Lost all my layers, any way to get them back?

NancyJ · #1 01-31-2007, 10:40 AM

I was working on a print document for a client so I saved it as a pdf and sent it to her. Then I saved it as a psd and closed photoshop. Now when I open the psd, its flat and there are no layers - just a locked background. Do I have to completely redo 2 hours work or is there some magical way to get them back?

Nanls · #2 01-31-2007, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NancyJ

I was working on a print document for a client so I saved it as a pdf and sent it to her. Then I saved it as a psd and closed photoshop. Now when I open the psd, its flat and there are no layers - just a locked background. Do I have to completely redo 2 hours work or is there some magical way to get them back?

If there is I would like to know. I have done the same thing.... frustrating. Now I save versions.

~Nancy~

CJ Swartz · #3 01-31-2007, 10:48 AM

Aaaarrgh! I've no experience at this, but just doing a search came up with a program ($149!!) that might help. Let's try searching for "photoshop recovery tool" and "psd corrupt" or something similar.

Nancy -- have you looked in your "temp" directory to see if there is another copy of your file? (I hope, I hope)

From just a quick read about these programs, they seem to recover corrupted psd files as bmp files -- sounds like that won't help you since you already have the finished file, you need something that would give you the individual layers back.

http://www.datanumen.com/apsr/index.htm -- I tried the free demo version - it gives you a preview of the recovered file as a .bmp with "demo" watermarked all over it until you buy the software - the software is $149 (getting monotonous)

http://photoshoprecovery.recoveronix-ltd.qarchive.org/

Also:

http://www.psd-repair.com/ ($149)!

http://www.download3000.com/download_9876.html Free, I think, but McAfee Site Advisor warns about some adware/spyware in some downloads.

mistermonday · #4 01-31-2007, 12:05 PM

When you save a pdf, Photoshop saves the file as pdf and then if you click the close box on your psd file, unfortunately Photoshop does not present you with the normal dialog box asking you if you want to save changes, it just closes. Nothing will recover your work - it's like a song from Blue Rodeo - "Already Gone".
Regards, Murray

Swampy · #5 01-31-2007, 03:32 PM

I had much the same thing happen to me. Now I save as PSD first before doing any other saves and I always make sure that I'm saving with a different name.

I feel your pain.

T Paul · #6 01-31-2007, 03:36 PM

Nancy,

I had this happen to me today doing the exact same thing. The issue seems to be that after you save your file as a PDF, when you switch back to save it as a PSD the LAYERS button under the SAVE OPTIONS is now unchecked. So you made your nice PDF and when you go to save it as a PSD thinking you will have all your layers (because you are looking at them on your screen) you get a flattened file instead. Of course this is unbeknownst to you until you reopen your file. It was quite the shock, because I knew that I hadn't flattened the files. End result was that I had to recreate all my files again.

NancyJ · #7 01-31-2007, 05:01 PM

Well luckily it was just an A4 poster, with a really basic layout so it wont be too hard to rebuild - I'm just really annoyed. I can probably redo in like an hour

mistermonday · #8 01-31-2007, 06:00 PM

Nancy, perhaps the reason Photoshop does not ask you to save when you close the psd file is that it knows that the layers were saved in the pdf file. So when you open the pdf file with Photoshop, your layers should still be there. Are they not?
Regards, Murray

Littlecoo · #9 01-31-2007, 10:20 PM

As Murray said... Have you still got the pdf version kicking around somewhere... still in your email outbox/sent emails perhaps?