Layers disappear from saved files

[ink_stroke]

Many thanks for your reply!

(5 hours ago)rich2005 Wrote: I have no real solution only some thoughts.  Gimp .xcf files could be corrupted with large images and the image closed before saving was complete. The file totally unreadable.  As far as I know that was fixed. You could open a "just saved" xcf and check for errors before  closing the image and moving on to the next project.

A linked layer, is a reference to an external image.  It allows the user to adjust the external image with some other program, save it, and the Gimp layer is updated automatically.  I have tried adding a link layer, saving a xcf, closing Gimp, deleting the external image and it was still ok when I reopened in Gimp.

It is true that I work with large images - A4 pages that have a depth of 1200 ppi, JPEG layers that are several hundred MB large. Usually I wait for the files to be saved before closing the program; but it might have come to happen that I closed it too early. That might be at least a possible explanation for the text layer's disappearing - the file being corrupted in any weird way.

It's very good to know that linked layers affect data outside the XCF file. That explains fairly well why one of my image layers was gone in several different files. I will surely never use linked layers again!
I do not use any layer effects; but I use to add and arrange different drawings from different files or from the same file on the main image layer and merge them.

I will now try my best to backup and recreate my files keeping all those points in mind. I will copy the linked layers' image data to make them original layers in new files. In case the issue remained to occure, I'll post it here.

Thanks a ton for your information!