Why has Preview just sabotaged a whole weeks worth of work?!?!

Question

Why has Preview just sabotaged a whole weeks worth of work?!?!

Okay so I am an illustrator and I work with photoshop, last night I opened one of my pieces that I have been working on non stop for the past week in Preview... This morning I realized that was a HUGE mistake, it has ruined my .psd file by merging all layers into one, as you can probably guess I am extrememly frustrated by this and what is more frustrating is there was no warning message that this would happen! Please, is there a way to get my original .psd file back?!?!?!

URGENT!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Jan 17, 2014 6:45 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 17, 2014 6:59 AM in response to Tosh-U-RaHhHhH

Nope. That's just one more reason that I stay away from Preview - it can wreak havoc with many file types. It's not only a piece of junk, it is, as you've unfortunately discovered, a dangerous piece of junk.

Sorry,

Clinton

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Answer 2

BobRz

Level 5

6,138 points

Jan 17, 2014 7:01 AM in response to Tosh-U-RaHhHhH

Tosh, do you by any chance have a Time Machine backup? That's probably your only shot.

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Answer 3

Jan 17, 2014 8:08 AM in response to BobRz

I have not, I dont know how to set up Time Machine, but If I can figure it out can I still retreive files from before my Time Machine set up?

My lesson from all this is to never again open a .psd in Preview!!

Luckily I was close to finnishing stages and all I have to do is try and seamlessly edit out a template that I was planning to just simply delete at the end, which will be a challenge, so It's not impossible for it to be usable again, just difficult and time consuming especially as I have to match some shades and re draw parts again with perfect integration.. FML lol

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Answer 4

Jan 17, 2014 8:10 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

Thank you, I have reached the same conclusion and I am very angry at apple, I may write them a letter of complaint.. I don't know why lol, They can't really help me, but maybe they will make sure this kind of thing does not happen again by adding a warning message!

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Answer 5

BobRz

Level 5

6,138 points

Jan 17, 2014 8:11 AM in response to Tosh-U-RaHhHhH

No, sorry. If Time Machine were already in place you'd be able to retrieve a copy of what you had before the Preview incident, but it had to already be set up.

The other lesson is maybe to consider setting up Time Machine when you get a chance. You just had the backup lesson that most people go through before they realize the importance of having backups.

Sorry, thought there might be a chance, so I sent the note.

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Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Jan 17, 2014 2:05 PM in response to Tosh-U-RaHhHhH

This is the first time I've ever heard that Preview is capable of making any changes at all to a PSD file. Please make a copy of a layered file and open the copy in Preview. Are the layers merged?

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Answer 7

Jan 17, 2014 3:00 PM in response to Tosh-U-RaHhHhH

Is the file still a .psd file or has it changed?

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Answer 8

Jan 17, 2014 3:48 PM in response to Linc Davis

I have tried it with another .psd and it turns out it will only flatten the image if I rotate the image in Preview, when I close Preview it doesnt ask me if I would like to save changes or not, Still I wont be previewing my work with Preview anymore!

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Answer 9

Jan 17, 2014 3:50 PM in response to BenZamora

Yeah It's still a .psd file, I've already started editing the image again now and It's not perfect but its not too bad either, just would of been a lot simpler if I had all my layers.

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Answer 10

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Jan 17, 2014 4:11 PM in response to Tosh-U-RaHhHhH

Open the document and select

File ▹ Revert to... ▹ Browse All Versions...

from the menu bar. A browser view of the saved versions will open, with the current one on the left and the saved versions stacked on the right. Choose the oldest one.

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Answer 11

Network 23

Level 6

12,333 points

Jan 17, 2014 5:13 PM in response to Tosh-U-RaHhHhH

It is bad that Preview didn't warn you, but I'm not aware of very many (if any) non-Photoshop apps that can preserve Photoshop layers. When an application says it reads Photoshop files, most of the time that means they read the flattened "maximize compatibility" layer only.

Since Preview has nowhere near the feature list of Photoshop, I don't see how it could be expected to preserve the features and layers. I only use Preview for exactly the purpose that its own name implies: Previewing.

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