Participant

Question

multi layered file now shows up as one layer only and that is all black.

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
January 22, 2021
3 replies
600 views

I am orety sure I know the answer to this problem, but nwate to pist here so I can identify if this a Photoshop bug, human error or potentially something awary on my computer. I have an important file a collage - approx 65 layers. I have been working on it for over a week and saving regularly as a PSD. My usual custom is to save versions, but because this one had so many unique components in the collage which all inter-related... I was concerned about genertaing tons of data and getting confused. So I was saving the same file / filename, saving locally and for days this routine was fine. Until it wast'nt. When I open the file now it is only one layer and is all black. The file size is 215888kb and is approx 4500 x 6000 at 96dpi. The file size looks about right... certainly way bigger than the single black layer would be.. so the layers may still be in there... somewhere?.

So my questions are - How did this happen? Photoshops,

Is there anyway of retrieving the layers?

Any feedback or suggestions is much appreciated. Many Thanks, Matthew

Problem or error

This topic has been closed for replies.

T

tacebo1577

Participant

Did you ever find a solution?

Tickled_Dog

Participating Frequently

No. Fortunately I have a personal backup system. Although I wasn't able to recover the work from that day I was able to get the previous days work and start from there. The only solution I have, since no one at Adobe seems to care, is I keep multiple backups in different places.

T

tacebo1577

Participant

Just had this happen too. The file size seems correct (72,4 MB), but when I open up the file, it is just a big black "Background". I know the layers must still be in there, because if I create a new layer and flatten the layers and then save it, it becomes a mere few kilobytes in size.

All the information must still be in there, so surely there must be a way to recover it? For whatever reason, Photoshop does not seem to have been using the autosave feature, so other recovery seems impossible.

T

tacebo1577

Participant

The file in question in case anyone wants to take a look:

https://anonfiles.com/Kbd8gdD5y7/Drawtober_psd

Tickled_Dog

Participating Frequently

This just happened to me. I have been working on a multi layer drawing and when I opened it this afternoon it was a single black background layer. I have working on this for well over a week now. When I opened photoshop after the latest update everything is gone. All my settings. All the files. I am in tears. I am on a Windows 10 (up to date) system, which coincedently also had a new update. I was finally able to afford a new laptop built to handle Photoshop and it is finally arriving tomorrow.

D Fosse

Community Expert

Could be a GPU issue, but if it's just one file and others are OK, it's most likely a corrupted file. That is not caused by Photoshop, but by failing hardware (disk, RAM, cables/connectors to external drive). It can also happen if you lose power in the middle of a save, or the system crashes in the middle of a save.

As for losing your files because of an update, you don't. All your files are still where you saved them on disk, they are not "in" Photoshop. It sounds like you're relying on recent files in the start screen, which you should never do. The recent files list doesn't show you the actual files like a proper file browser does. It's just pointers to certain places on disk, stored in your preferences. It doesn't migrate to a new version. Resetting your preferences will also wipe that list.

The recent files list is primarily a convenience feature to let you pick up where you left off before lunch.

Most other general preferences and settings can be migrated if you check the box to do that during install.

Tickled_Dog

Participating Frequently

Thank you. I do know that the opening screen is just shortcuts and always make sure to save my files to my harddrive and sync it with my icloud. I didn't reset any of my prefrences or settings before closing the app yesterday. I was able to recover an older version of the file I was working on from my backup drive. I would think it was failing hardware except that is the only file that this happened to. I had also saved it in another folder with a different name earlier so it didn't have all the work I did yesterday but that file opened fine. I'm hoping it is just the hardware. My new laptop gets here tomorrow so I'm not doing any more work on Photoshop on this machine.

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