Error: "could not complete your request because it is not a valid photoshop document"

[adamsmo1]

I was working on a PSD, which was saved to my desktop, when I decided to save it for the nth time within the hour.  As I was saving it, my laptop battery died and shut down.  After I replaced the battery and rebooted, the file was missing from the desktop - simply gone.

I downloaded some sketchy tools that helped me locate it - but I'm unable to recover it.

Has anyone else had the disappearing PSD issue?  If so, how were you able to recover your file?

[Noel Carboni]

As I recall, Photoshop creates a temporary file during the save process...  Look for a file with a name something like ~ps1234.tmp in the folder where you were saving.

If the machine shut off while actively writing to the disk, it's possible the file system was corrupted.  You might want to do a CHKDSK operation to verify it (also available by right-clicking the drive in Explorer when looking at Computer, Properties, Tools tab).  It's barely possible that such an operation could recover a file in limbo.

-Noel

[adamsmo1]

Hi Noel,

Thanks for the quick response; neither of those worked.

There were no temporary PS files and the CHKDSK didn't do anything.

Any other things I could try?

[Noel Carboni]

Late to the party much, ssprengel? 

Adamsmo1, I'm sorry to say I can't think of other means that are likely to work to get your data back.

A quick check of your temporary folder (whatever the TEMP environment variable is pointing to) might be in order, but I really hold little hope for that turning up your file.

A while back I made a suggestion to use the Recycle Bin in the future to store prior versions of files that have been overwritten by a Save (which are now just deleted).  Some pooh poohed the idea, but I believe that would have saved your bacon in this case.  May I suggest requesting that as a new feature:

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

-Noel

[adamsmo1 · Accepted solution]

Amazingly, I found a solution while clicking around in desperation:

- Rt-click on the drive that I was saving the file to (ex: C: drive)

- select 'Properties'

- select 'Previous Versions' tab

- There, I found a more recent clean version of that hard drive instance.  My file was deep within there, in a non-corrupted state.

Hopefully, this helps others who might be in my same situation.

Thanks for the help, folks.

[Noel Carboni]

Excellent!  Thanks for following-up with that tip!

-Noel

[Hudechrome]

Those Previous Versions come from Restore Points. You can go there to recover at least the file that existed before making changes that didn't get saved. I recovered files in that manner myself.

[Andrew_Hart]

Larry,

Once you go there, say it is the root of your C: systen drive, are you, in effect, in a previous Restore Point, or can you get back to the current/most recent version of your C; drive. I have never heard of this procedure for recovering files before and don't want to be trapped back in time.

[Hudechrome]

What I meant was that going to Previous Versions uses the same information that Restore Point does, so try Restore Point.

I wasn't very clear on that. Dang pronouns! With Restore Point, you can undo it if you wish. Also, I don't know if that will always work, nor if it will work on all files. But it's worth a try, anyway.

I haven't used the Previous Versions method. Note that it gets data from backup as well. I would Google Previous Versions and see what others have to say.

[Andrew_Hart]

Hudechrome wrote:

What I meant was that going to Previous Versions uses the same information that Restore Point does, so try Restore Point.

I wasn't very clear on that. Dang pronouns! With Restore Point, you can undo it if you wish. Also, I don't know if that will always work, nor if it will work on all files. But it's worth a try, anyway.

I haven't used the Previous Versions method. Note that it gets data from backup as well. I would Google Previous Versions and see what others have to say.

Thank you, that seems clear now. I am familiar with restore points from my XP days and have used them previously to fix system problems, but because I save all data to a HDD which is separate from the system drive they are no use for file recovery.

[CreativeJesh]

You're a GOD my friend. =D

[ssprengel]

Run a CHKDSK and fix any errors then look for the ~PSxxxxx.TMP file on your desktop and rename it to a new PSD name and see if it opens ok.