Actions: "command not available" making me CRAZY...

[Robbybox]

Hi all!

I'm having issues running some of my custom actions. For the most part they function perfectly, but at other (unpredictable) times, certain parts of them don't work.

I get an error popup saying, "The command "X" is currently unavailable", and the choice to proceed or stop.

I'm thinking I must have something inadvertently unselected, or turned off, or SOMEthing, but I can't for the life of me find the root of the problem.

Can anybody help?? This is making me insane... without these actions my workflow is sooo inefficient.

Thanks,
Robbie

 

[Robbybox]

OK, just solved my own problem with some ADDITIONAL sleuthing. The webpage that tipped me off was this one: Playing Photoshop Actions

As per their procedure, I STOPPED the action when the error message appeared, and tried to apply the step manually. This led me to the answer!

My action involves the duplication of a layer and subsequent adjustments to the copy. As you probably know, when Photoshop duplicates a layer with actions, the copy is placed RANDOMLY in the layer stack, sometimes even inside an arbitrary group. In the cases where my action commands didnt' work, it was because Photoshop had placed the layer copy inside a group that was INVISIBLE. You can't make layer style adjustments to invisible layers, so naturally those commands weren't avaiable.

MYSTERY SOLVED. Hope this helps others.