Wacom Intuos S in Photo on Windows 11 loses mouse-like capabilities after a while

[lphilpot]

Photo 1.10.5.1342, Windows 11, Intuos S tablet, Wacom driver 6.3.45-1

Long before I bought Photo, I got this tablet and briefly dabbled with it but haven't invested the time to build any real skill in using it. Right now I'm knee-deep in coming up to speed with Photo itself so the issues with the tablet aren't a show-stopper, but they're concerning. I realize there are a lot of places where things could go wrong, between the drivers, Windows and whatnot.

Between Photo and the Wacom utility I've been able to (more or less) get it configured to work acceptably well in Photo. But after a while the pen seems to lose it's mouse mojo, as it were. It functions as a Photo tool (marquee, Crop, etc.) but cannot be used to change / select a tool, nor drop a menu, check a layer, etc., etc. It only functions as a tool (chosen by another method). When that happens, the mouse also misbehaves in the same manner, so I have to close Photo with Alt+F4. Upon restarting it works again. For a while.

Anyone ever run into this?

So far I've run into this only with Photo. All drivers and Windows Updates are current as far as I can tell. I realize the Intuos S isn't an expensive tablet, but I'd like to (learn to) use if I can.

Thanks.

Edited September 18, 2022 by lphilpot
Clarification

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, lphilpot said:

but cannot be used to change / select a tool, nor drop a menu, check a layer,

Maybe it's just a matter of pen usage? ... like experienced by this user:

[lphilpot]

Actually I wondered if I was just doing something wrong but once this situation occurs the pen and mouse simply won't "drive" anything but a tool, no matter how they're clicked, tapped, held, etc. I've learned to never rule out my ability to be dorky but once the mojo is gone  LOL  it's gone. I can put the pen down and try all I want with the mouse: click, drag, etc., with the mouse and it just doesn't work. Restart AP and it works again.

Hmmm....  Thanks.

[thomaso]

17 minutes ago, lphilpot said:

once the mojo is gone  LOL  it's gone. I can put the pen down and try all I want with the mouse: click, drag, etc., with the mouse and it just doesn't work.

Does this mean if the pen doesn't communicate with the cursor then also your mouse is affected?

What is "mojo"?

[lphilpot]

3 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Does this mean if the pen doesn't communicate with the cursor then also your mouse is affected?

Yes. So far each time the pen has lost that functionality, the mouse has been likewise affected. But it's only been in Photo so far. So it may be a driver issue and / or driver-AP interaction issue. Maybe...

 

3 minutes ago, thomaso said:

What is "mojo"?

At its most genteel, it's just vernacular for "magic", capability, etc. Often it's intended to be more explicit. All in all, it probably wasn't the ideal term to use.  🙂

[thomaso]

Okay, sounds a Windows user must pop-in.

Interesting, three new words in 1 short sentence I never heard before: genteel, vernacular, mojo. 😋
(but I still don't fully get it: if mojo is a vernacular, how can it describe something more explicit than general terms like capability, property, feature, trait, attitude …?)

[Ron P.]

Merriam Webster Dictionary definition of mojo

Quote

mojo

1 of 2

noun (1)

mo·jo ˈmō-(ˌ)jō 

 

plural mojos

1

: a magic spell, hex, or charm

A mojo, by the way, is a kind of magic charm; Elroi wears one around his neck …

Edith Oliver

Ron told me he thought that someone had put a mojo on Jose—that he was hexed …

Benson Deitz

… a cloth pouch worn on a string around the neck for holding mojos and small change.

Shelby Foote

… a … Brazilian shaman who carries a mojo bag …

Video Review

also : magic, hoodoo

In Cajun country, they call it mojo—magic as mysterious as it is spiritual.

Sandra Lee

—often used with the

… a kind of colorful magic known as the mojo …

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

2

: a seemingly supernatural power, influence, or ability

Netflix's "Orange Is the New Black" lost its mojo in the third season, as the plots—many of them silly—petered out.

Matthew Gilbert

Whether they have several hours or only a few minutes to work their mojo, filmmakers need to make the most of every moment.

Jason Anderson

But Tennessee comes out on top with a defense that appears vastly improved the last couple weeks, boosting an offense that's found its mojo too.

Ben Arthur

mojo

2 of 2

noun (2)

mo·jo ˈmō-ˌhō 

plural mojos

: a sauce, marinade, or seasoning that is usually composed primarily of olive oil, garlic, citrus juice, and spices (such as black pepper and cumin)

… crisp beef shreds … served with the classic Cuban mojo, a sauce made with citrus fruits, garlic and olive oil …

Alan Kellogg

… the Cuban mojo, made with crushed garlic, olive oil, maybe oregano, and citrus juice, most often bitter orange.

Dan Nosowitz

The "Let it Marinade" collection has five mojos and sauces to help "take meat flavors" to a new "Cuban-inspired level."

Stephen Fries

On the afternoon of Effe Café's first anniversary in a Cooper City gas station last month, lunch-rush customers ordered mojo pork sandwiches …

Phillip Valys

 

[Russ W]

Have you turned OFF Windows Ink?

If no then do so and give it a try, I have used Wacom for a few years but was not until a couple years ago found out that Windows ink causes pen/tablet lagging problems.

Russ.

[Old Bruce]

11 hours ago, thomaso said:

What is "mojo"?

Check out Muddy Waters' version of Got my Mojo Working. Oh what the hell, check out any Muddy Waters recording.... Well I am off to listen to some music.

[lphilpot]

2 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Check out Muddy Waters' version of Got my Mojo Working. Oh what the hell, check out any Muddy Waters recording.... Well I am off to listen to some music.

Think I'll stick with my generic "capabilities" definition. My first college roommate was a big Muddy Waters / Johnny Winter fan...  "I spell M, A child, N, That represents man..."  😁

[lphilpot]

11 hours ago, Russ W said:

Have you turned OFF Windows Ink?

If no then do so and give it a try, I have used Wacom for a few years but was not until a couple years ago found out that Windows ink causes pen/tablet lagging problems.

Russ.

I'll do that - Thanks.

[debraspicher]

Windows Ink off is a must. This can be done in the Wacom control panel for Affinity Photo itself.

If you are using Tablet Mode in Windows, turn that off as well. If your tablet has touch features, disable those for the time-being as well so as to limit any confusion.

It could be Wacom service in the background crashing out. This happens with bad drivers, but that wouldn't explain why it's only impacting APh. I've heard of driver issues though with later editions of Wacom and it's a major reason I haven't updated my Intuos.

When you say mouse, are you referring to a mouse that might've come with your tablet? (Some used to) If not, so to clarify it is also impacting your standard mouse as well?

Are you using the tablet wirelessly? Is your non-Intuos mouse also bluetooth? If so, move your tablet to wired. Wireless connections with Intuos can be iffy because of BT interference and if you have other things working wirelessly, this only increases chances of problems with your devices...

[lphilpot]

29 minutes ago, debraspicher said:

Windows Ink off is a must. This can be done in the Wacom control panel for Affinity Photo itself.

Done. I'll use it more tonight and know after a while.

 

29 minutes ago, debraspicher said:

If you are using Tablet Mode in Windows, turn that off as well. If your tablet has touch features, disable those for the time-being as well so as to limit any confusion.

No tablet mode -- Just my laptop with an external monitor, mouse and keyboard in regular desktop mode. I dislike touch screens on computers.

 

30 minutes ago, debraspicher said:

When you say mouse, are you referring to a mouse that might've come with your tablet? (Some used to) If not, so to clarify it is also impacting your standard mouse as well?

It's the standard wireless Logitech M705 mouse that's USB-attached to my laptop. The tablet didn't include a mouse.

 

30 minutes ago, debraspicher said:

Are you using the tablet wirelessly? Is your non-Intuos mouse also bluetooth?

No it's wired USB, just like the mouse. Nothing is attached via Bluetooth at all.

 

[debraspicher]

6 minutes ago, lphilpot said:

No tablet mode -- Just my laptop with an external monitor, mouse and keyboard in regular desktop mode. I dislike touch screens on computers

 

Tablet mode is a setting in some versions of Windows. It's in the notification side-panel thingy when you click on the right of the date&time in the taskbar.

You may not be able to enable it and that's OK. Just make sure it is off.
 

 

 

[debraspicher]

6 minutes ago, lphilpot said:

No tablet mode -- Just my laptop with an external monitor, mouse and keyboard in regular desktop mode. I dislike touch screens on computers.

 

The touch features would be something built-in to your Wacom tablet, not into your display.

[lphilpot]

Yeah, I know what Windows Tablet Mode is and I never use it. This is also on Windows 11, not 10 -- There's no option to enable it on non-tablet PCs. Also there are no touch features in my tablet, just pen sensitivity and that's it. It's a $50 tablet, nothing special.

[lphilpot]

OK, disabling Windows Ink made no difference.

When in this state in Photo the pen and the mouse (left button only) function ONLY as the currently selected tool. The mouse wheel and right button continue to function normally, but not the left button. Keyboard is normal in Photo. The left mouse button and pen can drag the entire Photo app window around, but not the undocked Toolbar inside Photo, nor can either click a titlebar button (- [] X). App-level window dragging is most likely handled by the DWM, not Photo anyway.

In fact, as I type this post and use my mouse to navigate in Firefox, both mouse and pen are "tool-limited" in Photo only. Pen and mouse are both normal in all other open apps. Switching between apps doesn't reset anything for Photo. So it's definitely limited to Photo and apparently related to how Photo interacts with the pen.

[v_kyr]

Check for newer updated Wacom Win drivers (6.3.46-2) ...

• https://cdn.wacom.com/u/productsupport/drivers/win/professional/releasenotes/Windows_6.3.46.html#6.3.46-1

... the USB-cable and it's connection. - Also try another side USB-port on the notebook, especially when using an USB-port replicator where both mouse + tablet are connected to!

[debraspicher]

1 hour ago, lphilpot said:

OK, disabling Windows Ink made no difference.

When in this state in Photo the pen and the mouse (left button only) function ONLY as the currently selected tool. The mouse wheel and right button continue to function normally, but not the left button. Keyboard is normal in Photo. The left mouse button and pen can drag the entire Photo app window around, but not the undocked Toolbar inside Photo, nor can either click a titlebar button (- [] X). App-level window dragging is most likely handled by the DWM, not Photo anyway.

In fact, as I type this post and use my mouse to navigate in Firefox, both mouse and pen are "tool-limited" in Photo only. Pen and mouse are both normal in all other open apps. Switching between apps doesn't reset anything for Photo. So it's definitely limited to Photo and apparently related to how Photo interacts with the pen.

Maybe try an older version of Photo? It could be there's hidden UI that's impacting pointer behavior. The Windows version of Affinity had weird UI glitches from time to time in some of the earlier betas.

You can also check Windows Event Viewer to see if there are any errors/faults around the time you are having the issue.

[lphilpot]

The Wacom utility says I'm at the newest driver available. It should know...   ...should...  Although 24 years in IT taught me to never trust what a computer says. LOL And of course there's one rev newer than it knows of, which I've just installed and will reboot. Hmmm.

At this point I'll continue to peck away at it, but if it eventually comes down to significantly compromising the installation or my hardware layout just to enable tablet use I'll probably stick with the mouse. If it were Designer, etc., it might be different but for editing landscape photos... Hopefully it won't come to that, though.

At least it's not half as bad as troubleshooting failed Netware backups via Networker / EBS on a Solaris 9 backup server to robotic StorageTek / SUN DLT7k tape libraries... ick! (or even Avamar WAN backups) 🙂  And it's definitely not 0.1% as bad as troubleshooting Citrix...  triple ick.

Thanks.

[lphilpot]

46 minutes ago, debraspicher said:

You can also check Windows Event Viewer to see if there are any errors/faults around the time you are having the issue.

Yeah, I had looked but nothing. Per usual for non-enterprise apps there's no application error log, nor Affinity entries in the generic app log. There's not even a Serif nor Affinity event source and the sole Wacom source says nothing too interesting. Then again, not unusual for desktop apps.

Thanks.

[thomaso]

Just to narrow it down: Does the pen issue still occur if you unplug the mouse entirely?

If no, does it help if tablet and mouse use different USB ports?
Or one via USB and the other via Bluetooth?

You say it is in AfPhoto only: Can you try any other app which works with the pen pressure sensitive, too?

[debraspicher]

22 minutes ago, lphilpot said:

Yeah, I had looked but nothing. Per usual for non-enterprise apps there's no application error log, nor Affinity entries in the generic app log. There's not even a Serif nor Affinity event source and the sole Wacom source says nothing too interesting. Then again, not unusual for desktop apps.

Thanks.

Gotcha. Yeah, EV is hit or miss.

[lphilpot]

30 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Just to narrow it down: Does the pen issue still occur if you unplug the mouse entirely?

It hasn't occurred yet, but I'll check if / when it does.

31 minutes ago, thomaso said:

If no, does it help if tablet and mouse use different USB ports?
Or one via USB and the other via Bluetooth?

They're in separate USB ports. The tablet is connected via the dock (which connects to a local USB3 port) and the mouse dongle is in another local USB3 port. Neither are Bluetooth so that's not an option. I have to use the dock, otherwise I'll run out of ports. I need to connect an external backup drive, keyboard with USB hub (two plugs) and tablet. That leaves one USB3 A port open for my SD card reader and a USB C port.

The original goal was to have everything connected to the dock so there would be only one plug to disconnect when going mobile. So much for that. 🙂 The mouse dongle is local so it stays with the laptop.

37 minutes ago, thomaso said:

You say it is in AfPhoto only: Can you try any other app which works with the pen pressure sensitive, too?

I really don't have anything else installed that supports pen pressure. I have GIMP, but it's not configured for pressure right now. That process is a bit unintuitive, to say the least. RawTherapee, darktable, etc. all see the pen as a mouse, not a pen. But so far there's been no hint of "departure from normal" outside Photo. I've upgraded the Wacom driver so we'll see if that makes a difference.

Thanks.

[lphilpot]

31 minutes ago, debraspicher said:

Gotcha. Yeah, EV is hit or miss.

And it's only as good as what the source feeds to it (or not). But it's binary and proprietary so that's a disadvantage. Give me flat *nix (text) logfiles anytime, I can grep / filter / parse / find stuff in them. Plus I can script against them.

Thanks.