Inspiring

Question

Photoshop CC 2020 MacOS Catalina - Cannot Overwrite File

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
February 11, 2020
30 replies
12861 views

Hi

Ever since upgrading to Catalina, Photoshop when saving a file, will not overwrite the file, just creates the same filename with _copy appended. I have to manuually delete the original then save - very annoying!

Please could you suggest a workaround ahead of a permanent fix?

Thank you!

This topic has been closed for replies.

Show previous replies

D

Daizy 18

Participant

I am having the same issue since upgrading. Have granted my username the right to read and write the whole adobe folder, does not help. Adobe! Please. This is hilariously annoying.

J

jimmarz60

Participating Frequently

I find this to be annoying and a waste of time as well. I frequently work in Illustrator and go back an forth to Photoshop. When I work in a layered file and save a flattenend file to put in Illustrator I must remove the old file and rename the new file each time I do an edit. I've been working with Adobe products for over 25 years and find it really a pain when they arbitrarily change a workflow that has been working just fine for literally decades. Just give the warning about the overwrite and let it happen if chosen. To give the warning and then NOT overwrite the file not only doesn't make sense it's a waste of time. TIME IS MONEY ADOBE!

kgarzo

Participant

I have the same problem, which is tedious when revising Photoshop files in a Premiere Pro project. I've learned to delete the original Photoshop file before saving the revision so that it immediately updates the file in my Premiere project...which requires having several open folders on the desktop at once. I really don't appreciate the program making non-overwrite decisions for me. I've been doing it long enough to know if I overwrite a file, it is permanent! Obviously, whomever made this decision does not use the program.

P

pppeepoAuthor

Inspiring

I've got a workaround for this - (I don't know if this is a MacOS issue or not, but not other app's seem to showing the same behaviour as PS on my Mac).

+ If you have a fie saved, say my_file.jpg and want to overwrite it, go to File > Save As to get the to list of files.

+ Click on my_file.jpg in the file list to load the name as that to be saved.

+ Keep the cursor on my_file.jpg and Mouse Right Click to get a little OS dialog box, from which you can select "Move To Trash"

+ You can now save the file

It's not ideal, but it's easier than having to delete and rename manually afterwards.

Hope this helps!

Warren Heaton

Community Expert

Great tip!

For macOS users who do not have right-click enabled ("secondary click" in the Mouse System Preferences pane), they can command-click the file that they want to replace to bring up the menu options while in the Save dialog box as well.

nickl57516707

Participating Frequently

Any update here? We're going on nearly a year of this problem, as best I can tell going through these forums. Where are you at, Adobe?

This is literally slowing down workflow for paying customers for a year.

How are we still waiting on this?

Warren Heaton

Community Expert

Perhaps a better way to describe it is this as follows:

Unexpected behavior when using File > Save As... to replace a JPEG, PNG or TIFF. Instead of replacing the exiting JPEG, PNG, or TIFF, a copy is created (resulting in two files rather than a single, replaced file). Using File > Save As... again will result in the copy being replaced as one would expect of the first file.

The expected behavior is that File > Save As.. will replace the existing JPEG, PNG or TIFF file without creating copy.

Workaround for JPEG:

Use File > Export > Export As.... Existing JPEGs will be replaced as expected. Or,

Move the existing JPEG to the Trash prior to using File > Save As...

Workaround for PNG:

Use File > Export > Export As... or File > Export > Quick Export as PNG. Existing PNGs will be replaced as expected. Or,

Move the existing PNG to the Trash prior to using File > Save As...

Workaround for TIFF:

Move the existing TIFF to the Trash prior to using File > Save As....

This affects Photoshop CC2019 (20.0.8) and Photoshop 2020 (21.1.0) under macOS Catalina 10.15.3.

Hopefully replacing a file returns to how it behaved under prior versions of macOS sometime soon.

K

karenlewis

Participant

Thank you for this.
I'm having the same issue, working on a large project integrating Photoshop and Indesign and it is MADDENING.
The workaround is not as efficient as I'd like, but so much better than constantly weeding or renaming files.

A

AdamID93

Participant

Same problem on a 2012 and 2018 iMac both running the latest Catalina and PS.

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

Just to make sure: Hitting cmd-S creates a copy without any further user input?

P

pppeepoAuthor

Inspiring

What I'm doing is:

+ starting from a PSB file

+ command+shift+S then select a JPG file that already exists eg file.jpg

+ new file is saved as file_copy.jpg

Pre Catalina, Photoshop never used to do this - it used to show to 'file already exists. Overwrite?' dialog, then overwrote original file overwritten.

Warren Heaton

Community Expert

This might be a behavior that macOS 10.15 Catalina is introducing.

I'm working with Photoshop 21.0.2 under macOS 10.13 High Sierra and I'm able to switch to saving as a flat JPEG from a layered PSD, have the Save diaplog box automaticaly select and dim "As a Copy", and have no " copy" added the the file name up in the text field. I'm able to over-write an existing JPEG without " copy" appearing as well. " copy" only appears if doing a save as to the same PSD format.

I have access to a running Catalina and PS. I'll try to report back later to see if I can duplicate this unexpected naming behanvior.

A

Anonymous

Hello there! I have the same specs and the exact same problems! I even granted Full Disk Access for Photoshop. Photoshop still creates file copies when I want to overwrite files.

PECourtejoie

Community Expert

Do you have all the rights in that folder?

P

pppeepoAuthor

Inspiring

Yes, Photoshop is 21.0.3 - I've done this in various subfolders that I have created - same issue. Other applications have been able to write/overwrite fine within in the same structure.

I can read/write but 'staff' and 'everyone' can read only - just defaults.

P

pppeepoAuthor

Inspiring

I've changed them all to read and write, but still does not work

PECourtejoie

Community Expert

And is your photoshop up to date on version 21.0.3?

L

Lumigraphics

Legend

Where are your files located- internal or external or network drive? Have you updated Catalina to 10.15.3?

P

pppeepoAuthor

Inspiring

They are all located on the same internal hard drive. Yes, Im using 10.15.3.

Im using lots of other applications, and none of the others seem to have the same issue - only Photoshop. It happens to whatever file format - TIFF, jpg etc.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded