GIMP Version: 2.8.14
Operating System: Windows
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

---

I was hoping that someone might be able to help me with an issue with the scale tool promoting things to floating selections.

I've been using GIMP a while, and I've used the Scale button to rescale layer size before without an issue. The grid would appear, I drag the handles and then click on Scale, and the layer itself would be resized.

I recently had to reinstall GIMP on a different system, and now, when I use the Scale tool button, it automatically promotes the layer to a floating selection. It also leaves a selection square behind the original location/size of the layer. Moving the layer out of that space makes the part outside the original area disappear. It never did that before, and it's not useful behavior now. How do I make it stop doing that?

This is only an issue with the scale tool button. If I use the "Scale Layer" command in the layer menu, it behaves as it should. However, it's sometimes a lot more useful to be able to just shape the layer to what you need it to be with the handles, instead of using the menu option, which is less flexible.

Any help will be much appreciated.

I would disagree. GIMP's Scale Tool has always produced a floated selection if there is a selection existing when it is used. If there is no selection then you can scale the layer without a floated selection being produced.

I've never experienced that before. Huh. Apparently I somehow managed to never have a selection active when I did that before. (Though how you scale a layer without it being selected is ... confusing.) But I just tested that, and made sure that nothing was selected before I selected the layer to scale and it worked perfectly.

Thank you so much! that was making me crazy!

I had the exact same problem and this post fixed it. Thank you!

Thank you! I had the same problem when using the scale tool. Have realized that I thought the un-select all shortcut was CTRL+A

I was sure that's what I'd always used. As you'll probably know, it's CTRL+SHIFT+A.

One way to know if un-select all worked - the layer's dotted outline will have a yellow border.

If there's a selection it will be black and you're going down the floating layer path if you re-scale the layer.

Problem solved: Scaling only enlarges the image but not the image frame.
If the image has an active selection (moving around the image border) Select your scale tool then Hold CTRL or Command on a Mac + Shift + A. This will reset your scale tool back to normal.