PSD files are repeatedly saving as damaged files and are unable to be opened

[brandons87015427]

Hello, 

I recently encountered an issue with a PSD being unable to be opened and getting an error message that says could not be opened because "unexpected end-of-file was encountered" I dug around and tried everything I could to salvage the file, opening in illustrator etc. But nothing worked. File lost.

Now the main issue is since then,  about 50% of PSD files I try to save this happens to. I have lost hours and hours of work on complicated files with mulitple layers. I try saving mulitple PSD versions as I work across multiple hard drives, but they are all coming out corrupted. So the only option I have at the moment is never turning my computer off and leaving all PSD/PSB files open until the job is complete and they are approved by the client because saving them isn't an option. This slows my computer down immensely as these files are anywhere from 1-3 gb each. And sometimes the file saves fine, I'm able to open it again to test it, close it without saving or making changes, and when I go to open it the next day it is now somehow corrupted. I find this extra confusing since my understanding of getting the "unexpected end of file" means there was an issue saving it and all of the data wasn't saved properly during the saving process, but how can the file be corrupted after it was saved?

My question is, what the hell is going on? How do I prevent this? How do I solve this? I can't work like this for long and the idea of constantly losing important files that take hours to make is not a way to exist.

Thank you!!

Version 25.12.0, on Mac Ventura

[Lumigraphics]

Are cloud services involved at any point in this tale of woe?

[brandons87015427]

@Lumigraphics Not for saving the files if that's what you mean. It's just saved to external hard drives. The only cloud service is Photoshop itself I guess, but I'm not saving to the Creative Cloud or anything.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

Save to the local internal drive, then copy the saved file using the file system.

https://helpx.adobe.com/au/photoshop/kb/networks-removable-media-photoshop.html

[D Fosse]

Saving directly to an external drive is always risky and officially warned against by Adobe. Don't do it.

An external drive gets kicked around a lot, and cables/connectors inevitably get worn and loose. It only takes a fraction of an instant broken connection to corrupt a file.

In addition, there's a whole extra layer of drivers and interface protocols, slowing down the save process and further increasing the risk.

As for your current drive, throw it away and get a new one ASAP before you corrupt more files. Don't forget to buy a new cable too. And do what Stephen says: save local then copy over.

[brandons87015427]

@Stephen_A_Marsh Ah ok, gotcha. Thanks for the tip. This makes sense.

[brandons87015427]

@D Fosse I had no idea it was risky saving directly to an external, but it definitely makes sense. I'll be ditching this hard drive and working from the local drive from now on before saving to external. Thank you!