Photoshop saves tif-files bigger as usual with same settings

[André Mardari-Braun]

Dear community,

following issue occurs: until the latest version of PS I saved very big 16-bit-tif-files with the following settings:
compression: none, 
image pyramid: unchecked,
Interleaved, Macintosh, RLE

They never exceeded 4 gb so that I could save them as tif-files (they were about 2 - 3 gb).

Since the update to version 24.1 (PS 2023) I get the warning that the file could not be saved as it exceeds the 4gb limit of tif-images though I used exactly the same settings for saving the files

I tried to save older pictures I was editing and saving with the older version of photoshop and suddenly they got bigger too when saving them with the new version.

Has anybody an idea how this can occur?

Best wishes,
André

[D Fosse]

There was a recent bug - now fixed - that applied RLE compression to PSD/PSB even when all compression was unchecked in preferences.

I've seen some posts that indicates this happened to TIFF too. If that is the case, that would explain it.

What's the file size on disk now, compared to what the resulting file size is if you resave as PSB? They should be roughly the same. If not, there is some compression at play in the earlier file saves.

Note that the TIFF layer compression complicates things a bit. It's not the same as RLE image compression (which is what the bug did) - but how much it affects file size I don't know.

[André Mardari-Braun]

Thanks for your response!
When I now resave an older tif-image that had a size of around 2 - 3 gb either as a .tif or as .psd the file size exceeds the limit of 4gb so I cannot even save them. This was never before the case so it has to be that bug.

But how could it be, that it still occurs given the fact that it should be fixed yet and I updated photoshop only yesterday?

[D Fosse]

You can resave as PSB. What size then?

[André Mardari-Braun]

I just resaved an uncompressed .tif-image that was saved with a former version of photoshop and has a file-size of 3.09 gb as .psb and its size is 2.42 gb.

[D Fosse]

And you're sure the PSB is uncomressed? You set that up in Photoshop Preferences. If it is, that should also go under the 4GB tiff limit, so I don't understand why that can't be resaved.

Maybe it really is a bug.

[André Mardari-Braun]

In fact I just discovered in the preferences that the box at "disable compression of psd.- and psb.-files" was unchecked which means, that a compression may be applied to the psb.-file.
I just resaved the older saved tif.-image with a uncompressed size of 3.09 gb as uncompressed psb.-file (I activated the box) and the size is now 7.35 gb.

[André Mardari-Braun]

Unfortunatelly also the youngest update (24.1) didn't fix this really annoying issue.
I had to downgrade PS to version 23.0.0 since I tried several version and the issue occurs from around version 23.5.x somewhat. In the first version of 23 the .tiff-file has its 'usual' size.
Just fyi.

Best wishes
André

[Jeffrey Tranberry]

I wonder if there's some stale setting somewhere:

Let's make sure we're in a default state and there are no stale settings somewhere:
Restore your preferences using this manual method:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html#Manually
Does it work correctly?
If that doesn't solve it, you can quit Photoshop and put the Settings folder back.

Another thing to look at, what does Photoshop report for Document Sizes and Document Dimensions?

[André Mardari-Braun]

The document size in the newest version of photoshop (24.1) is displayed as the same as in the old version (23.0).

I doubt that it is an issue of a stale setting, as I have both versions simultaneously running and only the new one writes the files too big.
Are all the concerning presets of photoshop on mac saved in the programs folder or are there also some of them elsewhere in the user or library folder?

[D Fosse]

The preferences file contains a lot more than your own user settings. It's the full application configuration, including lots of settings written in the background.

The prefs file is stored in your user account, separate from the program files. It is rewritten and resaved on every application exit, as opposed to program files that are read-only. For this reason, preferences are particularly prone to corruption. Errors accumulate, and an irregular shutdown can be enough. Migrating preferences from an old version is also a bit risky (they may not mean exactly the same in the new version).

A corrupt preferences file can cause the most unexpected and strange behavior.

[André Mardari-Braun]

Ok, so where exactl in the user folder is that preferences-file that I have to remove for a potential troubleshooting?

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

Scroll down to "Reset Photoshop Preferences":

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html

Edit: The following may also be helpful –

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html#Manually

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-ideas/reset-preferences-should-back-them-up-inclu...

[André Mardari-Braun]

Thank you and sorry, I just saw, that Jeffrey Tranberry already put the link for the instructions.
I just tried it out and unfortunately the file is still bigger than the same file saved with the older photoshop version but, and this is really strange, a little smaller than before removing the settings. I just don't get it anymore ... 

[André Mardari-Braun]

I just put back the old setting files and the file size is now the same again as with cleared settings. So unfortunately this didn't help anything. Still the same files saved with the newer version of photoshop are bigger than when I save them with the older version, regardless the state of the preferences files (whether they are cleared or not).