Photoshop 7.0, windows 10, norton 360 - file error on save - strange error message

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1

I have one client that still needs the occasional file done up via .psd file and I use other editors all the time.   When I went to save a copy of that file I got an odd something missing error message, and then the best I could get out of the old software was 'program error encountered'.   But I had another .psd file that I could modify and save.  Made no sense.   I then decided - must be #$@# windows updates security whatever and rebuilt an old windows 7 computer.   But caused a lot of problems between the two having to pass graphics back and forth etc etc etc.

Finally I decided to go to the company supplying the templates and download the set again.   

When I went to edit the file - just type in 'test' and save a copy - error - could not save file such_and_such is missing.   What?  I am in the file?   Then for the first time after doing all this work, norton 360 gives me an 'adobe is trying to do a dangerous write' or something along those lines.  I pressed the ask for more details, and I was allowed to exclude this action.

Now after hours of mucking around it all works again.   

First time Norton 360 never gave me the error message.   This time, it did, and I was able to exclude the action.   So if you get an odd save error message out of old software, be sure to look at the details and then exclude that action from Norton's eyes.

The really annoying thing is the product is so dumbed down and I have so little control over looking at how it works that I can't even go back through what the software is doing and see what I excluded or why so if this software updates itself, or I have to rebuild the computer, I might have to jump through that hoop a few times again to figure out what was the action I excluded.  

so I have been through all the options in 'device security', where do i find the action I just excluded from whatever monitor is running?

 

 

A few other rants I will put out there for so I put my anger/irritation where it belongs: 

also the Norton VPN crashes various websites.   I have to turn it off half the time to be able to do things on the internet - its a pain in the ass so I leave it off.   There are other vpns, or just using the tor browser is less of a hassle if I am really worried about it.

another thing is charging for anything and everything to maximize profits while warning us about problems you are not going to fix.

anti-tracking - I can just go delete cookies all the time.  In fact, what a better solution is to see all the tracking cookies I have, and create a dos .bat file and have it delete those cookies. boom.  problem solved money saved.   

utilities - there are problems with some machines that the utilities, and deleting a 1G byte of stuff will not solve.   And when I have a 1T ssd I process off of, well, 1 Gbyte is not much to care about.   

The product protects well, so far no virii have gotten through.   Can't say that about other products, but it is sold at a premium price and so anti-track should be part of it. 

Also I am now wondering if norton is jamming up the USB drivers on this machine because even on USB 3.0 the thing's read/write speed is 1/10th that of my old windows 7 machine.    

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The logs, or warnings as to new sites refusing VPN wouldn't be all that different than having a signature of any virus.   For example  www.no_vpn_r_us.com now blocks VPN from working, rather than leaving us sitting here trying to figure out if its a web problem, our network problem, we need to reboot, modem problem, ISP problem, etc, user's could mark a site.  Since we are going through their VPN to get to a site, just as norton marks a safe site, then they could also give you a pop-up, or whatever saying - this site does not accept VPN connections and you might have to disable VPN for this site.

Their product watches us use the internet, and therefore they could have sites so marked, even if its just the user's submitting the sites.  They could then automate a web address check for user submitted sites, push one of their own computers through their vpn to that site, and then see if the site responds or not.  

Forums like this are as much about letting us blow of steam as do our own product support.   So how about throwing us a bone here?   

It could also be something through norton safe search searchbar or whatever they have in that realm.   I never used it in the past though.  But they do have norton web extensions still, right?  

If I can get a block on 'this is a dangerous site' or 'this site is blocked' then when I am pushing through their vpn they already have the information they need.

 

However, If I may ask once more, my real intent of this thread was to help the next poor dumb (fill in the blank) who tries to use photoshop 7.0, does not get an error, and has a .psd file crashed but there is nothing to indicate the file has crashed.  The software simple says 'photoshop could not complete the action because of a program problem'.   You rightly mention that I didn't provide enough information.  I would love to provide the information, or even make a new thread, but I can't find out the configuration information to tell someone that I excluded this program from whatever based on writing a file.  And frustratingly, opening the file doesn't cause the problem, and you don't even know that something in that file is corrupted.   That's why it took me so long to get to this point.   I'd really like to save the next user, and myself if I have to rebuild this system from a disc crash or whatever, the trouble and say - if you see this error, then exclude this program for this action.   

Do you know how to get to that information?   I have no idea.   And I really don't want to go down to searching through every config file to figure it out.  I would really like to make this thread useful for this kind of obscure file write security problem that made little sense.   

And I really do appreciate your responses.   But more importantly as someone who wrote software and was a software design leader, my job was to figure out how to make this product work better for the people paying me money.   If my software craps out or craps out other software, whether it is vpn usage, trying to write a file, or a copy of a file to disc, or I can make information available to the more advanced user to make their lives easier, then that is my job.   As a musician, I play the tuba, and I tell everyone my job is to make everyone else sound better.   That's my philosophy.  That's how I run my ebay business.   That's why I put out how to fix this videos on youtube.   I am not getting rich from spending that time in video production, but I helped a lot of people.  

That should be the attitude of everyone in software development.  

An example of how to do that wrong was MAGIX taking over Sony Vegas creative video software.   They pushed and pushed and pushed us to go to a new version of vegas that they claimed was an upgrade, and the UI was completely different.  Well, if its different better, ok.  But it wasn't, and worst of all, everything I created previously was now un-useable.   And the product this was an 'upgrade' from was better.   They finally loaded it up with so many freebies that I decided, ok, why not and I was suspicious going in and I went all over their site trying to find what I needed to know.  I couldn't imagine that all my old projects were now dung.   Then when I found out I couldn't finish the project I was working on, I wanted my money back.  I uninstalled the software so my licenses were full.   However, for them it was the Ferengi rule of Acquisition #1 - once you have their money never give it back.   Well, too bad for them I denied the charge, my business credit card supported me, and I didn't get cheated for a total product misrepresentation.   Its in their forums.   I rarely get on to the forums for anything.   

As far as the marketing dept in charge, well, there are few motivators for human behavior - fear, hunger and sex.   So they have learned from our politicians that only we can protect you!   Push that fear button baby.  Push it push it push it.    So no argument there.   They'll also say our shareholders demand it.  Well, bull excrement.   I am an investor as well, it should be about long term growth, not make the numbers for the next quarter so senior staff gets their bonus.    And that's a whole other topic - but it seems to be an accepted practice now.   I vote against it every time.  Doesn't matter since they always have a majority of the stock.  

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Perhaps norton should considering adding a warning/auto-off feature for those sites.    The idea is to protect privacy, but how to solve the issue of copyrights is equally valid.   Feedback from the norton software which communicates with a server that logs these sites and provides these warnings that VPN has to be turned off would be much better.

A VPN provider has no way to know which sites block VPN access. And not sure what logs you feel Norton would keep, but that is one of the prime features of the Norton VPN, No Logging of any kind. In fact Norton turned off VPN access from India when their laws required all VPN provide logging which could be accessed by law enforcement. See this Norton announcement   https://community.norton.com/en/forums/accessing-norton-secure-vpn-india

another thing is charging for anything and everything to maximize profits while warning us about problems you are not going to fix.

We hear you on this one. For a few years now the marketing department has been running the show. Creating scare tactic popups if you don't purchase this additional product that will automatically do something most users can easily do manually for free.

 

4

Thank you for your reply.    The VPN feature then becomes problematic or useless when you have to constantly turn it on and off.   It becomes a real hassle and frustrating.   Perhaps norton should considering adding a warning/auto-off feature for those sites.    The idea is to protect privacy, but how to solve the issue of copyrights is equally valid.   Feedback from the norton software which communicates with a server that logs these sites and provides these warnings that VPN has to be turned off would be much better.  Often we are not given any kind of error the site is just blocked or works badly or whatever, and we are left to figure what is going on.     As in the problem I mention here, it can be hours if you are unfamiliar with the ins and outs.

I know the messages I provided were vague because I did not take the time to take a screen capture.  The error messages themselves were vague.  'action could not complete because of a program error' - something like that - from old software is little better than the old blue screen stack dump.

I then search the internet, various forums, and I really find nothing about the problem I am having.  

 

However, if you can tell me how I find out what actions/permissions were given by me when I excluded the old photoshop software when it tried to write to my disc drive, I could then provide that information in the post.

My frustration was that I wanted to go back and find that information, but by going through all the options under 'device protection' I can't find that configuration/exclusion list.   That would then allow me to post that information to the benefit of the community. 

 

I go back to the era of creating assembly language level aps on 8080 based computers.   We have had a tremendous leap in what we can do with our computers, and there are going to be issues of AI security on the horizon (if not already), the constant changes to windows 10/11 security, and our privacy, etc.   All of this the norton people have to deal with.   I spent 35 years in the computer trade and I understand software development, although, that has changed quite a bit. 

The plug and play era has gotten very good, but the forums are filled with technical issues on particular combinations.   

The profit models for letting us have free access to social media, news, etc then becomes a balancing act of our privacy, security and our rights.    We pay for a product that helps protect us from the bad.   Hopefully it improves to deal with these new and sometimes old challenges.  

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It is hard to comment on the Photoshop files with the vague error messages you mention. The actual details of those messages might have helped to better understand what was being detected.

also the Norton VPN crashes various websites.   I have to turn it off half the time to be able to do things on the internet - its a pain in the ass so I leave it off. 

Many web sites do not allow access from known VPN IP addresses. They do this for copyright, legal, security, and political reasons. There is nothing a VPN provider can or should do to circumvent these legal protections. See this How to Geeks article.   https://www.howtogeek.com/403771/why-do-some-websites-block-vpns/