Learn how to open a Procreate .psd file in Photoshop when you see “the file is not compatible with this version of Photoshop” SOLVED!
Have you ever spent hours if not days working on a huge file in Procreate, exported it as a .psd file, but then can’t open it in Photoshop? Are you getting the error message “Couldn’t open “___.psd” because the file is not compatible with this version of Photoshop.”
Don’t panic, it’s probably because your file is over 2gb. Photoshop doesn’t do .psd files over 2gb. When you create a big file like this in Photoshop, it will prompt you to save it as a .psb file instead. Procreate doesn’t do .psb files, so in order to open it in Photoshop, you’ll need to split the file in two in Procreate and then put it back together in Photoshop and then save as a .psb.
Watch the video to find out more!
00:00:02:20 – 00:00:05:19
Hello. Today, let’s talk huge files!
00:00:05:19 – 00:00:25:20
Have you ever seen this message when trying to open a Procreate .PSD file in Photoshop? Don’t panic! Your file isn’t broken or corrupted. It’s all down to the file size. If you have a lower capacity iPad, it’s likely you won’t ever see this error message. It only happens when you save a file that is over two gigabytes.
00:00:25:27 – 00:00:32:25
And I think with the lower limit on a smaller iPad, you’d probably struggle to make a file that had enough layers and data in it to go that big.
00:00:32:25 – 00:00:43:26
I think I’ve only ever managed it once on my iPad, but it took me a hot minute to figure out what was going wrong and how I was going to open this massive file I’d spent hours on in Procreate in Photoshop!
00:00:43:26 – 00:01:08:25
So in Photoshop, once your file goes over two gigabytes, it will make you save it as a .PSB file instead. So it stands to reason that if Photoshop can’t save a .PSD file over two gigabytes, it also can’t open one. You can check your Procreate file size by going to actions>canvas>canvas information. And then down here in statistics it will tell you what the file size is.
00:01:08:28 – 00:01:19:11
This number might not always exactly correspond to the final size once it lands on your computer, because this file size here can also account for other data that Procreate stores in it. Like,
00:01:19:11 – 00:01:29:17
time lapse video, for example. So back to our massive file. How are we meant to open this in Photoshop? Because we can’t export it as a .PSB from Procreate,
00:01:29:17 – 00:01:33:14
And if it’s still a .PSD, we’re not going to be able to open in Photoshop!
00:01:33:14 – 00:01:51:28
The only way to get around it is to split the file in two and then put it back together in Photoshop and then you can save it as a .PSB. So to do that, you’re going to have to come out into your gallery, duplicate your canvas, flatten half of the layers in one of these, and then flatten the other half in the other document.
00:01:51:28 – 00:02:08:29
Unless you’re really pushed for space on your iPad, I might even duplicate it three times so that I’ve got a “master master” to go back to with no flattened layers if I need to. So we’ve got one document in here with half the layers and this document over here with the other half of our layers,
00:02:08:29 – 00:02:15:29
so you can now send them over to your computer, open them both, and then copy one lot of layers into the other.
00:02:16:02 – 00:02:34:25
Then you can save this as a .PSB and open it any time in Photoshop for editing or processing. You won’t be able to then open it back again in Procreate once you’ve saved it as a .PSB but hopefully you’ve still got that “master master” one in Procreate, if you needed to go back and change something in it.
00:02:34:25 – 00:02:46:10
So once you’re sure that you’ve got everything in this main file, you can delete the two spare ones in Procreate and also the spare one on your computer because that’s probably going to be about three gigabytes of space that you don’t need to be using up!
00:02:46:10 – 00:02:50:28
So that’s what to do, if you see that message pop up and you know you’re dealing with a huge file.
00:02:50:28 – 00:02:54:25
Let me know in the comments what the biggest file you’ve ever made in Procreate was!?
00:02:54:28 – 00:03:00:18
Thank you for watching! Don’t forget to subscribe for tips like this every Wednesday and I will see you soon.
I hope this video has been helpful for you! For more tips like this every week, don’t forget to subscribe ! Find out more about my Procreate to Photoshop workflow here!
