PSD files made under Mac opening as JPEG under Windows.

[peterv6030284]

I have PSE 2019 installed on my Mac and on my Windows10 PC.

When I make a (multilayered) PSD file on my Mac and transfer it to my PC, I can open that file in PSE, but the layers are gone. PSE shows the image as a JPEG. Yes, the file has the psd extension.

Is there a solution for this problem?

[Phil Pickering]

Couple of thoughts...

Make sure you have explicitly named the Photoshop file on the Mac with the .psd file extension, i.e. in the Save dialog window. Don't rely on the metadata file that macOS attaches to the image indicating it is a .psd image to be correctly interpreted by Windows. This is useful when hiding file extensions on a Mac in the Finder, but can cause problems for interoperability between different operating systems.

What you might be seeing in Elements on your Windows machine is the flattened raster preview which is stored as a JPEG within the .psd file.

Another possibility is that between saving the image as a .psd and transferring it to your Windows machine, you've opened it in Preview on your Mac and maybe made a quick change to it, e.g. rotated it and ended up saving it inadvertently as a JPEG. The filename on the Mac might still be my-image.psd but if you check the actual file type it may now be a JPEG.

Also, you don't say how you transferred the image from your Mac to your Windows machine. Was it via an external drive or did you use a file-sharing service via the Web or did you send it by email? Again, maybe the file-sharing service or your email client has inadvertantly changed the actual file format.

[peterv6030284]

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@Phil Pickering wrote:

Couple of thoughts...

Make sure you have explicitly named the Photoshop file on the Mac with the .psd file extension, i.e. in the Save dialog window. Don't rely on the metadata file that macOS attaches to the image indicating it is a .psd image to be correctly interpreted by Windows. This is useful when hiding file extensions on a Mac in the Finder, but can cause problems for interoperability between different operating systems.

What you might be seeing in Elements on your Windows machine is the flattened raster preview which is stored as a JPEG within the .psd file.

Another possibility is that between saving the image as a .psd and transferring it to your Windows machine, you've opened it in Preview on your Mac and maybe made a quick change to it, e.g. rotated it and ended up saving it inadvertently as a JPEG. The filename on the Mac might still be my-image.psd but if you check the actual file type it may now be a JPEG.

Also, you don't say how you transferred the image from your Mac to your Windows machine. Was it via an external drive or did you use a file-sharing service via the Web or did you send it by email? Again, maybe the file-sharing service or your email client has inadvertantly changed the actual file format.

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Yes, I did save as psd. No, I did not open in an other program. Transfér by Mail or usb-stick makes no différence. PSD made under Windows can be opened as psd by Mac. Not vice-versa. Thérèse IS, it seems à compatibility problem. 

[Phil Pickering]

Hi Peter,

Can you share the PSD file that you made on your Mac using the forum's Attach feature which is immediately below the normal forum Reply window?

It looks like this:

[peterv6030284]

I am very sorry, but it seems I have made a mistake. Transfer by usb-stick works just fine.

The problem only occurs when I mail the psd file. When I try to open the psd file on my laptop(windows) in PSE I only get a JPEG-view (no layers). The attachment hàs the .psd extension.

I use Thunderbird on the Windows-laptop.

Is there a solution for the problem?

[Phil Pickering · Accepted solution]

Try compressing the file on your Mac before sending it as an email attachment.

Control-click the file, and choose Compress from the shortcut menu. You should then have a new file called something like my_image_name.zip

[peterv6030284]

It works. Thanks very much.