Disappearing files??

[default1cfez86fhsqb]

I tried to open one of my projects that I had already been working on in photoshop. When I clicked on it to open it just disappeared? I can't find it anywhere and it's not in my deleted files. If I used a feature I didn't know existed please let me know. I'm new to Photoshop because I have to use it for a course. The file was my assignment and I need it back. 

[Myra Ferguson]

If you go to File > Open Recent..., do you see it in the list? 

It was saved to your hard drive, do you recall moving it? You could do a search in the Finder (macOS) or File Explorer (Windows) for it.

If it's a cloud document, you can try the following solutions:

Solve Photoshop cloud document errors

[hombrec]

For the past few days, i save PHOTO IMAGES into a named file and I see them go IN. Then I go back and many are missing?  I have been doing this for a long time... something is NOT working with the latest PS software. I have MOVED these photos from external drives and are placing them in a NEW FILE on the computer web page... then I GO BACK and many are missing... how to fix?

[jane-e]

---

@default1cfez86fhsqb wrote:

When I clicked on it to open it just disappeared? 

---

Did you click on it in the Home Screen or with File > Open? If you were using the Home Screen, it shows previews of Recent Files. If you renamed, moved, or deleted the file, it will still show up in the Home Screen until you click it to attempt to open it, then the preview disappears.

Try doing an OS search using the file extension and date filters. If you don't know how, tell us if you are on Mac or Windows.

~ Jane

[gabrielkfreire]

Hey everyone,

I am not sure what is going on with these disappearing files--I'm not new to photoshop, but when my students go to access their files, they literally vanish. These aren't cloud files; they do not appear in any searches. Once, the file disappeared and reappeared on restart. Another time, the file vanished and reappeared just before I restarted but disappeared after the restart. I would love to share an image of this; however, that is the whole issue.

[Myra Ferguson]

Are they saving them locally or to a networked or external drive or to removable media? If they're saving anywhere other than locally, try having them save their files to their local hard drive.

Networks, removable media | Photoshop

[jane-e]

---

@gabrielkfreire wrote:

I am not sure what is going on with these disappearing files--I'm not new to photoshop, but when my students go to access their files, they literally vanish.

---

Where is this occurring with these "disappearing" files?

• In the Home screen previews of recent files?
• In File menu > Recent?
• In Mac Finder / Windows File Explorer?
• Are they on a network drive or a removable device?

Jane

[D Fosse]

I very much concur with the quotation marks in Jane's post. As long as you save to a local drive, files don't disappear. It'll be somewhere.

What can and does happen, however, is that files get saved to unintended places. It happens to all of us. Watch where you save, and if you missed one too late - initiate a new save and watch where it wants to go.

The one scenario where all bets are off, is if you save directly to a server/network, which is why it is officially unsupported and universally warned against. Not that I've heard of disappearing files, but corruption is pretty likely given the size of an average Photoshop file.

[gabrielkfreire]

These are all local files--no external device. They just disappear. I am assuming that no one else has encountered the error. Regardless, all of the students I teach in my photoshop class have witnessed this. Several have lost projects (I lost one). The "recent files" preview displays it, they click on it, and it simply deletes. As explained in the initial email, these files have a saved folder and destination or are directly on the desktop--not cloud files. If someone actually has seen the issue and knows a way to correct it, please let me know.

And no, doing a file search does not help.

[D Fosse]

The recent file list does not function like a file browser. It does not read the disk and keep track of your files. It functions like a catalog, with static pointers to a certain location on disk. If the target file is moved or renamed, this will not be picked up by recent files, which will still happily display the file as present and correct - until you try to open it. Then it will just be missing with no clue about where it went.

Never trust recent files for anything. It's a convenience feature that lets you pick up where you left off before lunch, nothing more.

Another thing: As I understand, cloud desktop has been possible for some time in both MacOS and Windows. You choose this during OS install/setup. Normally, of course, the desktop is a folder under your user account on your physical system drive. So if there are users with cloud desktop here - choose a specific folder on a local drive, not the desktop.

[gabrielkfreire]

You are saying that when a file is moved, even if it is on the "recent files" list, it will not open--I understand. This is not the issue. As I explained previously, the file is (in some cases) directly on the desktop or in a folder and will be immediately deleted or disappear when clicked on to open.

[Amaandaelllen]

Hi there, 

I'm having the same exact problem. I am not a teacher. The file is saved. It was on my home screen, and then I clicked on it , and it disappeared. It's nowhere. I checked every file on my computer and my creative cloud. I know I saved it.

[D Fosse]

I know I saved it.

By @Amaandaelllen

Where, exactly, did you save it? What disk, what type of folder did you save to? What's in that folder when you reopen it?

[Ko.Maruyama]

Fellow teacher here.

Are different students logging into the same computer with different credentials between classes?

Are they logging into CC with personal credentials and saving to the cloud? But in later classes just using the previous student's login (because "Photoshop was open when I got here"?)

Maybe possible that different logins are accessing different user desktops or spaces?

[LetHimCook]

I don't know if we are having the same issue, but I had a file that I saved to my Adobe cloud. When I opened the Photoshop application on my desktop, I clicked on "Your files" and my file was there. Within a blink of an eye it vanished from the list of my files. Every file I have saved moved up one spot in the list and my missing file can't be found anywhere.

[Travis24374884dr7p]

I am having the same issues. I am not new to photoshop or how to save files. Opening files from the recents list is basically a shortcut to where the actual file is located. The problem is that the actual location of the file can't be found anymore. My students have specific folders they save to on the desktop. We don't use cloud based saving for our main document but save a copy first then move that copy to a cloud based server. I do this because we may not have internet access all the time and data syncying from the cloud doesn't always work. Our issue is that the file is no longer located in their designated folder. Can't be found in any searches. Not in the recovery folders for Adobe. The files seem to simply gone off the computer. This seems to be a new issue with recent updates to Photoshop. I have not found a solution or located any of the files. This happened for about 7-8 of my students recently. I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone. 

[jane-e]

---

@Travis24374884dr7p wrote:

My students have specific folders they save to on the desktop. We don't use cloud based saving for our main document but save a copy first then move that copy to a cloud based server. I do this because we may not have internet access all the time 

---

Can you clarify:

• You save to the desktop.
  The file with this name and location shows in Recents on the Home Screen and in File > Recents
• You then save a copy and move that copy to a cloud based server
  Does this copy have the same name, or does it have a slightly different name so you know it's the copy?
  Do you open the copy so it also shows in recents?
• Is the original still on the desktop in the specific folder? Do you check after closing the file? Are any files in that folder when you are not connected to the internet (Word, TextEdit, etc.)
  Macs use iCloud Desktop and Documents unless you turn it off in Preferences. I'm not sure about Windows, and you didn't say.
  https://osxdaily.com/2017/07/06/disable-icloud-desktop-documents-mac/
• Can you find the files (both desktop and server) immediately after saving or do they both disappear right away?

Jane

[Travis24374884dr7p]

1.) Yes, the file name shows in both recent and the home screen in photoshop. But when you click on them they either disappear or say file can't be found.

2.) File is saved to the folder on the desk top. That file is then duplicated. The duplicated file is then uploaded to a cloud based server. the duplicated file name is the same as the original but with the word "copy" added. Yes, if I were to open the file in photoshop the new "copy" would also show up in recent and home. 

3.) Original would still be in the designated folder. Yes, the file is there because we work on projects during multiple class periods and save every day. Everything has been working fine except for the last two weeks the files have suddenly disappeared from their folders and can't be located. We are on Macs and do not save to iCloud but to a folder on the desktop. 

4.) Up until recently we would be able to find the files in the folder and open them again like you normally would. But today three students that had their work saved from last week tried to open their files from the "home" screen in photoshop and they just disappeared. I said go to the folder on your desktop and open them directly from there but they couldn't because the files are no longer there. I have no idea where they went. I would usually mark this off as user error with students but this is not a one off thing and has been happening to several students. 

[D Fosse]

Macs use iCloud Desktop and Documents unless you turn it off in Preferences. I'm not sure about Windows, and you didn't say.

By @jane-e

The last time I installed Windows on my desktop I noticed to my great surprise it wanted to put the desktop in the cloud. I spotted it and turned it off, but IIRC that's the default now. I can only imagine what would happen if I tried to upload a 5GB file to the cloud...

Travis, tell your students to 1) save to a specific folder on a physical drive, and 2) stop using the home screen. Use Explorer or Finder.

If they still lose files, come back.

[Travis24374884dr7p]

Yes, we save our files to a folder and physical drive.

I understand that the "home screen" or "recent files" is no the actual location of those files and if I move the orignial file to a different location Photoshop will not open it beceause the "home screen" shortcut no longer is attached to the new location. Our problem is that the file got relocated/disappeared/deleted from its origial location without the student or me moving it. 

[jane-e]

@Travis24374884dr7p 

You didn't answer most of my questions, but does the same thing happen with other non-PS files saved in that location and copied to the server — such as text-only, spreadsheets, etc.?

Jane

[Travis24374884dr7p]

No, those other documents are there. Word documents, excel spread sheets, pngs, jpgs, and pdfs are still there along with other PS and AI files. It doesn't happen to all the files just a select few.

[jane-e]

@Travis24374884dr7p 

Have you tried saving to a folder that is not on the Desktop? When I was teaching at a local college we were told to save nothing to the Desktop or it would be automatically deleted. Each computer had "D" drive that was on the network and unique to that login. I don't know if this will help you or not. Have you talked to IT?

Jane

[Jonas30960059oqu3]

Not sure if this thread is still active, but I recently had the exact same issue with two pictures. Sme replies implies user error but that´s nor the case. Pictures do vanish from the computer and are not to be found in any location, nor are there any evidence they ever existed. 

This is PS issue and it would be great if there´s a solution to it

[D Fosse]

I have used Photoshop in a professional (employment) capacity for more than 15 years. I save perhaps 200 times a day, every day. Not once have I experienced a file "just disappear". Never. Ever. And those files aren't gathering dust, I frequently go back and pull up old files.

I'm not trying to "defend Adobe" or anything here. I just find it extremely hard to believe that this happens, but never to me.

What I have experienced, is user error. I've been asleep at the wheel and saved files to wrong locations. I've saved them under a wrong name. I've even, on occasion, overwritten files and lost them that way (in which case I go to my backups and retrieve them). I've done a lot of stupid things. But I've never lost a file.