Small psd needing to be saved as a PSB

[alexia23646504vzp6]

Hi, having trouble saving any small PSD file, as it keeps saying that it exceeds 2G when it contains only layers of small images which should add up to not more than 500MB max! It happened to me several times and online support has not been able to identify or fix this problem. I am currently saving PSB but it's not the solution to my problem of course, as I end up having to delete entire working files in order to preserve hard disk space. This saving issue cropped up after an update some months ago.  Has anyone come across it and solved it, please? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[J453]

With the file open that says it exceeds 2GB, go to Image > Image Size and post a screenshot of that dialog:

Save that file - if you select the PSB you've saved in the finder and Get Info, what does it say for size? Is it actually larger than 2GB?

[alexia23646504vzp6]

Thanks for your response. Image size is 173.8M when saved to PSB it says 3.26G. 

[J453]

Very strange. 

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.
If it does solve the problem, I would like to get the folder of settings to try and figure out what is bad with them.

[alexia23646504vzp6]

Thanks Jeffrey, however, I have tried this (removed preferences), and this did not solve my problem. Can you kindly provide further assistance in order to solve this issue, please?

Perhaps it is possible to uninstall and reinstall... perhaps solve my nightmare. My hard disk space is not unlimited and I am having to delete entire working files. Thank you. 

[Daniel Presedo]

Did you ever crop this file and not delete pixels, for example? 
You can verify the bounds of the layer by hitting ⌘ or CTRL + T

Is there’s an embedded smart object?

Maybe attach a screenshot of your Layers Panel will help us better understand what you see.

[lizlizlizlizlizliz]

Thanks for this-- I had a very tiny image file that perplexingly would not save as a regular psd, and re-cropping it with the delete cropped pixels setting toggled on fixed the issue for me.

[davescm]

How many layers are there and are they smart objects?

Dave

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

What do you see under File > File Info > Raw Data? Is there a message that there is too much metadata to display?

[alexia23646504vzp6]

Hello Daniel, please see a screenshot of the layers in this particular project. However,  kindly note that this problem is happening with every project, and some projects were created with the use of extremely small-sized images such as screenshots. Thank you. I hope it is solved soon as it is causing me a lot of problems.

[alexia23646504vzp6]

Hi Dave, only 9 layers and no smart objects. Very simple layered work using photoshop's own smart filters -  such effects...blur and bevel...

[alexia23646504vzp6]

Hi Stephen,

attached is what i see under File > File Info > Raw Data? There is no message that there is too much metadata to display as you can see. 

 

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

If you had photoshop:DocumentAncestors metadata bloat you would see that message, so I guess we can rule that out.

[alexia23646504vzp6]

Can you kindly assist further? I can’t keep having unnecessary huge files.
It’s creating files bigger than 2g when they’re not even close! This must
be a bug which came with an update.--
Best Regards,
Alexia
(Personal data removed - please do not post personal data on this public forum)

[davescm]

Your layer stack screenshot above shows seven smart objects. Each of those is a document in itself, saved within the main document, and saves using the full size of the smart object content including any layers within the smart object, regardless of the canvas size of the main document.

Dave

[J453]

@alexia23646504vzp6 I asked an agent to reach out to you via phone/email. I suspect @davescm is probably right. We need to see what each of the Smart Objects contains.

[alexia23646504vzp6]

Thank you for your reply. May I kindly remind you that it is important to stress on the point that the problem also occurs when there are no Smart Objects in the project. So kindly I suggest ruling out that it is smart objects causing this increase in file size.  (As in the previous screenshots I showed you, the Image size is only 173.8M when saved to PSB it says 3.26G.)

The problem occurs at the saving point and has nothing to do with the layers or anything in the working files. 

I've already spoken with agents twice and both have not been able to solve the problem.

I am very disappointed with all this. This software costs a lot of money and it is causing me a lot of problems on various levels. I hope that a solution to this bug is found as soon as possible. 

[davescm]

Hi

So far, your screenshots have not shown a problem that needs to be solved.

The 173.8MB in your first screenshot is simply the size in RAM of a single layer at your canvas size. So it is 7795 x 7795 x 3 = 182286075 bytes = 173.8Mbytes   (there are 1048576 bytes in a MByte)

That number does not include :

1. Multiple layers - the size in Image Size is for a single layer only

2. Off canvas content (so any content extending beyond the canvas and not deleted by a crop with delete cropped pixels set)

3. Smart objects and their content (which can be multiple layers, multiple sizes and even included further nested smart objects)

4. Masks and alpha channels

5. Metadata - which is non image data held alongside an image

Once those are added in the file is saved which can actually reduce the new total depending on what compression settings are set in file handling. The layers saved can also be increased though by using Maximise compatibility for a PSD (required if you use Lightroom) which also stores a flattened version of the image in the file.

It is not unusual at all for a file with multiple image layers to exceed 2GB

If you want to post a link to an example file, I'll take a look at it to check if anything else is going on.

Dave

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

Preferences > File Handling - Is "Disable Compression of PSD and PSB Files" ticked?

If you CMD/CTRL T to transform on each layer, does the layer bounding box indicate that a layer has unexpected content outside of the canvas?

Working on a duped file, delete 1 layer, then save and inspect file size. Repeat again delete the duped file and duplicate the original again, deleting a different layer and saving. Keep repeating and checking saved file size. Perhaps you will find that one layer is unexpectedly addng to the file size more than expected...

[alexia23646504vzp6]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for getting back.

• With regards to: "Preferences > File Handling - Is "Disable Compression of PSD and PSB Files" ticked?"

No it is unchecked. Shall I check it?

• With regards to the "one layer is unexpectedly addng to the file size more than expected...":

May I kindly stress that the problem is not in the images I'm using as the saving issue occurs even if am using simple screenshots or a few layers of images that do not exceed 200kb... This issue is occurring with each and every document irrespective of the image size... 

[alexia23646504vzp6]

Thanks for your reply Dave, 

but...May I kindly stress that this problem is happening even if am using simple screenshots or a few layers of images that do not exceed 200kb each... This issue is occurring with each and every document irrespective of the image size... 

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

@alexia23646504vzp6 

Many people have tried to help the best that they can without having access to the problem files. Only so much can be done, so it may be time to share the smallest file size example that you can.

I'd suggest a free service such as wetransfer dot com - and post the link in the forum or private message me.

[davescm]

Hi

As I posted previously, can you please post a link to a problem file and we can take a look and see if there is anything unusual.

Dave

[masapim]

It might be a little far from the question, but... Sometimes the capacity of a PSD file becomes ridiculously large. It is usually called a "broken PSD" by workers. Most of the time, something's wrong with the metadata, and the capacity is ridiculously large, but it's solved by using a script to erase the metadata, or by moving all layers neatly to a new document (in serious cases, if a 2mb file fails, it's over 700mb). 1000px-1000px small image)...

[alexia23646504vzp6]

Thank you, Stephen, for offering to inspect a document directly. However, I've uninstalled the software and installed an older version of Photoshop (link supplied by an agent). It is now running on 21.0.0 and hopefully, the error at the saving point will not appear again. But if it does, then I will surely paste here a link to a problematic document. Thanks for now.