Admittedly, it doesn’t happen every day, but Photoshop files can become corrupted. Maybe your antivirus or firewall software mistakenly identifies a file as a threat. Perhaps the power went out halfway through saving, or an elderly hard drive hiccupped in the middle of a disk operation. Or loading and saving big files resulted in a truncated save. If you use some kind of file format interchange, your legacy versions of Photoshop may cough on things like smart objects. Whatever the reason, sometimes a PSD file just goes rogue and doesn’t open. What should you do?
Rehab for PSD Files
PSD Repair Kit is a single-trick utility which takes corrupted files and turns them into something you can not just open again, but you can use and resave. It’s simple to just choose your mangled file, then examine the file and determine which layers are causing problems with opening.
You can visually examine each layer in the file using the Picture tab to see which is which if you don’t properly rename your layers. Yes, we all do it, but this is another good reason why explicitly naming layers is a good idea. Write that down!
When you’re done checking and unchecking layers to be included, then you can try a repair. This can take a while depending on the size of your file, but there is a progress bar to let you know roughly how long it will take.
After that you can save the new file and even preview it directly in Photoshop. It’s simple and quick. You can also try out the online version of the software at the linked website to upload and repair your PSD files. This works with all OS, including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, etc. All you have to do is select a file, give your email address, complete a captcha, and then you can upload a file for repair. The online service is cheaper than the program, costing only $10 per file. So if you are only looking to repair one Photoshop file, it would benefit you to do do so online, rather than purchase the program.
Why would I want it?
At one end of the scale if you are a hobbyist, having mangled files is usually just an annoyance. But if you’ve worked on a piece over many days, it can be a catastrophe. At the top end, if you work professionally either full time or part time on Photoshop for clients, a corrupted file could mean losing a job or a contract. Also, if you are using an older version of Photoshop (and lots of people do despite the really annoying Adobe Genuine Software popups which erroneously say they are invalid), then your tech support has long ago expired. If so, then PSD Repair Kit is a godsend.
For and against
As for the pros and cons, in the plus column the software works with modern and legacy versions of Photoshop from version 3.0 and above and works with both PSD and 8BPS files. In fact, in general it’s very legacy-friendly and runs on Windows 98, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. Another useful feature is that not only can you repair the PSD file, but you can also separate each layer of the PSD as a single JPG. This is handy if you can’t get it to work as a layered file. It’s a rarity but happens, and any extra options you can get to repair your file are all good. In the minus column? Not that much, actually, because while it’s a single function piece of software and is a bit of a one-trick pony, it does that single job very well. It’s not pretty to look at, but personally we’d prefer that utilities are plain and simple tools and leave the pretty pictures to Photoshop. All in all, PSD Repair Kit is a simple-to-use, effective piece of insurance for anyone who works with Photoshop, no matter how professionally and no matter how antediluvian and crumbly your old Photoshop is. In fact, the older your version number, the more likely this utility is to give you peace of mind.
And you’re off!
You can get the software PSD Repair Kit and try it for free. To buy it for personal use, it’s $27 and for business use it’s $45. For a small solid utility that does the trick and might save you from losing a job, it’s worth the price.
