I am on CS6 and my photoshop has worked fine for years but recently I have had this error where I can't save anything unless I save for web which does work strangely enough but no good for saving psd files.
This is the error:
Could not save “filename” because the file is already in use or was left open by another application.
I am on a high spec Mac on OS Mojave, not on any network or domain, I have restarted the machine countless times and even deleted and reinstalled CS6 to get a fresh start but this has not worked, I really need to get this fixed as I can't use Photoshop with this error. The files are definitely not already in use by other programs, or if they are it isn't obvious. I have looked around for solutions and none seem to have worked for me.
Could not save “filename” because the file is already in use or was left open by another application.
I am on a high spec Mac on OS Mojave
Hi Ben,
Have you tried repairing permissions in Disk Utilities?
As you know, Mac OSX allows you to move, rename, and delete files while they are open, so something else is going on. If repairing permissions doesn’t work, I would suspect the issue is running old software on Mojave.
I've been having this same issue with Photoshop 2018 ever since updating to Mojave. Files are saved on a server share and it can go several days without issue, then get 2-4 of these in a row and then be fine for a while. I usually get 5-6 of these a week over the period of saving hundreds of files.
Just like the previous issue of "Could not save because write access was not granted" that plagued older versions of Mac OS + PS once a file has this issue it can't be deleted or saved over for a period of time, I have to move the file to another folder and save my file to the desktop, and then copy the file back to the server. Also just like that issue this only affects Photoshop and no other application.
On Mojave this issue seems to revolve around the thumbnail display in the Finder. If I have an image selected in the Finder, the image is displayed as a preview in the Finder. I then open that image by double-clicking the file or dragging the file to the Photoshop icon in the dock, leaving the image selected and the preview displayed in the Finder. Then, when I try to save the image, I get this error! Deselecting the file in the Finder, thus not displaying the preview, allows me to save the image!
Came across same issue recently with PS-CS6 shortly after upgrading Mac to OSX from Sierra to Mohave ; appears the problem has to do with an incompatibility between Adobe app & Apple's new "APFS" file system format that came into being with OSX High Sierra. After numerous online searches, the only current ( as of Sept-2019 ) "workaround" to this problem that works is to save files to a non-APFS formatted drive ( i.e. a temporary USB flash drive, or more permanent older disk drive Mac in OS Extended format )- I have tried this myself and found that it in fact resolves the issue. If you want a more detailed explanation of this, check out this link from an I.T. Community Board called "Spiceworks" I came across while researching problem online (Spiceworks IT / Workaround for Photoshop CS 5-6). As far as I know Adobe has not done anything to correct this problem to date. HOPE THIS HELPS !
Hello @Arch81. I was able to save to a different drive but never thought the new file system was the problem and it makes perfect sense. Thank you very much for clarifying this!
I'm having the same issue today after upgrading my video card on my Mac Pro 5,1 and then upgrading to Mojave. My boot drive is formatted AFPS and the drive I store all my active work on is formatted Mac OS Extended - it's an older drive from a previous operating system. I have an archive drive that is formattee OS Extended (Journaled) as well. When I try to save an image from the OS Extended drive to the AFPS drive, I get the error message that the file can't be save because it is open. I can save it to the OS Extended (Journaled) dive just fine. I then drag and drop the file to the folder on the AFPS drive. Odd.
I know this is an old thread but glad I found it. Given up trying to fix this but thought I would have another go. My problems also started when upgrading to Mojave 2 yrs ago ! Thank you soooo much for your fix, it works.
Cant find the access key for my CS6 creative suite disk so reinstalling on a different computer was not an option either.
Hi! Ran into this issue when updating to Mojave. The workaround with saving the project to a non-AFPS formatted drive works great when I stay away from smart objects. However, when I try to update a smart object the issue still remains. I suspect this is because the temp bin is located on a AFPS drive. Is there a way to get around this?
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