Good Morning Bill,
If you’re getting that kind of response from any app, then the first suspect is permissions. Check the permissions for the file and, if the file is OK, the folder the file is in.
Do a "Get Info" on the file and check the "Ownership & Permissions" and the "Details". When bringing in files from other media, such as CD or CF Card etc., the file permissions are often "Read Only", which means you can open the file for editing, but can’t re-save using the same file name.
If you’ve got a large number of these files, residing in the same directory, then you can use the Terminal to do a batch change of permissions using the command "chmod".
(i.e.: ~/Pictures/Camera/Wales] kyle% chmod 644 *.jpg would change all the JPEGs in the Wales directory to owner: read/write, group: read only and others: read only) Very useful when you’ve got a jillion and one files to change!
HTH
Kyle
Kyle,
Thanks for the info. I checked the files as you suggested and the permissions appear to be correct. I have read/write both on the files and containing folders. I haven’t used the terminal much, but I guess this would be a good time to begin. Thanks again.
Bill
Hi again, Bill!
Hmmm, now you’ve got me.
Can you open and re-save these files using another app? (i.e.: GraphicConverter or something other than PSE2)
This might tell us if it is a PSE2 problem, or a system problem. If other apps have the same response then what I’m thinking is maybe there is a zombie thread from an app that didn’t close properly, doesn’t show up in the Force Quit list and is holding your images hostage.
If you’re like me you haven’t logged out or done a restart recently, maybe, just maybe, logging out and back in or a restart might clear things up. Logging out will cause any apps you’ve been running to shut down and maybe free up these images. If that, or a restart, doesn’t do the trick then I’m stumped.
If other apps can re-save these files, then its a PSE2 problem, and again I’m stumped. Although, if they can be re-saved by something else, re-open them in PSE2 and see if you get the same response again.
HTH
Kyle
Scratching Head Perplexedly
Jim,
Just a thought … I have sometimes had this message and it usually pops up when I have opened an image then made a copy using Image>Duplicate Image.
Then I have worked on the duplicate but when I try to save it (using the original image name) I get the same message as you. It seems to be because the original image is still open … so I either close it and try again or use a different name.
A long shot but I just wondered if yours was a similar thing
Wendy
I had the same thing happen to me a couple weeks ago. In my case it was an anomaly. I did a "Save as" under a different name, deleted the original file and then renamed the new one to the same name, but obviously that is not something you would want to do every time!
I looked at file and folder properties…couldn’t find anything to explain the problem. Oh, I just noticed you are on a Mac. My problem occurred on a PC running Win XP Home. Sounds like the same problem, though.
Bert
Kyle and others,
I can open the same image in another application (Fireworks), make changes, and save the file with no problems. I can open a file in PE2, make changes, then do a Save As… to a different file name, but I still can’t save changes to the original file. I haven’t made any changes to my system recently. It just start doing this and is puzzling to me. Thanks for the input.
Bill
Bill, have you repaired permissions on your system recently? That’s kind of like getting a corrupted Preference folder in Elements – all kinds of weird things can happen that often make no sense.
