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Known Participant
April 1, 2011
Answered

Photoshop Bug: Sliders getting stuck to mouse after release (Mac OS)

  • April 1, 2011
  • 22 replies
  • 27956 views

When dragging various sliders in Photoshop CS5, very often these sliders get "stuck" and move with the mouse even though you have released the mouse. Say you are dragging a slider to set the brush opacity to 50%. When you have set it to 50%, you release the mouse and move it away from the slider, only to find that the opacity still increases or decreases as you move your mouse. You have to click again to fix this, but then of course you have to go back and do it again.

Below is a small illustration (I can't take a screenshot of my mouse) of an example of when this happens:

  • This happens to me around once every 5 times I use a slider, i.e. extremely often. As you can imagine, it's very annoying and frustrating.
  • I use a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet, and I never use Photoshop without it so I cannot confirm whether this bug happens with a mouse or just the tablet.
  • It doesn't just happen like on the above illustration, but also with any slider such as those in Adjustment Layers and Filters.
  • The bug does not happen when using tools on the canvas (thankfully). So the Brush tool, and every other tool, works fine and never gets "stuck".
  • I have the latest version of Photoshop CS5.
  • This is a bug that has always been in CS5 since the first version, and it has not been in previous versions of Photoshop.

Does anyone else have this issue? Anyone else with a Tablet?

I know there are large amounts of similar, extremely annoying bugs in CS5, but this one is just driving me crazy.

Late 2008 15" MacBook Pro

OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.7 (but the problem has existed way before 10.6.7)

Photoshop CS5 version 12.0.2

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Chris Cox

    Have you installed the 10.6.7 update? (it fixes some OS event handling bugs).

    Do you have any third party plugins installed? If so, try disabling them. (because some buggy plugins are known to eat/mangle events)

    If CS5 is running slowly for you, then something is wrong with your system -- it could be the OS, or a third party plugin.

    22 replies

    Ivik Nier
    Participating Frequently
    April 27, 2023

    WOW! 2011 year and you still didn't fix this issue. Just HOW? This as I see most common and frustrating issue for everyone involved. Yet it still there 12 YEARS PAST! Why? 

    jwowdesigns
    Participant
    June 4, 2018

    hello anyone,

    I had this problem 2 hours ago.

    I use a wacom tablet and out of no where my layer images got "stuck" to the cursor. I didn't know what to do until i pressed the right mouse button (top button of my stylus).

    Suddenly it stopped...

    I'm not sure if this will help any of you, but it did for me lol.

    Good luck!

    Participant
    June 23, 2020

    I have been having the same issue, layers getting stuck to cursor. The only thing I can do without having to restart my entire workflow is CMD+Option+Eject, the sign back into me computer. I am using the Wacom Intuos Pro L, I'll spare you the profanities of getting the drivers to work but it seems something is not communicating between Adobe (all products) and the Wacom tablet. As was mentioned before, "It may not be your fault, but its your problem" (Talking to you Adobe)  Im using an iMac 2017 with 40GB RAM Quad Core i7

    Participant
    August 17, 2017

    The year is 2017, August.

    After using an Intuos 4 for a few years, having the same sticky slider problem for a few years. I decided maybe its a old intuos problem.

    Went out bought a new Intuos Pro, guess what!! the ISSUE is still there!

    So from 2011 to 2017, no one has been able to fix this issue. WOW

    Participant
    March 1, 2017

    Same problem.

    That's really awkward because when I installed Photoshop for the first time I didn't had this problem. During... 1 year I didn't had any problem with my Huion GT220 V2 and Windows 10 64bit.


    Unfortunately I reinstalled Photoshop (cleanup etc and delete all the preferences) and NOW this bullshit appeared. That's really annoying because I did'nt had this problem before....

    I used a Huion Tablet with the Same driver, same configuration, same OS... Everything is the same as before but now it doesn't work properly. The slider bug when I move the cursor ( 0 to 64 percent it's okay but when I move just a little 64 to 100%, the cursor seems not working. If I click 2/3 time on the cursor, it work. When I used my Mouse, it works, but when I use my stylus, it doesn't work.

    I totally reinstalled my drivers, photoshop and all the adobe products, delete all the key in the registry but nobody change.

    I really need your help Adobe

    ps: I contacted Huion but I think the problem come from "tabletpc" and photoshop because when I disable this feature frome the huion driver setting it work but the the sensibility not working!

    Participating Frequently
    February 16, 2017

    Fixed!!

    I've been back and forth with Wacom support and they suggested resetting my preferences back to default factory settings. They said it was mostly likely a corrupt preference file.

    So far

    • No sticky layers.
    • No sticky brushes.
    • No sticky sliders 
    • Smooth transition switching between monitors.
    barrycraig
    Known Participant
    February 16, 2017

    Could you let us know the EXACT actions you took which have fixed this? How did you reset the preferences?

    Participating Frequently
    February 16, 2017

    These are the steps I took to fix my sticky cursor problem.

    1. I recommend taking screenshots of your settings before resetting.
    2. Open the Wacom Desktop Center
    3. Click on BACKUP SETTINGS
    4. Select RESET SETTINGS
    5. Confirm RESET

    Doing this resets all your Wacom presets/preferences back to factory default. Do not restore your Wacom Preferences from an old backup file as it's mostly likely corrupt. You have to manually re-enter all your all your settings.

    So far I haven't had any issues with dragging layers, sliders or brushes. I no longer have the problem when my cursor becomes unresponsive in Photoshop from switching between monitors.

    Participating Frequently
    December 1, 2016

    This is definitely a common problem but it's just really hard to get a proper search result. This constantly happens to myself and my coworker.

    • Cursor sticks on the sliders opacity and brush size.
    • I try to change brush in Tool Presets and it drags the brush selection.
    • When selecting layers it grabs the layer.

    I'm using a 5k 27" iMac with and Wacom Intuos 5. I thought this was a Wacom issue but this only happens in Photoshop CS6. It's as if I'm left clicking on a layer, brush or slider but I'm not and this happens around 70% of the time I do one of these actions.

    I have update software. I tried new nibs or rotating them. I can't find any other solutions.

    Please let me know if anyone has found a solution.

    Participant
    December 1, 2016

    I can confirm this is happening only with our Wacom tablets, I have made SEVERAL tests with and without my Intuos Pro and some other peripherals. It's the tablet.

    It's been around 2 years with this sickening problem and I have been contacting Adobe and Wacom. Adobe seems to try to solve the problem, but the real problem here is the slacking Wacom team and their drivers, I have had only problems with my almost 3 year old Intuos, not a single driver works.

    Here is a somewhat helpful topic we have created in reddit:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom/comments/4nv4ep/osx_keys_stuck_when_hovering_intuos_pro_pen/

    I hope this helps a little, but still, we need to push Wacom to get them to work on a proper solution, not Adobe.

    Inspiring
    December 1, 2016

    I agree - it's been extremely annoying for a loooong time. I always suspected that it might be a Wacom issue.

    I am about to try out a Huion tablet. I read some reviews that said that they work just as well as Wacoms at a third of the price:

    Huion Pen Tablet, Drawing Tablet, Light Box, Pen Tablet Monitor,Graphic tablet

    I have also been pretty annoyed at the fact that now Wacom doesn't support their older tablets with software updates any more (following Apple's sick approach of making older devices just obsolete enough to force you to upgrade).

    Participating Frequently
    October 28, 2015

    Omg, this is the worst thing ever.  I have the smae problem.

    I am a digital painter, so I am constantly making tiny adjustments to the color slider.  It happens like 1 in 6 times.  I make the perfect ever so slight color tweak ever so carefully, then go to paint only to find the slider stuck and dragged all the way to black......

    I'm using a new imac with yosimite, photoshop cc 2015, cintiq 22 hd. 

    Adobe, please help!!!!!!!!   I might have to switch over to corel painter is we cant get this addressed it is absolutely detrimental to my work flow.

    Participant
    November 27, 2015

    I have the exact same problem, after a lot of tinkering with my system and PS deactivating other apps/devices/plugins/extensions I found that uninstalling the wacom drivers (6.3.15-1 and 6.3.15-2) for my Intuos Pro (small) solved the problem. With the driver installed even the mouse and trackballs I connected were sticking, without it they were not. However I can't work without the Intuos.

    Since the wacom forums and support are basically useless I thought I could post the results of my experience. I hope Adobe could find what's making Photoshop behave like that, because it's the only program that behaves like that in my system.

    By the time of this post I'm using: OS X 10.11.1 (El damn Capitan), Mac Mini 2014, Intuos Pro small.

    I'm willing to work with Adobe to sort this out sending logs or anything if required.

    Participant
    March 27, 2012

    I have the sticky mouse problem as well. I see it on more than just sliders however. I do have a wacom tablet. I see it happen with the mouse and the wacom pen. I see it with sliders as well as brushes. If I had my guess, I would agree with a problem in photshop with event handling of mouse press/release.

    This bug is very disruptive, particularly when it happens with a brush.

    I work with large files, with many layers almost all with masks. If I was debuggung I would start there. It could only occcur when resources are close to used up or process time is in high demand. I do notice that when it happens with the brush, the system seems like it boggs down, and occasionally will pinwheel. could be related, maybe not.

    I will try to pay more attention to exactly what I am doing when it happens, and post it here.

    @chris cox: what are you guys doing to try and replicate the issue? or what have you tried?

    Participant
    December 20, 2011

    I don't know if this can help anyone but i found out that the crash occurred to my cs5 was caused by "popclip" an app that allow to copy and past quickly.

    Francesco

    Chris Cox
    Legend
    December 21, 2011

    Could you email me at ccox at adobe dot com with more information on the crash you were seeing (so I can make sure we associate those with popclip and can tell other users).

    Inspiring
    September 30, 2011

    I also know quite a few people who work on these kinds of files as professional retouchers and most of them are way too busy to participate in any online forums, but will rather live with it and hope for an update sooner rather than later. I actually know this from discussing various previous issues with them. They just don't have time to deal with finding the right forum, posting, replying, etc...

    Another explanantion why there aren't that many complaints coming forward.

    Participating Frequently
    November 15, 2011

    I have the same problem with the layer in the layer palette getting stuck when clicked. I also noticed a host of other problems, including, depending on what file I'm working on, getting the 'File was saved outside of Photoshop.....' alert constantly while trying to save.

    I noticed all my problems beginning after installing Suitcase Fusion 3. Any correlation with anyone else?