Photoshop file disappeared after being saved

[mylinht1019]

I've been working on a project for several days and I saved it each time before leaving my laptop, but today when I went on the file was nowhere to be found. On the other day's when I would open Photoshop the file would be in the "recent files" tab and I could continue where I left off. I've tried searching under all my files on my MacBook but I still cannot find it.

[Theresa J · Accepted solution]

Assuming you remember what you named the file, you can search for it using the Spotlight Search on your MacBook. It will be somewhere on your laptop unless you:

A) saved it to a server or external drive that you are not currently mounted to. This could be dropbox, or Creative Cloud files library, or

B) accidentally deleted the file, or the folder it was saved into

[PECourtejoie]

Hello!

When such thing happens to me (I do not remember where I saved, I usually create a new document, then try to save it, to find the folder you previously saved into.)

[Theresa J]

Good tip. I've done that a few times myself.

[GD Teach]

I realize this is an older thread but have two such incidences happen in my student lab in recent weeks. The first was a project we had worked on several different sessions. The file was missing when student went to hand it in. I took it as an operator error. Today it happened on a seperate computer. I know the file was created several days ago. Was opened and used yesterday but today nowhere to be found. On the home screen there is a several week gap in the recent file history. Under Open Recent none of the files from yesterday are listed. The file also no longer exhists in the folder where it had been saved. Each user has their own login so another user did not have access to this computer.

[kcobb]

I have been teaching Photoshop for 20 years and this is the first time I have been experiencing the same thing as GD_Teach.  This is the first time this has ever happened to my students and it is very frustrating.  They definitely saved their projects.  The next day it is gone!  I dont know who to ask for help because no one at my school uses Photoshop and they wouldnt understand what is happening.  Anyone out there have an answer????

[D Fosse]

First of all: _don't_ use or rely on the recent files list!! It doesn' show the real location of the file, it' s just a dead link to wherever it was first saved. Use a proper file explorer.

Was it saved to desktop? Is that desktop in MS/Apple cloud, which you can now do, or is it local disk? Cloud desktop is known to cause this.

[kcobb]

D_Fosse, thank you for the reply.  Those are some really good points.  Our school just upgraded to Photoshop CC this year, so it makes sense that the problem might be the file was accidentally saved to the cloud.  When my student checked the cloud, there werent any documents saved there.  When I asked him where he saved it, he wasnt sure.  He did work on it for several days before it disappeared so I know it was saved at some point.  I suppose it is possible that he deleted it but I dont believe that is the case.  

Does anyone have any other ideas of where a missing document could be found??  Thanks so much for the suggestions!!

[GD Teach]

My situation was similar. I did extensive searches trying to figure this out and never came up with a good answer. The wierd time gap, of a couple weeks, that showed on the open screen was the only other oddness that showed there was something more than a lost file going on. I did find one source that sent me into the Photoshop Program files but it didn't help in our case. From what I read from others it appears this is a known error with no known solutions which has made all my students phobic about losing their work. 

[D Fosse]

There is no known error, and you should be phobic about losing work. You should teach them that. The way to deal with it is to pay attention to where you save to. I'm constantly amazed at how so many people can't even tell where they saved the file to. The "recent files" list is not file management. A logical folder tree structure and a proper file browser is.

[GD Teach]

[lourd_jimd41002656]

same problem just now. 

[one2baia]

D_Fosse,

While I can appreciate your passion in this answer you should also consider that by the sheer number of complaints there could truly be an issue here. I for one believe that there is!!! While I would not consider myself a professional PS user I do know how and where to save all of my files and I backup those folders often. Yet, even when I go back to this same exact folder in Finder I see that those files have mysteriously disappeared. Even stranger, I can attempt to open these files from within PS and navigate to this same folder and clearly see the files but again if I go to this folder directly from Finder they are not there.

[D Fosse]

I have used Photoshop since version 7.0 (yeah, I know, I was late to the game). In my current job, I manage an archive of close to 10 TB of my own photographs. In addition I have a private archive of 4 TB or so. I've been doing this for 8 hours a day for a long time, on many days shooting several hundred images.

I have never, ever, experienced a file "disappear". Not once. I have, however, misplaced a few because I didn't pay attention to the path in the Save dialog. But I always found them quickly by initiating a new save and noticing where it wanted to go. That's where the missing file is.

The only cases of disappearing files I have heard about that sound plausible, are users saving to the desktop, with a cloud-based desktop - whether Apple or Microsoft. I understand that's possible these days.

[Roelliej]

I don't know how and why but this just happened to me. I loaded a file from an SSD but as it was quite huge (multiple artboards) I decided to duplicate some artboards to a new canvas. Closed the big document, responded "Yes" to save the changes, then noticed it was very slow, and then remembered I didn't actually change anything, I just duplicated some artboards onto a new canvas. So I hit escape to cancel out of the saving process, closed the window. Now the whole file is gone. This shouldn't have happened since I should still have the old version of the file, but it isn't anywhere. Tried searching by filename, but to no avail. 

[PECourtejoie]

Hello, check in your scratch disk if there is an autorecover folder.

Also, you can check in: c:\users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC###\Autorecover

or Mac: [user library]>Application Support>Adobe>Adobe Photoshop CC####>Autorecover

[amandible]

SOLVED FOR ME: I found my file because of your advice on where to check so THANK YOU! I remembered key words in my file name but despite several searches the file was not showing up in the results. I had saved this file several times, over several different days, on my computer in my creative cloud files and there was no history of it locally or online even though I was signed in with no syncing issues. This is my second bad experience with creative cloud not saving or storing versions of the file.

[trishab19877654]

This exact thing happened to me right now! Did you find a fix? Please help. 

Thanks

[IoanaDesign]

My file doesn't show up although it exists. This is extra weird. I have a file i am working on that is located on a external disk. Everything was fine with other files but this one does not appear in the folder it exists. I can reopen it from recent files but the folder it is in doesn't show it. This happens with everything i have exported from it. I exported an png sequence in a new creted folder from the photoshop window. That folder doesn't show also or the files it contains. But they exist and i can open them from finder search. If i want to "save as" i can see all the "invisible" files there.

I solved the issue by saving it in different disk. On the external disk didn't work (i have enough free space). I saved on the desktop and now i can see it. I have no idea why it is happening. All other psd files work fine on the external.

[one2baia]

Is it possible that this is an Apple Catalina issue for those of us using a Mac? I only ask as I just noticed the same issue with Adobe Acrobat DC. I did a "save as" and like the message posted by IoanaDesign I can see the files in the recently opened lists and I can also see other hidden files grayed out. When I go to finder I see none of these. Or since this is also an Adobe product is it still an Adobe issue?

Thanks!

Steve Lewis
one2baia@gmail.com

Sent from my iPad

[ViniDiMambro]

i can confirm that im running catalina. since upgrading this has happened at least 4 times - twice this weekend alone. never experienced  this issue prior. 

i also upgraded to cc around the same time, so it could be some cocktail of in communication between the two new softwares... though, lets just blame it on catalina..

has anyone found a resolve? i would love to not start from scratch, but i also really need to get paid. ha

[Muhammad_Elarbi]

I recently had this happen to me with a file working from an external SSD (SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD 2TB)

I went on support with Adobe since I could not open Photoshop after it happened, and my SSD manufacturer (SanDisk) -- both essentially just blamed it on Apple or other companies involved and could not provide a real solution to the issue. It is tough to decipher as I have updated both software recently. I am still confused about why this happened and if it will happen again in the future to my files. I do not know the real culprit of his issue but I can assume it is Catalina as this is the first time this issue has happened to me.

If any of you have updated information on this I would appreciate it.

[D Fosse]

Never work directly off an external disk. Always save locally, then copy over.

There is a known issue with Catalina and exFAT-formatted external disks, but apart from that it's common sense. External disks are vulnerable to loose connectors and flaky cables. The connection can be lost in an instant, just by accidentally bumping into something with your hand. Then your file is irretrievably lost or damaged. It's just very risky.

[JohnFranks]

I've just had a file "disappear" with Photoshop 2020. Saved the file to my desktop, I go looking on my desktop and it's nowhere to be found. Open Photoshop, click open file and it's there. I delete the file through the file manager in Photoshop and it doesn't even show in the recycling bin. Save a different file in photoshop as a PNG and the same thing. That. Is. Crap

[Swaffs]

I've had the same problem, never happened before.  I save some designs yesterday and now nowhere to be found.  I've searched by name and files are empty. I had copied as JPEG into word and they are there but cannot get back into Photoshop to edit.  Awful waste of time!