Save Open Photoshop Files as a Session and Restore Later

You finally have the right hero PSDs, references, and variants open, then you need to jump to another client or close for the day. Tomorrow you face the same hunt through folders and recent files to rebuild that exact combination. A session in this sense is simply the list of documents you want back together, not a replacement for saving your work.

Photoshop remembers recent files, but it does not treat a working set of many open documents as one unit. Each path lives on its own. When files sit in different client or job folders, rebuilding the set means many Open commands or Finder and Explorer hops. That friction shows up most on campaigns, e-commerce batches, and any job where you rotate between a few fixed bundles of files.

Outside the plugin world, people fake sessions with notes, workspace layouts, or scripts. The goal is the same: capture which files belonged to one mental context so you can return to it. The missing piece is a single action that says “open this whole list again” without you micromanaging paths.

DocManager lists every open Photoshop document in one panel. From the plugin’s panel menu you can save the current open documents as a named session, manage saved sessions, and open one later to bring that entire set back in one step. Files can live in different directories; the session stores the set you care about, not a single folder shortcut.

DocManager Pro lets you save open documents as a named session and reopen that session later in one action. Try DocManager Lite for free, then upgrade for sessions and other Pro features.

Typical flow: finish arranging the files you want in the session, open the panel menu, choose the option to save a session from what is open, give it a clear name (client or batch), then later pick that session to reopen the same documents together.

Sessions solve “get this exact group back.” Thumbnails and list view in the same panel solve “which file am I in right now” while they are open. After you restore a session, you still benefit from seeing every PSD at a glance instead of relying on truncated tabs.

The plugin shows open documents as thumbnails or a compact list so you can switch and organize the set you just restored.

Saving and reopening a session cuts repeated navigation when the same documents come back day after day or after a context switch. If you want named sessions plus thumbnails, batch actions on selected documents, and drag and drop moves between PSDs on Windows and Mac, see DocManager Pro. Retouchers juggling many files per job can also read DocManager for Retouchers.