Edit a file in Lightroom using the new local adjustments – the gradient tool or adjustment brush – and then open that file in Photoshop CS2 via Edit in Photoshop or Export…. and if you try to save it as a jpeg, Photoshop will complain with an error message which says “Could not complete your request because of a program error”. Why?
Ok, it’s a bug… but for once, it’s not a Lightroom bug. Photoshop CS2 trips up on some perfectly legitimate metadata that Lightroom saves into the files when you’ve used local adjustments. CS3 and CS4 behave nicely with this metadata, but CS2 is no longer updated and so the bug will never be fixed. What can you do about it? You have a few options:
- Update to CS3 or CS4.
- Check the ‘minimize embedded metadata’ checkbox in the Lightroom Export dialog, which will strip ALL of the metadata. It solves the problem, but leaves you short of any metadata in your files.
- Use Jeffrey’s Metadata Wranger to strip just the problem metadata from the file. By far the best option!
How to use Jeffrey’s Metadata Wrangler
To use Jeffrey’s Metadata Wrangler export plugin, you’ll first need to download it from: http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/metadata-wrangler and install it using the instructions here: http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/plugin-installation/
Then select the plugin in the lower left of the Export dialog, and you’ll see the additional section appear in the main Export options panel – scroll down if you can’t see it.
The only part you want to remove is the ‘crs’ block marked in red in the screenshot – all of the rest of the data can stay.
Any images exported with the ‘crs’ block removed will quite willingly save as a jpeg even with Photoshop CS2.
Renee says
July 11, 2009 at 9:10 pmThis bug does not only have to do with Lightroom its a problem across the board saving as jpeg’s in Photoshop CS2. I have found two ways to fix it.
1.) If the jpg option does show up in the save as section then you need to check your image mode and make sure it is not on anything higher than 8 bits.
Because this is a CS2 bug, even if the file is on 8 bits and you see jpg as an option you will get an error message when saving as a jpg “Could not complete request because of a program error”
2.) The only way I found to save this was by clicking save for web instead of save as.
Hope this helps somebody else out there.
maya says
June 26, 2014 at 12:21 pmThanks for the answer!
Bernie says
August 13, 2009 at 5:21 pmI had this problem also trying to save any file in CS2 as a JPEG. I solved it by copying and pasting the document in to a new Photoshop document. Hope that helps.
Rhonda says
September 13, 2009 at 1:15 amAny chance there is a new link to that plug-in download???
[Looks like Jeffrey’s site is down temporarily – I’d expect the link to stay the same as soon as it comes back up. – VB]
Paige says
October 25, 2009 at 10:58 pmThanks, your link rescued my weekend : ).
Christian says
July 9, 2010 at 10:56 amThank’s alot to publish your article about :
“Why can’t CS2 save as jpeg when local adjustments were used in Lightroom?”
I am a photograph pro in Paris and it was a big help for me, I upgrade my Lihtroom but resist for Photoshop 🙂
Have a good day.
Christian.
Chris says
March 1, 2011 at 9:40 pmI was having the same problem with one particular image that I was trying to save as a jpeg and found that if I double clicked on the image it opened in Preview mode so I saved as a jpeg in Preview mode and that worked. Once I brought that image into photoshop CS2 I was able to save as jpeg or any other format.
Krishnethinti says
April 19, 2012 at 7:13 pmhow can save the jpg photoshopm ]
Krishnethinti says
April 19, 2012 at 7:14 pmWhy can’t CS2 save as jpeg when local adjustments were used in Lightroom?”
I am a photograph pro in Paris and it was a big help for me, I upgrade my Lihtroom but resist for Photoshop