Why does Photoshop force me to save a file as a PSD before closing?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
May 20, 2022
6 replies
4354 views

How do I disable this feature? I have saved a file as a copy (jpg, png, etc) and I no longer need the file. I try to close it but Photoshop locks up until I save it as a PSD file as well before I can close the file. Why does it do this? I am using Adobe Photoshop 2022.

macOS

F

franagain

Participant

The decision to lose or save data is MY choice, not Adobe's. I do not appreciate Adobe's refusal to let me save a processed jpg back as a .jpg... my choice, not Adobe's. At least, provide us with the OPTION to override ''must save as .psd'' feature. Stay in your lane, Adobe.

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

The decision to lose or save data is MY choice, not Adobe's. I do not appreciate Adobe's refusal to let me save a processed jpg back as a .jpg... my choice, not Adobe's. At least, provide us with the OPTION to override ''must save as .psd'' feature. Stay in your lane, Adobe.

By @franagain

As explained earlier in the thread, unless you have Legacy Save As enabled, there is something in the current file that does not conform to the JPEG specification, which is why a PSD is offered. So either use legacy Save As in your File Handling Preferences, or ensure that the file is flattened, has no alpha channels and is 8 bits/channel so that it does conform to the JPEG specification.

https://helpx.adobe.com/au/photoshop/using/saving-images.html

gener7

Community Expert

I was thinking of an entirely unrelated situation. The above answers cover your issue.

D Fosse

Community Expert

The whole point here, as Conrad implies, is that the still open file has properties that are not supported in the file format you just saved to. Like for instance layers, transparency, 16 bit depth or other things.

So if you just close out without saving a psd, you are actually throwing out data. If that's what you want, just close. If not, save out a psd or tiff, which are the only file formats that support everything you can do in Photoshop.

Conrad_C

Community Expert

Photoshop is not forcing or locking up. It’s trying to make sure you don’t lose work.

If you open a JPEG, PNG, etc. and then you edit it, when you close, Photoshop asks if you want to save those edits. If you don’t need to save because you already exported them to another file, all you have to do is click Don’t Save. That will cause Photoshop to close the file without saving a Photoshop document, and you can move on.

If you do this a lot, you can avoid clicking the button all the time by using keyboard shortcuts for Don’t Save: On a Mac, you can press either D or Command-D. That’s what I do.

M

Mosh

Participating Frequently

I think it is reasonable to say that PS is forcing us to save as psd, even on cases where it is not needed. For example, I just slightly modified a jpg: no layers, no selections, no nothing. No need to use psd. I suppose Adobe is trying to force its format on the general public.

This adds some clutter to my workflow.