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Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 to Photoshop Elements 2020

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
February 21, 2020
8 replies
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Hello,

I currently have Photoshop Elements 11 installed on a Windows 7 PC.

I've bought a new Win 10 PC and would like to continue using PE11 on the new Win 10 PC.

I do have a few questions which I have been unable to find answers for.

1. Stick with PE11 on Win10

Will PE11 run on Windows 10? If so, I assume I could use the original install CD to install PE11 on the Win10 PC. I'm not sure if it would then update to the latest version of PE11 using the Help -> Updates option due to its age. Assumming all that works I could then import the catalog from the old PC and carry on using PE11 on Win10. Would this scenario work?

2. If PE11 won't run on Win10 then is there a way of upgrading IE to the latest 2020 version whilst maintaing all my data i.e. tags etc. What would the best route be. Can I install PE 2020 on my Win10 PC and import the catalog from the Win7 PC into the PE 2020 on the Win10 PC? Would this transfer across tag info etc?

Any help would be much appreciated. I'm quite handy with PCs but not sure what constraints there are with this old version of PE 11 hence the questions.

Any help would be much appeciated. In summary I am currently using PE 11 on a Win 7 PC to want to move to Win 10 and continue using PE in some form whilst maintaining all the tag info that I've spent years adding to my photos.

As a secondary question. All my photos are currently on a seperate interal drive (D Drive). When I move to the new Win10 PC I will simply remove this internal drive from the old Win 7 PC and install it in the new Win 10 PC. Due to this, my phtos will already be present and correct on the new Win 10 PC. As a result I suppose I don't actually need to restore the photos from the catalog as they will already be there however I do need all the tag info, which I assume is also imported as part of the catalog restore. Do I go ahead a do a Catalog/File restore to the Original position and simply let this process overwrite all the pics (as they will already be in place)?

Thanks

Correct answer MichelBParis

Some more info:

As a secondary question. All my photos are currently on a seperate interal drive (D Drive). When I move to the new Win10 PC I will simply remove this internal drive from the old Win 7 PC and install it in the new Win 10 PC. Due to this, my phtos will already be present and correct on the new Win 10 PC. As a result I suppose I don't actually need to restore the photos from the catalog as they will already be there however I do need all the tag info, which I assume is also imported as part of the catalog restore.

Since you'll move your media library by moving a drive to the new computer, you are right you won't need to do a backup and restore provided the drive has the same letter.

As indicated by Greg, you'll have to copy the whole folder of the old computer to any location on the new computer, either the default location in ProgramData or anywhere else as a 'custom location' catalog.

If you have installed PSE11, which is not necessary, you'll simply have to locate the catalog folder and start it from the catalog manager, or alternatively double click on the catalog.pse11db to open the organizer with the catalog.

If you have only PSE2020 installed, you'll have to start by using the catalog manager in PSE2020 to 'convert' the catalog to the new catalog format.

Reinstalling PSE11 is optional.

Greg_S.

Community Expert

@ednasop, your question is not clear. Will what work on Windows 11? Elements 11 or Elements 20? Or something else?

I have most versions of Elements going back to Elements 4 working on my Win 11 computer.

If you registered your version of Elements with your Adobe account, you will be able to download it from the Products page of your account.

Please note that if you are trying to download Elements 11, you need to download 2 files into the same download directory on your computer. Once the files are downloaded click on the exe file and follow the directions.

E

ednasop

Participant

Will it work with a Wiin 11 pc ? and how do I download it from myt DVD if i do not have a dvd drive?

MichelBParis

Legend

Thanks Greg and Michel,

Just to be crsytal clear I understand you both (it's been a long day), probably the easiest thing to do is:

1. Shut down APE

2. Manually move my Catalog folder from

here C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\ to my preferred location on the D Drive

3. Use Windows file explorer to locate the catalog.pse18db in the catlog that I moved to the D Drive and double click it

4. Is that it?

Yes

I assume when I next look in the Catalog Manager the catalog I moved to the D Drive will be [Current] and no further actions are required?

Yes, that choice is remembered.

As a follow up, as this Catalog has been converted from V11 to 2020 is there any need for a Optimize and / or Repair?

Sorry to double check but I have got this far pretty much unscathed, don't want to screw things up on the final hurdle

Normally, this is best done before the conversion.

S

soundpatrolAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks, it did work however even these simple steps caused me a headache.

I've updated the steps in case anyone else tries this:

1. Shut down APE and reboot PC

2. Manually move my Catalog folder from

here C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\ to my preferred location on the D Drive

3. Use Windows file explorer to locate the catalog.pse18db in the catlog that I moved to the D Drive and double click it. This launches APE and when you look at the Catalog Manager it is correctly pointing to the catalog you just moved to the D Drive (as a csutom location).

Because I didn't reboot, there was a process (can't remeber the name (Adobe creations maybe?)) that still had a lock on some of the files so it caused a nightmare scenario where some files were copied and some weren't. After a reboot i was able to move the remaining files acroos to the D Drive.

All is now well. Catalog has been moved and is showing up in its new location in the Catalog Manager

One last point on the Catalog Optimize. You said "Normally, this is best done before the conversion. "

Does that mean I should or shouldn't perform one now I have converted the catalog?

Thanks for all your support.

MichelBParis

Legend

One last point on the Catalog Optimize. You said "Normally, this is best done before the conversion. "

Does that mean I should or shouldn't perform one now I have converted the catalog?

To be fair, I don't know if that matters in your case. Optimizing takes time and does not spare much disk space. You can always optimize later. By the way, instead of moving your catalog folder, you can copy it.

For users who transfer their catalog and library to another drive or computer using the backup and restore process, optimizing is not necessary since the thumbnail cache is re-created from scratch anyway after the transfer via that method.

MichelBParis

Legend

I wonder if I have to do the following.

1. Shut down APE

2. Manually move my folder from

here C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\ to my preferred location on the D Drive

3. Start APE. It will probably complain that it can't find the Catalog. In Catalog Manager I select Custom Location and then use the Browse button to point to the D Drive location.

4. Happy days? Is this the best way to move an in use catalog?

1 and 2 = ok

3 - Either you use the catalog manager from the organizer to navigate to the new 'custom' location of the catalog folder, or wit the organizer closed, you double click on the 'catalog.pse18db' database file, which will open the organizer with the new catalog.

By design, you can't move a catalog folder from the catalog manager to any custom location. You must do that from the Windows explorer. The good thing is that a catalog folder can be either in the default location or in any 'custom' location of your choice (even in a USB thumbstick). The contents of the catalog (especially the links to the physical location of the files) are not changed. What is crucial is that those location are not changed. Even if the folder path is the same on another drive, the links are false because the drive identification is recognized as changed.

I then used the Catalog Manager to convert the catalog.

I thought it would convert in situ but instead it converted and copied it (after asking for a new Catlog name - "My Catalog (New)")

to the default location on ; C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\

I'll have to check that. The usual behaviour for the converter is simply to keep the catalog name and rename the source catalog with a -1 suffix.

PS And if Adobe peeps are reading, can you please update the documentation?

... good luck!!!

Link to the feedback forum:

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family

Greg_S.

Community Expert

SoundPatrol, thanks for giving your detailed report. You have a clear handle on moving the Organizer from one computer to another as well as some of the problems that some of us have been complaining about for years.

To answer your specific question about moving the location of the catalog to your D drive, I would do exactly as you have suggested by moving the catalog folder via Windows Explorer. The reason a copy of the catalog is made during an upgrade conversion is because both versions of the program can coexist on a single computer. The old catalog version therefore remains to be used in the older version. (It is renamed with a suffix.) This also exists as a useful backup that can be converted again if something goes wrong with your new catalog.

As for the problem with the Move command, yes it is an annoyance. The solution if you are interested is to create and open a new blank catalog. That will then be the catalog "in use" and you will be able to change the location of the real catalog using the Move command. However, I do not recommend this method as some strange things sometimes happen and the way the dialog operates often leads to frustration, similar to the situation you ran into.

One final tip: Once you move the catalog folder to the new drive, you can simply find and double-click on the catalog.pse18db file in the catalog folder and it will automatically open the catalog from its new location. This is a lot easier than going through the Manage Catalogs dialog.

Not sure what you are referring to with respect to Face Recognition problems, but definitely open a new thread if you run into any.

S

soundpatrolAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks Greg and Michel,

Just to be crsytal clear I understand you both (it's been a long day), probably the easiest thing to do is:

1. Shut down APE

2. Manually move my Catalog folder from

here C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\ to my preferred location on the D Drive

3. Use Windows file explorer to locate the catalog.pse18db in the catlog that I moved to the D Drive and double click it

4. Is that it?

I assume when I next look in the Catalog Manager the catalog I moved to the D Drive will be [Current] and no further actions are required?

As a follow up, as this Catalog has been converted from V11 to 2020 is there any need for a Optimize and / or Repair?

Sorry to double check but I have got this far pretty much unscathed, don't want to screw things up on the final hurdle 🙂

Thanks again to you both for the speedy replies.

MichelBParis

Legend

It's the next steps that I'm still a little unsure of, based on your answers. It would seem that I don't need to install PE11 on the Win10 PC, I just need to copy across the Catalog and install PE 2020, right?

Right.

Would this be the correct sequence:

1. Install PE 2020 onto the new Win10 PC

This will, I assume, create a default/dummy C:/ProgramData/Adobe/Elements Organizer/Catalogs/My Catalog folder, although, obviously, this will not yet have any of my data in it.

Yes, you'll have a new empty catalog in the PSE2020 database format.

To complicate matters

I may take this opportunity on the Win10 PC to relocate my Catalog onto the D Drive. This is after all my data drive so it's good practive to have all my data in one place for backup purposes. So, based on this, would the following work and, more importantly, is it sensible

Yes, that's what I do and what you should use if you want to use the same catalog and media library on two different computers.

2. After installing PE 2020, Copy my exisiting Win7 catalog (from C:/ProgramData/Adobe/Elements Organizer/Catalogs/My Catalog) onto a newly created folder on my D Drive e.g. D:\Users\richy\Documents\Adobe Elements Catalog\

It's your choice. I prefer to create that new master folder just under D.

3. Open PE 2020 and go into the catalog manager and use the Convert option to point to D:\Users\richy\Documents\Adobe Elements Catalog\ and convert it.

I'll have to check if the conversion lets you choose the custom location of your choice. You can always use the Explorer to move the catalog folder: its contents don't change, so you only have to use the catalog manager to browse to the new location from the 'open' button. Another way is to start with the organizer closed and to double click on the catalog.pse18db file in the moved catalog folder. That opens the organizer with the new catalog (that choice is remembered).

4. Within the catalog manager I assume I'd then use Custom Location to point to this newly converted Catalog.

Right

5. I'd probably also need to redefine the Watch filters and check the other options to ensure they were as before i.,e Date Format etc

Yes. Be sure to browse all your settings in your preferences for both the editor and the organizer.

This should, I hope result in PE 2020 installed on my WIn10 PC and the Organiser showing all my Pics / Videos with the tag info maintained. In addition, my catalog data will be located on my D Drive making backup a little easier (as I tend to back up the whole D:\user\* folder structure regularly.

Yes, that's a good reason to do so. Just keep in mind that even if you use a common backup system, you'll be able to restore to a new computer or drive, but the links for all photos in the catalog will be wrong because the drive id will be different. Only the backup and restore function from the organizer keeps the files connected. I use Microsoft Synctoy for much faster backups after each editing session, but I also use the organizer backup peeriodically.

How does that sound? Hopefully I haven't overcomplicated matters. Are there any other folders/files I need to copy across to my new Win10PC from C:\ProgramData\Adobe\* on my old Win7 PC?

If you have additional and external assets like plugins, actions, brushes, you'll need to reinstall them from their original installation files.

S

soundpatrolAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks again for all the helpful information. I need to purchase PE 2020 before I can go any further but will report back once I've transitioned over to my Win10 PC and let you know how it went. Thanks

S

soundpatrolAuthor

Known Participant

Hi,

I wanted to follow up on this thread to share the (mainly) positive experience and highlight a few potentials pitfalls.

To recap, I want to move Adobe Photoshop Elements / Organizer (let's call it APE from now on) from a Win 7 PC to a new Win 10 PC.

All of my Photos reside on a seperate D Drive, which I will move from one PC to the other.

I am also going to upgrade from APE 11 to APE 2020

Lastly, I intend to move the catalog from it's default location to the D Drive (so that all my data in on the same drive - which makes backup for me a lot eeasier and seems like best practice)

The whole process went very well however there is one issue outstandng, which I will come to.

In preperation, I needed to know where my Catalog was currently located on the Win 7 PC. To do this within APE Organizer go to Help > System Info. In my case it was C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\My Catalog

I copied this folder (My Catalog) onto a usb memory stick.

I also transferred the D Drive out of my old PC and installed it in the new Win10 PC ensuring drive letter was the same as before.

On my new Win 10 PC I installed APE.

After this completed I declined the offer to start importing.

I wanted my catalog to reside on the D Drive so I created a new folder:

D:\Users\fred\Documents\Adobe Photoshop Elements Catalog

and then copied the My Catlog folder from the USB memory stick into this location.

I then used the Catalog Manager to convert the catalog.

I thought it would convert in situ but instead it converted and copied it (after asking for a new Catlog name - "My Catalog (New)")

to the default location on ; C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\

So, in C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs i now had the original empty catalog that was created when I installed APE and also "My Catalog (New)"

From the Catalog Manager I double clicked on My Catalog (New) and evrything sprang into life:

All my pictures appeared

All my tags were present

Event the location pane worked again(it stopped working several years ago)

I was very happy 🙂

Apart from Face Recognition getting corrupted for a few users (faces with approx 100+ entries) (I think this is a APE 2020 issue so will post a seperate thread on that) there is now just one issue.

I wanted my Catalog to be on the D Drive but the Convert process copied back to C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\

No problem I thought, I will use the Move command within the Catalog Manager to move it.

The problem is, this does not work. It complains about the Catalog being in use.

What frustrated me is that the Move button on the Catalog Manager appears to be completely undocumented:

https://helpx.adobe.com/elements-organizer/using/creating-editing-catalogs.html#about_catalogs

The heading says "Learn how to create, move, modify, convert, rename, and edit catalogs in Adobe Elements Organizer."

I can't see any help on the Move bit. Seems to have been ignored.

So, the process works but I'm left with my catalog in the 'wrong' place and am not sure how best to move it.

I wonder if I have to do the following.

1. Shut down APE

2. Manually move my folder from

here C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\ to my preferred location on the D Drive

3. Start APE. It will probably complain that it can't find the Catalog. In Catalog Manager I select Custom Location and then use the Browse button to point to the D Drive location.

4. Happy days? Is this the best way to move an in use catalog?

Any help much appreciated and I hope the above will be helpful to others. Thanks

PS And if Adobe peeps are reading, can you please update the documentation?

MichelBParisCorrect answer

Legend

Some more info:

As a secondary question. All my photos are currently on a seperate interal drive (D Drive). When I move to the new Win10 PC I will simply remove this internal drive from the old Win 7 PC and install it in the new Win 10 PC. Due to this, my phtos will already be present and correct on the new Win 10 PC. As a result I suppose I don't actually need to restore the photos from the catalog as they will already be there however I do need all the tag info, which I assume is also imported as part of the catalog restore.

Since you'll move your media library by moving a drive to the new computer, you are right you won't need to do a backup and restore provided the drive has the same letter.

As indicated by Greg, you'll have to copy the whole folder of the old computer to any location on the new computer, either the default location in ProgramData or anywhere else as a 'custom location' catalog.

If you have installed PSE11, which is not necessary, you'll simply have to locate the catalog folder and start it from the catalog manager, or alternatively double click on the catalog.pse11db to open the organizer with the catalog.

If you have only PSE2020 installed, you'll have to start by using the catalog manager in PSE2020 to 'convert' the catalog to the new catalog format.

Reinstalling PSE11 is optional.

S

soundpatrolAuthor

Known Participant

Greg/Michel,

Thank you so much for your very thoughtful replies. I'm extremely grateful. As PE11 is now quite old I think it probably is due for an upgrade so the aim will be to get PE 2020 running on my new Win10 PC whilst preserving as much of my user generated date (such as tags) as possible for use in the Elements Organiser.

To confirm your assumptions, I use the organiser to organise pics and vids.

These are stored;

D:\Users\fred\Pictures\Fred Pictures

D:\Users\fred\Videos\Fred Videos

These are both, as you'd expect, defined as Watch Folders.

This D Drive is an internal 3.5" spinning disk so it will be moved into the new Win10 PC and defined as a D Drive. So, the Drive letter and paths will be identical in the new Win 10 PC.

So far so good.

On the Win7 PC my catalog is currently here:

C:/ProgramData/Adobe/Elements Organizer/Catalogs/My Catalog

It's the next steps that I'm still a little unsure of, based on your answers. It would seem that I don't need to install PE11 on the Win10 PC, I just need to copy across the Catalog and install PE 2020, right?

Would this be the correct sequence:

1. Install PE 2020 onto the new Win10 PC

This will, I assume, create a default/dummy C:/ProgramData/Adobe/Elements Organizer/Catalogs/My Catalog folder, although, obviously, this will not yet have any of my data in it.

To complicate matters 🙂 I may take this opportunity on the Win10 PC to relocate my Catalog onto the D Drive. This is after all my data drive so it's good practive to have all my data in one place for backup purposes. So, based on this, would the following work and, more importantly, is it sensible 🙂

2. After installing PE 2020, Copy my exisiting Win7 catalog (from C:/ProgramData/Adobe/Elements Organizer/Catalogs/My Catalog) onto a newly created folder on my D Drive e.g. D:\Users\richy\Documents\Adobe Elements Catalog\

3. Open PE 2020 and go into the catalog manager and use the Convert option to point to D:\Users\richy\Documents\Adobe Elements Catalog\ and convert it.

4. Within the catalog manager I assume I'd then use Custom Location to point to this newly converted Catalog.

5. I'd probably also need to redefine the Watch filters and check the other options to ensure they were as before i.,e Date Format etc

This should, I hope result in PE 2020 installed on my WIn10 PC and the Organiser showing all my Pics / Videos with the tag info maintained. In addition, my catalog data will be located on my D Drive making backup a little easier (as I tend to back up the whole D:\user\* folder structure regularly.

How does that sound? Hopefully I haven't overcomplicated matters. Are there any other folders/files I need to copy across to my new Win10PC from C:\ProgramData\Adobe\* on my old Win7 PC?

Thanks again for all your help.

Greg_S.

Community Expert

1. Yes, Elements 11 should work on a new Win 10 machine, assuming you have your serial number available.

2. If and when you decide to upgrade, you can convert your Elements 11 catalog to the newer version and all of your Tags, Albums etc. will convert also. (There may be some file creations [with a .pse file extension] that won't convert because the feature no longer exists. I couldn't tell you which ones right now.)

3. Since you are transferring your media drive to the new computer (and presumably maintaining the same drive letter as the Win 7 computer), it may be possible to simply copy the catalog folder to the new computer. However, this may not work if you are using a Win 7 My Pictures system folder, because I believe there is a different naming convention in Win 10. But it may be worth trying first before going to the bother of a Restore of the catalog. And if you do a restore to the Original position, I'm not sure whether the files will be overwritten or skipped.

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