Photoshop CS5 has an auto-save feature in its Mac version but not for PCs. It's important to save your work consistently throughout your design process to keep from losing it, but Photoshop will sometimes crash while you're saving. The more often you save, the less frustrating it will be when the software crashes. There are several reasons Photoshop might crash when you're saving, so check your file size and type if you have a problem saving.
Scratch Disks
- Photoshop uses a huge amount of memory available on your system disk, called scratch disks in Photoshop. Each action you perform takes up more memory space. If Photoshop gives you a scratch disk error and then crashes, set your preferences differently to help avoid this problem in the future. Press "Ctrl" and "K" to open your Preferences dialog box. Click on "Performance" and select all available system disks as scratch disks to provide more memory space for Photoshop.
File Size
- Your file sizes can grow quickly in Photoshop as you add layers and textures. If Photoshop crashes while you're saving an image, check your file size. It's usually displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen while you're working on the image, or you can right-click on the image icon inside its folder and check its Properties setting. The largest size Photoshop can handle is 4GB.
- File Type
- Different file types support different sizes of images. Photoshop's native image type, PSD, supports 2GB images, while TIFF files support 4GB, for example. If you try to save a PSD file that's 2.5GB, Photoshop could crash while you're saving. Change the file type to one that supports larger files if necessary. Stay away from saving as a JPEG file type on images you're still making changes to, as JPEG is a compressed format, and it won't retain the same amount of image data as a PSD or TIFF file.
Network
- Adobe doesn't support files saved across a network. If you're saving files onto your network instead of your local computer's hard drive, it may cause Photoshop to crash while saving. If you must use a network, transfer the file to your hard drive while working on the image. Save the image to your hard drive and then transfer the file back to the network drive once you've finished working on it.
