I need to disable syncing in order to save changes in Photoshop.

That's correct. I need to disable syncing in order to save changes in Photoshop.

Hi Mattias3 & u_kadru; I'm sorry for the late reply. 

Based on your desription, I believe you are seeing an issue with file locks - correct me if I'm wrong please. 

As you noticed, our desktop application is unable to sync some types of files left open by certain applications. When this happens, Dropbox will report that the "file is in use" from the Dropbox desktop application menu.

Some 3rd party apps/services place locks on files while they are being edited. The feature avoids conflicts that can occur if the file is changed by another computer. This lock also prevents Dropbox from accessing and syncing the file.

To allow Dropbox to sync these files, you'll need to save and quit any applications where the file is open. Once you do, Dropbox will fully sync the files.

For more information on file locks, see the Dropbox Help Center article:

https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/stuck-syncing

If you are sharing the data between computers you must NOT run the application on more than one computer at a time as you will generate file conflicts and other problems.

Thus, the pattern needs to be:

1. Let files sync
2. Start application
3. Save files
4. Quit application
5. Repeat on different computers.

Let me know if this helps! 

Walter 

The problem in this case is that Dropbox is the one locking the files. In my case, Photoshop is unable to save the file because it's been locked by Dropbox as it's in the state of syncing.

The solution is to disable Dropbox sync, save the file in Photoshop, enable Dropbox sync. It would be nice if Dropbox actually "sensed" the file is being saved again and released the lock automatically.

Hi Walter , the probem is the opposite to your reply. The files are synced. But Dropbox interupt with the saving process of other applications, making it impossible to save the work. I started to report this as a bug to the developer of the affected software, and ended up in the result; "some other software are interfering with the saving process". After some testing on my computer I found out it was Dropbox that interfere. It use to work smoothly, but no longer. I think Dropbox has altered its behavour and is much more "agressivly" syncing files. This creates problems in the daily work. Now I need to remember to "pause sync" every time I start work, and then remember to "resume" after. Not a very smooth solution.

Thank you both for your clarifications on the matter u_kadru & Mattias3!

If you'd like to look into this further, please go ahead and log a ticket so our team can investigate with account and device specific information. 

Ping me the tickets' IDs here and I'll make sure to get to them as soon as possible. 

On a side note, are the files that exhibiting this behavior available locally on your device or have they been set to Online Only via your Smart Sync settings? 

Getting file save errors whilst using Photoshop

• All files are local and on my drive
• Same setup I have been using years
• I have changed nothing apart from Adobe Updates
• Files are not locked and I am only one with access to these PSD files
• Even newly created files will fail on second save in PS, and file has never been closed
• Windows 7 install
• Files can be anything from 50 meg to 500+

So - when working on files, half the time the file will fail to save, and a file save error says file is locked (see screenshot). If i look in explorer, the file is there and zero bytes.

The file will save if:-

• I wait several minutes - then it may save
• If I pause sync on dropbox file will save IMMEDIATELY

Basically, if I turn off file sync in your Dropbox I never get this problem.

Full error photoshop message text:

"Could not save {filename} because the file is locked, you do not have the necessary access permissions, or another program is using the file. Use the properties command in Windows Explorer to unlock the file"

So, it seems the Drobox’s' syncing of the files is being seen as the "other program" accessing the file? and thus photoshop cannot save because of this - which is new and could be from either PS or DB as both seem to have been updated a lot of late.

Even if this was an access problem, the zeroing of the file is worrying 

Any assistance would be good, I have seen similar things to this but no one has stated that turning off sync solves this, but I don’t want to be turning on and off all the time?

Hi GPGS_PHOTOSHP - thanks for your report and welcome to our Community too!

I moved your post under this thread as it echoes the issue discussed here. Could you take a look when you get some spare time and let me know if u_kadru´s suggestion works for you too.

Thanks! 

HI, well there is nothing here that I have not already mentioned, and that is to disable Dropbox Syncing so I can work on my files, then re-enable - not a solution.

The problem is .. this was not a problem till a couple of weeks ago - my workflow has not changed at all, but all of a sudden Dropbox is interfering and locking the files, so why is this happening? Yes, I can do what @u_kadru does, but as I said, I don't want to be enabling and re-enabling all the time as a lot of files need to be shared and i need files from other colleagues too,

Thanks for your swift reply GPGS_PHOTOSHP.

Would you like me to reach out via your Dropbox email address to look further into this internally with all of my tools at my disposal? 

I'll make sure to update the thread with our findings too if you agree.