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

[jyunte9]

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

[Jeffrey Tranberry]

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

[BrettN]

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. 

[jyunte9]

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.

[jyunte9]

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".

[BrettN]

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. 

[jyunte9]

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.

[BrettN]

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. 

[jesseB82A]

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.

[BrettN]

@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. 

[jyunte9]

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.

[yalih]

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!

[cmahoney-media]

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

[jyunte9]

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.