Photoshop CC 2020 MacOS Catalina - Cannot Overwrite File

[pppeepo]

Hi 

Ever since upgrading to Catalina, Photoshop when saving a file, will not overwrite the file, just creates the same filename with _copy appended. I have to manuually delete the original then save - very annoying!

Please could you suggest a workaround ahead of a permanent fix?

Thank you!

[Lumigraphics]

Where are your files located- internal or external or network drive? Have you updated Catalina to 10.15.3?

[pppeepo]

They are all located on the same internal hard drive. Yes, Im using 10.15.3. 

Im using lots of other applications, and none of the others seem to have the same issue - only Photoshop. It happens to whatever file format - TIFF, jpg etc. 

[PECourtejoie]

And is your photoshop up to date on version 21.0.3?

[PECourtejoie]

Do you have all the rights in that folder?

[pppeepo]

Yes, Photoshop is 21.0.3 - I've done this in various subfolders that I have created - same issue. Other applications have been able to write/overwrite fine within in the same structure. 

I can read/write but 'staff' and 'everyone' can read only - just defaults. 

[pppeepo]

I've changed them all to read and write, but still does not work

[Lumigraphics]

Some files WILL be name4d copy by default, it has nothing to do with Catalina.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/save-as-copy-can-t-turn-off/td-p/9137384?page=1

[pppeepo]

Whatever it is, Photoshop, Catalina, it's brand new behaviour since I got this new machine - It just had a clean install of Catalina and the latest Photoshop. Photoshop CC 2020 never used to do this before the Catalina upgrade. 

It doesn't matter jpg, TIFF, whatever, layers flattened or not, if you try to save in any image format over a file, the file name gets appended with _copy. I have to then delete and rename very time which is extremely annoying. 

It's not permissions, and this behaviour is unique to Photoshop - no other apps do it, even in the same directory. 

It obviously is an issue with Photoshop and Catalina:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/m-catalina-save-as-save-as-copy-not-changing-file-name-or-e...

[Guest]

Hello there! I have the same specs and the exact same problems! I even granted Full Disk Access for Photoshop. Photoshop still creates file copies when I want to overwrite files. 

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Just to make sure: Hitting cmd-S creates a copy without any further user input? 

[pppeepo]

What I'm doing is:

+ starting from a PSB file 

+ command+shift+S then select a JPG file that already exists eg file.jpg

+ new file is saved as file_copy.jpg 

Pre Catalina, Photoshop never used to do this - it used to show to 'file already exists. Overwrite?' dialog, then overwrote original file overwritten. 

[Warren Heaton]

This might be a behavior that macOS 10.15 Catalina is introducing.

I'm working with Photoshop 21.0.2 under macOS 10.13 High Sierra and I'm able to switch to saving as a flat JPEG from a layered PSD, have the Save diaplog box automaticaly select and dim "As a Copy", and have no " copy" added the the file name up in the text field.  I'm able to over-write an existing JPEG without " copy" appearing as well.  " copy" only appears if doing a save as to the same PSD format.

I have access to a running Catalina and PS.  I'll try to report back later to see if I can duplicate this unexpected naming behanvior.

[pppeepo]

Thanks Warren!

I had no problems before Catalina. From here they have another issue with
"Save As" not appending '_copy_ to filenames as a known issue with
Catalina. I seem to have the opposite!

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-and-macos-catalina.html

Thanks for your help!

[Warren Heaton]

I upgraded to Catalina over the weekend and gave this a try.  Yikes!

You're still prompted in Photoshop that you're going to replace the existing JPEG, leading you to expect to have one JPEG with the current appearance; however, when you go out to the Finder you'll see the first save as JPEG with the prior appearance and the second save as JPEG with " copy" appeneded to the filename with the current appearance.

Making it more confusing is that if you go back to your layered PSD and save as a JPEG again, you'll always be replacing the JPEG with " copy" in the filename.  At that point, the " copy" JPEG is replaced similar to how one would have expected the first JPEG to be replaced in the first place.

This happens in both PS CC2019 20.0.8 and PS2020 21.1.0 under macOS Catalina 10.15.3.  This does not happen in macOS High Sierra 10.13.

It also happens when using Save As... to save a TIFF or PNG instead of a JPEG.

[Lumigraphics]

That.is.how.it.should.work.

We have explained this multiple times. Its as designed.

[pppeepo]

Thanks Lumigraphics for you reply.

I sense your annoyance 🙂

With the greatest respect, please could you reconsider this default
behaviour, as this is very annoying. When working and having to make
changes and save to the same file multiple times, and each time having to
delete the old one and then rename the "_copy) version is tedious.

If it's just me I can understand, but if you are having to explain this
lots of times, maybe the users are trying to tell you something?

[Lumigraphics]

We are volunteers, not Adobe. I don't know that reasons behind that choice.

[pppeepo]

Firstly, thank you for taking the time to reply and your input on the forum
is definitely appreciated.

I'm not sure if Adobe read these forums? Would it be possible to relay this
back to them? Especially if you are finding that you have to repeat
yourself at with this?

In the meantime, and if this is default behaviour, Im going to use
Affinity for this sort fo work.

[Sterphy]

It's designed so that if you specifically DO NOT click "save as copy", and when the dialogue asks if you want to replace the existing file, it still saves as copy and doesn't replace the file?   OK that makes perfect sense.  What an amazingly well designed feature.  It's insane that people are confused by this  -_- 

[Gerhard_Draws]

It's just annoying... Photoshop is the only app that wants you to do all this and the problem is that some of us work with multiple files that gets referenced and updated frequently in other apps like AfterFX. So it's a workflow issue. 

Sometimes you forget to do the workaround and you just hit save, not noticing it adding the stupid "_copy" onto the end of the file... you carry on working on all the other files, render to meet your deadline... then the file doesn't get updated. 

Sure nobody is dying because of it but I'd prefer it being simpler. They should at least give you the option to switch back to the simple workflow. So it works like all the other apps we use

[Sterphy]

To be fair it is quite a big problem.  For editing a JPEG/PNG sequence from After Effects it significantly slows down productivity.  If I'm paying this amount of money for software I use as a tool I don't expect to have to use workarounds.  

[Warren Heaton]

Perhaps a better way to describe it is this as follows:

Unexpected behavior when using File > Save As... to replace a JPEG, PNG or TIFF.  Instead of replacing the exiting JPEG, PNG, or TIFF, a copy is created (resulting in two files rather than a single, replaced file).  Using File > Save As... again will result in the copy being replaced as one would expect of the first file.

The expected behavior is that File > Save As.. will replace the existing JPEG, PNG or TIFF file without creating copy.

Workaround for JPEG:

Use File > Export > Export As....  Existing JPEGs will be replaced as expected.  Or,

Move the existing JPEG to the Trash prior to using File > Save As...

Workaround for PNG:

Use File > Export > Export As... or File > Export > Quick Export as PNG.  Existing PNGs will be replaced as expected.  Or,

Move the existing PNG to the Trash prior to using File > Save As...

Workaround for TIFF:

Move the existing TIFF to the Trash prior to using File > Save As....

This affects Photoshop CC2019 (20.0.8) and Photoshop 2020 (21.1.0) under macOS Catalina 10.15.3.

Hopefully replacing a file returns to how it behaved under prior versions of macOS sometime soon. 

[karenlewis]

Thank you for this. 
I'm having the same issue, working on a large project integrating Photoshop and Indesign and it is MADDENING.
The workaround is not as efficient as I'd like, but so much better than constantly weeding or renaming files. 

[AdamID93]

Same problem on a 2012 and 2018 iMac both running the latest Catalina and PS.