Problem with a seemingly simple Action

[Lance Warley]

I wrote an action in CS4 that worked correctly for at least a year. Then it stopped working correctly for no apparent reason, and now I can’t get it to work in CS5 either.

The action does the following:
1-Creates a black mask on a layer (Layer-Hide All; this sets the fg and bg colors to white 255 255 255)
2-Loads a saved selection named “1” (I save the selection prior to starting this action. I always name it “1” in every photo, and it’s always the first saved selection in every photo).
3-Contracts the selection 1 px
4-Feathers the selection 1 px
5-Fills the selection with white (Paint Bucket)
6-Deselects the selection.

The action works correctly when I record it. And it intermittently works correctly on the same photo. Other times, it completes on the same photo with just a black mask.

When I run it on other photos, it also completes with just a black layer mask, rather than a black mask with a white selection.

As part of the debugging, I created an action to do steps 1-4, and it worked correctly. So the problem seems to be with the Fill step. I even tried changing the fg color from white to anything else, and then changed it back to white, to make sure it was white. That didn’t help.

Any help, please?

[David Thomasson]

Hi Lance, I created an action following your steps, and it ran fine as long as I saved the selection each time with the same name.

I'm not sure why yours doesn't run right. I don't know much about actions. In a case like this, I would rename the Preferences file and let PS build a new one. If that doesn't solve the problem, you can restore the old Prefs file to keep your settings intact.

[Lance Warley]

Thanks very much for trying, David.

Yea, I always save the selection with the same name. Sigh...

[Lance Peters]

Thanks very much for trying, David.

Yea, I always save the selection with the same name. Sigh...

Hi Lance - does the same thing happen if you modify step 5 - and use edit fill - instead of the paint bucket??

[Lance Warley]

Edit-Fill-White appears to work, based upon using it in two different photos.

Thanks very much, Lance.