Problem saving a "single layer" document as PSD

[Bando]

I believe this problem started with version 26.4.

Step by Step Example:

-Open a JPG file

-Double-click on the Background layer to convert it to a named layer, click OK

-Open the Camera Raw filter and make significant changes

-Pressing Ctrl-S to save should not override the original JPG file. It should ask me to save as a PSD since it has a layer.

Photoshop version 26.9.0
Windows 11

[jazz-y]

The camera raw filter can be applied to the background layer as well. Do you really need the step of converting the background to a layer?

Yes, I also noticed the change in the saving logic, but it is not a problem, you can:

1. flatten the layers before the save command
2. select the save format you need in the drop-down list (provided that the 'enable legacy save as' option is enabled in preferences -> file handling

[D Fosse]

It does not overwrite the original here, instead invokes "Save As", as it should.

Do you have "legacy save as" checked? This would be one of the inherent risks.

Generally, everything Adobe does to circumvent the limited properties allowed in jpeg, will upset some users. The basic underlying problem is this: The jpeg specification does not support layers, 16 bit depth, transparency or alpha channels.

I think everything would have been much simpler and more transparent if they just stuck with the pre-CS5 policies: if the document doesn't comply with the jpeg specification, it cannot be saved as jpeg. Period. All these later workarounds are kludges that just confuse the issue.

[Stephen Marsh]

@Bando 

I agree that saving a layered file shouldn't offer JPEG, it should default to PSD. This is with or without Legacy Save As (which isn't Save).

This change may be what new Photoshop users actually want, but it doesn't fit with legacy expectations of having to flatten to conform to JPEG specs, or to Save a Copy.

I can confirm on 26.9.0 on Windows.

EDIT: If I add an alpha channel or convert to 16 BPC, so that the file again doesn't conform to the JPEG spec, it offers the following warning before defaulting to PSD as expected:

So Adobe have only addressed 1 of the 3 common reasons that new users complain that JPEG isn't available when saving a previously opened JPEG.

I tried with the TGA format, it behaves as expected, offering PSD if one attempts to save a single floating layer which was originally a flattened TGA. There's no consistency here.

This looks like a planned change in behaviour, not a bug.