Where are my photoshop project files?

[ryand127]

hi everyone! first time posting here. i recently purchased photoshop and i seem to be having trouble saving a project correctly. when i hit save or save as, it asks me the path where i want to save it. i already have a few other projects that are saved "somewhere". i generally dont like to change paths so my question is...what is the original path where all my other projects are saved? is there a stock path?  im using a pc. thank you.

[melissapiccone]

They are exactly where you saved them... no stock path. Do a search...

[ryand127]

The only thing thats got me baffled is that i can go to 4 other recent projects that I only saved as  .jpg, .png, etc. and i can call that project right back up as if it had a project file somewhere.

[melissapiccone]

I occasionally lose files, too. Sounds like you need a better file management system. If you open a file and save without choosing a path, it should save in the same place from where you got the file to begin with. If you started from scratch, all bets are off.

[ryand127]

i have an excellent file management system. just new to photoshop. i guess i may be overthinking this??? when i save a project in premiere pro, it has a preset destination where the project file is going to go and it knows where that is and will recall that info in the "recent files" section premiere pro. so what you are saying is that photoshop doesnt work that way and i just need to set up my own projects folder? because i definitely can do that. thank you for your input!

[melissapiccone · Accepted solution]

Yes. Do you use Bridge? That will make your life easier, too. I love Bridge and have all of my folders in my favorites for quick, easy access.

[ryand127]

i do not use bridge at the moment.

[jeffs235]

You might also consider a free application, called PostHaste.

It will create a preset project folder for you. There are templates for many Adobe and other apps you can use, or create your own. Photoshop does not have the same setup for a "Project" file as Premiere, so this might be the most efficient way for you to establish a similar workflow for PS that you have with Premiere.

[ryand127]

Thanks everyone. I havent lost any projects files. i only wanted to know where photoshop likes them all to be (similar to the way premiere pro and every other editor ive ever used does). I now have a folder set up for the project files. consider this fixed.

i appreciate the quick responses too!!

[gener7]

If you want the project saved to the original folder, check "Save As to Original Folder" in File Handling in Edit menu > Preferences.

Otherwise in Save As... the folder you picked last is where the project will go until you change it.

If you need a quick way to locate your image, right-click on the tab to either see the path or reveal in Finder (Mac).

[rickb50593664]

I'm also having this problem. If I edit an existing file, it is saved in the original location. That's good.

If I create a new image I am propted to save to the cloud or to my computer, but am not given the option of pointing to a location on my machine. It isn't saved in any of the likely folders, and worse, a search doesn't find it. It's there somewhere though because I can open it as a recent file in PS.

Very frustrating.

[D Fosse]

"i have an excellent file management system. just new to photoshop. i guess i may be overthinking this??? when i save a project in premiere pro, it has a preset destination where the project file is going to go and it knows where that is and will recall that info in the "recent files" section premiere pro."

Your file management system isn't good enough if you don't know where your files are saved to. A good 4/5ths of the Photoshop "Save As" dialog is concerned with where you want to save to, with a complete folder navigation tree on the left. That's where your files go, and you need to know where that is. If you don't, you won't find them again.

Photoshop doesn't have "project" files like Premiere Pro. In Photoshop the image files are saved directly. There is no "catalog" aka Project file to keep track of everything.

You should never rely on the Recent Files list on the home screen. It doesn't "know" where your files are, it's just a passive link to a certain location on disk. If the file is later deleted or moved, the link doesn't update. It still points blindly to the same, now empty spot. For this reason the recent files list should never be considered as more than a convenience. It's not necessarily where your files are.

Use a proper file browser like Bridge, and set up a logical folder tree structure.