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Participating Frequently
September 20, 2025
Question

Create more distance between 'save' and 'don't save' when closing a file.

  • September 20, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 550 views

I'm often retouching over many hours at a time and it happens from time to time that I accidentally click 'don't save' rather than 'save' when closing an image, often losing a lot of work (this usually happens when I'm quite tired). It is poor design that these two options are so close to each other. 

3 replies

jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 21, 2025
quote

I'm often retouching over many hours at a time 

By @oncebrewed

 

A good work habit is to save often and don't wait until you have worked "many hours at a time". For important files, use Save followed by Save As and name the new files incrementally with numbers or the date following the filename. This protects you from losing hours of work.

 

Jane

Per Berntsen
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 20, 2025

This dialog is laid out the same way for most applications, and I believe it comes from the OS, not Photoshop.

If you're on Windows (not sure about Mac), you can press Y for Yes (Save), N for No (Don't save) and Esc for Cancel.

You can also use the arrow keys to move through the options and press Enter when the one you want is highlighted.

 

 

Ged_Traynor
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 20, 2025

@oncebrewed you could just hit Ctrl/CMD + S before closing the image