Photoshop merged my layers for me, can I recover

I am having the same problem in 2021. It has happened to me more than onc's just don't know whats going on with photoshop. I hope photoshop find away for us to get back our flat files back or else trouble for designers. I now need to go back and redo the whole work again. That is not fair at all.

Hi eb.munson,

Some great tips here. I hope I can usefully add to them.

I realise this is NOT going to solve your issue but it might prevent someone getting the same problem later.

I NEVER flatten the layered original file, never.

This is what I do.

I'll write why below

I'm not describing a variation of exactly what you did for sure - but this way seems safe to me.

I prefer to avoid the "flatten during saving" option -  I think it's a loaded gun.

I prefer to flatten before saving, just so I see the flat file and can check for any issues with mask edges etc.

BUT I never flatten the original PSD.

I save my completed layered full size file [that’s my future proof archive full size copy and I want to be real careful not to save a flat version over that original (yeah, it's happened due to mis-attention, maybe the phone rings, long call, now back to work - - where am I, ah - OK - done that - close the file - oops it had been flattened!)]]

I make a copy flatten and resize then sharpen to suit the output media - then I save that (maybe as a JPEG) with a new name, so know what i did.

Then I delete the copy.

I hope this helps someone

if so, please do mark my reply as "helpful"

thanks

neil barstow, colourmanagement

I too have about 20 years experience with Photoshop and it has happened to me on at least 3 occasions.  It just happened today, which is why I'm on this forum.  I lost several hours of work again.  Very frustrating.

What a disappointment that Adobe doesn't got on this thread and at least acknowledge the bug and give us hope for a fix.

... it doesn't help that people like bichler live up to their name and add insult to injury.

maybe if you use time machine on your Mac you can get your layered file back from an older date. Just a suggestion.

Very definitely a bug with Photoshop after saving to PDF, which seems to be happening quite frequently, without a doubt. Here's my current workflow.

1. Create and work on, let's say, original.psd.

2. Save original.psd to folder.

3. Save as original.pdf.

Now, the file name reflects as original.pdf in my open Photoshop window, but still shows all the layers. To make sure I keep the file intact, I save again as original.psd as the layers all show.

After closing and opening the file again, the PSD is now a single layer. Can anyone explain that to me please?

If the open and active file has Layers or other features that conflict with what the jpg-format allows (16bit, additional Channels, …) then selecting »jpg« as the Format in the Save-dialog automatically triggers »As a Copy« (at least for several versions now) and that creates a new jpg-file without any effect on the open layered file.

So if one had (needlessly) flattened an open layered psd, psb or tif file that is also 16bit or has non-composite Channels before saving the jpg copy the open file is flattened but it is not the jpg!

Is there any way I can recover all that work or have I been hosed by this "feature"?

You have very probably messed up yourself; as Trevor mentioned others have committed errors on such operations, too, but trying to lay the blame on the application will do you little good. 

If you save a copy off of a file you may want to check »As a Copy« when doing the Save As in the future, that way the open document stays the file it has been before.