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Any_old_name1
Participating Frequently
November 13, 2017
Answered

How to check for missing photos?

  • November 13, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 325 views

Have noticed that there are occasionally pictures in my album under "Organize" where only the thumbnail is there. The only way that I find this out at this point is by clicking on the thumbnail, and then the program goes off on a search for the actual photo. That's fine if I still have the photo somewhere, but I ran into some cases where I had deleted the photo outside of Elements, and the one that was in the "dedicated" storage for Elements was missing, so just out of luck.

What I'm wondering is whether there's something that I can do to look for these cases (missing photos) before I delete pictures off my camera? I see that there's a "Repair" function in the Catalog Manager, but I really just want to check, find the missing ones, and research where I might have them. Is "Repair" the only way to do this? Or is there some function that I can do that will just tell me what pictures that are in the catalog are missing? Kind of a coherency or sanity checker?

Thanks!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer MichelBParis

    I am away from home those days, and my present computer only has version 2018 installed; my home computer has versions 6, 10, 12, 14,15 and 18.

    So, from memory, I think that the 'Find missing files' menu option came with version 11. That was following a feature request I made by that time . Very interesting option.

    Since you are on version 10, much has been changed in the features and interface. Be prepared to spend some time to get used to a new version. The 30 days trial is recommended and don't hesitate to ask here for specific issues in the transition.

    1 reply

    MichelBParis
    MichelBParis
    Legend
    November 13, 2017

    Any_old_name  wrote

    Have noticed that there are occasionally pictures in my album under "Organize" where only the thumbnail is there. The only way that I find this out at this point is by clicking on the thumbnail, and then the program goes off on a search for the actual photo.

    If you have 'missing' files, the thumbnails are shown with a question mark. Use the menu Find >> missing files. All missing files will be shown in the search result. The question mark will appear if it was not present before.

    That's fine if I still have the photo somewhere, but I ran into some cases where I had deleted the photo outside of Elements, and the one that was in the "dedicated" storage for Elements was missing, so just out of luck.

    There is no "dedicated" storage for photos in the catalog. The photo files are where you imported them, and the catalog only links to that physical location. A file is 'missing' if you have deleted, moved or renamed the file outside of the organizer. Reconnecting can work for moved or renamed files, not for deleted files.

    I see that there's a "Repair" function in the Catalog Manager, but I really just want to check, find the missing ones, and research where I might have them. Is "Repair" the only way to do this? Or is there some function that I can do that will just tell me what pictures that are in the catalog are missing? Kind of a coherency or sanity checker?

    Either use the menu File >> Reconnect or the menu Find >> Find all missing files. The 'repair' option does not handle missing files problems.

    A
    Any_old_name1Author
    Participating Frequently
    November 13, 2017

    Thanks...by the way, that's why I put "dedicated storage" in quotes. I've deliberately made sure that all the photos and catalog are stored in one particular backed up area on a drive where I have space. I'm aware that this is my own thing, that Adobe doesn't care where the photos are. But if I import photos from folders, I have to remember this, and use the "move" function to accomplish that. For photos from devices, I've set the storage path up in my preferences. Makes it easier for me to back up all the photos to have them in one place, I just need to stay aware that the person that puts them there (other than the ones off my camera or phone) is me *smile*.

    Also, there is no "Find all missing files" or "Missing" or "Find Missing" in the Find menu in Elements 10, which is the one that I'm using. There's the catalog manager "Repair" that I mentioned, and there's the "Reconnect" in the File menu. "Reconnect" is not going to work for me, since I don't have the missing photos on my computer. And it doesn't seem to just make a list if the files aren't around, it launches off into searching for files that it will never find. "Repair" most likely does something similarly time consuming and useless for my purposes. "Find missing" sounds perfect to me. Don't know which version of Elements you're using. I've been thinking of upgrading to Elements 18, maybe this is a reason to do that.

    MichelBParis
    MichelBParisCorrect answer
    Legend
    November 13, 2017

    I am away from home those days, and my present computer only has version 2018 installed; my home computer has versions 6, 10, 12, 14,15 and 18.

    So, from memory, I think that the 'Find missing files' menu option came with version 11. That was following a feature request I made by that time . Very interesting option.

    Since you are on version 10, much has been changed in the features and interface. Be prepared to spend some time to get used to a new version. The 30 days trial is recommended and don't hesitate to ask here for specific issues in the transition.

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