jpeg files not recognized

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

Recently Photoshop has stopped recognizing a good portion (but not all) of my jpeg files as being legitimate jpegs. The icon on the desktop has changed to the Quicktime icon (they never were before) and the files can't be opened by dragging them onto the Photoshop application icon. Double-clicking opens Quicktime. They can be opened in PS (one at a time) by going through the Open dialog. Once they've been opened and resaved they function as normal. All files have the .jpg extension.

Any ideas what's causing this or how to fix it? Sounds suspiciously like a virus, but no other symptoms seem to exist, and once re-saved the "fix" seems permanent.

OS is 9.2.2. I think PS version is 4 on that computer, if that makes a difference. (I know, I'll upgrade eventually, but I have 7 at work so I'm not in a hurry). It also may be pertinent that I had to install software to download images from a Kodak digital camera. I don't remember the problem occuring before that. All the images from the camera load onto the system in this irritating way, but a lot of unrelated jpegs started behaving the same way. Could the install have overwritten something important in the system folder?

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

Rebuild your desktop. (Hold down Command and Option keys while starting until you see the dialog box asking you if you want to rebuild it.) That should take care of it in OS 9.2.2.

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

Of course, make sure Photoshop is really on that computer.

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

I've rebuilt the desktop several times to no avail (should have mentioned that). And yes, Ramon, I'm able to use the Open dialog in Photoshop to open these files, and resave them to fix it, partially because Photoshop is, indeed, installed on that computer. Or is that an oblique way of insinuating that PS 4 doesn't count as being Photoshop?

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

Jonf,

Then maybe those files had resided in an OS X computer before and you had simply used OS X's feature in the file Get Info box to tell OS X to open them in Photoshop globally? Maybe that doesn't change the creator type within the file itself. (Thinking out loud.) Or the camera software may not have the capability to put the Photoshop creator type on the files, which would also be the case with JPEGs downloaded from the Internet.

In 9.2.2 you can use FileTyper to drag and drop all those files and change the creator globally.

It seems to me your 9.2.2 is behaving normally.

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

You may be right about 9.2.2, but this only effects jpegs and Photoshop. None of the files have ever been on an OSX computer. They've been residing on my hard drive or archived onto zip disks and never had this problem until recently.

I'll check into FileTyper.

[Buko@adobeforums.com]

Can't you set the file type and what opens it in file exchange?

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

The problem seems to be the Quicktime icon. The file type is still jpeg, which I had set to open with Photoshop. But some jpegs (and only some) are picking up something which is not allowing it to be recognized as a jpeg. But I'll check again and see if I missed something there. Maybe there's a new "creator" setting I haven't noticed.

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

The problem isn't that it prefers to open in Quicktime. The problem is that Photoshop doesn't recognize it as a file that it can open at all. Even if File Exchange prefers to use something else as the application to open a specific file type, I ought still to be able to drag my file icon onto my Photoshop app icon and have it open the file. This is how it always used to behave. Now it does nothing. Photoshop doesn't even highlight, and doesn't recognize these jpegs at all. This doesn't seem normal, no matter what my File Exchange settings are.

I guess no one has any further ideas?

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

Jonf,

In an earlier post you stated that you can indeed open those JPEGs by going to File > Open in Photoshop. Therefore, it's not really Photoshop not recognizing the files at all but rather a Finder issue.

Beside rebuilding the desktop, try going into the Preferences Folder inside your System Folder and deleting the System Preferences and the Finder Preferences, then restarting your Mac. You'll have to reset your Finder options (Views, etc.) but a lot of issues can be cleared that way in 9.2.2. Those preferences files get corrupted too.