Is this a temporary glitch or a bug?

[nickbatz]

Freehand Selection tool, nothing happens. No visible or invisible marching ants.

Selection Brush on this layer, no problem - except this isn't what I'm trying to select.

Do I file a bug report, or is this just a glitch? I've tried shaking the program by switching layers, toggling layers on and off, switching tools back and forth, etc.

(This is a piece of picture is in progress, not finished work!)

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, nickbatz said:

No visible or invisible marching ants.

Hard to tell from your screenshot but isn't there a tiny part of a matching ants selection visible on the left edge a bit over halfway down next to one of the bluish areas?

[nickbatz]

33 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Hard to tell from your screenshot but isn't there a tiny part of a matching ants selection visible on the left edge a bit over halfway down next to one of the bluish areas?

You're right, and this is with the Selection Brush. With the other tool they don't appear, and I've confirmed by copy/pasting that it's not making a hidden selection.

I should have explained the reason I posted the screenshot with the marching ants: to show that it's a pixel layer, i.e. I have a legal right to make a selection there.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, nickbatz said:

I should have explained the reason I posted the screenshot with the marching ants: to show that it's a pixel layer, i.e. I have a legal right to make a selection there.

??? A marching ants selection is not a part of any layer, pixel or otherwise. It just defines a pixel based area of the canvas.

[thomaso]

5 minutes ago, nickbatz said:

I have a legal right to make a selection there

It's not required, a pixel selection can be created with various tools even in an empty document.

[nickbatz]

The marching ants are not appearing when I make a selection with the Freehand Selection tool. They should appear.

21 minutes ago, thomaso said:

It's not required, a pixel selection can be created with various tools even in an empty document.

True. I was just thinking about what I was trying to do, namely copy and paste a pixel selection. Please disregard that part about the law.

[nickbatz]

And a duplicate of the file works fine, so it must just be a glitch.

[NotMyFault]

In case of reporting selection issues please consider:

• It will help if you include the full app windows. Activate rulers and optionally pixel grid
• include navigator panel so we can see zoom level. Selection tools are zoom level dependent.
• include channels panel, specifically the pixel selection thumbnail. This allows to check if all/ nothing / parts are selected.
• Optionally create spare channel from current selection. 
• try quick mask (Q key). This gives an alternative rendering of the selction (choosable red overlay etc), giving far better global view of which parts are selected

[nickbatz]

11 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

In case of reporting selection issues please consider:

• It will help if you include the full app windows. Activate rulers and optionally pixel
• include navigator panel so we can see zoom level. Selection tools are zoom level dependent.
• include channels panel, specifically the pixel selection thumbnail. This allows to check if all/ nothing / parts are selected.
• Optionally create spare channel from current selection. 
• try quick mask (Q key). This gives an alternative rendering of the selction (choosable red overlay etc), giving far better global view of which parts are selected

Thanks.

Well, I opened it again today and the tool works fine - not even in the copy, the original file, so it was definitely a temporary glitch.

It's zoomed to about 20% here. My pictures are typically quite large, as much as 6' in one direction, although I don't know how big this one wants to be yet - i.e. they have to be zoomed out to fit on the screen while I'm working on them.

I haven't had a reason to work with channels beyond using the Channel Mixer adjustment sometimes when I'm "mastering" the picture before printing, so I'd have to look all that up. But the part about using the quick mask wouldn't have helped, because there was no selection!

Also, I'm not sure what you mean about selection tools being level-dependent. You can select a single pixel with the Selection Brush as long as feather and possibly antialias are turned off.