How to Fix Adobe Photoshop Toolbar Missing

Is your Adobe Photoshop toolbar missing?

Adobe Photoshop is the leading photo editing tool in the world. In fact, almost 90% of the world’s creative professionals use Adobe Photoshop for their projects. Compared to other editing tools, Photoshop offers the best tools and support for various file types. 

While Adobe Photoshop offers a handful of tools for editing, it can also overwhelm ordinary users. 

Navigating Photoshop’s interface can also be confusing for beginners. 

If you’re here, you are probably looking for some tools but can’t see them on your toolbar, or the toolbar itself has gone missing. 

However, there’s no need to worry. This is a common problem for Photoshop users, and troubleshooting should not take long. 

Based on what we know, this issue is usually caused by improper user configurations and preferences. On the other hand, it can also be due to temporary bugs or corrupted installation packages. 

Today, we’ll show you what to do if your Adobe Photoshop toolbar is missing. 

Let’s begin!

1. Restart Your Computer. 

If you can’t find some features on Adobe Photoshop, the first thing you can do is restart your system. This should reload Photoshop’s resources and ensure that there are no bugs and glitches on your device. 

For Windows users, see the guide below to restart your computer: 

  1. On your keyboard, hit the Windows key to open the Start Menu
  2. After that, access the Power Options tab. 
  3. Finally, choose Restart
Restart your PC

If you’re using a Mac, follow the steps below to restart it: 

  1. Access the Apple Menu on the upper left corner of your screen. 
  2. Next, choose the Restart option. 
  3. Lastly, click the Restart button on the dialog box to confirm your action. 
Restart Mac

Once done, go back to Adobe Photoshop and try accessing the toolbar. 

2. Restore Your Panels. 

You might have misclicked some buttons on Photoshop’s interface, which hid the toolbar from your screen. 

To restore them, use the following hotkeys below: 

  • Brushes: F5
  • Color: F6
  • Layers: F7
  • Info: F8
  • Action: ALT + F9

3. Customize Your Toolbar

If some tools are missing on your toolbar, you might have to tweak your Photoshop preferences to make them available. You might have mistakenly removed the tool from the toolbar, or it was not enabled in the first place. 

Here’s what you need to do: 

  1. First, click on the three dots at the bottom of your left toolbar. 
  2. After that, choose the Edit Toolbar option. 
  3. Lastly, locate the tool you want to add and drag it to the left toolbar. 
Adobe Photoshop toolbar missing

Once done, try using the tool to see if it’s working. 

4. Update Photoshop. 

Another reason why your toolbar is missing is if you’re using a faulty version of Adobe Photoshop. To rule this out, follow the steps below to update Adobe Photoshop to the latest version. 

  1. On your computer, launch Adobe Photoshop
  2. Next, click on the Help tab. 
  3. Finally, choose Updates and follow the prompts. 
Adobe Photoshop toolbar missing

Restart Photoshop after the update and check if the problem is solved. 

5. Create a New Workspace. 

Another way to restore missing toolbars in Adobe Photoshop is to create a new workspace. This should give you the option to create custom menu layouts and toolbars. 

See the guide below to create a new workspace in Photoshop: 

  1. First, click on Window in the menu bar. 
  2. After that, choose Workspace and click on New Workspace
Adobe Photoshop toolbar missing
  1. Now, assign a name to your Workspace
  2. Lastly, customize your keyboard shortcuts, menus, and toolbar. 

Once done, all the tools you’ll need for the project should be present in the new workspace. 

6. Reset Your Toolbar. 

If you can’t find specific tools on your toolbar, we suggest resetting your preferences. You might have played around with your configurations and changed some settings. 

To fix this, follow the guide below to roll back the changes: 

  1. On Adobe Photoshop, click on Edit and select Toolbar
  2. Now, scroll down and see if you can find the tool you’re looking for. 
  3. If not, simply hit the Restore Defaults option on the side menu. 
Adobe Photoshop toolbar missing

Go back to your project afterward and check if the problem is solved. 

7. Reinstall Adobe Photoshop. 

At this point, the last thing you can do is reinstall Adobe Photoshop on your computer. This should reset your configurations and ensure that there are no broken installation files on your storage. 

For Windows, here’s how you can delete Photoshop: 

  1. First, open the Control Panel
  2. After that, click on Uninstall a Program
  3. Lastly, right-click on Adobe Photoshop and choose Uninstall
Adobe Photoshop toolbar missing

If you’re using a Mac, go to Finder > Applications and drag Photoshop to the Trash Bin

Once done, go to Adobe’s website and download the latest installer from there. 

That ends our guide for fixing Adobe Photoshop toolbar if it’s missing on your project. For your questions and other concerns, please drop a comment below, and we’ll be here to help. 

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂

Author

  • John Sixto

    John is a staff writer at Saint and comes from a SAP ABAP development background. He has a Bachelors in IT and has been writing since 2018, with over 500 posts published. He loves to build PCs and has a deep curiosity in understanding how different components and configurations work. John spends hundreds of hours at a time, researching and testing the software and apps, before he proceeds to write about it. LinkedIn X (Twitter)

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