A year of photos in Organizer disappeared with installation on new PC.

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
March 22, 2024
2 replies
241 views

The problem: On reinstalling PSE 21 on a new computer, the most recent 12 months of photos are missing from Organizer.

Details: I've been using PSE since about version 9. My Windows 10 PC died suddenly (but not while I was using it). My new PC (Dell XPS 8960) runs Win 11. I installed PSE 21, which I had been using before. Dropbox downloaded my Catalog folder, with all files, including catalog.pse21db. When I started PSE Organizer, everything was there--except everything I added since March 9, 2023--over a year of photos are gone. I'm not talking about gray boxes with photos that need to be reconnected because the new install has a different file path. (There is that problem, but that can be handled). There are just no photos (or gray boxes) for the past year's imports and cataloging.

What I've done: I went into Dropbox and restored an older version of catalog.pse21db and downloaded that. Same result. I KNOW that the last time I used PSE on my now-dead PC everything was there.

Anyone have this happen? Recommendations? (Note, my total catalog is about 25,000 images, probably 500-600 in the past year).

This topic has been closed for replies.

Greg_S.

Community Expert

Files, normally, don't just disappear from a catalog without the user taking some action. Although, I suppose your computer's demise may have caused the problem.

If all of your photos have been restored to the original path hiearchy on your new machine AND you have restored the complete catalog folders containing the Elements catalog.pse19db files (anywhere on your new computer), you can double-click the db files and they will open the catalog in the same condition it was in when you last used that catalog. If you have many such db files, then start with the most recently dated one.

BTW, the catalog file for Elements 2021 is as I have named it above: catalog.pse19 not catalog.pse21 which you say you have from your Dropbox account. If this is a typo - fine. But did you possibly install Elements 2023 at some point?

Added: Perhaps I misunderstood your original post and you are accurately stating that you have Elements version 21 which is marketed as Elements 2023. If that is the case, double-click on the catalog.pse21db files.

Glenn 8675309

Legend

Your biggest issue may be doing things (such as backups) outside of Organizer. Have you created a complete backup of the images, the 500-600 done in the past year?

Unless you chose the full backup you are not backing up the photos themselves, just the catalogue structure- and that is a mistake that many users make.

You mention dropbox two or three times--- whatever you use outside of the program is really all on you and it makes it rather difficult to provide good solid help.

You don't mention making an incremental, or full backup from within organizer- and that what makes things a bit more complex.

B

bensquaredAuthor

Participating Frequently

I have all my photos, both in Dropbox and downloaded into the same folders on my PC. The photos from the past year are all on my PC, in the same folders they were on my old PC. Those photos had all been imported to PSE, and tagged. The problem is that when I start Organizer, on the new PC, now it recognizes my entire catalog--with all my tags-- EXCEPT for the past 12 months of photos.

On my old PC I also would run the auto backup when exiting PSE. But the new installation doesn't seem to be aware of it and I have bo idea what that file is called or where it would be.

Glenn 8675309

Legend

You still have not adressed my question: have you completed a full backup of the catalogue and images from within organizer? I don't pay attention to anything you (or anyone) do with drop box--- this is a Photoshop Elements user to user forum.

"On my old PC I also would run the auto backup" -- still does not address my question about doing a complete backup (the catalogue and images) from within Organizer. You can backup catalouges all day long- but unless you tell Organizer to backup the images as well it only back ups the structure of the catalogue, not the images.

You also have not mentioned restoring a catalogue from within Organizer using the FILE menu option, which is the way things work.

People in general can make mistakes when utilizing dropbox: copying empty folders, uploading db files which really are not the correct ones, or logging in with a different ID, not noticing, an get confused about "their files that were there yesterday"

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