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Samkorth
Samkorth
Participant
August 18, 2019
Question

File Corruption - Not a valid Photoshop document (It's not the file extension)

  • August 18, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 224 views

Okay, so multiple times now I have had a corruption problem with PSD files. I work on a new PSD document (illustrating). My PSD files will usually have multiple layers and groups. I save it and leave the computer. When I return to that file it says "not a valid photoshop document" and cannot open my file. I can still see a preview of the file with sage thumbs but I cannot open it on any software, I cannot convert it to jpg (even though I can see a full-size preview of it with sage thumbs.

I've read online that this error is associated with having the wrong file extension. Meaning that the file was originally, for example, a .tiff file but it got saved as a PSD file causing photoshop to get confused. This is the only real solution I have been able to find on the issue but it doesn't work for me. My file was created in Photoshop as a PSD file and was saved as a PSD file. Just in case I did try switching the file extension and it still didn't work.

Anyways, here is what I have tried so far:

-Changing the file extension to .tiff, .jpg, .png.

-Opening the file on photoshop as a .tiff, .jpg, and photoshop raw file

-Repairing the file with REMO PSD repair and YODOT PSD repair (Both say invalid file cannot repair!!)

-Resetting preferences on Photoshop (Not that this should matter since the file doesn't work with any programs).

-I have maximum compatibility on.

-I am using the newest version of Photoshop with the Creative Cloud subscription.

-Photoshop automatically updates and I even manually made sure it was up to date.

-I have a Windows Desktop computer.

I know that I might not be able to get this file back but I need to know how to prevent this and why this is happening. I have lost days of client work and this can't keep happening. Please reach out if you have a solution. Thanks.

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

davescm
Community Expert
davescmCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 18, 2019

Hi

I may be lucky but in all the years I've used Photoshop I've never seen this corruption. It sounds though as if you are experiencing this regularly, so I would look at the following:

1. Make sure you are saving to a local drive and not to a network. Photoshop can work with a network but it is not officially supported.

2. Is the problem happening when saving to one particular local drive? It may be that the drive is starting to fail.

3. Have you reset preferences, if not try it. It is unlikely , but a corrupt preference could lead to issues

In the meantime I would always advise to save incrementally at regular intervals i.e Save as filename0001.psd then filename0002.psd etc . That way you can always drop back to a previous version.

Dave

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
August 18, 2019

What about the backups of the file? Do they show the same symptoms?

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