Skip to main content
Participant
February 11, 2019
Question

Why does the same file show in multiple tabs?

  • February 11, 2019
  • 9 replies
  • 2186 views

I'll be working on something in PS and I'll open a new tab. Sometimes I'll have multiple tabs open and I'll switch back and forth between them, sometimes moving elements from one to another. Nothing that is uncommon with this software. All of a sudden when I switch to a different tab, everything shows as if I'm still in the other tab, even though a new tab is selected. I can select all the tabs individually and they become "selected" or "highlighted" or "brought to the front", however you want to say it, but the artboard doesn't change and I can't edit anything. Even if I go back to the original tab that it's showing in the artboard, I can't make any changes now. Some times the layers and navigator do change when I switch between tabs, but the artboard never does and it doesn't always change this way.

My only solution so far has been to just shutdown, and restart PS, but I can't save before doing so. I save often, but this still happens at inconvenient times.

I'm using CC and everything is up to date. I'm creating vehicle wraps at full scale, but I've been doing it for years and never had this issue until a few months ago when it started happening. It doesn't happen every time, but enough to be a real pain.

Anyone else having this same issue, because the few people I've asked said they've never had this happen.

Thanks.

This topic has been closed for replies.

9 replies

NB, colourmanagement
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 3, 2021

You can report it as a bug here
https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/categories/photoshop_family_photoshop

 

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net :: adobe forum volunteer
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management
[please only use the blue reply button at the top of the page, this maintains the original thread title and chronological order of posts]

Participating Frequently
February 3, 2021

This is is a CRTICAL flaw.  Most professionals l have many tabs open.

Adobe:  whats the fix here?

Participating Frequently
February 3, 2021

Possible solution:

This MAY be, liek many odd isuues out there, a dualpscreen issue.  I fyou click on a tab you reconize by name, try resizign the window using the pane seize drop down in the upper left.  Then expand the axtual Illustrator app window.  Gnerally play with aspect ration, unplugging and pluggin in your dual screen adapter, and minmizin gan dmaximizn the app.

THIS I NOT A FIX - its a band aid, so you dont have to restart.

Adobe please address this.  Its typical for me and otehrs to have 8-12 projects open for weeks, and need them there reliably.

Participant
June 13, 2020

Using the brand new MacBook Pro 13 2020 everything up to date on creative cloud and still getting this issue. Maddening!

jehar
Participant
June 2, 2020

I am having the same problem too! I am retouching 4 images but once I go to save out for web (legacy option) that first file is fine. Then clicking on the tab for the other 3 all appear as the first file. About to rip my hair out over this!

Inspiring
May 22, 2020

Yeah, this is still happening to me. Absolutely maddening, workflow-breaking bug that needs to be addressed.

 

The unbelievable frustration of having multiple files open, then not even being able to SEE what they were before closing out of the application makes Photoshop a bricked program for me.

 

Mac OSX 10.5

Participant
February 28, 2020

With the newest 21.0.2 CC version - this happens every few hours to me.    I'll have 15 tabs open.... then this happens...   Makes it super hard to get editing done with having to restart it and reopen all the tabs again (and hope you can get something done before it happens again)   😞   I'm running MacOS Catalina 10.15.3.   Hopefully a workaournd or fix will be out soon.

Participant
February 29, 2020

I might have found a way around it. When it happens, I've fixed mine a couple of times by clicking save, then switching through the taps, then returning and clicking save as. This made all my taps work fine again.

Participant
February 10, 2020

This happens to me all the time. It is infuriating. It stopped for a while after a couple updates ago, but now it is back. When I am working using multiple tabs (I am also on a Mac running Mojave), then I will switch over to a tab and suddenly every single tab just shows the same image. I can see the different layers, but I cannot access anything. I have to restart photoshop and hope I can remember which tabs were which. Usually I just save them all to my desktop and reopen them to see what was on that tab. I am working this morning and have had to restart 4 times so far. 

Participant
February 11, 2019

Sorry, but in the moment I didn't think to take a screenshot. If it happens again soon I'll update the post with a screenshot.

The time before last when it happened (not when it happened earlier today), I had 3 or 4 tabs open because I was moving elements from multiple files over from one to another. When it happened today, I had one tab open that was roughly 262"x118". It just had a few groups in it, with shapes and a masked image. I opened up a new file, so it was empty, and when I selected it that's when the issue started this time. Every other time all the tabs were working projects with multiple layers. This time it was just one file with only a few layers and one with nothing at all.

I'm running CC with the most recent updated version.

jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 11, 2019

Hi,

Any chance you can show a screen shot so we can see what you are seeing?

Also, what version of Photoshop, and what is your OS and version?

~ Jane