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kiski
Known Participant
June 18, 2012
Question

Photoshop layers palette greyed out

  • June 18, 2012
  • 3 replies
  • 31080 views

I just upgraded from MacOSX 10.5.8 to 10.6 and using Photoshop CS4.

Not sure if this is related to what happened today, but...

"About Photoshop" is greyed out. Can't tell what version I have.

I need to duplicate a layer in a high res RGB image. The LAYER, CHANNELS, PATH palettes have all options greyed out, except "convert to smart object", which I don't know yet what that is. The image is in 8 bits/channel. How do I fix this?

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    3 replies

    N
    Nily98A5
    Participant
    December 15, 2020

    Not sure if this issue has been resolved, especially since it's been ssssooooooo many years since the initial post but I wanted to add something for reference purposes in case something similar happens to someone else as it did to me.

     

    I have Photoshop CS4 and am not a pro on it by all means...mediocre at best.  Well, it's happened a couple of times where my layers went gray on me and would not let me edit them.  I would have to delete the file and recreate it from scratch. 

     

    Well, I noticed one day that the title I'd given to one of my "gray-layered" files had something else as part of the file name.  It said "(file_name)/Quick Mask/8".  I think I may have hit a hotkey by accident at some point that activated the Quick Mask. 

     

    Well, in case this ever happens to anyone, this is how you remove it.  Go to:

     

    Select > Edit in Quick Mask

     

    Make sure that the Edit in Quick Mask is unchecked.  This will turn your layers back to normal IF this is what had happened to you.  If it doesn't work for you then the issue in your case is something else and I suggest you read the rest of this thread and try the other suggestions made.

     

    Anywho, hope this helps at least one other Photoshop lover out there.

     

    Blessings.

     

    Nily

    J
    jekvt
    Participant
    August 13, 2012

    What's this issue ever resolved?  The same thing just happened to me - using CS5.1

    C
    charles badland
    Inspiring
    August 13, 2012

    What of the above suggestions have you tried?

    J
    jekvt
    Participant
    August 13, 2012

    Thanks for your quick response.  I was able to get the layer options up again by removing preferences, force quitting and restarting.  Thanks again.

    baljeet_singhj75820470
    Adobe Employee
    baljeet_singhj75820470
    Adobe Employee
    June 18, 2012

    You may try this and then check :

    Quit Photoshop

    Goto this location  : Users/[Username]/Library/Preferences/ and delete the folder named "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Settings"

    Now launch PS CS 4 and check

    K
    kiskiAuthor
    Known Participant
    June 18, 2012

    Thanks Baljeet. Even the QUIT Photoshop was greyed out. Had to Force Quit.

    I removed the CS4 Settings folder. And relaunched. Good news - was able to work on the image for a few minutes.

    Bad news - the Layer palette, About Photoshop, and Quit are greyed out again! The CS4 Settings folder is back, so deleted it. Was able to work again for a bit. Now back to square one with same problem as I started with. How can I fix this?

    Is this a conflict with Snow Leopard?

    c.pfaffenbichler
    Community Expert
    c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 19, 2012

    Boilerplate-text:

    Are Photoshop and OS fully updated and have you performed the usual trouble-shooting routines (trashing prefs by keeping command-alt-shift/ctrl-alt-shift pressed while starting Photoshop, 3rd party plug-ins deactivation, system maintenance, cleaning caches, font validation, etc.)?

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