Skip to main content
A
adamsmo1
Participant
March 11, 2011
Answered

Error: "could not complete your request because it is not a valid photoshop document"

  • March 11, 2011
  • 1 reply
  • 34670 views

I was working on a PSD, which was saved to my desktop, when I decided to save it for the nth time within the hour.  As I was saving it, my laptop battery died and shut down.  After I replaced the battery and rebooted, the file was missing from the desktop - simply gone.

I downloaded some sketchy tools that helped me locate it - but I'm unable to recover it.

Has anyone else had the disappearing PSD issue?  If so, how were you able to recover your file?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer adamsmo1

    Late to the party much, ssprengel? 

    Adamsmo1, I'm sorry to say I can't think of other means that are likely to work to get your data back.

    A quick check of your temporary folder (whatever the TEMP environment variable is pointing to) might be in order, but I really hold little hope for that turning up your file.

    A while back I made a suggestion to use the Recycle Bin in the future to store prior versions of files that have been overwritten by a Save (which are now just deleted).  Some pooh poohed the idea, but I believe that would have saved your bacon in this case.  May I suggest requesting that as a new feature:

    https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

    -Noel


    Amazingly, I found a solution while clicking around in desperation:

    - Rt-click on the drive that I was saving the file to (ex: C: drive)

    - select 'Properties'

    - select 'Previous Versions' tab

    - There, I found a more recent clean version of that hard drive instance.  My file was deep within there, in a non-corrupted state.

    Hopefully, this helps others who might be in my same situation.

    Thanks for the help, folks.

    1 reply

    Noel Carboni
    Noel Carboni
    Legend
    March 11, 2011

    As I recall, Photoshop creates a temporary file during the save process...  Look for a file with a name something like ~ps1234.tmp in the folder where you were saving.

    If the machine shut off while actively writing to the disk, it's possible the file system was corrupted.  You might want to do a CHKDSK operation to verify it (also available by right-clicking the drive in Explorer when looking at Computer, Properties, Tools tab).  It's barely possible that such an operation could recover a file in limbo.

    -Noel

    A
    adamsmo1Author
    Participant
    March 11, 2011

    Hi Noel,

    Thanks for the quick response; neither of those worked.

    There were no temporary PS files and the CHKDSK didn't do anything.

    Any other things I could try?

    Noel Carboni
    Noel Carboni
    Legend
    March 11, 2011

    Amazingly, I found a solution while clicking around in desperation:

    - Rt-click on the drive that I was saving the file to (ex: C: drive)

    - select 'Properties'

    - select 'Previous Versions' tab

    - There, I found a more recent clean version of that hard drive instance.  My file was deep within there, in a non-corrupted state.

    Hopefully, this helps others who might be in my same situation.

    Thanks for the help, folks.


    Excellent!  Thanks for following-up with that tip!

    -Noel

    Firefly Community Gallery
    Adobe Firefly

    Remix with Firefly Community Gallery

    Thousands of free creations to fall in love with and remix in Firefly.

    Explore now
    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices