GIMP Version: 2.8.18
Operating System: Windows
OS Version: 10
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

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I am trying to make a sprite sheet for a game in unity. Last week I made one just fine. TODAY however, when I use the selection tool to do any transformations, it doesn't work. I can only apply transformations to a layer and I cannot for the life of me figure this out. I know that applying a transformation on a selection creates a floating layer and that is not happening now, and any options applying to selections or creating a floating layer are grayed out and unusable. This was working just fine the other day and nothing changed between now and then.

Also Janaga. If you are trying to make a selection of something make sure you don't have the 'subtract from current selection checked.
I have done this and it takes me a while to figure out why nothing is being selected.

There is another thing that could have happened. You may need to go to Selection>None to deselect ALL current selections. The selection could be so small you cannot see it.

Do you still have a "Floating selection" Layer? It has to be anchored or converted to a plain layer before you can use the selection tools again.

First, thank you everyone for your suggestions.

@Wallace. I haven't made any changes to tool settings, so that won't do anything. I still tried it and it didn't work. This is happening with all of the selection tools, but the one I'm trying to use is the rectangle selection.

@sallyanne. I have the first mode, the one with just a plain rectangle selected.

@Rod. I tried that and it isn't doing anything.

@ofnuts. It isn't that there is a floating layer that's the problem. It's that a floating layer isn't being created when I use the selection tool so my transformations are being applied to the whole layer.

Thanks again to everyone who tried to help. I discovered after another few hours of trying things, uninstalling and reinstalling, that I at some point hit the "lock pixels" button in the layer tab. I unchecked it and now everything works fine now and I'm gonna go crawl in a hole for a bit and reevaluate my life.

Who hasn't thought of doing that!

No need to crawl away. =) We all do this from time to time. I dont know how many times i have undocked layers tab.Heheheh

My problem was that “show selection” in the “selection menu” was unselected.
I found the solution in chapter 4 of the Gimp documentation, titled “Getting Unstuck”.

I am a fairly new user and when I select an area, then bucket fill or paint in it, the dotted lines around the selection will not disappear. Tried saving the image, etc., but the outline dots remain.

Select > None
(or Shift-Ctrl-A)

That's because selections are also saved. You have to deselect all before saving the image.

For the scissors, commonly the counterintuitive solution is to make sure the 'Replace the Current Selection' options is selected in the Mode section:

Any other setting will result in the selection being lost when anywhere on the image is clicked or the enter key is pressed (actions which are supposed to convert the selected part to an official selection).

It's probably the same sort of solution for other selection tools. Of course, it's not really a solution but a hacky workaround; this pothole should be addressed in the docs and preferably fixed in the next version release.

No, the selection is not lost, it is combined as indicated with a previously existing selection. Actually in 2.10 there are some safety checks: if there is no selection, the intersection and subtraction modes elicit a forbidden sign (when 2.8 would just combine you hard-earned selection with emptiness...). One could also envision to forbid the addition mode if the selection is already complete, but this is already a much less frequent case. Otherwise, you are assumed to be a consenting adult and know what you are doing.