P: Smart Objects: Auto-convert JPGs to PSD

I'm sorry, Chris, but I give up trying to explain you. This is my last attempt. I did NOT add a layer to a jpeg file. I'm working with a PSD file. It makes no sense to keep the argument going when you don't read or understand what I was writing. You are making conclusions about things that I did not do. When editing a smart object the save as dialog should NEVER come up when saving the file.

The bug is that Photoshop creates or opens the smart object wrongly when the setting "automatically create smart object when placing" is turned on.

Follow my two examples A and B. If you double click the smart object you will see that the opened file has a .psb ending, which is the Photoshop blob format that doesn't has the file size limitation of .psd files. Therefore you can edit the opened smart object in any way you want, close and save it, and the changes are updated in the PSD file.

Now take example B. If you double click the smart object it does not open in .psb format. It opens in he original placed file format, in may case jpeg. This is why I can't make any changes without using the save as dialog. Here you are correct. Remember embedded placed files and also smart object are saved *inside* the psd file. So either Photoshop saves the placed (embedded) file wrongly in the original file format instead of using psb or Photoshop wrongly opens the the original format instead of psb. Either one is wrong.

Since the only difference is the setting "automatically create smart object when placing" which should just save you from turning the placed file into a smart object manually. So the problem is not what edits you do in a smart object. The difference is just this setting. The difference is just if I turn a layer into a smart object or Photoshop does this. This different behavior caused by a setting that should not have any side effect is therefore called by definition a bug.

It's a bug not a feature!

It has everything to do with what you posted. If you saved back to the same filename and format, then the smart object would update. But you added something to the document that could not be saved in the current format (like a layer in a JPEG file), got the SaveAs dialog because of that, then saved to a different filename or format and broke the connection to the Smart Object -- just like you were warning NOT to do in the warning that comes up when you edit a smart object.

If you had not added something that the file format could not support, then the Save As dialog would not have appeared. Ergo, you did add something that the file format did not support. If you had saved to the same filename and format even from the Save As dialog, the Smart Object still would have updated. Ergo you did not save to the same filename and format like you were instructed.

So far you have described your series of mistakes, but not described any bug in Photoshop. Please read what I have already written (and the warning when you edit) more carefully so you can avoid making those mistakes in the future.

@pgurney: It is sad, but you are right. When the CC versions had to be pushed a lot of thoughts went into the UI and things that were asked for for many years finally appeared in the products. Now it seems user experience and ease of use are not given the same value anymore. But those are the things that decide if you have a life after work or waste the night and the weekend dealing with those idiocies. Instead of quickly swapping images with a higher resolution version inside a smart object, I took me four times as long spending the whole Sunday at work. :-((

No, it is working exactly as it should, exactly how the help files say it should, and exactly the way the warning dialog tells you.

The mistake is saving to a different filename or format -- which you have already been told will break the connection to the Smart Object.

Chris, I have to disagree with you again. What you are describing has nothing to do with the case scenarios I posted. I did nothing of the steps that you were describing. Why do you so fiercely insist that it is a user error when you don't follow the simple steps I lined out to reproduce the bug?

You wrote:
"The Save As dialog appeared because you added something to the document that could not be saved in the current file format (like adding a layer to a JPEG file). "

I did not do that. I created a new Photoshop document, which has been saved in PSD format. I than just place a jpeg file INTO that Photoshop file and have the PSD file saved. If I turn the new LAYER that was created by the place command into a smart object I can double click, edit, and save that layer/smart object.

Instead, if Photoshop saves me the step of creating the smart object manually, but does it for me, having the setting turned on, then double click, edit, safe does not work. The save after an edit should work the same way.

This is a bug, q.e.d.

Since the behavior of the same function is different in case A and B and case B is against the specification of the manual it is a bug.

Yes, that is a common user error - which is why Smart Objects warn you to save the file back to the same filename and file format. Ignoring that warning will lead to the link between your edits and the Smart Object being broken -- because the Smart Object is looking for changes to your original file, not the new file that you saved in a different place or format.

I read it, and just understand more about Photoshop.
And reading your description makes it quite clear that you made a mistake and ignored the warning to save to the same filename and format.

The Save As dialog appeared because you added something to the document that could not be saved in the current file format (like adding a layer to a JPEG file). And then you saved to a different filename or format - which broke the connection with the smart object file being tracked. If you had not added anything to the document that could not be saved in the current format, then you would not have gotten the Save As dialog, and would have saved back to the same filename and format - then the Smart Object would update just fine.

Again, this is not a bug, just simple user error.

Hi Marcus,

This thread returns! As is evident, Mr. Cox is adamant that user error is at play. The rest of us are adamant that the functionally has changed in recent versions, and is not consistent with what real-world usage cause us pro users to expect. Exactly as you said, Case B is a common usage pattern.

Rather than label this a bug, and thus provoke ire, perhaps it should be called a desired functionality change. But unless you know a product engineer or can corral a developer at a convention, I doubt anything will change here, disappointingly.

Chris, it seems you did not read the posts carefully. The case you describe above is not the problem that has been posted here.

If you look at my previous post and look at case A and case B you can see that the only difference is that in case A I chose the create Smart Object command manually, while in case B this command runs automatically by Photoshop. Case A works as expected and case B doesn't.

Just run both scenarios in Photoshop and I'm sure you will understand and agree that this is a bug. Double clicking on an embedded smart object, making an edit and closing it should never bring the save as dialog.

I think you believe that "save as" has been selected, but no, the "save as" dialog comes up as a response from a plain save command, which should just save the smart object. Remember the objects were embedded not linked.