P: "Quick Export As PNG" Used to save in same folder as current image. Not any more!

Report · Feb 24, 2022

One of the great things about doing a quick export as a PNG in Photoshop CC was that it would automatically save the PNG in the same folder as the image currently being edited. That made it a simple task to type the keyboard shortcut of your choice and simply press enter to save it alongside the current image.

But, no more! Even with the Preference "Export" - "Export As Location" set to "Export assets to the location of the current document", the Export location defaults to the last location used. I have tried resetting Photoshop preferences to default but that has not helped.

Please, can we have Photoshop do what it's being told to do -- save the asset in the location of the current document? Quick Export is not longer a quick export if we have to navigate a drive's file structure to export the image to the same folder as the current image!

Photoshop 23.1.1 Release

Windows 10

Report · Feb 24, 2022

Looks like you're running a version that is a few updates old. Does the same thing happen in 23.2.1?

Report · Feb 24, 2022

There are separate preference settings for Export As and Quick Export. You mention using Quick Export but refer to changing the Export As preference setting. In Preferences > Export, the sub-section "Quick Export Location" is the setting you want to look at, not "Export As Location". Make sure the Quick Export Location is set to "Export files to an assets folder next to the current document". Also, the default setting here is "Ask where to export each time", so resetting the preferences will change you to this setting.

Report · Feb 24, 2022

Sorry, it was a typo. The version I'm running is the latest version. I keep it updated whenever an update is available. Photoshop updated this morning to 23.2.1 and that's the version that's giving the issue.

Report · Feb 24, 2022

BrettN,

You are right, there are two places to make the change. However, the setting you are talking about immediately creates a separate folder for the export, called "<Name of current file>-assets" with no further input frm the user, which is not what the previous incremental version did, nor what is wanted.

In the previous incremental version, when File - Quick Export as PNG was chosen, Photoshop would bring up a dialog box so you could chose where to save the PNG, but it defaulted to the same folder as the currently edited image. That meant you could navigate to a different folder, or simply press Enter to save in the same folder as the image currently being edited. There is now no way to do this. If you set it to always ask, it starts with the last-used folder, which could be anywhere on the system. If you select "Export files to an assets folder..." it creates a new folder.

The setting that should work, is the option wich is only given for "Export As Location": "Export assets to the location of the current document" - but as you point out, that only for "Export As", not "Quick Export as PNG".

Report · Feb 24, 2022

Yes, we did make a change to how Quick Export Location settings work within a recent update. However, "Export files to an assets folder next to the current document" is not it. This continues to work the same way it always has, which is to create an "[FileName]-assets" folder next to the original asset (it's says so in the option itself: "to an assets folder").

The change we made was to the "Ask where to export each time" setting. In the past, the default folder in the dialog would be based on the OS and its settings. Since we weren't controlling this, it could vary wildly from user to user. While it may have been the same folder as the original asset for you, it would often arbitrarily go to something like Documents or Pictures for most users. By taking control of it, we made it so it remembers where you last exported to (like the Export As setting "Export Assets to the last location specificed").

This helped to align the Quick Export and Export As settings. The one difference that remains is Quick Export creating that additional folder, which you do not want. I would think the best solution here would be to change it so the creation of the additional folder were optional. But I am open to ideas.

Report · Feb 24, 2022

It seems starnge that there would be two different options for essentially the same thing... exporting a file... and those two options give you different choices!

Why would "Quick Export" give you the options:

1) "Ask where to export each time" and

2) "Export files to an assets folder next to the current document"

Whereas "Export As" gives you the options:

1) "Export assets to the location of the current document" and

2) "Export assets to the last location specified"

It seems to me that the options for BOTH Export features should be:

1) "Export assets to the location of the current document",

2) "Ask where to export each time" and,

2) "Export files to an assets folder next to the current document"

The labelling of those settings is also confusing and inconsistent. There's a setting which says:

"Use legacy 'Export As'" (notice the quotation marks)

...but "Quick Export Location" and "Export As Location" are missing quotation marks which makes "Export As Location" seem to mean that you will be exporting something as a "location" rather than an image. Relabelling those settings as:

Default "Quick Export as PNG" location and

Default "Export As" location

...would be consistent and the meaning clear.

I would assume that Photoshop knows the current working folder of the file it's working on (or else "Save" would not work), therefore an "Export PNG to current working folder" should be fairly trivial. Photoshop can already do it for "Export as..."!

The change we made was to the "Ask where to export each time" setting.

Yes! That's what I've been ssaying. I've never wanted Photoshop to create the separate assets folder, so never used that option. What Adobe changed is exactly what is now causing problems (for me). The "Ask every time" option has to start from some predetermined folder. [For me] it always started in the current working folder, which seems logical. Now it starts in the last folder used, which could be anywhere on the system. Maybe my workflow is unusual, but if I'm working on an image and want to export it, I'm probably going to export it to the same folder as the original, or in a subfolder of the current working folder, rather than to the folder of the last project I was working on. Regardless, the new workflow is a real pain.

Report · Feb 24, 2022

Thanks for this. We should be working on an update to the Export preferences in the near future, so I'll see what I can do to get these added.

Report · Mar 07, 2022

Irritatingly, I have the exact opposite problem. I WANT quick export to open in the last folder I used, rather than defaulting back to the location of the PSD, but it stubbornly insists on returning to the PSD every time. When making large groups of images at once from a color set, this makes things incrddibly slow or requires me to shuffle the PSD around the folder.

Report · Mar 07, 2022

@jesseB82A This should be the behavior. Are you using the latest version of Photoshop? Do you have the correct Preference setting selected? Make sure that the Legacy option is off as well.

Report · Mar 07, 2022

It seems clear that something is not working correctly with the Export dialog settings. Adobe has given us settings to change the default location of exported files, but those options are inconsistent between the two Export options and they don't seem to work correctly for all users. I have previously given a suggestion on the 3 options that should be selectable by the user on where to export files which, if correctly implemented, would cover all of the options a user would want, specifically:

1) "Export assets to the location of the current document",

2) "Ask where to export each time" and,

2) "Export files to an assets folder next to the current document"

Number 2 would, I assume, default to the last folder used.

Report · Jun 17, 2022

i agree with @jyunte9 !! since adibe changed the export as to recent location my work as supervisor, slowed down tremendously, i had to reinstall an earlier version of photoshop. when you review so many PSD files in many locations, and aplly changes to them, the export is so annoying with the new settings, i really hope you would change it back!

Report · Jan 05, 2023

I'm really disappointed that this is still an issue in 24.1.0

Report · Jan 05, 2023

Yes, it seems a simple thing to (re-)implement, but Adobe is so busy adding new features that they are not paying attention to things that simplify workflow. Annoying.

Report · Apr 18, 2023

I desperately need this fix too. It makes for such a clunky workflow now! @BrettN Is this issue still on the table for the Quick Export preferences?

Report · Apr 18, 2023

It's been over a year, with dozens of updates, and it still has not been
(re-) implemented.

Report · Apr 18, 2023

It's still not entirely clear what you want. Let's look at your three-options list above:

1) "Export assets to the location of the current document",

2) "Ask where to export each time" and,

3) "Export files to an assets folder next to the current document"

So 1 and 3 are identical, except for the Assets folder. Have you considered what should happen if your exported file is the same file format as the original, i.e. jpeg or png? Should it overwrite? with or without warning?

That's the point of the Assets folder: it protects the original.

Report · Apr 18, 2023

I'm not the OP on this topic, but what I want is for the "Quick Export as PNG" option to export to the same location that the current PSD file is saved. There's no conflict about it overwriting a file, as they are two different file types.

Report · Apr 18, 2023

For you they might be different file types, but for the next guy not. So my point stands: there has to be rules. Should it overwrite or not?

Report · Apr 18, 2023

The save dialog box should pop up, giving you a chance to overwrite it if you want to. But the point of this entire thread is that the default location of the save (the one that shows up in the dialog box) should be the location of the current PSD file, and not wherever the most recent "quick export" PNG was previously saved.

Report · Apr 18, 2023

It's pretty simple...

1) "Export assets to the location of the current document"
This does what it says: if you're editing a PSD in C:\My Documents, when
you export in another format, it exports the file to "C:\My Documents".

2) "Ask where to export each time"
Asks where you want to save it... eg. "C:\My Documents\My Project\Images"
rather than "C:\Photos"

3) "Export files to an assets folder next to the current document"...
...Is in no way the same as #1.
#3 forces the user to save documents in a new "Assets" folder, rather than
in the folder where the document that is currently being edited. Your
concern about overwriting the document currently being edited is not an
issue. For a start, you can't overwrite (using "Save As" or "Export") a
document that's currently being edited in Photoshop. Photoshop won't let
you. Secondly, if you could, you would receive a warning, just as you do
when you try to overwrite ANY already existing file.

All the 3 choices do is tell Photoshop which folder to serve up as the
starting folder for the Export action. You can still navigate away from
there to any other folder, using the dialog box options, if you wish. Just
as it did before.

We understand the point of an Assets folder. We just don't want it to be
forced on us. We want the option that was available to us in earlier
versions and taken away from us, which was to be able to Export to the same
folder as the document that's currently being edited - not a subfolder.
That's why I suggested three options, rather than just two. Right now, to
save the Exported file in the same folder along with the original, we have
to navigate from wherever the last project was (which may be on another
drive, 12 folders deep!) to the current folder. It's clumsy. It's annoying.
If people want to choose where to save the file each time, there's options
#2 and #3, or just navigate to where you want to save it.

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Report · Apr 18, 2023

There already is, that's not what we're discussing.

What we're discussing is the presence of the "assets" folder. That's what you want to get rid of. What I'm saying is that this has implications you may not have thought about.

Report · Apr 18, 2023

For you they might be different file types, but for the next guy not. So my point stands: there has to be rules. Should it overwrite or not?

That's not a valid argument. The Export option would always show the "Save As" dialog box, which would allow you to navigate to any folder you want. But the starting point should be one of the three options given in the Preferences that we are suggesting.

Report · Apr 18, 2023

What we're discussing is the presence of the "assets" folder. That's what you want to get rid of. What I'm saying is that this has implications you may not have thought about.

That may be what you are discussing, but that's not what we are discussing.

We are discussing Photoshop forcing us to either save in an Assets folder or as a Location.

Photoshop used to allow us to save in the same location as the file currently being edited, by default. That option was removed. We want it back as the current options create a messy workflow. Rather than delete the current Preference options, I suggested adding back the original functionality, but not forcing it on anyone by adding it as a third option in the Preferences. Those who are happy with the current functionality would not lose anything. Those who want the orginal functionality would get it back. "Export" would simply start the Export File dialog box in the location chosen by the user in Preferences (on of the three options).

Accidentally or automatically overwriting the original file during the Export function is not an issue.

Report · Apr 18, 2023

Unfortunately, my team is not currently working on Export As and related features, which is why I haven't provided any updates lately. I don't know what the current development plans are in this area. If I hear anything I'll post an update, or if I find someone who can provide more information, I'll send them here.

Report · Jul 11, 2023

There seem to be a few variations of the way people want to Quick Export files, but to me there are only two variables: 1. Export Location - choose a folder each time, the previously used folder, the folder where the working file is, or an assets folder. 2. File Name - the ability to rename the export file each time, or it always overrides anything with the same name. Personally I would like to be able to do a semi Quick Export where it exports to the same folder as the current working file and the only thing I have to change is the file name in order to prevent overriding of previous exports. I don't want the file location to be my previous folder and I don't want an assets folder.