Display issues when activating left info panel

macus · February 17, 2026, 3:28pm

Hi everyone,

On my MacBook Pro M1, PhotoLab 8 does not display properly when I toggle the left info screen. This issue started about 4- 5 months ago.

The attached images show how the PL8 main display window resizes in odd ways. The window cannot be dragged into usable proportions. This happens whenever I toggle the left screen in editing mode. If I close the left panel the PL8 app display returns the other panels to normal sizes and I can use the program again.
Anyone else have this issue or can suggestion how to correct the problem?

LVS · February 17, 2026, 5:48pm

I’ve seen this on PL9 as well, I sometimes have to restart the program to get it to clear.

unchdxoly · February 17, 2026, 7:17pm

This happened to me too. Closing PhotoLab & re-opening was enough to fix it. I haven’t seen the issue since.

unchdxoly · February 18, 2026, 11:03pm

By the way, this happened to me again today.

Filed a bug report with DxO. I’ll update when I hear back.

Probably a good idea if you also submit a bug report! The more they hear about it, the more they will work to fix it.

macus · February 19, 2026, 6:25pm

Thanks for the suggestion. I have filed a bug report with DXO.

BTW. The biggest impact on my workflow has been trying to see the histogram. It is by default set into the left panel when in image edit mode. I now keep the histogram as a free floating panel object. This avoids the resize issues whenever the left panel is toggled. Not ideal - but it works until they can sort out the issue.

N80 · February 19, 2026, 8:34pm

I would like the histogram to be part of the right sided panel at the top but can’t figure out how to do it. I can only get it over there as a floating panel which I do not like. Am I missing something simple?

macus · February 19, 2026, 11:07pm

You can get the historgram to display on the right panel with a few clicks. Though it does not immediately seem intuitive. Here is how you do it.

When in the PL Image Editing mode = ‘Customize’ button is blue and your file is displayed for editing. Look over to the right panel.

On the right panel, Click x2 on any of the icons shown just below ‘Search for Corrections’. I clicked on the sun icon ‘i.e. light’. The 1st click on the sun icon shows the PhotoLab pre-assigned tool group for ‘light’ tools. A 2nd click on the same sun icon button (i.e. light) and the right panel now displays a collapsed tool panels. There should now be a heading saying ‘BASIC TOOLS’
Click on the little triangle to the right side of the word ‘BASIC TOOLS’.
Now you’ll see a list of items in a menu. Scroll down the menu and click on Histogram.
Click on the word ‘BASIC TOOLS’ to expand the stack and see all of the tools included. At the bottom of the displayed toolboxes you will find your histogram.
You can drag the histogram toolbox to the top of the “BASIC TOOLS’ stack .
Now the right panel stack looks similar to the NIK tool positions with a prominent histogram at the top right.

You can use this approach to customize and reorder the tool list to suite your needs. It seems a little odd but makes sense once you go through it. The histogram should remain persistent at the top of the ‘BASIC TOOLS’ stack anytime you x2 click on one of the preset tool groups - like the sun icon.

unchdxoly · February 23, 2026, 6:18pm

I heard back from DxO a few days ago, but forgot to update here.

They said, of course, to re-install PhotoLab and see if the issue continues

Given that I am on macOS, “re-installing” Photolab does next to nothing–since that just involves trashing the self-contained App and then putting it back with a new download–so I’m absolutely certain that won’t fix anything. But, so that I can say “I tried,” I will.

macus · February 23, 2026, 8:37pm

Check your System → Full Disk Access for your PhotoLab app. A re-install did not work for me but turning on Full Disk Access for PhotoLab 8.app worked as soon as I restarted PL8.

I had previously given PL8 Full Disk Access but something in the macOS or an upgrade had toggled the PL8 app setting back to the default OFF position.

Resetting System → Full Disk Access to OFF by default is probably a good security feature but a pain when you want a functional app.

unchdxoly · February 23, 2026, 9:23pm

Was the problem “always-on” for you? Or was it intermittent?

For me the issue only presented itself maybe once every 2 weeks. So it’s hard to know what, if anything, actually fixes it, until many weeks have passed.

macus · February 23, 2026, 11:52pm

Before giving PL8 Full Disk Access, the window resize problem consistently occurred in the full-screen display mode and when I had PL8 open in a reasonably large floating windows.

At times, I could toggle the left panel when the app was displayed in a small floating window but for all functional purposes toggling the left screen created the odd display geometries demonstrated in my first message.

If you can set the app to Full-screen mode and the left panel toggle works then you should be good.

If this problem happens again - especially after an OS or app upgrade, I’ll first look to see if the Full Disk Access switch was turned off. That switch turning off during system changes seems to be the likely culprit on my machine.

If I have any situation where the problem re-occurs I’ll be sure to share that with the forum and with DXO as a bug report.

Happy editing.

M