Community Expert

Open for Voting

Add warning dialog when creating new Action Sets

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
October 26, 2023
7 replies
414 views

I hate to float the idea of adding yet another warning/nag popup to Photoshop, however, this should have been there since Actions were first added to Photoshop.

I am proposing that when a new Action Set is created, that a pop-up window be triggered warning the user that unless the set is saved to .atn file, that the action is only temporary and may be lost/reset.

This proposed nag screen would have a "don't show again" checkbox. New users don't appreciate this fact and need to be warned at least once. Knowledgeable users can simply check the box to ignore.

The forum is littered with "lost actions" topics, which could have been avoided by explicitly making this point.

So many wasted hours of end-user work in recreating lost Actions could be saved with this simple warning. So much frustration that could have been avoided.

Users should read the manual, but this clearly isn't the case.

Examples topics to add weight to this request (and there are so many more, this is just a small sampling):

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/lost-actions/m-p/13197218

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/actions-removed-after-update-on-2021-old-data-too/m-p/11540184

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/ps-cc-2017-unexpectedly-reset-to-default-all-actions-lost-fonts-toolbar-etc-very-small/m-p/8968182

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/lost-actions-in-process-with-latest-update/m-p/13840788

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/all-my-recorded-actions-disappeared/m-p/12690493

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/actions-completely-gone/m-p/13219717

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/after-update-to-cc-2017-i-lost-all-my-actions/m-p/8637819

Actions and scripting

D Fosse

Community Expert

This is such a common complaint that I tend to agree - there should be a more up front option to save actions (and brushes) in a safe place, away from the volatile status as part of the general preferences.

As long as you know how actions are stored and handled, this isn’t a problem. You’ll know why you need to save them out. But you have to know about it, and you can’t expect that from a new/inexperienced user.

Stephen Marsh

Author

Community Expert

@D Fosse

I proposed something similar here a couple of years ago:

EDIT: LOOKS LIKE A MODERATOR HAS “HELPFULLY” MERGED THE TOPICS, SO NOW THIS IS A CIRCULAR LINK!

D Fosse

Community Expert

OK, now you have 5 :-)

Stephen Marsh

Author

Community Expert

I wrote a blogpost on this all too common issue:

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/01/photoshop-custom-action-file-backup.html

C

Chris201Chris

Inspiring

Thanks!

It seems almost incredibly that this manual step is needed in a tool as Photoshop. The problem for me is that I tend to make changes to my actions continuously and don’t remember to resave a backup every single time.

I have found that the quickest way to save my action is to select all sets in the Action panel (collapsing the sets, clicking on the first, then shift click on the bottom), click on the Actions menu and select Save Actions. I have opted to save these in my standard backup folder as this is in Dropbox so works as a proper backup and also a good way to share between my laptop and desktop. It takes less than a minute to save, the problem is how to remember it...

Stephen Marsh

Author

Community Expert

@Chris201Chris

Loaded .atn files or newly created and unsaved action sets are temporarily stored in the Actions Palette presets file (Actions Palette.psp). This file should be considered temporary and may be subject to corruption or loss, which is why making an explicit save to .atn file for each individual action set is strongly advised.

An automated back-up of the Actions Palette.psp file can be created on the Mac OS using Apple Automator or AppleScript, while on MS Windows an xcopy or robocopy command can be placed into a batch script and regularly run by a scheduled task. A Photoshop automation run by the Script Events Manager could also create a backup when starting Photoshop.

I would still advise that you just get in the habit of manually saving to .atn file whenever you update it.

Stephen Marsh

Author

Community Expert

@Chris Maddrell – I voted your *discussion*, but as I said, that isn’t on Adobe’s radar unless it's a bug or idea...

Which "Conversation Type" should I choose before writing a post?

How do I write a feature request?

C

Chris Maddrell

Inspiring

PS @Stephen Marsh back at you - please upvote my post from yesterday!!

C

Chris Maddrell

Inspiring

Not just actions.... brushes, textures. When using Photoshop on iPad psds are automatically saved so why not save actions etc as they are created / edited? Even if they were just saved as history, eg what was used in last 12 months....

Stephen Marsh

Author

Community Expert

@Chris Maddrell – don't just agree, add your vote to the main topic and not the replies (for what it's worth, that's what Adobe looks for)!

What should be automatically saved to the user's account?

The Actions Palette.psp preference file, containing the entire actions panel? Preference files can be subject to corruption, so that isn't a foolproof disaster recovery option...

It's the Action Set that is saved to an .atn file, which contains one or more actions within the set. So you do propose that each Action Set is automatically saved? When? What would be the "trigger" to make this happen?

C

Chris Maddrell

Inspiring

Totally agree. Although I'd go further and say actions should automatically be saved to a user's account!

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