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My Fair London
My Fair London
Participant
May 11, 2017
Answered

Deleting folders greyed out when photos still show up in Organizer

  • May 11, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 1557 views

I have PSE 14 and have way too many (over 40,000) photos in the Organizer which slow down the uploading process. (I do real estate photography for a living and add photos to the Organizer almost daily). I thought by moving folders of photos off my hard drive, the photos would disappear from the Organizer. I have found that the folders I have moved off my hard drive are greyed out (which I expected) but the photos still show up in the Organizer. I can't delete the folder so how do I get rid of these photos in the Organizer?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Anwesha Dev Chaudhary

    Hi Sally,

    Organizer does not keep a copy of the photos you import into it. It just builds a link of the file with the original location.

    In your case, since you moved the files from outside the organizer > those files have gone missing in Elements Organizer as the location which is specified in Organizer, those files are no longer there.

    To resolve this, you can do either of the following:

    1. If you want to keep those files in Organizer but in connected state, you would have to reconnect those files. On instructions about how to reconnect the files, please see Photoshop Elements (PSE) knowledge base.

    2. In case you want to remove those files altogether from Elements Organizer, please go to Find > All Missing Files

        This will filter all the missing files. You can select them all and press Delete.

    Let us know if you face any issue.

    Thanks,
    Anwesha

    3 replies

    Greg_S.
    Community Expert
    Greg_S.Community Expert
    Community Expert
    October 7, 2023

    . . .  and when you select a file in the Organizer and choose to delete it, an option pops up asking whether you also want to delete the file from your hard drive.

    My Fair London
    My Fair LondonAuthor
    Participant
    May 12, 2017

    Thank you so much!  Your suggestion worked.

    To recap: I wanted to remove many the "image links" from the the "greyed out" folders in my Organizer that were no longer needed (moved off my hard drive) so I did what you suggested - Find >All Missing Files. Over 21,000 items popped up. There were some images of actual photos and many greyed out images with a question mark; I just took a leap of faith that I didn't need whatever they were, and I selected them all and deleted them. I then reviewed my remaining folders in the Organizer. The ones that had been "greyed out" were gone, which was exactly what I wanted.

    In the future, I will delete folders from the Organizer before moving them off my hard drive. I think that process will be simpler.

    Again, many thanks for your prompt response and perfect answer to my dilemma!

    MichelBParis
    MichelBParis
    Legend
    October 7, 2023
    quote

    In the future, I will delete folders from the Organizer before moving them off my hard drive. I think that process will be simpler.


    By @My Fair London

     

    The question is:

    Should I delete folders from the catalog?

    or

    Should I delete the files in those folders from the catalog?

     

    There is perhaps no difference in your workflow, but keep in mind that deleting folders also deletes files which are not yet in your catalog.

    The golden rule of the organizer is to use the organizer, not the Explorer to delete, move or rename files. In this case, deleting folders from the organizer acts as if you send that command directly to the explorer.

    A
    Community Manager
    Anwesha Dev ChaudharyCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    May 11, 2017

    Hi Sally,

    Organizer does not keep a copy of the photos you import into it. It just builds a link of the file with the original location.

    In your case, since you moved the files from outside the organizer > those files have gone missing in Elements Organizer as the location which is specified in Organizer, those files are no longer there.

    To resolve this, you can do either of the following:

    1. If you want to keep those files in Organizer but in connected state, you would have to reconnect those files. On instructions about how to reconnect the files, please see Photoshop Elements (PSE) knowledge base.

    2. In case you want to remove those files altogether from Elements Organizer, please go to Find > All Missing Files

        This will filter all the missing files. You can select them all and press Delete.

    Let us know if you face any issue.

    Thanks,
    Anwesha

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