During Save operations, Photoshop saves an additional file [was: It's dropping PSD files]

[i_am_jim]

Photoshop has begun dropping PSD files for no apparent reason.  It drops them in a folder I frequently use as a working directory, but it drops them there no matter which folder I'm working out of and save the file I have been working on into.  It's more than a nuisance it confuses me as to whether the file I really wanted got saved.  How do I stop this?

[i_am_jim]

Given the absence of replies, I guess no one has seen this behavior

[John Waller]

Are you referring to Photoshop or Photoshop Elements? Which version?

What do you mean by dropping PSD files?

[D Fosse]

In Preferences you can uncheck "Save As to Original Folder". Then it will save to the last location you saved to, whatever that was, until you change it.

The default is to have this checked, and then it saves to whatever folder the file came from.

This applies both if you just click Save, or if you Save As and accept without specifying a location.

These are the rules. Photoshop isn't randomly "dropping" files. Use Save As, not Save, and pay attention to where it wants to save.

[i_am_jim]

I wasn't clear in my original post.  When I do a Save or Save As the file is saved to the folder from which it came.  It just drops an additional file in my working directory.  'Save As to original folder' is and has been checked all along.

[D Fosse]

No, you certainly weren't clear. What kind of extra file, what does it contain, and where, precisely, is it putting this extra file? Be specific, please.

[i_am_jim]

I appears to be a copy of the file that's saved in the correct location, but I haven't examined them closely. I don't know how to better explain where it drops the unwanted files.

[D Fosse]

Try to reset preferences. A corrupt preferences file can cause erratic and unpredictable behavior. The prefs file is vulnerable to corruption because it's resaved on every application exit, so errors accumulate.

Beyond that all I can say is that I have never, ever, heard of anything like this...

[John Waller]

In case it's useful, which exact version of Photoshop are you using?

In Photoshop, click Help > System Info. The version number is shown in the first line.

[i_am_jim]

Adobe Photoshop Version: 21.0.0 20191018.r.37 2019/10/18: 614690fb487  x64
Number of Launches: 831
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit
Version: 10 or greater 10.0.18362.778

[John Waller]

Try updating to the current version 21.1.3.

[i_am_jim]

I did that after your message and I saw the my  version was a little old.  But, in a way that was a good thing because that version was much to old to have been the cause of the problem.  And the upgrade changed nothing.