Clarity tool in Camera Raw Filter stopped working

[Beth2005]

Mac OS 10.10.5

Photoshop CC 2017.1.1

The Clarity tool in the Camera Raw Filter just stopped working. When I'm in the Camera Raw Filter, I can see the effect of the slider (in either direction), but after clicking OK, the filter effect does not appear in the image. Both the Vibrance and Saturation sliders (which are in the same grouping as Clarity) work fine.

I quit out of PS and re relaunched it with no improvement. I have used Clarity many times in the past without ever seeing this issue.

Did something break this tool in a recent update?

Beth

P.S. The layer I'm working on has been converted to a smart object but I tried it on a non-smart object layer with the same result.

[Beth2005]

More info: I saved out a copy of the image I was working on as a TIFF (same as the original) but without the layers. The filter now works fine. I would still like to know, however, what could possibly have been the problem with the original file to make the filter go wonky.

[Beth2005 · Accepted solution]

Never mind: it was totally user error. I had a blend mode on the original layer which wiped out the effect of the clarity tool (duh!).