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P: Duplicating a layer with clipping mask removes the clipping mask from all layers above it

Community Beginner ,
Jul 12, 2017 Jul 12, 2017

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This behavior is new to the latest update - in past versions of Photoshop when you duplicated a layer that was in a stack of layers which used the same clipping mask, the new duplicate layer would retain the original layer's clipping mask (note that this is only when right-clicking and selecting "duplicate layer", or in my case using a shortcut key to duplicate a layer).  However, now when you duplicate a layer in a stack of layers with the same clipping mask, the new duplicate no longer has the original layer's clipping mask, and all layers above which previously used the original clipping mask, now will use the new duplicate layer as the clipping mask.

 

WHAT GIVES???  This is hugely annoying - does anyone have a fix to this or a workaround?  i scoured the preferences for an option to fix this but found nothing.

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Adobe Employee , Nov 23, 2021 Nov 23, 2021

@davescm is correct. The behavior, while folks may not like it, goes way back to CS6 (I don't have anything earlier to handy to test it with).

 

Be sure to hit the UpVote at the top if you agree this behavior should change.

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Enthusiast ,
Jul 12, 2017 Jul 12, 2017

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This happens more often.You just need to re-clip the layers. This happens when you duplicate and move stuff around. You can try putting them into a group to manage things a bit better.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 13, 2017 Jul 13, 2017

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henryl71042410  wrote

This behavior is new to the latest update - in past versions of Photoshop when you duplicated a layer that was in a stack of layers which used the same clipping mask...............................

Which version acted differently?

These examples duplicate layer 1  using Right Click

CS6:

CC2015.5

CC2017.1.1

Dave

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 13, 2017 Jul 13, 2017

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@Dave

In your examples you are duplicating the top layer - try duplicating a layer that has another layer above it that is using the same clipping mask.  See screenshots below from Photoshop CC 2017.1.1:

Screen Shot 2017-07-13 at 8.11.38 AM.pngScreen Shot 2017-07-13 at 8.12.30 AM.png

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Community Expert ,
Jul 13, 2017 Jul 13, 2017

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Hi

No, if you look closely, I was duplicating the lower of the two clipped layers (layer 1) in each case. I agree the layers above unclip. The point I was making was that the behaviour is unchanged in CS6 , CC2015.5 and CC2017.1.1.

Dave

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 13, 2017 Jul 13, 2017

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@Dave

Oh i see, sorry, i missed that.  I cannot remember exactly which version I was using but I could have sworn that you could duplicate a layer and have it keep the clipping mask (as i recall it was an older CC version).  However, I'm sorry I can't test this directly as I don't have another computer with an older version installed.

Does the same behavior occur in the older versions when you use the Menu action Layer -> New... -> Layer via Copy?

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Community Expert ,
Jul 13, 2017 Jul 13, 2017

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Hi

New Layer via copy (Ctrl+J) gave a slightly different result to the right click - duplicate layer , but again acted the same in CS6, CC2015.5 and CC2017. Result below:

Dave

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Explorer ,
Nov 23, 2021 Nov 23, 2021

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When a layer in Clipping Mask chain of layers is duplicated by using keybord shortcut (command-J), the clipping is broken. This seems counter productive and leads to extra time needed to recreate the Clipping Mask.

 

Screen Shot 2021-11-23 at 11.43.32 AM.png

Screen Shot 2021-11-23 at 11.43.42 AM.png

  

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Adobe Employee ,
Nov 23, 2021 Nov 23, 2021

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@davescm is correct. The behavior, while folks may not like it, goes way back to CS6 (I don't have anything earlier to handy to test it with).

 

Be sure to hit the UpVote at the top if you agree this behavior should change.

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 29, 2023 Dec 29, 2023

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I know this is very old now and I am still in support of this behavior changing, but in case anyone stumbles on this thread via Googling, my workaround for this is to hold alt, then click and drag the layer I want to duplicate to a new position. This retains the clipping mask and duplicates the layer. It's not always ideal, but I hope it might help some out there in internet land!

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Community Expert ,
Dec 29, 2023 Dec 29, 2023

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That behaviour started in Photoshop CS2 when Adobe did a major overhaul of the layers panel.

 

photoshop cs (ps ver 8)

 

3 layers clipped to black layer

 

csA.png

 

 

 

photoshop cs

 

Duplicate Red shape 2 layer maintains the clipping masks in all layer above and below

 

csB.png

 

 

 

 

Photoshop CS2 (ps ver 9.0.2)

 

3 layers clipped to black layer

 

cs2A.png

 

 

 

 

photoshop cs2

 

Duplicate Red shape 2 layer releases the clipping masks in all layers above

 

cs2B.png

 

 

In photoshop cs and below one could not duplicate a layer by Alt/Option dragging in the layers panel like one can in cs2 and later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Community Expert ,
Dec 30, 2023 Dec 30, 2023

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This is an interesting topic!

 

One workaround could be to run a script to copy and conditionally group the active layer if it is already part of a group. This would be used instead of the regular method to duplicate the layer. A custom keyboard shortcut an be applied to an installed script for easy access.

 

 

#target photoshop

activeDocument.suspendHistory('Copy Layer (conditionally group)...', 'main()');

function main() {
    if (activeDocument.activeLayer.grouped === true) {
        executeAction(stringIDToTypeID("copyToLayer"), undefined, DialogModes.NO);
        executeAction(stringIDToTypeID("groupEvent"), undefined, DialogModes.NO);
    } else {
        executeAction(stringIDToTypeID("copyToLayer"), undefined, DialogModes.NO);
    }
}

 

 

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/11/downloading-and-installing-adobe-scripts.html

 

Another approach could be to set up the Script Events Manager to listen for various events for duplicating a layer, then if such an event is triggered a script could be automatically run. The script would need to examine the previous layer to determine if it was part of a group and then group the active layer if this condition was true.

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