Photoshop 2024 autosave is not working

[Miloe24237661a625]

Since the last update i noticed PS is not working correctly.

More annoying, it is not autosaving files in cases of crashes.

Several files are missing and are no where to be found and what PS can find, are only very old files which are closed long ago.

I was able to recover one recent file only, which gives me only a png and flattened image, whole this file originally contains several (workable) layers. Again, PS crashes and i once again lost my work.

All is set up for autorecovery, i have used recuva and have searched everywhere for psd, psb and tmp files - its just not there.

Its getting a little bit frustrating and causes that software i pay for actually is not suitable anymore. Noticed that in the 2019 version same problems did occur but i was not able to find the solution.

Anyone knows if there actually is a solution? 

[D Fosse]

It's not auro save. It's auto recovery. The dstinction is significant and not academic.

To get the autorecovery process started, the file has to be saved to disk at least once by the user.

At the intervals you specify in Preferences, the current state of the file is then stored in the Autorecovery folder. Here's the important thing: in a normal and orderly Photoshop shutdown, all content in this folder is deleted.

If Photoshop crashes, it doesn't have time to empty the folder.

When Photoshop starts up, it first goes to this folder and checks if there's anything there. Normally, there won't be anything, and Photoshop just opens with an empty workspace.

If the last exit was a crash, there will be files in the Autorecovery folder, and Photoshop opens these files as it starts up.

In other words, there is no point in looking for any "saved" files. Either it opens automatically, or there won't be anything there because it's been deleted.

[Miloe24237661a625]

It's both - auto save does not work and recovery does not work as well.
If there was any content, recuva should be able to find the files. Currently i have founded files back to 2018, but not the file which i edited yesterday.

Recovery is set for every 5 minutes, the minimum that van be chosen. Only 4 out of 7 files where recovered when i restarted after the crash.

In the end, it used to work perfectly and now it does not.

[Miloe24237661a625]

edit: autosave is set for every 5 minutes.

[Steve Haven]

I don't think you heard what Miloe said.  It's not working.  And BTW, neither is mine.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

You seem to misunderstand what @D Fosse posted. 

If you have an actual problem you want to address please read this (in particular the section titled "Supply pertinent information for more timely and effective answers”) and provide a meaningful description of the issue and your set-up:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/using-the-community/community-how-to-guide-tips-amp-best-practices/td...

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@Miloe24237661a625 @Steve Haven one big item to note is the auto-save feature only works if your Photoshop actually crashes (shuts down and gives a crash report) - not force-quit, power interruptions, etc.

[NB, colourmanagement net]

@Kevin Stohlmeyer Yeah as @DFosse noted  "Autorecovery is crash recovery - - - If the file has been closed without saving, it is deleted from the autorecovery folder. If Photoshop is closed down, the entire content of the autorecovery folder is deleted"  its really auto recover not auto save.

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net - adobe forum volunteer - co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management
Help others by clicking "Correct Answer" if the question is answered.
Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

[rdenney]

Then what is the point? The whole point of autorecover is to recover any file that was not saved prior to an unintended interruption, be it PS crashing, the OS crashing, the OS forcing a restart when I'm not sitting there, or the power going out. In all these cases, either PS never has the chance to ask me if I want to save a file, in which case the latest autorecover file should be there, or I wasn't there to answer the Save? dialog, in which case the autorecover file should still be there. If I'm not there to answer the question, it is NOT an orderly shut-down.

[D Fosse]

@rdenney 

OK, here's how it's supposed to work - and not supposed to work. The fact is that a lot of people mistake this for autosave, which it isn't, so it's necessary to establish this first - not necessarily for you, but for all the others reading this.

Disclaimer: I haven't seen a crash in ten years, and I'm not yanking the power cord just to prove a point. So I can't test this - but by all accounts, this works as designed.

First of all, you need to save the file to disk once. This way the autorecovery folder isn't flooded with files you just open and dismiss again.

Then, after the specified time interval has elapsed, 5 minutes to an hour, a recovery file is created and stored in the system TEMP directory. It's updated at the same intervals.

Here's the thing: When Photoshop closes in a regular and normal shutdown sequence, the contents of the autorecovery folder is deleted. If the application crashes, the OS crashes, or the power is cut, the folder is not emptied; there isn't time.

When Photoshop starts up, it looks in the Autorecovery folder. If there's anything there, it's opened automatically. Normally, there won't be anything there and the folder is empty.

So it always needs to be asked: Did you save the file first? Did the specified time interval pass before the crash?

[Vibrant_Diamond0D4C]

I couldn't agree more! What's missing is an advanced automatic backup function!

It's great that there's an interest in recovering from an unplanned shutdown of Photoshop! But an automatic backup function based on the same principle could very well exist. After all, most of the time, you realize what's going on right away! So a simple recovery file created when you say no, and deleted later when you restart for exemple, could very well solve the problem.
There's nothing more horrifying than realizing in an instant that you've just shut down without saving and telling yourself that you've just lost 5 hours of work and that there's no way of going back. Whereas if it had crashed, we'd have been saved. It's a real shame.

[D Fosse]

This is basically about not eating up a lot of disk space unnecessarily. Already, there's enough people who can't understand why Photoshop is using so much disk space during operation. If it remained after closing, it would cause a lot more complaints.

[Vibrant_Diamond0D4C]

Yes, of course. I udnerstand that. Of course, it would be unthinkable for it to keep all the files in duplicate, but there are more realistic solutions that can take up very little space! That's why I was saying that it would be enough just to put them in a temp folder that would be emptied on each reboot, or at a certain time with the weekly feed, for example, which could be activated and adjusted. In my case, 1 day's backup would simply enough. I rarely make mistakes, but sometimes I forget to save because of a missclick or a quick action. What is explained here must have happened to me 5 times in 2 years. As many times as a Photoshop crash, I'd say. When it happens, I know I've made a mistake in the moment. It's pretty frustrating, I must say.

[AcailawenArt]

Autorecovery is not working for me, either. I just lost an hour or more worth of work due to a Photoshop crash and the recovery file never came up as an option, even though autosave is set to every five minutes. This is the third crash on this document in the past day or two and not once has the option to recovery option come up. This is on a document that has been saved numerous times over the past few weeks. I'm working in version 25.5.0, but it hasn't worked since I upgraded. 

Autorecovery works as expected in Photoshop 2023, so I'm about to roll back. This needs to be fixed. 

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@AcailawenArt autosave activates recovery for very specific crash situations. When you crashed - do you get a crash report from Adobe to submit? What happens when you crash?

[AcailawenArt]

I have not received a crash report within the software, but I found a "crash file" in the Adobe 2024 log folder in app data/roaming the same day I posted. I only discovered it after my entire brush library unexpectedly deleted itself. I had to restore it from a backup brushes.psp file. I was never given an option within the software to report the crash. Photoshop behaved as if nothing had happened so I'm not sure how to submit it. I was changing tools when the app locked up and then suddenly closed (i.e. crashed). Weirdly, this is the only crash file in that folder, despite this happening multiple times over the past week. I finally went back to Photoshop 2023, because I do not consider Photoshop 2024 stable. 

[AcailawenArt]

The crash file from February 26th lists the following exception information:

Exception Code: 0xc0000374
Exception Parameters: 0x5cc138a0
Exception Message: 3221226356 A heap has been corrupted.

I'm on Windows 11 Home - Build 10.0.22631
AMD Ryzen 3700X 8-Core 3600 Mhz Processor
RX 5700 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Card
64 GB of DDR4 memory

I'm also using an XP-Pen Artist 24 pen tablet display monitor with a TourBox Neo.

I believe I was switching either from the clone tool or the eraser to the brush tool when Photoshop crashed this time. When I came back into the software it was as if it had never crashed. No crash report was generated inside of the software and the recovery options never came up.

What would be the best way to submit the crash file and system information to Adobe outside of the software? In the 33 years that I've been using Photoshop I don't believe I've ever submitted a crash report without going through the software.  

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@AcailawenArt Heap corruption means you hit a bad sector of memory. It could be a faulty RAM card.

Photoshop didn't cause the crash - your computer hardware did so there was no auto recovery activated. There is no way to submit a crash report to Adobe outside of the software, but you can bring it here - which you did.

[AcailawenArt]

Thank you for the info, Kevin!

I just ran MemTest86 on my system and no RAM errors were found, so I'm not sure what the underlying cause might have been. Ultimately, if autorecovery isn't initiated when the program unexpectedly closes, then it's not doing what I need it to. I've had multiple issues with Photoshop 2024, like having my entire brush library disappear, brushes with lines in them (just fixed with the latest update), excessive tool lag and random crashes while changing tools that are just killing my productivity. Fortunately, I keep multiple versions of the software installed so I just switched back to Photoshop 2023 for the time being. It's been very stable on my system. 

Thanks again for your time! I appreciate it.