Sometimes Photoshop behaves strangely, which is a strong indication of damaged preferences file.
What is the preferences file in Photoshop by the way? The preferences file is where Photoshop
stores all the settings also known as Photoshop settings file. If the Photoshop setting file is
damaged for some reasons, it causes the Photoshop to act strangely and the best way is to reset the
preference file to its default, but before you do that, keep this in mind that you will lose
all your current settings and Photoshop will be reverted back to its default settings, like
once it was installed. Which means you will lose your workspace settings, scratch disk settings,
tool settings, colour settings etc. So, the best approach is to ensure it's really the preferences
file which causes the problem, not the tools or anything else! for example if one of your tool
is acting strangely, let's suppose it's brush tool in this case. Simply go to brush settings
and click holds this small icon here and reset the tool and that will resolve the
problem. Secondly if any of the tools or panels or the side tool bars is missing, for example If
I take the layers panel out and remove it and I can't find that panel back? So, the best way
is simply go to windows and workspace and reset workspace. So, whatever workspace you are having
simply reset the workspace from here and you will get the panels back, otherwise you can find any of
the panel from here but if you are not familiar with Photoshop, simply go to windows > workspace
and reset essential default and you will get all those settings back to its original state.
In most cases these two quick fixes can resolve the problem but if your problem still exists,
it's mean it's time to reset the Photoshop settings file also known as preferences file.
There are two ways to do it. First automatically and second manually, which is recommended.
In first option Photoshop will reset the preferences file automatically. All you
gotta do is simply press ctrl+alt+shift for the window and command+option+shift for the mac users,
just before, just place your fingers on top of these three buttons, don't press them now,
first you gotta do is just simply launch the Photoshop and once you click on it immediately
after pressing the three keys together and once you do that you will get message like this. So,
in my case I'm not going to press yes because my Photoshop is working fine but you gotta press
delete this adobe Photoshop settings file and when you press yes the Photoshop will erase its
settings files and once the photoshop is launched a new photoshop preferences file has been created
and hopefully after this your photoshop will start working the way it should. But in this
case I'm going to press no because my Photoshop is working fine and I'm going to show you the second
way which is the recommended way. If I was you I’ll do it manually because if I do it manually
I’ll have the option to backup my existing preferences file, while creating a new one,
which means after creating the new preferences file if my problem still exists I can go back
to my previous backup settings. Let's see how can I do that manually. Simply go to the drive where
you have installed the Photoshop, in my case I have installed Photoshop in C drive and after
that go to users. So, whichever user you have simply go to your user and here you should see
the folder called (app data) if the folder is not visible make sure you go to view and click on this
hidden icon because the folder we are looking for is hidden. Once you click the hidden item
you can see the app data folder simply double click on it and go to roaming and then adobe and
then go to whichever Photoshop you are using. I'm using Photoshop 2020. So, I double click on this
and here adobe photoshop settings double click on it and this is the file we are looking for
adobe Photoshop 2020 preferences . psp file. So, I suggest simply remove this file from here don't
copy it just simply cut this file from here and paste it somewhere else maybe on the E drive or
any other drive simply remove this file from here and place it to any other location in case if we
need to get it back again. So, if you remove this so in your case remove this file from here so what
happens? when you launch the Photoshop again Photoshop will try to find the preferences file
from this directory and once the Photoshop can't find the file, it will create a default settings
file and that settings file would be default settings files like the one you installed the
Photoshop newly and for the Mac OS user you can see the path on the screen now and to ensure
you can see the hidden folder from the library folder. I hope after following this tutorial your
Photoshop will start working the way it should but if your problem still exists then I suggest please
contact the Adobe help support, the link is in the description below. If you have, any question
please drop the line into the comment section and if you are here first time on this channel
please do consider subscribing and hit the like button and I see you in the next video bye! Now!