Participant

Answered

Photoshop file disappeared after being saved

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
January 25, 2017
16 replies
46209 views

I've been working on a project for several days and I saved it each time before leaving my laptop, but today when I went on the file was nowhere to be found. On the other day's when I would open Photoshop the file would be in the "recent files" tab and I could continue where I left off. I've tried searching under all my files on my MacBook but I still cannot find it.

Correct answer Theresa J

Assuming you remember what you named the file, you can search for it using the Spotlight Search on your MacBook. It will be somewhere on your laptop unless you:

A) saved it to a server or external drive that you are not currently mounted to. This could be dropbox, or Creative Cloud files library, or

B) accidentally deleted the file, or the folder it was saved into

Show previous replies

J

JohnFranks

Participant

I've just had a file "disappear" with Photoshop 2020. Saved the file to my desktop, I go looking on my desktop and it's nowhere to be found. Open Photoshop, click open file and it's there. I delete the file through the file manager in Photoshop and it doesn't even show in the recycling bin. Save a different file in photoshop as a PNG and the same thing. That. Is. Crap

S

Swaffs

Participant

I've had the same problem, never happened before. I save some designs yesterday and now nowhere to be found. I've searched by name and files are empty. I had copied as JPEG into word and they are there but cannot get back into Photoshop to edit. Awful waste of time!

I

Inini1

Participant

I just the problem yesterday, actually on friday, but I saved my graphic file in 3 formats, jpg, psd and png. Yesterday I was going to continue working on the file, clicked on the recent document psd file on open and the file disappeared along with the copies I made it seems. I did like everyone on this thread I looked elsewhere on my computer( its a mac) to now avail. I checked my trash box to see if I deleted it but nothing. I am using ps2020 latest version as of this date. I am at wits end! What do I do?

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IoanaDesign

Participant

My file doesn't show up although it exists. This is extra weird. I have a file i am working on that is located on a external disk. Everything was fine with other files but this one does not appear in the folder it exists. I can reopen it from recent files but the folder it is in doesn't show it. This happens with everything i have exported from it. I exported an png sequence in a new creted folder from the photoshop window. That folder doesn't show also or the files it contains. But they exist and i can open them from finder search. If i want to "save as" i can see all the "invisible" files there.

I solved the issue by saving it in different disk. On the external disk didn't work (i have enough free space). I saved on the desktop and now i can see it. I have no idea why it is happening. All other psd files work fine on the external.

O

one2baia@msn.com

Participating Frequently

Is it possible that this is an Apple Catalina issue for those of us using a Mac? I only ask as I just noticed the same issue with Adobe Acrobat DC. I did a "save as" and like the message posted by IoanaDesign I can see the files in the recently opened lists and I can also see other hidden files grayed out. When I go to finder I see none of these. Or since this is also an Adobe product is it still an Adobe issue?

Thanks!

Steve Lewis
[email removed by moderator]

Sent from my iPad

V

ViniDiMambro

Participant

i can confirm that im running catalina. since upgrading this has happened at least 4 times - twice this weekend alone. never experienced this issue prior.

i also upgraded to cc around the same time, so it could be some cocktail of in communication between the two new softwares... though, lets just blame it on catalina..

has anyone found a resolve? i would love to not start from scratch, but i also really need to get paid. ha

Roelliej

Participant

I don't know how and why but this just happened to me. I loaded a file from an SSD but as it was quite huge (multiple artboards) I decided to duplicate some artboards to a new canvas. Closed the big document, responded "Yes" to save the changes, then noticed it was very slow, and then remembered I didn't actually change anything, I just duplicated some artboards onto a new canvas. So I hit escape to cancel out of the saving process, closed the window. Now the whole file is gone. This shouldn't have happened since I should still have the old version of the file, but it isn't anywhere. Tried searching by filename, but to no avail.

PECourtejoie

Community Expert

Hello, check in your scratch disk if there is an autorecover folder.

Also, you can check in: c:\users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC###\Autorecover

or Mac: [user library]>Application Support>Adobe>Adobe Photoshop CC####>Autorecover

A

amandible

Participant

SOLVED FOR ME: I found my file because of your advice on where to check so THANK YOU! I remembered key words in my file name but despite several searches the file was not showing up in the results. I had saved this file several times, over several different days, on my computer in my creative cloud files and there was no history of it locally or online even though I was signed in with no syncing issues. This is my second bad experience with creative cloud not saving or storing versions of the file.

G

GD Teach

Participating Frequently

I realize this is an older thread but have two such incidences happen in my student lab in recent weeks. The first was a project we had worked on several different sessions. The file was missing when student went to hand it in. I took it as an operator error. Today it happened on a seperate computer. I know the file was created several days ago. Was opened and used yesterday but today nowhere to be found. On the home screen there is a several week gap in the recent file history. Under Open Recent none of the files from yesterday are listed. The file also no longer exhists in the folder where it had been saved. Each user has their own login so another user did not have access to this computer.

K

kcobb

Participant

I have been teaching Photoshop for 20 years and this is the first time I have been experiencing the same thing as GD_Teach. This is the first time this has ever happened to my students and it is very frustrating. They definitely saved their projects. The next day it is gone! I dont know who to ask for help because no one at my school uses Photoshop and they wouldnt understand what is happening. Anyone out there have an answer????

D Fosse

Community Expert

First of all: _don't_ use or rely on the recent files list!! It doesn' show the real location of the file, it' s just a dead link to wherever it was first saved. Use a proper file explorer.

Was it saved to desktop? Is that desktop in MS/Apple cloud, which you can now do, or is it local disk? Cloud desktop is known to cause this.

PECourtejoie

Community Expert

Hello!

When such thing happens to me (I do not remember where I saved, I usually create a new document, then try to save it, to find the folder you previously saved into.)

Theresa J

Community Expert

Good tip. I've done that a few times myself.

Theresa J

Correct answer

Community Expert

Assuming you remember what you named the file, you can search for it using the Spotlight Search on your MacBook. It will be somewhere on your laptop unless you:

A) saved it to a server or external drive that you are not currently mounted to. This could be dropbox, or Creative Cloud files library, or

B) accidentally deleted the file, or the folder it was saved into

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