Photoshop Running but Project Window Disappeared

[eveliadesigns]

I am running PhotoshopCC 2017 and creating a project. Then I may check Mail, go to Numbers and enter some info. Perhaps go to Safari or the scanner or just some other application. I usually Option Click the desktop to hide Photoshop. Then I go back to Photoshop by clicking on the icon in my dashboard. Photoshop shows that it is still running but my project window is gone (hidden?). Nothing I do can bring it back. I check Spaces. No project window... How the heck do I bring it back without having to quit Photoshop? I tried "show all windows" and I get, "No Available Windows".

iMac, Mid 2011 running Sierra 10.12.4

I have only one monitor

[msmovies]

Perhaps you closed it by accident. If you saved it while you were working on it (hoping you did!), trying looking at recent files.

[eveliadesigns]

Hi,

No, that would be too easy. When this occurs, I have to quit Photoshop and when I do, it asks me if I want to SAVE my open document. The problem is, my open document is not viewable. So, it is acknowledging that I have an open document. I just can’t see it.

Evelia

[msmovies]

What happens if you try "save as" and then close and reopen Photoshop?

[eveliadesigns]

Hi,

If I did this it would do exactly that. Save as, then close and then reopen it.

I understand I may be having difficulty explaining the situation.

Imagine: Photoshop is open and so is my document I am working on. Then I hold the Option key and click on my desktop. (Essentially I am right clicking onto my desktop to hide photoshop so I can get to something else that is on my desktop. Then when I want to go back to my open document in photoshop, I click on the Ps (photoshop) icon in my dock. I can do this a lot and my document will come up. But sometimes…. It doesn’t. Nothing I do can get that document to view itself. Photoshop is up and running, I can even go to the open menu and pick a new document and tell it to open, and it acts like it is but that won’t even view. Where is it? I don’t know… lol

Is Mission Control getting in the way?

Evelia

[ZachRosing]

I'm having this exact same problem. Happened after the most recent major CC update, and the latest minor update hasn't fixed it.

[eveliadesigns]

Hi Zach,

Thanks for posting this! I still don't have a definitive answer/fix for this irritating problem. Reading on-line a suggestion from Adobe was to run your Macintosh in "Safe Mode" which turns off 3rd party "extensions" and is suppose to run Photoshop cleanly. But if I do that, I loose my graphic's card and a few others things I NEED to work with. I did trash my Fetch (by Softworks, file transfer) Short Cut app and I am waiting to see if this No Windows Available happens again. Let me know if you find out anything.

Evelia

[ZachRosing]

Yeah, that's not helpful at all, Adobe. They just need to hurry up and fix this.

I updated to their 2017.1.1 release, but that hasn't fixed anything for me.

[nealbridgens]

I am having this too. On two different macs (everything fully updated).

I use the "Hide other" (command+Option+h) quite often (almost automatically). I'll also option click out of other apps to hide them. Seems to be nothing I can do to bring it back.

I have the menus and can switch documents (check beside) and can save (although completely blind — no dialogue box I have to do it by memory).

Very irritating and I sometimes loose work because of it.

[eveliadesigns]

Hi Neal,

Thanks for posting this! I still don't have a definitive answer/fix for this irritating problem. Reading on-line a suggestion from Adobe was to run your Macintosh in "Safe Mode" which turns off 3rd party "extensions" and is suppose to run Photoshop cleanly. But if I do that, I loose my graphic's card and a few others things I NEED to work with. I did trash my Fetch (by Softworks, file transfer) Short Cut app and I am waiting to see if this No Windows Available happens again. Let me know if you find out anything.

Evelia

[nealbridgens]

Thanks. I'm defiantly not planning on working in safe mode.

Unfortunately this is a sporadic problem, so I can't really directly recreate it. Just every now and then I try to switch back to photoshop and it does this.

I had seen it a number of times on my old system and had kind of written it off as a random quirk, but recently had my system disk take a dive (halfway through rebuilding my backup disk — thank you seagate) and had to do a complete rebuild from new.

Then I saw it on the new system (Mac Pro 5, 12 x 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon), and thought it might be the computer.

Then the other day I had it happen on my MacBook Pro (Retina i7 2.2, 15-inch, Mid 2014) and knew it was a thing.

[ZachRosing]

Anybody else experiencing this problem? Adobe, when are you going to fix this? This is happening to me daily at this point.

[Pixelated Reality]

Plus one.

When Photoshop enters this state I can close, save and open document, with just the dialog boxes appearing. Document itself and app interface is nowhere to be found. Menu bar i visible.

[ZachRosing]

I am NOT able to save or close the document--I can't see any of those dialogues.

[nealbridgens]

Oh I don't see the dialog boxes, I just know they're there and hit the appropriate keys. It's blind computing.

[Pixelated Reality]

If I jump back and forth from Photoshop it triggers my dialog boxes to appear. Before that the "dong" is audible but eventually disappears and actually shows the dialog boxes that should be there. Apparently a full user interface is to much to ask for in this circumstances.

[Pixelated Reality]

Ooops, d-o-n-g is not allowed here. Maybe "ding" is acceptable.

[c.pfaffenbichler · Accepted solution]

When Photoshop enters this state I can close, save and open document, with just the dialog boxes appearing.

Same here.

Affected users may want to add their +1 here:

Photoshop: Hiding sometimes makes it irretrievable | Photoshop Family Customer Community

[ZachRosing]

Would anyone from Adobe care to chime in and let us know when this will be fixed? This is happening daily for me.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

This is a user Forum, so you are not really addressing Adobe here, even though some Adobe employees thankfully have been dropping by.

Official statements might be posted over at feedback.photoshop.com

Photoshop: Hiding sometimes makes it irretrievable | Photoshop Family Customer Community

[cornicellophoto]

Same thing here on Mac since the latest update. Have to quit Photoshop and restart to get the workspace back.

[simon_lucas]

Had this issue on Sierra on a Thunderbolt 3 MacBook Pro with older Apple Display. What started it seemed to the user in our studio having to stop using the external monitor that was causing hardware issues. After that, all the windows in InDesign CC 2017 were invisible even after quit and restart.

What fixed it was: In Mission Control, turn off 'Displays have separate spaces' and turn off 'auto switching of spaces for open windows by the application' (the second option from top). I suspect just the latter option might fix it by itself. I suspect the second space was invisible and the InDesign windows were in it. Hope this helps.

[conniev90293648]

Go to the window menu and turn off Application Frame. This fixed my issue.

[susanjNH]

hooray!

[Abigail24671646u0s5]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!