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Can I increase the maximum allowed open files?

Explorer ,
Feb 08, 2025 Feb 08, 2025

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I'm using the latest Photoshop 2025 on a Windows 10 laptop.  I have a script that I use with file - automate - batch which converts RAW files to jpgs.  It will only work with 400 files.  If I have more than 400 files in the source directory, after it processes the 400th file, the process stops with an error messgae  - something like "too many open files."  Is ther some way to increase the limit?

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Actions and scripting , Windows

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Feb 08, 2025 Feb 08, 2025

@Mark37430984r9lw 

 

Do you seriously have 400 raw files open at once for conversion? Shouldn't the script close each file after processing?

 

Anyway, I would suggest that you bypass Photoshop altogether, just open all raw files into ACR, select all the files and then export directly to JPEG from within ACR:

 

dng.pngexpand image

 

This screenshot is from another older post, ignore the fact that it shows a raw smart object and saving to DNG, the key point is that ACR has the "Save Options" button, the downward fac

...

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Community Expert ,
Feb 08, 2025 Feb 08, 2025

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@Mark37430984r9lw 

 

Do you seriously have 400 raw files open at once for conversion? Shouldn't the script close each file after processing?

 

Anyway, I would suggest that you bypass Photoshop altogether, just open all raw files into ACR, select all the files and then export directly to JPEG from within ACR:

 

dng.pngexpand image

 

This screenshot is from another older post, ignore the fact that it shows a raw smart object and saving to DNG, the key point is that ACR has the "Save Options" button, the downward facing arrow in a 3-sided box at the upper-right of the ACR interface, which allows batch processing of multiple files selected in the ACR filmstrip.

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Explorer ,
Feb 09, 2025 Feb 09, 2025

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I'm new to this, and when I wrote the script with the Adobe recorder function, I didn't bother to close the files.  So, with my workflow, I either have to keep depressing "N" when asked to save each file when I try to exit Adobe, or use task manager to forcr quit the app.  I'll re-write the script to close the files first.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 09, 2025 Feb 09, 2025

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Ah, I think that you mean an Action, not a script. Reording or inserting a menu command to close is most likely going to fix the issue.

 

Regardless, batch saving directly from inside the Adobe Camera Raw plugin offers many advantages over rendering the files to open documents in Photoshop and batch processing there.

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Explorer ,
Feb 09, 2025 Feb 09, 2025

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I'll try this in a day or so with more than 400 files to see if it works.

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Explorer ,
Feb 15, 2025 Feb 15, 2025

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I tried this, but when I open multiple files within Adobe Camers RAW and try to save, it only saves the first file.

In any event, I was able to accomplish what I needed by:

Photoshop - file - scripts - image processor - select the input and output  - change the image quality to 12 and run.  The process took 57 minutes and 31-seconds to process 847 Nikon RAW - *.NRW files.  This works out to roughly 3.84 seconds per image. 

So, I got what I wanted, BUT, if I figure out how to do this another way, will it be faster?  Edit - from another reply, looks like Adobe Camera RAW can do this faster.  I just have to figure out how to get it to process multiple files.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 15, 2025 Feb 15, 2025

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I tried this, but when I open multiple files within Adobe Camers RAW and try to save, it only saves the first file.


By Mark37430984r9lw

 

As previously mentioned, you need to select multiple raw files in the ACR filmstrip. The easiest way is to use Ctrl/Cmd + A to select all. You will see that all thumbnails in the filmstrip have a thick border around them.

 

In the title bar you will see the current filename and in parentheses how many images are open and selected, such as (1 of 100) for the first image in the filmstrip, or (100/100) for all 100 of 100 images selected.

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Explorer ,
Feb 16, 2025 Feb 16, 2025

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We have a winner!  This process took 30 minutes and 54-seconds to make high-quality JPGs from the same 848 RAW files that the Photoshop image processing script took 57 minutes and 31-seconds to make.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 16, 2025 Feb 16, 2025

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That's a great (and expected) speed boost!

 

Was ACR being hosted by Photoshop or Bridge?

 

Was only one app open and running and yo let the batch work away – or did you have other apps open and were working at the same time doing other things sharing memory?

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Explorer ,
Feb 17, 2025 Feb 17, 2025

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If I select multiple *.NRW files in explorer and double click on one of them, only that file opens in Adobe Camera RAW, and I can't otherwise figure out how to open Adobe Camera RAW by itself, or how to open multiple files within it once I have it open, so the only way to accomplish what I needed was to have opened Photoshop, and then open the multiple files from within Photoshop which then launched Adobe Camera RAW.  Once everything showed up in the bottom "film panel" view, I then hit ctrl +a to select all, and started the conversion process.  So, perhaps the way I did this was to have Photoshop "host" Adobe Camera RAW.  

Once I started the process, I letf the PC alone.  There may have been two or three Microsoft Edge windows open in the bakground, but nothing was otherwise running.

I love the increased speed.  You saved my tons of work and hours!  However, I do welcome any tweaks in the process to speed things up further.  Completely understand if there are none.

While we are here, is there any way to get this forum to auto-spell check?  Not a global PC issue, as other forums auto-spell check for me with the Edge browser.


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Community Expert ,
Feb 17, 2025 Feb 17, 2025

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@Mark37430984r9lw 

 

Reboot the computer to get it into the best state before batching. 

Open Adobe Bridge, select all the raw files, then press Ctrl/Cmd + R to open the files into ACR.

 

Next in ACR, Ctrl/Cmd + A to select all files in the film strip. Press the Save Options button to (batch) save the files with your desired settings.

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Explorer ,
Feb 17, 2025 Feb 17, 2025

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FYI - in Windows Ctrl + R opens a Windows Run Box, and does not load files into Camera RAW when Bridge is open.  I had to use the intuitive menu to get them all loaded into Camera RAW.

Bridge was actually slower.  Both tests were done with 391 RAW files after fresh reboots.

1 - Having Photoshop invoke Adobe Camera RAW after I have it open all the files and then hacing Camera RAW save the JPGs.  This took 11-minutes and six seconds.

2 - Having Bridge open all the files and then having Bridge open Camera RAW and then having Camera RAW save the files.  This took 11-minutes and 57 seconds.  In addition, Bridge was a little clunky (mouse was slow to respond) as it was loading all the files.  I did not have this problem with Photoshop.


The reboot did speed things up though, as with my first Photoshop invocation of Camera RAW, it averaged 2.19 seconds to process each RAW file, but with this set, it averaged 1.7.

Don't know if the way that I did things consumed more resources, though.  I have a paid Adobe subscription, so I installed Bridge from within the Creative Cloud App.  So now, the only way to open Bridge is through Creative Cloud, and I saw Creative Cloud in the task tray as a running process as I was converting the files.  Had I just downloaded the free Bridge outside of CC, would I have been able to launch it without having opened up Creative Cloud?


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Community Expert ,
Feb 17, 2025 Feb 17, 2025

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FYI - in Windows Ctrl + R opens a Windows Run Box, and does not load files into Camera RAW when Bridge is open.  I had to use the intuitive menu to get them all loaded into Camera RAW.


By Mark37430984r9lw

 

 

I mostly use the Mac and generally speaking, keyboard shortcuts are the same where practical, so I just assumed:

 

2025-02-18_09-42-36.pngexpand image

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Community Expert ,
Feb 17, 2025 Feb 17, 2025

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If I select multiple *.NRW files in explorer and double click on one of them, only that file opens in Adobe Camera RAW, and I can't otherwise figure out how to open Adobe Camera RAW by itself, or how to open multiple files within it once I have it open, so the only way to accomplish what I needed was to have opened Photoshop, and then open the multiple files from within Photoshop which then launched Adobe Camera RAW.  Once everything showed up in the bottom "film panel" view, I then hit ctrl +a to select all, and started the conversion process.  So, perhaps the way I did this was to have Photoshop "host" Adobe Camera RAW.  

By Mark37430984r9lw

 

The key to understanding why that happens is to realize that Camera Raw is not an independent application. It’s a plug-in, so it must be hosted by an application. Because Camera Raw is only a plug-in and not a standalone application, Camera Raw can’t appear in right-click Open With menus or the Start menu, can’t be added to the taskbar, can’t be a drag-and-drop target, etc.

 

Camera Raw can be hosted by Photoshop, Bridge, After Effects, and maybe something else.

 

This is why, for your batch workflow, we have talked about starting by selecting multiple files in Adobe Bridge and then choosing File > Open in Camera Raw. This works because Bridge can host the Camera Raw plug-in, which Windows Explorer cannot do. Explorer just can’t get to it.

 

The other way to load multiple files into Camera Raw is, as you said, to start in Photoshop. Use the normal Open button or command in Photoshop, and then use standard OS modifier keys (Shift, Ctrl) to select multiple files in the Open dialog box. I’m on a Mac, and in the Photoshop Open dialog box it’s also possible to use the Select All keyboard shortcut so you might try that in Windows if you want to load all raw files in a folder.

 

But I think it’s easier to do the initial multiple-file selection in Bridge. Also, opening Camera Raw from Bridge has a resource advantage: You can process the files in Camera Raw without having to load the Photoshop application and its significant memory footprint when you aren’t even going to use Photoshop, just Camera Raw.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 08, 2025 Feb 08, 2025

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@Mark37430984r9lw Curious, wouldn't 400 RAW file NOT SERIOUSLY SLOW DOWN your computer? I agree with @Stephen Marsh , a closing of the RAW image would fix that issue. 

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Community Expert ,
Feb 09, 2025 Feb 09, 2025

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Or use Lightroom classic, which is specifically designed in all aspects to deal with high volume processing.

 

But even in Photoshop, I don't understand why this should stall at all, as long as one file is processed and closed before the next one opens. Then a batch could in theory run indefinitely and never stop until you ran out of files. It wouldn't consume more RAM and scratch disk than the one single biggest file.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 09, 2025 Feb 09, 2025

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I think adding the step to close each file after conversion will solve the immediate issue.

 

But, I have to strongly agree with the others that if this is only about conversion of raw to JPG, Photoshop is the wrong tool to use, and the right tool is Adobe Camera Raw (when hosted by Adobe Bridge, not Photoshop) or Lightroom Classic.

 

The major benefits are speed and efficient resource usage. When you bulk convert through Photoshop, it’s a serial process: Your action or script has to have Photoshop open each raw file in turn, which actually opens Camera Raw first for each file, then converts to a Photoshop document, which now must be saved and then closed.

 

When you do the bulk conversion in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom Classic, a number of inefficiencies are swept away:

 

ACR and Lightroom Classic can process in parallel, able to convert multiple files simultaneously. The more CPU cores you have, the faster it goes. Photoshop, processing files serially, cannot do this.

 

In ACR and LRC, instead of having to record or script the settings, you just create an export preset with the needed settings (color space, bit depth, file format, compression, metadata…), then apply that preset to the batch export job.

 

Exporting happens in the background, so you can actually continue to use ACR or LRC for others things while they export. In comparison, Photoshop is locked off the entire time it’s batch processing, while you watch it go through opening, editing, and closing files as if a human was in the loop slowing things down.

 

ACR and LRC support GPU acceleration for exporting. If you have a compatible GPU, this means exporting could happen faster with lower CPU load compared to Photoshop, on top of the time savings of parallel processing.

 

If there are no steps in your conversion that actually have to be done by Photoshop, like if every conversion requirement can be covered by the extensive export options in ACR and LRC, then there is no reason to unnecessarily slow down your batch process by making Photoshop do it. Instead use Camera Raw or Lightroom Classic, and take advantage of parallel processing, background export processing, GPU acceleration, and export presets. I’ll bet they need less RAM than Photoshop to do this, too.

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Explorer ,
Feb 15, 2025 Feb 15, 2025

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Ty - pls advise on the specific steps to do thsi with Adobe camera RAW, as when I open two images with it, the save process only saves the first.  Not sure how to get it to batch process.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 15, 2025 Feb 15, 2025

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Stephen answered this a little earlier, and he’s right…the annoying thing about the Camera Raw method is that you have to select multiple files twice: First, in Bridge, to tell Camera Raw how many files to open, and then in Camera Raw itself after it opens, Select All must be applied so that all loaded files will be exported. (Obviously this is a feature, so that if you load 200 files into Camera Raw and only want to export a few, you can select just the ones you want to export.)

 

Select All is on the menu you get when you click the ellipsis (…) button that appears when you hover the pointer over any image in the Camera Raw filmstrip, as shown in the picture below. Or, you can get that menu by right-clicking any image in the filmstrip.

 

Notice the difference:

Before choosing Select All, in the top picture, only one image in the filmstrip has a thick outline indicating it’s selected.

After choosing Select All, in the bottom picture, all of the pictures in the filmstrip have a thick outline indicating they’re selected.

 

When you save/export from Camera Raw, the selected images are processed as a single batch. If you Select All, then all are exported.

 

Camera-Raw-multi-select.jpgexpand image

 

Multi-image selection works the same as on the desktop:

To select a range, click one image and Shift-click another; all images in between are selected.

To select any combination of photos, Command-click (macOS) or Ctrl-click (Windows) images one after the other.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 09, 2025 Feb 09, 2025

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Have you ever attempted to use the Export panel in Bridge? I'm uncertain about its limitations; in fact, I've never tried processing many files. If you have Bridge installed, I think it's worth giving it a shot.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 09, 2025 Feb 09, 2025

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That’s a great idea, Bojan. I sometimes forget about the Export panel in Adobe Bridge.

 

I just used the Bridge Export panel to test converting 252 raw files to JPEG, and it worked great with no errors:

Bridge Export converted the 252 images in 3 minutes, or 1.4 images per second.

All CPU cores were fully engaged, but the GPU was not.

Bridge used about 2GB of RAM during the test.

The range of Export options is similar to Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic.

 

Then I tried converting the same 252 raw files to JPEG using Camera Raw hosted by Bridge:

Camera Raw converted the 252 images in 1 minute 45 seconds, or 2.4 images per second.

All CPU cores were fully engaged, and the GPU was heavily used. I think the GPU acceleration is why Camera Raw was faster than the Export panel.

Bridge memory use increased to about 22GB of RAM during the test. My theory is that because Camera Raw used the GPU, the extra memory was being used as graphics memory (VRAM) to feed the GPU acceleration. (This is an Apple Silicon Mac, so any free RAM can be used as graphics memory on demand.)

 

Bridge actually has another bulk processing option, the Workflow panel. I would like to recommend both the Export and Workflow panels more, but when answering conversion questions here, both sometimes fail to do the job for one reason or another. Sometimes someone wants to output PSD files, CMYK files, or resize/resample them in a way that is not an option, so Export and Workflow have not always been good enough.

 

But in this specific instance where someone just needs raw converted to JPEG with apparently no additional adjustments, it looks like the Export panel could be another solid solution. If it works for Mark37430984r9lw, they could skip the step of going into Camera Raw, and instead just select a bunch of images and run them through an Export panel preset they preconfigured in Bridge.

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