'Edit Contents' on Smart Object goes straight into Illustrator and turns object into flat image

[Lukek123]

About a week ago when using Photoshop a message I had not seen before appeared from Windows when trying to edit a Smart Object  asked how I wanted to open the Smart Object which I selected Illustrator (as at the time the SMart Object linked straight to Illustrator). Now whenever I want to edit a Smart Object it opens Illustrator instead of opening the smart object in Photoshop, once opened in Illustrator it is 1 flat image layer also, has anyone expereinced this before? If so how do I change this.

Thanks!

Luke

[c.pfaffenbichler]

What have you done for trouble-shooting so far? 

Restoring Preferences after making sure all customized presets like Actions, Patterns, Brushes etc. have been saved might be a good starting point:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/basic-trouble-shooting-steps.html

As a work-around you could try using

Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Linked

and opening the resulting file/s directly. 

[Lukek123]

As a work-around you could try using

Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Linked

and opening the resulting file/s directly. 

Unfortuantly a lot of the files I want to edit were copied from Illustrator straight into Photoshop rather than linking ot a specific file, therefore I can not access the original illustrator file without it being one flatened layer.

I will try resetting preferences to see if that does anything!

[c.pfaffenbichler]

If you pasted them as Smart Objects from Illustrator then they should get opened in Illustrator, I thought you were talking about pixel SO being opened in Illustrator. 

Could you please post a screenshot taken at View > 100% with the pertinent Panels (Layers, Channels, Options Bar, …) visible? 

»Unfortuantly a lot of the files I want to edit were copied from Illustrator straight into Photoshop rather than linking ot a specific file«

I did not speak about relinking the SO to some existing file but about converting it to a linked SO. 

[D Fosse]

My guess is that you did not have file associations for PSB set in you operating system. That's why it asked.

Go into Windows settings > Apps > Default apps > Default apps by file type and check your file associations for .psb and .ai:

[Lukek123]

That seems to be the issue thank you for commenting, however when I try and change back to Photoshop I dont have the option?

[D Fosse · Accepted solution]

OK, it seems you can't actually browse program files from here. You can only choose from the presented alternatives.

Then you need to locate an actual .PSB file somewhere, and right-click > Open With > Choose another app. If you still don't have PS listed here, click "look for another app on this PC" and navigate to the Photoshop.exe under Program Files > Adobe > etc.

There could be a bigger problem here if you updated to PS 2021 and then uninstalled 2020. That's a well-known problem that can hit some users. In that case you may need to uninstall and then reinstall again.

But try "open with" first.

[Lukek123]

Thanks thats great, it worked! Appreciate the quick feedback.