Problem applying Photoshop actions

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@steveg91677409 wrote:

... actions that reference files can only be played on the same platform on which they were recorded.

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Can you click the disclosure triangle to expand the step and share a screenshot? You'll also need to resize the Actions panel wider so we can see all of the step.

It sounds like the action is using File > Place to place a file located in a specific folder. Windows and macOS have different ways of writing the paths and you are using the "other" OS, in your case you are on macOS. We'll know for sure when we see the action step.

The action as is should work on Windows, but you can re-record that one step. We can assist if that's the issue.

Jane

EDIT: Conrad posted while I was typing so I couldn't see his post.

I haven’t run into that myself, but “platform” means macOS, Windows, iOS, Android…

I am guessing that the problem comes from the way file paths are written differently on different platforms. For example, the path to the user folder in Microsoft Windows is:

C:\Users\

On a Mac, the same path is:

[system volume name]/Users/

Notice that Windows path separates folder levels with a backslash ( \ ), while a macOS path separates folder levels with a forward slash ( / ).

Differences like those can break an action that references a path to a specific file, so even if the file name is the same, the path to it might not work if the action is used on a different platform than the one on which it was recorded. Because the action is breaking on your Mac, it was probably recorded in Windows. The only way I know of to edit that is to re-record that step of the action on your Mac,  pointing it to the folder where the referenced file is stored on your Mac.