Could not save c:… because the file is already in use or was left open

MR
Posted By
Matty_Ryan
Dec 21, 2006
Views
455
Replies
14
Status
Closed
I’m getting this error message whenever I attempt to do anything with one particular .PSD file. Whether I’m saving it or renaming it outside of Photoshop, I get this message, and I don’t know what to do. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Related Tags
file open save use

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EH
Ed_Hannigan
Dec 21, 2006
It may be that the file is corrupted. I would open a new document of the same size and drag all the layers over to it and save that.
C
chrisjbirchall
Dec 21, 2006
Or open it in Photoshop and "Save as" a TIFF.
BL
Bob Levine
Dec 21, 2006
If you have a version of Photoshop earlier than CS then search your computer for psicon.dll and rename it psicon.dll.old.

Bob
MR
Matty_Ryan
Dec 21, 2006
Thanks for the responses. I’ve now got a version that I can work with, but I can’t delete the version I was having trouble with. A message pops up saying its already being used by another person or program. Any idea what I could do? Thanks again.
EH
Ed_Hannigan
Dec 21, 2006
Restart the computer then try to delete?
JJ
John Joslin
Dec 21, 2006
Or try this old bit of boilerplate advice I kept:

How do I delete an "undeletable" file?

Thanks to MS-MVP Kelly Theriot for this tip.

Open a Command Prompt window and leave it open. Close all open programs. Click Start, Run and enter TASKMGR.EXE Go to the Processes tab and End Process on Explorer.exe. Leave Task Manager open. Go back to the Command Prompt window and change to the directory the undeletable file is located in. At the command prompt type DEL <filename> where <filename> is the file you wish to delete. Go back to Task Manager, click File, New Task and enter EXPLORER.EXE to restart the GUI shell. Close Task Manager.
H
Ho
Dec 21, 2006
Or log in on the Adminsitrator account and have your way with it (usually works for me).
MR
Matty_Ryan
Dec 21, 2006
Thanks for the new responses.

This particular file has been undeletable since the end of September. The .PSD files I created before it were fine, as is anything I create now. I tried restarting the PC when I first realised something was wrong, but it didn’t change anything.

I’m already logged in as admin, and as for the boilerplate advice, if I even attempt that I’ll probably melt my PC. I’m no good at all with the technical side of PCs. I can make 3D planets on Photoshop though. Don’t mind me. Just wanted to tell someone.

Any other advice? Please?

PS – I’m not drunk.
AB
Arnor Baldvinsson
Dec 21, 2006
Hi Matty,

I’m already logged in as admin, and as for the boilerplate advice, if I even attempt that I’ll probably melt my PC. I’m no good at all with the technical side of PCs. I can make 3D planets on Photoshop though. Don’t mind me. Just wanted to tell someone.

Any other advice? Please?

I have never had this problem with PS, but I have run into problems with files becoming permanently locked in windows. Couple of things you can try:

1. With Photoshop _not_ running, copy the file using Explorer. If that works, the file may get "unlocked" and you can delete it.

2. Rename the file, again with Photoshop _not_ running.

3. Run Windows in command prompt mode (hit F8 when it starts) and then use the CD command to navigate to the file, like:

CD "C:\Photos\Camera\2006\December" or whatever the path is and then use the DEL command to delete the file:

DEL SomeFile.psd

use DIR to see a directory listing of the folder. This has always taken care of it, but I grew up on DOS (cut my teeth on CP/M actually<g>) so it’s not a big stretch for me to do it.

—
Arnor Baldvinsson
San Antonio, Texas
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Dec 22, 2006
What version of Photoshop are you using? To amplify on what Robert Levine has already said, versions prior to CS (8) used a shell extension named psicon.dll that allowed a thumbnail or icon of PSD files to be displayed in Windows Explorer instead of a generic image symbol. This caused a problem due to a bug in the operating system that caused some PSD files to be treated as though they were always open and thus could not be saved. A similar problem has occurred with Microsoft’s own RAW image file viewer applet. Renaming the psicon.dll file eliminates both the enhancement to Windows Explorer and the persistent file open problem. Starting with Photoshop CS, this functionality was removed to avoid the bug.
QP
Q_Photo
Dec 22, 2006
I renamed psicon.dll years ago and still have the "CAN NOT DELETE" problem from time from time. After a couple of days I then am able to delete it. However, I no longer have the "CAN NOT SAVE" problem.
Q
MR
Matty_Ryan
Dec 22, 2006
I’m using Photoshop 7.0

I’ve just renamed that psicon file again, and managed to delete the file that I’ve had for months. But now I’ve got two files (created yesterday) with the same problem as before. Even with psicon renamed I can’t do anything with them. I’ll leave them for a couple of days and see what happens. Thanks for everything.
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Dec 22, 2006
Are you running XP or W2K?
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Dec 23, 2006
Do you have Windows Explorer, Bridge, or a file-indexing program (e.g., Windows File Indexer or Google Desktop) running? If so, shut down those programs and see if the files become deletable from a command line.

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