Participating Frequently

Question

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

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
January 13, 2023
3 replies
4031 views

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!

Windows

This topic has been closed for replies.

ClaudiaR99

Community Manager

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

kdoggdraculAuthor

Participating Frequently

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

Community Expert

I am using Adobe CC2019.

Have you tried in Photoshop 2023?

RosaPerry

Inspiring

@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.

Rosa

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

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

Inspiring

@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.
🙂

Rosa

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

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?

kdoggdraculAuthor

Participating Frequently

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

Community Expert

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.

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

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

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.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded