Participant

Answered

How to restore PSD file accidentally flattened by Preview after closing?

Forum|Forum|11 years ago
January 20, 2015
5 replies
42964 views

Hello,

I recently saved and closed a psd file with many layers, and now when I opened it again it is a flattened image. I believe what may have happened is after closing photoshop I wanted to take on last quick look at the image and opened it in Preview. After closing Preview and shutting down my laptop I reopened the image this morning and now it is flattened but still a psd. Usually Preview asks you if you want to make changes to images but I never got a notification (recently updated to Yosemite, so maybe that feature is no longer available)

Is there a way to restore the psd to the last time I saved it in photoshop? I've heard that there was a way to replay your history/brushstrokes in your last session (scripts?) but I'm not entirely sure of how it works. Please Help!

Thanks~

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer tikaru17

Problem Solved!

Turns out that Preview has the option to revert images back to what they were before changes were made. By doing this I reverted the flattened psd file (flattened while rotating the image) back to the original file with layers. For the future i will make sure that all my images are locked when in Preview.

Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it!

D

Dzine Geek

Participating Frequently

I did the same with a number of PSD files and my layers are gone? Nobody has given the solution unless I am polinly dumb? Preview?? is that in Photoshop? Help!!!!

jane-e

Community Expert

"I did the same with a number of PSD files and my layers are gone?"

No, Preview is an application that is built in to the Mac OS — it's not part of Photoshop. You said you did the same thing, though, and what the OP did to cause the issue five years ago was to open the layered PSD in Preview and rotate it. Is that what you did? If not, please clarify your issue.

~ Jane

Michelmnr

Inspiring

I thought I read a thread that explained clearly the situation. Stating
various scenarios including some where there are no possible recovery.
I was lucky when I was in this predicament, but had used a previous editing
(having deleted all the layer but the background) and some how had saved 2
version of my new edit both in psd and jpeg. When I discovered the 2
versions of both formats I deleted 1 but the wrong one thar was half
finished... Luckily as said I was also working on the next edit, but from
the previous (the one I had deleted from the save folder...
As the thread suggested going through history I recovered my previous edit!
But if I had started a new edit altogether... I would have been history.
Actually I don't know if psd files are like some recoverable ones from the
trash bin or they become deleted forever?

Michelmnr

Inspiring

Maybe the wrong way to ask more about it. Actually I was searching what is the difference between opening a .psd file and previewing it. So far it seems the same to me once showing up in Photoshop (CS$ for me) I also wanted to know if there are any faster way to see a .pdf photo, say like one see a .jpg or a thumnail. Simply to identify properly the image inside .psd instead to load it in photoshop.

T

tikaru17AuthorCorrect answer

Participant

Problem Solved!

Turns out that Preview has the option to revert images back to what they were before changes were made. By doing this I reverted the flattened psd file (flattened while rotating the image) back to the original file with layers. For the future i will make sure that all my images are locked when in Preview.

Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it!

gener7

Community Expert

Glad you found a way out. I didn't know Preview has a rollback, this is new to me.

Time Machine should also allow for backups three days back even without the external Time Machine drive plugged in. I encourage you to get it set up in case you have a layered file go corrupt.

Also set up detailed logging history if you need a record of exactly what you did to your files.

Gene

Norman Sanders

Legend

If History Log waa active you may have the information regarding the sequence of your image corrections. You will find the History Log settings in Preferences > General. If it was not active suggest that, for future work, you check out information about this feature at:

Photoshop Help | Undo and history

Beyond that, perhaps your Time Machine can come to the rescue. Good luck.

T

tikaru17Author

Participant

The History Log settings was not checked. And for some reason, my time machine was/is not turned on either. I've tried setting it up in the past but never fully understood how it worked.

Is there a way to replay all the all the things you did in a previous session? As in, watch the brushstrokes etc play again? I believe I've seen this done in another program (corel painter?) but I'm not sure if its the same for photoshop

Norman Sanders

Legend

No Log History

No Time Machine

No luck.

Mike_Gondek10189183

Community Expert

What versions of photoshop are you using?

Preview would not do that unless you used a command such as file >> export. If that happened unfortuantely you are out of luck.

The history panel is very easy to use, but will only work to reverse something like an undo, if you closed your files the history palette items would get cleared out.

T

tikaru17Author

Participant

I'm using cs5. What happened was I rotated the image in Preview, to see what it looked like at different angles. Usually, Preview asks you if you want to duplicate or save image because it's locked, but I think because i upgrade to Yosemite that option is turned off (just checked it)

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