Photoshop is suicidal when I try and save. Errrr....

January 29, 2008 2:48 PM

Photoshop CS keeps crashing when I try and save a file. WHY?

I run OSX and Photoshop CS, a 6x8 Wacom Graphire4, and a Epson Perfection 4850 scanner. Since I bought my iMac two summers ago, I've had zero trouble with Photoshop-- eerily so. But about two weeks ago I started trying to scan in multiple files with my scanner, and I started having Photoshop crash any time I tried to save more than two files. OK, I got over my annoyance with that, thinking it was some bizarre new glitch when I scanned and saved, but now I was working on one file, saved it twenty minutes ago, tried saving it again just a minute ago, and it's crashed.

To my knowledge nothing new has happened in the last month or so, like an update or something. No new programs were installed, it's been a pretty uneventful time lately. I am baffled at why it just keeps crashing before I can save. It doesn't seem to matter whether I save it as a PSD or as a TIF, it just crashes when I save something more than once or twice.

Any idea what could cause this? I know it's probably a longshot, but maybe there's something I totally am not considering that would cause this. Nothing else has problems, except for the occasional Firefox lockup. I am hoping I don't have to go and shell out for a new copy of Photoshop....it's getting pretty frustrating after a while.

posted by actionpact to computers & internet (9 answers total)

is it a hugemongous file? just wondering. Is it a different file size then what you are used to?
posted by sully75 at 3:03 PM on January 29, 2008

No, it's typical size for me-- 600dpi lineart... I've done this many times, I use a recorded action to clean up lineart and save... so this is pretty confusing why it'd decide to crash now. It's crashed with 300dpi lineart as well.
posted by actionpact at 3:07 PM on January 29, 2008

What version of OSX and PowerPC or Intel iMac?

Here's a MacFixit thread about others w/ the same problem; more details will help narrow down the googling.

Also, someone in that thread is using Save As as a work around; see if that works.
posted by jamaro at 3:10 PM on January 29, 2008

Intel iMac and version 10.4.11.

Thanks for that link-- I'll give it a shot with the Save As function. Getting desperate! :D
posted by actionpact at 3:13 PM on January 29, 2008

Another link, this time with various solutions from a forum hosted by Adobe: a post about PS CS on an Intel Mac suddenly crashing on save.

Fixit suggestions include repairing permissions, trashing PS's prefs (Library/Preferences/com.adobe.Photoshop.plist), or removing the AltiVec Core Plugin (Photoshop Plugins/Extensions).

and a similar post on Apple's Support boards. The solution there was to remove the TWAIN plugin (Adobe/plug-ins/import-export folder).
posted by jamaro at 3:33 PM on January 29, 2008

Thanks a lot, jamaro! I tried the TWAIN thing and so far (knock on wood) it's behaving more properly. Of course it could act up once I restart, but at least for now it's playing nice.

I guess if nothing else I'm glad it's not just me having this recent problem!
posted by actionpact at 3:37 PM on January 29, 2008

Removing the TWAIN always worked for me. It can be kind of a paint to reinstall though.
posted by apetpsychic at 4:09 PM on January 29, 2008

Pain, rather.
posted by apetpsychic at 4:09 PM on January 29, 2008

If you want to disable it but not remove it, just rename it. A leading tilde works, as does "StupidCrashyTWAINthing".
posted by jamaro at 4:15 PM on January 29, 2008