Migrating my catalog from Win10 to M-1 Mac

Question

Hi,I have PSE15 installed on an HP laptop running Windows 10.  It is an old slow machine.  I bought an Apple MacBook Pro about a year ago and have been migrating everything over to it.  Last week I purchased PSE2023 for Mac from the Apple App Store and have been getting used to it.  I am now ready to move my catalog from the Windows 10 laptop to the Mac.  I have been searching and reading the Adobe website and this forum, I have found a lot of good info and I think I am ready to go, but before I do I would appreciate it if someone would look over these steps and let me know if I am missing anything. Open my PSE15 catalogRun “Save Metadata to files”Run “Reconnect All Missing Files”Run “Backup Catalog” and save the backup to my attached external hard driveConnect external HD to my MacCreate a new folder on the Mac with the same name as my existing PSE15 catalogCopy the backup file into that folder on the MacOpen PSE2023Run File>”Restore Catalog” from the backup file Before doing all this I have a question.  When I initially started PSE2023 it installed itself in the “Applications” folder and created “My Catalog” in a folder located at the end of the following path:Catalog Location: /Users/my name/Library/Group Containers/JQ525L2MZD.pepe/Application Support/Adobe/Elements Organizer/Catalogs/21.0/My CatalogThat is nested 10 folders deep! Is there some reasoning for this, and could I (or should I) put it somewhere else if I want to, such as in my “Pictures” folder instead?Any other suggestions would also be greatly appreciated Thank you.-Ken

kenf51 · Accepted Answer

Well I thought everything was going good, I restored the backup file in PSE2023 and it said it was successful but now it looks like the folder structure is there but there are only gray boxes with question marks in them where all the photos should be. I went to file>reconnect all missing files and it wants me to tell it where all the files are! I thought they were in the backup file and would be restored along with the folder structure.

What happened?

I finally got this issue resolved and wanted to share the fix on here. I ended up calling Adobe support, the tech guy was baffled by this too but suggested I try deleting the original restored file structure and photos on the Mac and then copy the same file structure with photos in it directly from the Windows machine to the Mac and see if it could then reconnect the missing files. This didn't work but his suggestion got me thinking about the file structure inside the catalog and how it might be causing the problem.

This is how I fixed it:

The file structure in PSE15 on my Win10 laptop had TWO top level folders, each with sub-folders containing photos. One of the top level folders had the exact same name as the catalog. I do not know how that happened. When I previously backed up the catalog and restored it on my Mac, all the photos from the top level folder with the name "Pictures" were visible and none of the photos from the other top level folder, which had the same name as the catalog, were visible. So this time on the Win10 computer, and from within PSE15, I moved all the photo sub-folders into ONE of the top level folders BEFORE I backed it up. Then when I backed it up and restored it onto my Mac ALL my photos, with corresponding sub-folder structure, were now visible inside that one top level folder in PSE2023, just like they are in PSE15 on the Win10 computer.

Maybe this will help someone with a similar problem.

-Ken

MichelBParis · Answer

You may have noticed that recent discussion:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-elements-discussions/best-practise-to-copy-a-catalog-from-windows-to-macos-pse23/m-p/13449551#M86852

I don't know anything about Macs, so I can't be sure that the explanation of the number of folders hierarchy is the same as in Windows. There, the folder hierarchy is needed because Microsoft recommends using its own hierarchy to distinguish various types of files, including 'Pictures' which is stored in a hidden location of your user folder. Adobe uses that by default. So you can access your library via the full path under your user, or from the 'pictures' folder which is a system shortcut.

In Windows you can store your catalog practically anywhere. I imagine Apple has different requirements, but there must be some ways to store your catalogs elsewhere, including in different drives (provided they are compatible).

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