How To Move A Locked Background Layer In Photoshop

A question that comes up fairly regularly in Photoshop class is; “why can’t I move the Background layer”. The layer is a bit of a funny one because when you look at it in the layers palette, you can see a little lock beside the name so it seems like you should just be able to uncheck the lock. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work!



To unlock the Background layer and then move it wherever you want, all you need to do is double-click on the name (literally double-click on the word Background) in the layers palette, which brings up the new Layer dialog box. By default Photoshop offers you Layer 0 as a new name – simply accept this or type in a new name for your Background layer, then click OK.


Now you can drag that layer anywhere you want in the layer stack.