P: Photoshop creates a gude log while working with files

I make my living as a product photographer and use Bridge daily in my workflow. FWIW, its definitely a professional tool. Maybe not for you, whatever kind of work you do, but for some of us who are working pros its pretty important.

"... users opening PhotoShop first and then using the File menu in PS to navigate to the directory where the file is located ...."

you misunderstood my statement; this is referring to Saving files back to the original folder which is done in photoshop not Bridge. Double-clicking a file in the OS is a standard practice used by professionals since the original windows type OSs were put out there, and yes right-clicking when photoshop is closed generates this file. actually, every time you open a file that opens up photoshop the log file is created; you just don't see it if photoshop is open or another program opens the file for you.

Bridge has no real use to professionals, and one is better served using your own filing system instead of relying on a program that has no real usefulness besides taking up room on your hard drive. Extra work comes in with using a separate program for the express purpose of opening files instead of using the original program designed to edit those files. Not referring to the microsecond it takes for the second click; or the even longer dragging and dropping into the program but the back and forth on thousands of files a day being edited; wasting hours of your day doing basically nothing you can't do with the native operating system and program like photoshop. Example do an export>Save for web and it opens up the older file save dialog box where you have to navigate to the folder you need to save.

So, the procedure should be

- try to remember to open photoshop first until Adobe fixes the debugging that wasn't turned off

- end of line

P.S.

If you use Bridge and it's working for you by all means use it; however, you would be better served; if editing a fair amount of images; by developing your own filing system to gain better efficiency and time savings.

@J E L  Thank you! It was good to have a response.

@chrisell99  "I realise this is a duplicate report but that original topic is so long and convoluted now that it keeps getting marked as "resolved" when the issue still persists."

I agree with you. I created a new post hoping that it would stand alone because of all the unnecessary responses here. but some one merged my new post with this. I was not happy, considering my new post is now 'lost' here.

astroguy67 - You restated the work around incorrectly.

Nowhere is it suggested that: "... users opening PhotoShop first and then using the File menu in PS to navigate to the directory where the file is located ...."

The actual work arounds are as simple as your original method and cause no extra work.
1. Open Photoshop then click or drag the file to it.
2. Right-click/open with Photoshop, even if Photoshop is closed this generates no gude*.log.
3. Use Bridge.

P.S. if "extra work" is a concern then stop using double-click and reset to single click.

"Right-click open/with Photoshop" when Photoshop is closed DOES NOT create the file.

Bridge is a superb program, as is understood by professional photo editors like myself. I agree it's a bit complex, but so is Photoshop. Bridge is irreplaceablely useful for working with images.

PS your note is way longer than needed to convey your simple points about use.

I think that I pointed this out when I first described the problem.  It looks like some debugging code that wasn't commented out in the final build.  All of these "solutions" proposed by others are only workarounds and not actually solving the problem.  There are standards to the GUI that must be upheld by any application working within the Windows environment so there is some consistency in actions.  Double-clicking on a file to open it in with default application for that file type is a standard that has been held over many iterations of the Windows environment.  Making users to adopt a different workflow for one application is wasteful of their time.  The proposed "solution" would have users opening PhotoShop first and then using the File menu in PS to navigate to the directory where the file is located.  To call this a "solution" flies in the face of how the Windows GUI operates.  Sorry if this offends, but I fail to see how this is something users have to do to compensate for a mistake in the coding of a commerical (paid) application.  I can see this being a porblem with some open source software that is being developed through a volunteer effort, but not in an application that people are paying to use.

This problem just started with the latest update for me to 24.1.0, it wasn't doing it before although others say it was in 23.4. Apparently, it's a minor bug with their sqllite implementation that they don't want to waste time on; even though it is extremely annoying. It's not really a bug but more a developer process dump that they just didn't turn off. Currently the only solution is to make sure photoshop is open so the file in your system folder is the one it uses; otherwise it creates the log in the current file folder. Double clicking, file>open with, or anything else that opens photoshop before the file seems to cause this issue. A lot from amateur to pro don't usually keep photoshop open all the time so it's a user memory thing until they fix it. This is nothing new with Adobe (even though i love working with adobe products); back in the day you never upgraded a product like photoshop until at least the second update to that version (N.0.2) unless it had a feature you really wanted to try out; like layers...I remember how exciting it was to actually have layers now in photoshop :).

The 'solution' to use another program to interface with photoshop isn't a solution. Example, using Bridge still creates this file but puts it in a directory you don't normally see. Bridge is not a good program at all and is not best practice for opening files, users should learn and adopt a real file organization system on their computer. Receiving images from a multitude of sources and having to keep track of exporting or saving files back to the origional file's directory or drive (expecially ones that use the older file save dialog) makes Bridge more of a pain then it's worth and extra time that can be used to edit the next image instead. Again, not much of a solution over remembering to open photoshop first anyhoo.

I have just noticed the same issue this week.
Windows 10 (fully updated) Photoshop 24.1.0 Release.
It's not only with PSD files, happens with Tifs too. When you open a file without Photoshop being open.
I am sure this wasn't happening up until this week.