My Brushes.psp file is over 2 Gb, so they are not loaded into the Photoshop. Is there a workaround?

[kdoggdracul]

Hi,

I am a digital painter and I use many brushes in Photoshop. I had lost my brushes in the past when they got over 2 Gb. Yesterday, I had to load a couple more for a project, but I forgot to delete them when exiting the program. The Brushes.psp file got to 2.02 Gb, and now all my brushes are gone, the program loads with only the default brushes.

Is there any way I can make this file smaller or any other workaround I can try?

I tried restarting my computer, starting Photoshop as an admin, nothing works.

Thank you!

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Did you ever save your custom Brushes as abr-files? 

I was not aware of a size limitation for brushes.psp in the preferences, could you provide the file? 

[kdoggdracul]

I saved them a while ago, as I find it hard to always keep this in mind. 

It does have a size limitation, I do not particularly understand why is this not made public knowledge by Adobe, there are so many similar problems. But what truly boggles my mind is why there is no pop-up warning, "dude, you're exceeding the memory limit", something, as I cannot waste my time with these concerns and constantly check the size of the brushes I import, the size of the library and so on.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

That’s why it’s recommendable to save all Brushes that have proven useful in meaningfully structured abr-files before »something bad« happens.

Or in the case of bought/downloaded Brushes keep the original abr-files. 

The size limitation is not the only potential problem, preferences files can simply get corrupted and cause the loss of other unsaved presets (Actions, Patterns, Styles etc.), too. 

[kdoggdracul]

What is most frustrating is that I do have the Brushes.psp file. It's not magically gone, it's just 2 Mb over the limit, but now I cannot do anything with it, as PS won't open it. So I posted hoping that someone from Adobe would know how to reduce this size through some bit of coding, but I presume they don't even read such topics. 

An auto-backup system for such things would be very welcome by default, I am no expert programmer, but it doesn't seem impossible to implement, they do it in games with infinitely more variables than a mere brush set. Even PS does it with autosaving files. But autosaving brush libraries beyond the limit that the program can open makes absolutely zero sense to me. Why do you save it if you know you cannot open it? Why is no warning triggered? 

It is my fault for not saving everything, that I do admit. But there is also the sheer lack of quite obvious Quality of Life improvements. But then again, Adobe never cared too much for digital painters. 

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Do you have some general back-up system (on Mac Time Machine for example)? 

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but I presume they don't even read such topics.  

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If you want to make sure your post registers at Adobe post a Bug Report or a Feature Request (about an excess-size-warning). 

I think your issue would qualify for both, but even if those will be processed there is no guarantee an Adobe employee will post a response. 

[kdoggdracul]

I have tried System Restore from Windows. Not only it didn't fix anything, but it also bugged my Chrome browser so that it would not open, so I spent an extra hour of my life troubleshooting that. 

Pretty sure the people from Adobe are aware of this problem, it doesn't take too much logic to realize that overwriting the library file beyond the reading capacity of the program is not exactly good programming. But they did it anyway.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

»The people at Adobe« is a vague term, you are probably right that some members of the Photoshop team were at some point in time aware of the limitation. 

Whether those members are still with Adobe or still involved with these aspects of Photoshop or whether there actually was a aspecific decision to maintain the limitation (for backward compatibility issues for example) – who knows? 

I did a Forum search and the issue seems to come up extremely rarely, so please post a Bug Report (or Feature Request) to make sure to remind the Photoshop team that the issue exists/persists AND that there are people affected by it. 

[kdoggdracul]

While I agree with your statement about staff (although the product needs to be fixed and updated regardless of its original designers, it's a service, it can't depend on a particular group of employees), the issue is far from being extremely rare, it's common knowledge among artist circles among many other problems that Adobe has ignored for years. People probably read the other posts, as well as the topics on Reddit, and they only see peers complaining and no real solution. I did that, as well, I read everything before deciding to post about it.  

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I can’t rule out that this thread »pays off« and someone else might have the cunning to salvage the file, but so far this is just a conversation amongst Photoshop users. (Edit: a conversation about one of Photoshop’s several problems) 

If you want Adobe to »hear« you you need to post a Bug Report or Feature Request! 

[RosaPerry]

@kdoggdracul 

I think it's a good idea to raise it as a Bug Report.

I've just been reading this thread:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/maximum-number-of-brushes/td-p/940256...

[kdoggdracul]

I posted in the Feature Request section. I have read that thread, but the 2 Gb limit is real and has no workaround until they actually do something about it. It does sound like more of a bug than a feature.

I wanted help with this problem now, not in the far distant future with some extra feature they *may* implement in 2030 (plenty of old topics done on the matter, utterly and completely ignored). But this is the last time I waste an entire day with such problems, if I cannot make it myself, I'll hire someone to write me a script to autosave those brushes each time I import a new brush pack.

Still, it's unbelievable to me that Adobe cannot handle something so basic, and in 2023 this is still a thing. 

[RosaPerry]

@kdoggdracul 
I have the same problem. I'm also a digital painter and if my Brushes.psp file is larger than 2Gb, I lose them when Photoshop launches.
I actually save my brushes in another location on my hard drive so that when this happens, I can reload my brushes easily.

So, this is what I do.

I save all my original brushes in another location. 

To make my Brushes.psp size smaller, I open the original brushes open in Photoshop, I delete the brushes out of sets that I don't use and then save those brushes as new abr. and name them accordingly.

This has saved me heaps of space in the Brushes.psp file. I had brushes over 2Gb and now after deleting brushes that I didn't use much I was able to get my brushes to 1.5Gb.

I've always saved my brushes at another location on my hard drive rather than in the Photoshop directory.

I hope this makes sense and that it helps you.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

On Mac it is customary to save the individual abr-files in 

Users/[user name]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop [version]/Presets/Brushes

that way they are available from the Brushes Panel’s flyout menu. 

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/preference-file-names-locations-photoshop.html

Naturally backing up those files is prudent.  

[RosaPerry]

@c.pfaffenbichler 
I have a Windows OS and I don't have any other brushes but the default brushes in my C:Program Files\Adobe\AdobePhotoshop 2023\Presets\Brushes folder.

Even though I've saved my 'other brushes' in another location on my hard drive, I still have those 'other brushes' available from the Brushes Panel's flyout menu as well as the default brushes.
🙂

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Maybe you saved them in 

Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop [version]\Presets\Brushes

anyway, that is the Windows-equivalent to Mac’s User Preferences-folder. 

[RosaPerry]

@c.pfaffenbichler 
No, the brushes folder is empty in my \AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2023\Presets\Brushes.
Ever since I had PS CC (after CS6) I always saved my extra brushes in another location as I was told years ago that having too many brushes loaded could slow PS performance.

This is really interesting.

[kdoggdracul]

Yes, thank you. I used to keep them around 1.7 Gb, as well, but it was negligent of me to not save them. I exceeded the memory limit by 2 Mb, now I have to go through the pain of restoring everything, WHILE keeping in mind to constantly save my brushes, because Adobe cannot make a checkmark for that to handle itself or at least extend the memory limit or give a warning of some kind. 

I really understand why a lot of people switch from this software. 

[ClaudiaR99]

Hello @kdoggdracul can you let me know what version of Ps are you using? Thanks!

[kdoggdracul]

Hello, 

I am using Adobe CC2019. I don't know the exact version, but this is not a version-specific bug, it happened to me multiple times with all kinds of versions, on multiple machines. It's very easy to replicate if you have enough brush packs to load into Photoshop, and for a digital painter, hoarding tons of brushes is quite common. Once Brushes.psp gets over 2 Gb, they are all gone and the default brushes are reinstated. 

Is there a workaround for decreasing the size of this file, so I can get my brushes back? 

[c.pfaffenbichler]

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I am using Adobe CC2019. 

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Have you tried in Photoshop 2023? 

[kdoggdracul]

No, I have not. There have been plenty of problems with the yearly updates, in terms of brush lag and such, that I am not so keen on trying other updates on this particular PC at home, where I paint. I may try it at work one day. Why, is the 2 Gb limit removed in PS 2023?

[c.pfaffenbichler]

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@kdoggdracul wrote:

No, I have not. There have been plenty of problems with the yearly updates, in terms of brush lag and such, that I am not so keen on trying other updates on this particular PC at home, where I paint. I may try it at work one day. Why, is the 2 Gb limit removed in PS 2023?

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I don’t know.

But I asked you in post 1 to provide the file – with that I might find out.