photoshop files corrupt into colored rectangles?

[danielckirk]

I'm using Adobe Photoshop Cloud 2017 on my Mac with OS 10.10.5 Yosemite.

I'm creating multi-layered illustrations for children's books, and every couple of weeks, while working on a digital painting, I'll happen to click on "Erase" or "select", or some other command, when the image starts to fall apart before my eyes.

A white layer may suddenly turn black, colored rectangles start to appear randomly over the image, and big chunks of the image will just disappear. If I step back in History, it makes no difference. The layers seem to corrupt all the way down to the base layer, and I can't seem to find a way to get them back. At the first sign of trouble I "save as" before things get bad. But this version, upon restarting the computer, will be just as bad as the one I left open and watched decay.

I'll then go back to an earlier saved version of the picture, before the trouble started, and begin working. Often the same problem will happen again.

In the past the problem would seem to vanish for several weeks, and then happen again on a new piece. It's totally erratic.

My local computer repair guy couldn't figure this out. Thoughts?

[kevin stohlmeyer · Accepted solution]

I've experienced a similar issue. I've seen it triggered with layer masks and the same result you are describing.

In speaking with the Photoshop team, it sounds like it could be a graphics/video card issue.