Participant

Answered

Liquify tool: “file is locked”

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
May 22, 2024
17 replies
42909 views

Hi!

I hope someone can help me. I have an issue with the liquify tool, which works fine for every photo but one folder from a certain date, it will not work. I get the error message that 'Could not complete the liquify command because the file is locked, you do not have the necessary permmissions, or another program is using the file'

I have checked everything,everywhere. Its not locked as far as i can see, the permissions are the same, its all the same as the other folders. I have restarted twice, logged out and back into Adobe and everyhing is up to date. I'm on a Dell Laptop, thats about all I know there.

Anyone have any idea, please?

Windows

Correct answer c.pfaffenbichler

Please read this (in particular the section titled "Supply pertinent information for more timely and effective answers”):
https://community.adobe.com/t5/using-the-community/community-how-to-guide-tips-amp-best-practices/td-p/11601738?page=1

What have you done for all-purpose trouble-shooting so far?
Restoring Preferences after making sure all customized presets like Actions, Patterns, Brushes etc. have been saved might be a good starting point:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/basic-trouble-shooting-steps.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-gpu-graphics-card.html

Show previous replies

E

ersalazar12

Participant

I have the same problem. Contacted the help center and they just cut the connection and leave it. How can we fix this issue

c.pfaffenbichler

Correct answer

Community Expert

Please read this (in particular the section titled "Supply pertinent information for more timely and effective answers”):
https://community.adobe.com/t5/using-the-community/community-how-to-guide-tips-amp-best-practices/td-p/11601738?page=1

What have you done for all-purpose trouble-shooting so far?
Restoring Preferences after making sure all customized presets like Actions, Patterns, Brushes etc. have been saved might be a good starting point:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/basic-trouble-shooting-steps.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-gpu-graphics-card.html

B

Bob Rafto

Known Participant

Another solutiion could be by restarting the computer, it worked for me.

I

ILLUSE83

Participant

the only way work for me with this issue is go to edit-preferences-performance and then uncheck "use graphic processor", then use the liquify again, it will show the dialogue box say " liquify supports hardware......" and then just click OK, it will start open the liquify window, but the problem on me now is the progress box will stuck on, i can't click the cancel button and can't close it too, but when i click the photoshop icon on my taskbar the progress box will disappear and the liquify work normal.

H

hgkim

Participant

I'm having the same problem as many in this thread. All the other methods didn't work for me and this was the only one that allowed me to use Liquify for a while. Thank you so much. You are my savior.

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

If you are talking about disabling GPU-usage that invalidates some features.

But whith GPU-usage enabled one can still suppress it for Liquify specifically by pressing ctrl-alt when selecting the Filter from the menu.

Eddie750

Participating Frequently

Well, add me to this thread as well. Updated to the most recent release today, and now get an error "file or directory could not be found" when I click the "save" button in Liquify. Have never had this problem in prior versions. I'm doing professional work and (for now) doing proofs without full processing and I find this beyond frustrating.

The error message is so weird as I have to have it open in Photoshop in order to use the liquify tool.

2020 iMac - Intel 10-core i9 - 128GB RAM - 8TB SSD running MacOS Sonoma 14.5

D

Dario36479176bwfs

Participant

I am having the same issue, needs to be solved

Eddie750

Participating Frequently

Well... you may not like it but I got it working by re-installing to an older MacOS and reinstalled Creative Suite. It's not optimal, but it got me back to work.

Adobe definintely broke something on the update. It's shameful really. I should be billing Adobe for my lost time.

J

James382742095exk

Participant

I've been having this issue too and I'm assuming no one has figured it out yet? It's always something that causes Liquify to not work. Prior to this update, it was a different message about Liquify not working. I've had to restart Photoshop and the computer almost everytime just to get it to work. It's getting beyond frustrating to do this everytime I try to use Liquify.

Does this have anything to do with me opening up the file from Lightroom to edit in Photoshop?

mglush

Community Expert

HI! What version of Photoshop are you running? What is the color mode you re working in? RGB? And is it 8-bit or 16-bit? Have you tried renaming and resaving the file into a different folder to see if that makes a difference?

Michelle

murdoc16

Inspiring

I'm running version 25.9.1. I've been using Photoshop for the past 15 years and have never run unto this issue until I updated to 25.9

This is in RGB color mode 8 bit, which is what I've always been using. Renaming and resaving into a different folder doesn't make a difference. This affects ALL files. Once I have multiple files open in Photoshop, at some point when I try to liquify an image, this error pops up. The only fix is to completely close Photoshop and restart it. However, there will come a point when it happens again once I have worked with more files and try to liquify again. This can happen with any file. It appears this is a program issue, not a file issue, and it's been quite annoying to deal with having to constantly close and restart Photoshop to bypass the error.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

It does rather sound like a glitch. I take it you are not opening the problem folder from a networked server? Have you ever shared files using the Adobe cloud? Or any online source for that matter.

The way I would try to fix an isue like this would be to a) make the problem file/group a Smart Object, and if that didn't work, open it and save-as with a different file name. You could also try right click and Duplicate choosing to send to a new window, and save that and reopen.

All just possible workarounds that I guess we shouldn't need to do — if it is indeed a glitch — but a constantly evoling app as complex as Photoshop, is bound to have issues.

murdoc16

Inspiring

I've started having this issue now too. Never experienced it before. Currently have the latest version, 25.9, could it have anything to do with that?

It happens every few photos I edit, when I use the liquify tool, it shows the prompt (attached):
"Could not complete the Liquify command because the file is locked, you do not have necessary access permissions, or another program is using the file."

After I close the program and restart it, it seems to work again, but a few photos, the error comes up again.

Sameer K

Community Manager

Hey there! I'll need more info to help you figure this out. Please share a video of this behavior & the system info from Photoshop Help > System info > Copy & paste into a text document > upload & attach here.

Are there any other significant applications running in the background? Does this happen with a specific document? Try pressing the ALT/OPT key when you click on Filter > Liquify Filter & check if that helps.

Let me know how it goes. Thanks!
Sameer K

J

James34829141nx6j

Participant

When people have problems with programs on their computers they may have to do some trouble-shooting themselves (or their IT-departments have to do it if such exist).

When they refuse to do so or to answer the question what they have done in that regard what help would you expect one could provide?

As a newcomer to this Forum you may not appreciate how often restoring Preferenecs actually has resolved problems.

Obviously not all problems and I am not claiming there are no bugs in Photoshop, but not every Photoshop problem is a bug.

I work in software development. This issue is a product defect and rather than blather on about nothing for nine months, you should have been addressing the community as to how Adobe plans to correct the defect, when the correction will be rolled out and with which version. [abuse removed]