P: Spot Channels do not Save automatically because?

I will get a warning when I 'Save As' but I did not get one when I just hit 'Save'.

I create alpha channels first to use as masks, then create spot channels for my work. I'll make sure to 'Save As' for now.

Thanks for looking into this.

We did reproduce the problem, and are testing a fix for it.
Yeah, saving the alpha channel first left some state in the document save data that should have been reset after adding a spot color channel.

Even in the odd case Jeff described, Photoshop did warn before saving that not all of the document had been saved.

I just lost 4 hours of a color separation because of this. I saved and closed my separation to work on something else, came back to wrap it up and all spot channels were gone. I think PS should automatically save everything or at least ask when saving. Ugh.... back to work.

Thanks Jeff, those steps are helpful. We'll look into it.

We save the file in psd file format all the time. It appears that when the file is opened, if you save a file the first time after it is opened with an alpha channel it will save alpha channel only until you use Save As and check the Spot Channel- even if you create Spot channels afterward. If you open a psd file or create a psd file and create a spot channel and save the spot channel- it will remember to save the spot channels. My problem is- the order of operations determines what the psd file will save apparently. I believe the psd file needs to save my spot channels or alpha channels no matter what. I would delete whichever one I didn't want anyway. Paying special attention to the order of operations- saving a spot channel right off the back in psd file- is the only way I get around this or hitting Save As to ensure Spot channels are selected. Is there a way to ensure that my psd file format always saves any and all channels I create?

They do save by default in file formats that support spot color channels.

Perhaps you saved to another file format that does not support spot color channels, and the save dialog remembered your settings?