Is the Toolbar missing in your Photoshop app on Windows PC? Adobe Photoshop is the standard photo editing application used to create different types of art and graphics. It is one of the most loved applications by graphics designers and rightly so. However, like any other application, it is not devoid of issues and errors. One of the problems reported by some Photoshop users is that they can’t see the Toolbar in the app.
The toolbar goes missing or just doesn’t show up in Photoshop. For some users, a few tools don’t show up in the toolbar. Let us now find out why you may face this problem.
Why has my toolbar disappeared in Photoshop?
The toolbar in Photoshop might have disappeared if you have pressed the F key. When you hit the F key, the image you are editing shows up without any distractions. This includes hiding the toolbar, panels, and other distractions from the app window. You can simply press the F key back and the toolbar will reappear. Or, pressing the TAB key can do the same. So, you just need to press the TAB key again.
If the toolbar is still missing in Photoshop, there might be some other reason behind it. It could be that you haven’t enabled the Tools option which is why the toolbar is not appearing. Besides that, if you have created a workspace without enabling the Toolbar option, you might face this issue.
How do I get my toolbar back on Photoshop?
To get your toolbar back in Photoshop or show the toolbar panel, you need to ensure that the correct settings are configured. Open your Photoshop app and go to the Window menu from the top menubar. After that, make sure that the Tools option is chosen.
However, some users have complained that the toolbar still doesn’t show up in the app even after enabling the Tools option. Now, fixing this issue becomes critical as the app becomes quite unusable due to missing tools. If you are one of the affected users, this post will interest you. Here, we are going to show different solutions that will help you get back your toolbar in Photoshop.
Fix Toolbar not showing or is missing in Photoshop on Windows
If the Toolbar in your Photoshop app is missing or some or all tools in the toolbar go missing, here are the solutions you can use to fix the problem:
- Restore the panels using keyboard shortcuts.
- Restore the toolbar defaults using the Edit menu.
- Reset your workspace to the Essentials workspace.
- Customize the Toolbar.
- Add a new workspace with Toolbar enabled.
1] Restore the panels using keyboard shortcuts
You can use keyboard shortcuts to restore or relocate missing panels in Photoshop. Here are some hotkeys that you can press in order to restore respective panels:
- Brushes: F5
- Layers: F7
- Color: F6
- Info: F8
- Action: ALT + F9
Apart from these keys, you can also make the panels or toolbar show or hide using the Tab hotkey.
If there are tools that have no keyboard shortcuts are usually docked with one or another panels that have a keyboard shortcut assigned. See if these keyboard shortcuts help you restore the missing panels in Photoshop.
Read: Photoshop has encountered a problem with the display driver.
2] Restore the toolbar defaults using the Edit menu
Another thing you can do to fix this problem is to use the Edit menu and restore the toolbar defaults. It might be some corruption causing the problem. Hence, if the scenario is applicable, resetting your toolbar to its original state will help you fix the problem. This way you are likely to get back the toolbar in Photoshop. Here’s how you can do that:
- First, open Photoshop and click on its Edit menu.
- Now, from the available options, select the Toolbar option.
- In the opened window, click on the Restore Defaults option and then check if the missing toolbar comes back.
If this method doesn’t work for you, move on to the next fix to resolve the issue.
3] Reset your workspace to the Essentials workspace
The next thing you can do to resolve the problem is to reset the current workspace to its original default settings. It has helped some users to get back the toolbar in Photoshop and should work for you as well. To do that, you can use the below steps:
- First, go to the Window menu in Photoshop and move to the Workspace option.
- Now, choose the Essentials (Default) option.
- After that, click on the Reset Essentials option.
See if the missing toolbar is restored or not. If not, no issue; we got some more fixes that will surely help you resolve the problem.
Read: Fix Blue Screen while using Photoshop on Windows PC.
4] Customize the Toolbar
If you can’t see some tools in the toolbar, it might be the case that you haven’t customized your toolbar accordingly and added the required extra tools. So, in that case, you can customize your toolbar and add the extra tools that you want to use to your toolbar. Here are the steps to do that:
- First, open Photoshop and click on the Edit > Toolbar option.
- Now, select the Customize Toolbar option, or simply press the three dots icon in the left-side panel.
- Next, under the Extra Tools section, check for missing tools.
- After that, drag the missing tool from Extra Tools and drop it into the toolbar.
- You need to repeat the above step for all the missing tools that you need.
- Finally, press the Done button to complete the process.
Check if the problem is now resolved.
Read: File format module cannot parse the file in Adobe Photoshop.
5] Add a new workspace with Toolbar enabled
If the problem remains the same, you can try creating a new workspace. While doing so, you can enable the Toolbar option. For doing that, you can use the below steps:
- First, click on the Window menu.
- Now, choose the Workspace > New Workspace option.
- Next, enter the name of the workspace you are creating.
- After that, make sure to tick the Toolbar along with Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus checkboxes.
- Finally, press the Save button and see if the issue is resolved.
Apart from these fixes, make sure the Photoshop app is up-to-date. And, if everything else failed to fix the issue, consider reinstalling the Photoshop application to resolve the problem.
Hope this helps!
Now read: Fix Photoshop problems and issues like quitting, closing itself, etc.
