"open recent" doesn’t open anything

J
Posted By
jedikalimero
Feb 10, 2007
Views
393
Replies
9
Status
Closed
When I go to "file->open recent->nameofmyfile", no file is opened and nothing happens.

The files are still at the same location (I’m sure I’ve not moved or deleted them) but Photoshop doesn’t open any of them.

NOTE: The "open recent" list keeps being updated each time I close a file opened by any other means ("open", "open as", draggin the icon, double clicking it, double clicking the photoshop desktop, etc).

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J
jedikalimero
Feb 10, 2007
Great, it worked, but lost all my preferences :-/
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Feb 10, 2007
Your aren’t by any chance using a prior version of Photoshop’s plugin folder for your additional plugins, are you?
J
jedikalimero
Feb 10, 2007
Yes. Are you suggesting I should reinstall all plugins into a new folder?
P
Phosphor
Feb 10, 2007
Smart procedure:

Keep all the Photoshop-native plugins just where they are, in the location where they normally install. Don’t move ANYTHING.

Create a second folder, name it something like "3rd-Party PS Plugins" and install any Non-Adobe plugins to that folder. Keep this second folder inside the main Photoshop folder. In Photoshop’s preferences, point to that as the "Additional Plugins Folder."
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Feb 10, 2007
That could be the problem. If you point to a prior version’s folder, Photoshop will try to load that earlier version’s plugins in addition to its own, and there may be conflicts.
J
jedikalimero
Feb 11, 2007
Well, I have a plugins folder that is the folder where Photoshop installs his own plugins. Then I have a folder called plugins2 that is where I install third party plugins. I never install third party plugins in the "plugins" folder.

So I tryed the following: I renamed my plugins2 folder to pluginsbak and created a new plugins2 folder. Then I started to move all the plugins one by one to plugins2 and opened Photoshop and tryed the "open recent" each time to find the plugin that failed.

The weird thing is that at a certain moment I moved a Plugin that caused the failure, then I moved it back to pluginsbak and restored the following plugin. It also caused Photoshop to fail, and so all the remaining plugins. What the hell was happening? all the last ten plugins were causing that fail and all the previous ones not? It seemed very strange that the all the first plugins worked and all the last not.

So I removed one of the plugins that worked and restored one of the plugins that didn’t worked, tryed PS and… it worked! I then restored the last removed plugin and PS failed again!

It looks as if my PS could only support a limited number of plugins and that if I install one plugin more than that number, the "open recent" function fails (but not the plugins).

What the hell is happening?
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Feb 11, 2007
Try deleting your preferences again.
P
Phosphor
Feb 11, 2007
Well, moving 3rd-party plugins doesn’t always work, because they often have hidden files that need to be called, and if they’re not where they’re supposed to be, they can fail to work. Plugins also often have their own set of preferences which can possibly become corrupted just like any other preferences.

Sooo…if you want to try building a new "plugins2" folder, I suggest you try to makes sure all parts of the old plughin installations are removed from your system. Then reinstall them into your new folder (from disk or from an installer file/script) like you were doing it for the first time.

As you have been experiencing, troubleshooting problems like this can be a tedious and frustrating thing, because there are many, many variables that can be interconnected. Take your time, makes small incremental changes and pay attention to the results. Take written notes if you have to.

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Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

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