Originally Posted by 3AM eternal

nah. you guys are missing my point i guess. thanks a ton for trying to help but i'm sure it's just me.

the new folder produces the same results. i'll try one more time to explain this better.

it's not over writing the big pic. it's naming all the thumbs the same exact name. if i save pic01.jpg as tn_pic01.jpg while i am recording my action, and then i batch a folder of pics, it wants to name every single thumb tn_pic01. even if i make a new folder and set it as the destination, it still tries to name them all whatever i named the thumb while i was creating the action.

and again. if i don't include the save as step in the action then it works fine when i batch. it names each thumb appropriately but the method it uses to saves them makes the file size huge.

i probably still haven't explained it well enough so no worries if you have no clue what i mean. thanks again everyone for trying to help