Can't save file, invalid name

[CA-girl]

I'm working on a Win7 machine with PS CS5, version 12.1.  My problem is with re-saving a file.  I will initially save a .psd file with a name like myart-1.psd; as I'm working I periodically save it.  This works a couple of times before it declares the file name invalid.  How can that be when I've already saved it as that?  When I check for the file in my directory, even the initial file doesn't exist.  When does save not mean save?

The problem exists even if I only have alpha-numeric characters in the file name.  What's up?  This is wasting a lot of time and deleting a lot of my work.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Rebecca

[JJMack]

Can you show a screen capture of the failure so we can see what on you display. The message and everything else.

[CA-girl]

It's started happening again.  I have saved files like this under various names like PR-9a, PR-9b, PR-10b, but it balked at this.   Any idea why?

Here's the screenshot:

[Stephen Marsh]

What is the full path to the file or directory (it is truncated in the error message)? Is the directory on your local computer or a networked drive?

[CA-girl]

All the files are saved to the same directory on my computer's C drive, not a networked drive.  Path is something like C:\ABQDog\images

[Stephen Marsh]

When presented with this error, try saving as layered PDF or layered TIFF if you can’t save as layered PSD.

Apart from resetting preferences, I’m out of ideas for now then (I thought that the path+filename may be too long, but no). Good luck!

[CA-girl]

I re-checked & the path name is quite a bit longer than I'd said, is there are limit to the total characters in the path/filename?  That could be the answer.

[gener7]

260 characters is the Windows pathname limit, but Windows 10 promises to remove that.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/05/31/0012222/microsoft-removes-260-character-path-length-limit-i...

Any dedicated windows users know if that is the case?

[CA-girl]

It's way less than that, certainly under 50.  Plus, it doesn't explain how I can save it initially, but then not continue to save it as that same filename in that same local directory.

[Stephen Marsh]

I’m guessing that it may be permissions related, however it is indeed weird that you can then you can’t save!

Can you copy or paste files from other locations into this folder?

Can other programs save and re-save opened files data into this folder?

Is your user account admin level?

[CA-girl]

I don't see how it can be permissions-related since I can, then can't, save it.

I haven't tried copying or pasting into this directory, but, yes, other programs (even Photoshop) can save/re-save in this directory, and my user account is admin-level.

Weird, huh?

Thanks for everyone's help with this intermittent mystery.

[gener7]

Have you tried resetting CS5's preferences?

Press and hold Control - Shift - Alt immediately upon cold-starting Photoshop.  If you get the keys down quickly enough - and you have to be VERY quick - it will prompt you to confirm deletion of your established preferences, which will lead to them all being set to defaults.

[CA-girl]

I'm not sure that I want them all to reset to default, or if I can be that quick, but I'll try that next time I have a problem.

Thanks!

[Stephen Marsh]

Resetting corrupt prefs is the “magic fix” for Adobe software (although it may or may not be your issue in this case)! I understand that you may not wish to reset everything, however if it fixes your issue… You could search the forums/web to find where the preference file lives and back it up. Then after deleting it or resetting prefs, if this did not fix your issue you could restore the file.

P.S. You could also record an action to setup your prefs just how you like them, however this means first setting them how you don’t wish them to be, so that when you record the action it picks up what you do want them to be.

[Guest]

If you are unable to deleting / renaming / copying the files due to their long path issue so i suggest to try "Long Path Tool" software.

[CA-girl]

Thanks, but the path length isn't the problem.

[benjamin_david2]

I suggest you Long Path Tool will let you easily delete, copy or rename long path files, you can try it for better service.