Photoshop CS5 troubles 10.6.5

Running Photoshop CS5 Extended here and not having any problems with tools.

Also printing on all printers is just fine. It sounds like it's your problem on your system.

I wouldn't doubt that you're not the only one having problems with Adobe software... although I'm not, thankfully.

You've got the world's most sophisticated consumer operating system working with the world's most sophisticated DTP software, working in an uncountable number of computing environments. Some people are going to have problems.

I had a seemingly simple problem with InDesign CS5 that drove me a) Nuts. b) To clean install Snow Leopard and InDesign along with the other CS5 products
The problem was no more. I have no idea what caused it. It wasn't Adobe's or Apple's fault. It was just a problem in my environment.

Oh, I hope Apple doesn't try and do a professional DTP suite. I have too many decades of experience invested in Photoshop, Illustrator and then InDesign running on Macintosh. If Apple cheated on that marriage it would cause huge problems for the whole industry.

I just installed CS5 on 10.6.5 too, just getting a weird printer problem. No matter what I do the file prints in portrait mode, even when the print preview is showing landscape. I get to spend tomorrow fighting it so if I fins anything useful I'll share!

Yes, there's a weird problem with Photoshop (and Illustrator, as others say) after upgrading to 10.6.5. CS4 and CS5. It renders Photoshop more or less useless, as all tools behave as if a modifier key was held down - brush tool can only draw horizontal or vertical lines, marquee tools don't work at all, stamp tool refuses to recognize alt key etc. There are at least two threads an Adobe forums regarding this topic.

The problem occurs very randomly and users so far can't reproduce it. The trigger is unknown. Most users have a Wacom tablet installed (but not all of them), most users seem to have Dropbox running. The only thing in common is that this problem appeared after installing 10.6.5.

Logging out and back in again or restarting the machine helps for the moment.

I'm now able to reproduce the issue (kudos to user "salokin_nyc" on the Adobe forums). If I open Things.app's quick-entry dialogue WITH AUTO-FILL, Photoshop gets unusable afterwards. Default shortcut for quick-entry with autofill is Ctrl-Alt-space. Default shortcut for quick-entry without autofill is Ctrl-space. You may use the latter, but for now, don't use auto-fill.

Hi there,

On a similar note, I use Photoshop CS3. Up until I updated to 10.6.5 (today) it worked flawlessly. Now it (seemingly randomly) begins to behave exactly as though the modifier key was stuck down. (It is definitely not; no other program is affected, not even InDesign.)

I do not have (and never have had) a Wacom tablet on my system. I DO have Dropbox, although I've closed it before the problem occurs and it still occurred. The only cure I've found so far is to log out and log back in again, which is hardly a long-term fix.

OK, it seems that an API changed with 10.6.5:

CGEventPost(kCGSessionEventTap, ...);

Whatever application uses this API may trigger the issue as decribed in this (and other) threads. Photoshop itself doesn't use this API. In my case, Things is the culprit. I just disabled the quick entry with auto-fill shortcut in Things' settings. Other apps that may cause Photoshop to go all wonky are xGestures and moveAddict. There may be a lot more apps out there using the API mentioned above. Adobe informed Apple about this. If you identify an app, that causes thes problems, I suggest you contact the developer of the very app so they can do whatever there is to do (bash Apple, bash themselves, you know... 😉

Jesper Storm Bache has kindly posted a small app on one of Adobe's forums that works around this bug in the CGEventPost API in 10.6.5 by resetting the option, shift, command and control keys:

http://www.bache.name/download/osx/1065%20keyboard%20hack.dmg

Works for me and makes my Photoshop tools return to normal!

But lets hope that Apple fixes this bug ASAP...

I have the same problem. And tracked the issue to Cultured Code Things quick entry window using ctrl-alt-space to activate it. Only a re-start would fix it.

In my case it was 'Teleport', or rather the option to only switch Monitors when 'Shift' was pressed. Changed that to CMD, seems to work now.

I have just started experiencing the modifier key issue. I'm using Photoshop CS4, though. It only seems to happen when I use the Wacom tablet (Bamboo Pen and Touch) and only affects Photoshop (and Elements); other apps and the OS itself work fine.

Interestingly, if I'm using a brush, it will display the eye-dropper but does revert to the brush tip if I start drawing on the tablet.

So far I have not been able to stop this without restarting the Mac. As has been said, it makes Photoshop unusable.

Thanks Colin_Thomas, the keyboard hack seems to do the trick! at least for now.

Calling Adobe and Apple support, they told me that this problem only occurs on pre 2010 imac
and is therefor not a priority... so the official fix might be a looooong wait.

I am having the exact same issue in PS. The marquee draws from center and then when you release the box snaps to the originating cursor point. Additionally, in Illustrator using the direct select tool, I select a single object and drag. It copies the object. Its as if I'm holding the modifier key or something.

I have trashed the prefs files but nothing is resolving the issue. I've seen reference to this on this forum and on Adobe's support site. Most are pointing at the 10.6.5 update from Apple.

This issue started the week (Dec 6th)

Has anyone solved this issue?

Any help appreciated.

Message was edited by: Ant2k2