Photoshop 21.1.0: "New Layer" and "New Group" buttons in the Layers panel stay down after clicking on it and become unusable

Hi David, thanks for looking into it.

To answer your questions :
- I'm on a French language Win 10 Pro x64 v.1909
- It happens fairly often but I failed to find a way to recreate it consistently.
- The other apps I'm running are usually Outlook, Chrome (up-to-date), Microsoft Teams
- No 3rd party plug-ins
- I don't have any issue with my internet connection, but my work files are on a local network, which can sometimes lag a little when opening or saving files.

I noticed that if there's a delay when clicking on these buttons they stay down until the lag ends. Maybe that's where it can bug out?

Hope it helps.

Hi David,

Yes, I'm on English Windows 10.

This has happened to me twice since 21.1. update. 
I had Google Chrome open as well as my mail app, Outlook.
I wasn't using any plugins at the time.
I wasn't downloading any files.
External hard drive attached which is fine and no issues with.
No issues with my internet connection.

I had only created 2 pieces of artwork since the update.

I can remember exactly what happened with my last piece. 

The Create New Layer button became unresponsive towards the end of a photo-manipulation artwork which had a total of 43 layers. I needed to add a last layer for some brushwork. The document size was only 17.9M/433.2M 

I had to save my work and restart Photoshop and the button became responsive.

The previous time this happened would have been a similar scenario. 

Thank you for these details.  I don't yet have the cause, but this info will help.

Thanks,
David

David, no, did not click the mouse several times. When I realised that my new layer wasn't added, I thought it must have been something I'd done. So I went to click add a new layer and saw the Create New Layer button greyed out. As mentioned prior, I already had something like 46 layers in my document. So it's not as if Create New Layer button hadn't worked before in the same document.

I stress, that this only happened since 21.1 update. I don't believe it's a workflow issue as I've been doing this type of work for 5 years and in all my experience with Photoshop, I've never encountered this issue before. 

I have a decent machine that was built for PS. I've encountered another couple of bugs which I've reported beside this one since the 21.1 update. 

David -  I'm working on a piece right at this moment. I have not used any Plugins, no issues with my PC etc. and I cannot add a Group or New Layer via the bottom of the Layers Panel as those options are 'greyed out' as you can see below. I have 4 groups and 23 layers. I now have to save my work and restart Photoshop. 

P/S I've decided to work in PS 20.0.8 with no issues. 

Hi Rosa,

Ugh!  That's not right.  8-(  I'm sorry.

So, my question about the mouse clicks was to rule out a different cause.  Okay, ruled out.  But clearly you're running into a new problem.

What kind of work were you doing?  Compositing?  Editing?  What KIND of editing?  I'm trying to narrow down the trigger -- it isn't something I do in either my professional or personal workflows.

Thanks,
David

Hi David,

I was doing compositing work. This was my third piece of compositing work since updating to 21.01 and the issues happened every time.

One piece of compositing work can take me up to 5 hours to do. I start out with cutting out my subjects with a pen tool. Then I add layers, placing my subjects on different layers, I add more layers, using the brush tool for artwork, adding textures, colour etc. I group them to keep things in order.  I use curves adjustment layers in between my added layers. This issue with the 'greyed out' buttons usually happens past midway of my workflow. I know I'm winding down my work because that's when I'm ready to finalise my piece with adding new layers for highlights and shadows. I don't use actions, plugins, filters or even adjustment layers for adding highlights and shadows, I prefer to paint them on using blend modes on new layers.

That's my usual workflow in compositing when I encounter the issue with the 'greyed out' buttons. 

I still have PS 20.0.8 installed and so I used it to finish my last compositing piece, without any dramas and since then I've just finished more compositing work in PS 20.0.8 without encountering any issues.

I hope this helps narrow down the problem.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this.

Hi David,
I've finally caught the bug in the act. It happens when a scrollbar is present in the layers window, and you click and drag a layer over the buttons:



Edit : you can sometimes fix an already bugged button by doing the same move.

Howdy Julien,

Thank you for trying to track this down.  Unfortunately, that doesn't trigger anything on my machine.  But it does open a new line of research.  Can you trigger this bug reliably on your machine now?  Were you using a specific Workspace?  If so, which one?  Are you using GPU?  If you turn it off, does the problem persist?  OTHER PEOPLE, are you seeing the same thing?  Perhaps my machine is the outlier.

Thanks,
David

Yes, this allowed me to recreate the bug. Great find Julien.

Repeating that process will free the "stuck" shortcut icon, though if you have multiple icons stuck you have to do it one-by-one. Also, for a couple of the icons it took multiple attempts. FWIW, after using this antidote once, it took many more attempts to to "unstick" the icons after I recreated the problem a second time.

Answer to other question: Custom workspace, using GPU. Disabling the GPU did not prevent the problem from occurring or the behavior of the stuck/unstuck trick.

Late reply, but yes I also had chrome open

David

I can't reproduce Julien's find at all. I have tried and tried many times creating a new layer or group by dragging a layer into the Create Layer button and the bug doesn't present itself. I also have a scroll bar because of my layer/group amounts but dragging a layer down onto the button doesn't reproduce the bug for me.

Mine bug thing does it unexpectedly in my workflow as described above. It's when I go to create a new layer from the button itself. I can't reproduce the bug as it does it randomly in my workflow.

David,

Doing this causes the bug 100% of the time for me. 
If I resize the layer window so there's no scrollbar, it stops happening.

Rosa, did you notice this happening when you have no scrollbar in your layer window?

And to answer your questions: 
- I tried both GPU and software rendering with no difference, even with legacy compositing
- I'm using the "Essentials" workspace

No Julien, I always had a scrollbar because of the amount of layers I work with. I just couldn't reproduce your find with dragging a layer to create a new layer. My issue is with directly clicking on the Create Layer Button on the bottom. I don't often have no scroll bar. 

David Today I did finished another piece of artwork/photo-manipulation with 52 layers in groups. I had no issue what so ever with the Create Layer Button or Group button, they stayed responsive all during my work flow, but the crazy thing is, my Delete button on the bottom of the Layers Panel was unresponsive. So I really have no idea what's causing the issue. It's spooky.

What I did different today in my workflow, was hide the ruler tool. 

Bug PS 21.1.0: Layer opacity: now you have to click at certain percentages, previously you could see the changes live in the photo while holding down the mouse button. Good: Layer modes work without a click.

I would love to give you a reliable reproduce David, but it happens sporadically for me so I can't reproduce.

Seems there were some changes to the layer palette in this version. There's also this problem: https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/photoshop-cc-2020-v21-1-0-recessed-layer-thumbnails