no idea why..been like this the past few clean ups.. works great.. until for some reason..it refuse to copy or clone anything. I can delete, do everything else.. but clone.
I shut photoshop down and restart..and it works fine..after I duplicate the background layer.
What's happening??

I think we need more info on this Rosie. Clone tool is "S" on the keyboard (Stamp tool). Make sure You are on the same layer and that you are working within a selection area if you have a selection activated and it's not hidden from sight "H". You need to first select the area to use as a clone by holding Alt key and LMB (Left Mouse Button) clicking and then pass over the area you want cloned. Make sure opacity and flow are set correctly in the top menu for the job. Yes, you can clone between layers but this is not what you are asking...as far as I know.

Everything is as you say it ought to be..even opacity and flow..layers etc.. I double checked this. It works perfect.... then whoops bang.. it freezes.

Is that only happening to me ..maybe I over cloned..or something?

I have to shut photoshop.restart it and then it works.

Ghostly.

Hmmm, this sounds serious. It sounds like a memory problem. But it can also be a memory problem caused by the size of your brush. When working with big files and using big brushes, this can cause a memory lag problem. In these cases you need to wait until the operation is finished before continuing. Try reducing the size of the brush considerably and see if this helps.

Hmm...  Photoshop is reading a wee bit more than 3 gigs of RAM out of my 4. (Bryce reads 2 no matter what..I checked the CPU usage when it was rendering something at premium render) ..
the file size isn't that much.. 22 megs for this one pix. The other one that it did that to was about 60 megs
But you could be right with using big brushes. Patience.. I need to get a cup of coffee or a choc bar then.. sigh....

Rosie, just for trial....use a small brush....say about 50 pixels big then use the clone tool and see if it clones proper. If it does, then up the brush size to say...100 and keep trying this. At some point the brush will be so big that it needs time to compute the clone. Also, it is best if you press ctrl+D to deselect any active selected area that may be hidden from sight.

pushed it to 2500.. I em..er.. 'crucified' an ancient door of a church..ahem.. covering it with a wall.. did that 25 times .. it was pretty fast.

It happens even when I use a tiny brush. I work at 200%..ie..the picture size.. coz some of the stuff i have to restore are tiny things. Sometimes..i go to 300%.. maddening on the eyes..but I need to be extremely specific. It freezes. I'll go back to normal 100% or even view on screen..and nopes..nothing happens...zilch, .nada.. even if i increase or decrease brush sizes.

Maybe I ought to just reinstall photoshop.. sigh..

Well, it’s always best to work in small increments…tedious but progressive. It is also best if you save often because every change you make without saving is in virtual memory and this continues to accrue on memory levels thereby slowing the system. Don’t know Rosie if reinstalling will help. Try rebooting and start fresh and see what happens. I need to get some sleep…it’s 4:47 in the A.M. here and I have someone coming here early to work. Please Let me know what you’ve found. I’m interested in learning the cause.

will let you know. It's been happening for a few days.. so I might just re-install.

Thanks and hugs, Quest.

Gnite.. sweet dreams..

Hugs back Rosie...good luck!

Quote - will let you know. It's been happening for a few days.. so I might just re-install.

Thanks and hugs, Quest.

Gnite.. sweet dreams..

before you re-install (if you haven't already...) try and toss out your PREFs file for Photoshop.

 usually when things get wonky with the program, if you toss out the PREFs file and let photoshop rebuild it, it usually clears things up...

it's worked for me every time.

Scott

Thanks Retrocity...good info to know!

thanks retrocity.. will try that out once I get out of singapore and get back home..
is ther a reason for it to happen though?

The Preferences file records more than just the choices you've made in Photoshop's Preferences. It remembers the size of the new document you created, your last brush (for each of the painting tools), even how you left each palette. These are just some of the other things that are recorded in the Preferences file.

So how does it get corrupted? 

Keep in mind, the Preferences file is rewritten every time you quit Photoshop. One way to try to minimize the possibility of corrupting the Prefs file may be to allow sufficient time for the program to quit. Sometimes when you launch another "memory-intensive" program while you're quiting PS you can mess up the file. Some  clues that the Preferences file has gone bad are:

• Freezes and crashes.

• Unusual tool behavior.

• Menu commands unexpectedly not available.

• Missing or blacked-out icons in the Toolbox.

• Unusual colors for interface items.

The ultimate way to prevent corruption of the Prefs file is by making it a Read Only (Windows) or Locked (Mac) file. Remember, though, that Photoshop won't be able to update the file, so make sure that all of your preferences, palette locations, and tool settings are just as you want them before securing the Prefs file.

Here's a quick way to toss the Pref file:

Press down Command-Option-Shift (Mac) or Control-Alt-Shift (Windows) immediately after you start launching Photoshop. (Don't hold down the modifier keys before you launch, press them immediately afterward and hold them down until you see the dialog box.) You'll be asked if you want to delete the "Adobe Photoshop Settings File."

Hope this helps 

scott

retrocity.. just did this. thanks. I've started to work on a file that needs a lot of cleaning.. will let you know if it helps.
Thanks a gazillion

Anyway, you need to first select the area to use as a clone by holding Alt key and LMB (Left Mouse Button) clicking and then pass over the area you want cloned.

aprillove.. that's what i do..but it freezes..it won't alt click, it won't do anything..
ever since i've been deleting the pref files ..it hasn't froze. I guess it just had too many options in the pref files and froze with fear!

Are you (or perhaps somebody you're working with) changing color-depth mid project? Some tools in PhotoShop only work in 8-bit RGB the last I checked.

(I could be wrong about some of the newer versions, but this is true in the CS I'm using.)

pauljs..i'm the only one working on it.. i did notice the change in color depth though i swear over the bryce and photoshop bibles i hadn't changed it! I did go back to 8 bit rgb..but it still was frozen...

Are you on a layer with stuff to clone on it. You might need to check "use all layers". So many little intracacies to overlook, sometimes if you're having an "off" day it's easy to forget.

i know what  you mean. had checked up that.. all was ok..use all layers checked. i tried on an image that was just one layer.. ie..flattened..same effect..