Alt Key not working in Photoshop

[Sarah Alloway]

Hi Damien, I want to hold down my alt key and click my background layer to see before and after, but its not working! For EITHER alt keys, and my keyboard batteries are fine (I just tried putting new ones in and that didnt change it). Any ideas?

[Damien Symonds]

Is this happening on every PSD you try?

[Sarah Alloway]

Oooh apparently not! I just tried another photo.

[Lara]

Sarah, is it just that one troublesome file?

[Damien Symonds]

Sarah?

[Sarah Alloway]

Hey! As I said above, it is not happening on every file, so its just this one. I also found that when I tried editing it, it seems to be locked or something. What have I done?

[Damien Symonds]

1 minute ago, Sarah Alloway said:

I also found that when I tried editing it, it seems to be locked or something.

Where are you seeing this?

[Sarah Alloway]

So I added a blank layer (on the photo in question), added a solid fill colour, added a layer mask, went to brush on with black (all for fun ok! haha) and there is no brush icon, just a circle with a dash through it. I dont get it? It says it needs to be rasterised before editing.

[Damien Symonds]

Screenshot please.

[Sarah Alloway]

[Damien Symonds]

Yeah, you simply don't have the mask selected.  Click on it.  (The white box in the layers panel, I mean)

[Sarah Alloway]

Nope not the case. Not working.

I think it is connected to the Alt Key issue, but I have no idea still why I cant use my Alt key lol

[Damien Symonds]

May I see the whole screenshot, so I can see the little border around the mask thumbnail?

Not saying I don't trust you ... um, actually, yes, that is what I'm saying ...

[Damien Symonds]

The other thing we need to test is if you can Alt-click on the mask of another layer (one that's already been painted on) to see if it show the black-and-white view that it's supposed to.

[Sarah Alloway]

The screenshot might not be very helpful, because when I click on the layer mask, it doesnt get the border around it like usual. Keep in mind this all works fine on other files. When I get aggresive in trying to get the border, I end up double clicking and then it brings up the mask colour box lol. And the answer to your next question is no, Alt doesnt work on other layers.

[Damien Symonds]

It's very weird, because your Quick Mask button is presses, but the title bar doesn't say you're in QM mode.

That must have something to do with it, though.

[Sarah Alloway]

So what do I do?

[Damien Symonds]

Well, go in and out of QM, I guess?