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Known Participant
June 24, 2021
Question

Smart object missing

  • June 24, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 5459 views

I can't seem to find a similar problem or a solution online. I have a photoshop file with a few linked smart objects. I was working on the file yesterday saved everything when I opened it today one of my smart ojects is now missing. I click on the link to reconnect it, it takes me to my appdata temp files and I can see all the other smart objects but not the missing one. I definetly didn't delete it so what has happened to it and how do I get it back? 

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3 replies

Mike_Gondek10189183
Community Expert
June 25, 2021

Please tell us about these smart objects did you copy from Illustrator and paste into photoshop? Might you have added this to a library when pasting? 

 

This option is on by default, but annoying to many people and turned off. So you may want to check your library items and log in under same account, to see if the item still exists there.

 

 

Kym5E5EAuthor
Known Participant
June 28, 2021

Oh yes I have that turned off. I only use my library for colours

Kym5E5EAuthor
Known Participant
June 24, 2021

No unfortunatly I do not backup my application data. I don't know what has happend to the linked file because I never deleted it and it was working fine yesterday. I find it really odd, I've never had this happen before. I even tried to recoved old versions of the psd however the smart object is missing from them as well. 

JJMack
Community Expert
June 24, 2021

If you linked the smarts object layer to a temp file you most likely will need to create a  replacement object file and link the layer the the new file you create.  Or delete the smarts object layer and create a new smart object layer  to replace the one you deleted.

JJMack
Kym5E5EAuthor
Known Participant
June 24, 2021

I didn't intentinally link it to a temp file its just what Photoshop does by default. I created the smart object and until today I didn't really consider where photoshop saved it. I assumed it was embedded. I went through my recycling bin to see if it ended up there but no luck. The problem with creating a replacment is I have artwork I would have to recreate in the smart object. In the main PSD its still shows up as a highres image, I just can no longer edit it. 

JJMack
Community Expert
June 24, 2021

Do you  backup your application user data.  If your linked  smart object layers linked object files has been deleted you need to recover the deleted file.  If your linked smart object layer was link to  a files in a Temp folder it is very likely that the file would be deleted when the application that was using the temp file  terminated or the drive was cleaned up.   Temp files will be deleted. Currently there are 592 temp files in my user Id Application Local Temp folder.  The largest  7GB files is Photoshop's scratch disk space it will grow and it  will be deleted when I close Photoshop.

I Closed PS and tries deleting all files in my temp folder.  31 were not deleted for they are is use by Chrome, Adobe Creative Cloud,  Node.js and other services that are running

That freed around 15GB on my C:

JJMack
Kym5E5EAuthor
Known Participant
June 28, 2021

No I don't backup my user data unfortunatly. I think it was probably cleaned up by Windows. I did check my recycling bin but nothing useful