Why does Photoshop force me to save a file as a PSD before closing?

[ceciliap57458346]

How do I disable this feature? I have saved a file as a copy (jpg, png, etc) and I no longer need the file. I try to close it but Photoshop locks up until I save it as a PSD file as well before I can close the file. Why does it do this? I am using Adobe Photoshop 2022.

[alexanderm49996404]

Just save it then delete the psd file

[Ged_Traynor]

Hi

Have you checked these options in preferences

[Conrad C]

Photoshop is not forcing or locking up. It’s trying to make sure you don’t lose work.

If you open a JPEG, PNG, etc. and then you edit it, when you close, Photoshop asks if you want to save those edits. If you don’t need to save because you already exported them to another file, all you have to do is click Don’t Save. That will cause Photoshop to close the file without saving a Photoshop document, and you can move on.

If you do this a lot, you can avoid clicking the button all the time by using keyboard shortcuts for Don’t Save: On a Mac, you can press either D or Command-D. That’s what I do.

[D Fosse]

The whole point here, as Conrad implies, is that the still open file has properties that are not supported in the file format you just saved to. Like for instance layers, transparency, 16 bit depth or other things.

So if you just close out without saving a psd, you are actually throwing out data. If that's what you want, just close. If not, save out a psd or tiff, which are the only file formats that support everything you can do in Photoshop.

[gener7]

I was thinking of an entirely unrelated situation. The above answers cover your issue.