Cannot easily save jpeg after cropping CS6

[kathykate 23]

Suddenly, if I open a bog standard jpeg, make a small change such as crop it, and then close down to save, I now have to jump through some hoops to do so.

Whereas before I could just press SAVE, and it would save, now I can't do that. The save box appears and the the jpeg option has disappeared from the drop down box (ie I only have the options shown in screengrab below), and I have to flatten the image and then save as jpeg.

To clarify, no layers have been added when I crop the image. (I understand that adding layers mean you have to flatten...)

It is a bit annoying, and I don't know why it has suddenly started doing this? Any help would be great.

[gener7]

It may be the process turned your Background layer into a floating layer, something the jpeg format doesn't support.

If you see "Layer 0" instead of "Background" with a padlock icon, chances are that's the problem.

Solution: Flatten the image either via the Layer menu or Layer Panel menu before saving.

[kathykate 23]

OK, thanks. You are correct in saying 'the process turned your Background layer into a floating layer, something the jpeg format doesn't support'. I just did a test.

But why has it suddenly started doing this? I have cropped and saved thousands of photos in the past, and never had to flatten them before doing so. It is very frustrating....

[D Fosse]

You probably have the crop tool set to "hide" instead of "delete".

The jpeg format specification really doesn't allow anything other than flat 8-bit pixels. You can't do much to a file before it's not allowed as a jpeg.

[kathykate 23 · Accepted solution]

Just solved it myself. It is because the 'Delete Cropped Pixels' box in the menu bar was not checked. I must have unchecked it by mistake recently. Now it will save as a jpeg easily again.

[D Fosse]

You didn't read my post?

Actually the exact wording has changed a bit. As far as I can remember it used to be "delete" or "hide", now it's just a checkbox to delete. Anyway, that's the one I meant.

[kathykate 23]

Yes I saw it, but you didn't mention the 'delete cropped pixels' box.  I knew I could save the image by flattening it, as mentioned in my original post. When you are cropping lots of images that is one extra step too far, when I knew before I could save very easily. But by pointing me in the direction of it becoming Layer ) instead of Background, it was a great help, so thank you !

[Katina5CB0]

Thanks for this info! I spent a lot of time chatting with Adobe's experts, who could not help me with this problem. I like having the "delete cropped pixels" turned off, but turning it on has let me use an action and process my photos quickly like I used to do!