Photoshop clone stamp no longer working after upgrade to Yosemite and El Capitan

[kjptaylor]

Hi, I have been all over the Adobe forums and still can't get my CS6 clone stamp to work. I had the same problem in CS4 photoshop and thought if I upgraded it would fix it but I think it's got something more to do with the Yosemite and El Capitan upgrades that have fused the problem on my machine. Does anyone in the Mac Rumors forums know how to fix this problem or has come across it? I have used the clone stamp a thousand times previously, and since the upgrades it now says "Could not use the clone stamp because the area to clone has not been defined (option-click to define a source point". Very frustrating.

 

[suburbia]

So PS CS6’s Clone Tool does not work on neither Yosemite and El Captian for you?

According to the Adobe forums, CS6 (or earlier CSs) is not compatible with El Captian and ideal for CC only: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1967270?start=40&tstart=0 although some users have been successful with CS6 on El Capitan. But Yosemite should be just fine. The only time I get the prompt like yours in PS is when I accidentally have a blank layer/ area selected when using the Clone Tool. Maybe that’s the case with you…? Try flattening the layers, or/and try on a single layer and see if you still have the problem.

If that doesn't work, best to reinstall PS or CS6 on Yosemite.

 

[filmbufs]

I have cs6 and El Capitan and it works fine. I have noticed, however, my stamp tool or my brush tool with the pressure sensitivity button toggled on appears wonky for the first few minutes after opening up cs6. I receive the same error message as you do for the stamp tool and my brush tool won't even make a mark when I have the pressure sensitivity toggled on. After a few minutes though, it all works fine. Go figure. Try opening cs6, go grab something to drink and then try using your stamp tool.

 

[Jim Campbell]

So PS CS6’s Clone Tool does not work on neither Yosemite and El Captian for you?

According to the Adobe forums, CS6 (or earlier CSs) is not compatible with El Captian and ideal for CC only

This is just smoke blown by Adobe to get CS6 holdouts to upgrade to CC. CS6 works fine in El Cap, but you have to run the legacy Java 6 installer first. I'm not sure if that's the cause of the OP's problem, but I believe that Illustrator won't run at all, whilst Photoshop can behave erratically.

EDIT: Here's a link to the legacy Java installer.

 

[filmbufs]

I can actually use Illustrator cs3 with El Capitan. The only wonky thing is it will crash if I try to save a file to a folder different from the location I retrieved it from.