Photoshop File Corrupted After PC Restart

[ai_1897]

I’m facing a serious issue with one of my Photoshop files. After my PC restarted unexpectedly, the PSD file seems to have become corrupted. When I try to open it, all the layers appear to be merged, and instead of my original design, I only see a red and green distorted screen.

Details:
File Size: 887 MB
Problem: All layers and folders are missing — the file opens as a single flat image with a green/red overlay
Event: Corruption occurred after a sudden PC restart
Tried: I also tried opening the file on another PC, but the same issue appears.

I’ve already tried reopening Photoshop, duplicating the file, and checking backups, but nothing has worked so far. Could you please suggest any way to recover this file or restore the original layers?

I can share the PSD file if needed for further analysis.

[Sameer K]

Hey, @ai_1897. Welcome to the Photoshop Community. I'll move your response to discussions for now. Was the document/image stored on an external drive or in a folder associated with cloud backup services? Working through a network or external drive is unpredictable & is not recommended. Head here to learn more: https://adobe.ly/3A2G2zK

Please head here to troubleshoot a corrupted file: https://adobe.ly/4qYvIP1

I hope this helps. Thanks!
Sameer K
(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

[D Fosse · Accepted solution]

File corruption is always caused by hardware failure. If the file was in the process of saving when the machine restarted, it's gone. However, directly saving to external storage can also corrupt files, as @Sameer K  says, irrespective of the hard restart.

This is why we all keep backups, and for important files save incrementally so we always have something to fall back on. A file already on disk can not be corrupted except if the disk itself is failing.

Photoshop has crash recovery, set in Preferences. This keeps working copies in a recovery folder, which is just emptied in a normal shutdown. If the application crashes, however, there is no normal shutdown sequence, so the content of this folder remains. When Photoshop starts up, it looks in this folder, and if there is something there, it opens automatically on next launch. The point is, there's nothing to "look for". It either opens by itself, or there is nothing there.

Note: For the crash recovery procedure to initiate, the file has to be saved to disk at least once.

It's possible to have the very bad luck of the recovery file being saved at the exact instant the application crashes.