PS overwriting .cr3 file

[gingerw65874333]

This is an intermittent problem...

From LR, I open a .cr3 file into PS. I make edits and save as I go (as a .psd). Most of the time this process is seamless, but occasionally, instad of saving all of the layers into a .psd file PS simply overwrites the .cr3 file. How does that even happen?? All of the edits I made are now "cooked into" the .cr3 file - except I cannot access/adjust the layers as I could if it were a psd. The resulting .cr3 is unreadable/corrupt acccording to Bridge and the file system (Windows Explorer).  Both LR and PS can read it though.

There is usually a .psd file as well, but it doesn't contain any of my edits as it was created at the very beginning of the edit. And that .psd file is not handed back to LR. The file that is passed back to LR is the .cr3 file with all of the edits embedded, and the original .cr3 is now lost.

It's not a regular, consistent occurance, but it's extremely troublesome when it does. Maybe once every 25-50 images? I cannot repeat it, nor predict when it will happen. Is this a known bug? Is there something I can check/do to prevent it? I'm running PS 25.5.

[D Fosse]

That's not possible. A raw file can never be overwritten. It just cannot happen.

Something else is happening here, but you need to explain in detail what you're doing. Start with one file and take us through it step by step.

[gingerw65874333]

I didn’t think it was possible either, but I assure you it has happened on multiple occasions – which is very frustrating. I’ll try to walk you through it as best I can, but it’s not consistent/repeatable. I was able to recover from this instance (I’ll explain that too), so I’ll try to include screenshots where applicable.

My system/software:

Windows 11 Pro, 22H2, 32G RAM, Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11370H @ 3.30GHz   3.30 GHz

Photoshop 25.5

Lightroom Classic, 13.2

Bridge 2023, 13.0.6.771

Network Attached Storage (NAS) Synology DS-4518 NAS mapped as a Windows Drive, Hybrid RAID with 4 Drives (Seagate ST8000VN004)

Workflow:

1. cull & raw process .CR3 images locally (not across the NAS) in Bridge
2. copy .CR3 files (& .xmp’s) to the NAS
3. import .CR3 files (from the NAS) into LR catalog to assign keywords & color labels
4. select an image in LR and ctrl-e to edit it in PS
5. raw file opens in PS, I edit by creating folders and adjustment layers and ctrl-s to save as a .psd
6. autosave is turned on in PS, but as I work, I ctrl-s to save periodically
7. I close the file and the psd is handed back off to LR and it shows up in my catalog and in the file system on the NAS

So my LR tagging and my PS editing are happening on the files as they reside on the NAS

When the problem occurs, it typically goes off the rails at the end of step 5 above.  As in a psd *is* created in the file system, but it only contains my very first step of creating folders in the psd – and it is not handed back to LR. All of the edits I made are compressed into the .CR3 file and handed back to LR. The original .CR3 is no longer visible in the LR catalog. If I select the “updated” cr3 file in LR and ctrl-e to edit it, the only available option is “edit file with lightroom adjustments” – I open it in PS and the edited image is the only thing in the stack, no layers are visible, the file extension is .cr3.

The way I’ve been able to recover:

I navigated to the NAS’s recycle bin following my file structure, and I found the corresponding files to the corrupted raw file – the original .cr3, a BLOATED .cr3.tmp (which indicated that it was actually the .psd), and a null .psd. (first attached screenshot is of the NAS recyle bin) I pulled those items out of the NAS’s recycle bin, renamed the .cr3.tmp to .psd. I (visually) verified the .cr3 file was correct, and opened that psd – all my edits were there. Then it was just a matter of putting the files back in the right places for LR to see.

To illustrate the issue, I have re-imported the corrupt .cr3 that includes the PS edits back into my LR catalog – the second attached screenshot. But when the problem occurs, the ONLY .cr3 file in the LR catalog at the end of this is the one labelled corrupt in my screenshot.

I hope something in there clarifies WHY this happens occasionally!!

[D Fosse]

OK, this is a different problem, and apparently boils down to file corruption on the NAS.

I've seen a lot of posts from people having similar problems, i.e. file corruption on NAS. I've never used one myself so I'm not really up to speed on that. What I can say is that file corruption is always, no exception, caused by failing hardware.

Let's hope someone else with more experience with network storage can jump in. The standard advice is to always work on a local drive and then copy the finished file over. This applies to all kinds of external storage, but especially over a network interface. The Lightroom catalog complicates this a bit.

In the meantime, read this:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/networks-removable-media-photoshop.html