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Participant
June 14, 2023
Answered

PNG files not transparent in Photoshop

  • June 14, 2023
  • 10 replies
  • 43798 views

HI

Is anyone else having issues exporting files as png, on the preview it looks transparent but is saving with a white background. When I bring the image back in photoshop, background is still white. It was fine yesterday. Dont know if I am doing something wrong or if there is a bug. Please help, I have searched youtube and forums and can't find an answer that works

 

 

{Title edited by Moderator}

Correct answer ciaragu

I had the same issue. I copied the elements to a new file without an artboard (unchecked the artboard when creating the file) and it exported perfectly as a png with no bg. Hopefully this helps! 

10 replies

ciaraguCorrect answer
Participant
July 24, 2025

I had the same issue. I copied the elements to a new file without an artboard (unchecked the artboard when creating the file) and it exported perfectly as a png with no bg. Hopefully this helps! 

SoundCreator
Participant
March 12, 2025

I am having the same issue and so much more going off on Photoshop 2025. Is it the AI?  Why do companies keep putting out sloppy updates that we the public users have to show what is wrong so they can fix it.  This is really cutting into work productivity and is very disrespectful to customers. That is the best I can come up with. 

Participant
January 12, 2025

I was getting frustrated with this too, but I found a workaround. In the Save for Web option, change the transparency to Diffusion Transparency Dither, then set it to 0%. Then you'll get the transparency without the diffusion. Hope this helps!

Contentush
Participant
November 9, 2024

what worked for me:

isolate layer of the png you want to have a transparent background, right-click on the isolated layer then quick export as png. that worked for me!!!

Participant
September 4, 2024

It randomly stopped saving the background as transparent on my PNGs I was working with. Under Document Properties I switched the mode to RGB color and it fixed it. That was annoying. 

Participant
July 23, 2024

I fixed this for myself by ungrouping the artboard. Let me know if that works for you. I had this same issue and it was so frustrating. 

Participant
July 31, 2024

Yes it did, thanks mate! YOU ROCK!

 

Participant
July 21, 2024

in case this helps anyone else, check your artboard properties. althrough every layer may be transparent, the artboard seems to apply a white background to itself? my fix was switching this to transparent.

Participant
December 10, 2024

Dude, you've just saved my nerves, really. Thanks!

Participant
April 25, 2024

This did not work for me. I've never had this issue before 😕😕 so frustrating. I just want my background to be transparent. Am I supposed to now switch to a different app? 

Participant
June 26, 2024

Hi there!

 

I felt like a fool when I realized I had a background layer preventing me from saving as PNG. As soon as I delted the background layer I was able to save as a PNG like normal.

 

Hope this helps!

Participant
April 25, 2025

This fixed my issue. Thank you so much.

Caity.psd
Community Manager
Community Manager
August 28, 2023

This issue came up in our Discord, the workaround was to drop the .PNG into Adobe XD or Illustrator, and from there export as a .png and try opening that newly saved .png inside of Photoshop. It seems to be an alpha channel issues for some .pngs. 

Participant
January 25, 2024

You may export it (CTRL-SHIFT-ALT-W) as a PNG directly from Photoshop. Then it will have a transparent background. If you export to an other format it will have a white background in the saved file. Stupid, but that is how it is...

Ranjisha Sengupta
Legend
June 14, 2023

Hi @Juanita M22462745z6dj 

 

Thanks for reaching out; we will help you with this.

How are you saving the files? What is the file format? 

If you have Photoshop Layers, and you remove or delete the background so that it is transparent --- it will stay transparent in the PSD file, but if you try to export to export it for the web, you might see a WHITE background for GIF, PNG, and JPEG. 

 

If the PNG is not showing transparent in Photoshop, go to the Properties panel (if it's not open, you can go to Window > Properties), and under the Artboard background color, change the dropdown menu to Transparent.

 

Let us know if that answers the question.

 

Best,

Ranjisha

Participant
October 31, 2023

I deleted my background and get a white background upon saving. So dumb. Serves absolutely no purpose but to waste people's time. 

[Abuse removed by moderator]