posting this. If I find anything reasonably conclusive, I'll post back here.

C

Celestial_Gemstone5ED5

Participant

I have the same problem. Everything around or behind the photoshop window works but is blocked because of photoshop being frozen and I have to force quit the programme. Very annoying. My photoshop updated 5 days ago, I used to have this issue at my old place of work, I was using a PC running Windows and when Photoshop updated, my Wacom tablet would have trouble on the sliders in photoshop, or any page scrolling. When we looked into it, at the time the only solution was to re-install the previous version of Photoshop and not update it in the future.

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