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cindyl36643516
cindyl36643516
Participant
September 9, 2017
Question

Missing vs Offline Photos

  • September 9, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 774 views

Hi.

I accumulate a lot of photos.  In the past I (can't remember quite how) used Photoshop Elements to back-up/delete a year's worth at a time to a set of DVD's.   When I did so, the backed up photos were marked in the catalog as "Offline", and the thumbnails were retained.  It worked exactly as I needed, so that if necessary I could easily find an old photo, and look-up the filename and disk-set to obtain the source photo.

Fast forward a few years. I'm now using PSE 15 (Windows 10), and it's been a long time since I've created an annual backup.  It's now way past time, and PSE is slowing way down.

So next, I tried to remember exactly how I performed the backup.  Looking at the catalog backup, it implies that if I do an annual backup it will require a complete backup, to then base the new incremental backup on. That didn't sound like how I was doing it previously, so I kept looking.

I settled on the "Move to Removable Drive".  It mentioned that the files would be deleted, but that the thumbnails would be retained.  Perfect!

I did a test on a couple of files, and it seemed to work fine, so then I did the first full year.  Again, it worked fine, but now I notice that instead of the files being marked "Offline" in the catalog, they are marked as "Missing".

I'm not really sure what all the implications are of "Missing" vs "Offline", but for sure I don't think that I'm going to enjoy a massive number of missing files coming up from time to time as needing attention, and hampering the process of reconnecting real missing photos, when the situation arises.

So my questions are:

1)  What did I do wrong, or what should I have done?

2)  Is there a way to change "Missing files" to "Offline"?

     (easily if possible, painfully if necessary)

Thanks very much for any help you can offer!

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

cindyl36643516
cindyl36643516Author
Participant
September 15, 2017

MichelBParis​ Thank you for the information!    Sorry for the delay.

I've ordered a portable USB drive that should be able to fit all my photos (old & current), for some time to come.

So now what I'm hoping to accomplish, is to have current photos on my laptop harddrive, with archived photos on the USB drive. Ideally, I would like to continue using the original catalog, and backing-up or moving photos to be archived, to the USB drive.

Any thoughts on whether or not significantly reducing the photos on the laptop, but leaving the catalog intact will, in fact, speed up the performance of the PSE Organizer whether or not the USB drive is plugged in?

Thanks again!

MichelBParis
MichelBParis
Legend
September 15, 2017

cindyl36643516  wrote

MichelBParis  Thank you for the information!    Sorry for the delay.

I've ordered a portable USB drive that should be able to fit all my photos (old & current), for some time to come.

So now what I'm hoping to accomplish, is to have current photos on my laptop harddrive, with archived photos on the USB drive. Ideally, I would like to continue using the original catalog, and backing-up or moving photos to be archived, to the USB drive.

Any thoughts on whether or not significantly reducing the photos on the laptop, but leaving the catalog intact will, in fact, speed up the performance of the PSE Organizer whether or not the USB drive is plugged in?

Thanks again!

It's common to store all or part of your photo files on an external drive, either to save space on your main drive / computer or to share the photo library and the catalog with two computers.

- the difference in speed with internal drives is not important

- your catalog can include all your files on your internal drive together with files on different external drives or DVDs. You can see the thumbnails and keywords, but you can't edit the missing or offline files if the external media is not plugged in.

- You can easily move folders with their subfolders to another drive from the left 'Folders' panel in the organizer by drag and drop. For instance, you can move old folder parts to the external drive.

- You want to backup your catalog referencing files on several drives, internal or external. All those media must be available (drives plugged in). The resulting backup folder contains everything for the restore. If you want to restore everything on a single new drive, no problem. The restore will create a new master folder for each former external drive on the new drive.

- Remember that for a safe backup, it is dangerous to store the backup on the same media as the original. In your case, I am afraid the solution is to have another external drive for that purpose...

MichelBParis
MichelBParis
Legend
September 9, 2017

Let's start with the bad news: there is no direct way to change 'Missing files' to 'offline'... and I am not sure if there has been an undocumented change in recent Elements versions.

The 'Missing file' message is simple, it means that the file is recorded  in the catalog with a drive/folder identification which is not currently available (unplugged DVD for instance). It's enough to correct that error (plugging the DVD back for instance) to make it disappear. Does it work for you?

The 'Offline' message is more problematic. Now, with the general use of external drives, it's sort of a legacy feature. It was introduced to solve exactly your workflow. At import time (from camera or card reader), you were asked if you wanted to 'copy files on import' or 'generate previews'. The second option meant you wanted to keep the files off your computer, while registering it with a thumbnail in the catalog for asset management. You could tag and organize without the DVD/card/USB stick but to edit the file, the external media had to be plugged in.

In both cases, you should not get messages if the external media is plugged in.

I'll take some time to check what happens with 'Move to removable drive', but you could try the simple 'move' command (or the move by drag and drop in the folders panel on the left). When you unplug the external drive, the file is shown as missing but you can look into the info panel on the right to see where the file is expected to be located.

I think that using DVDs today has bee superseded by external USB drives (low cost, huge capacity, speed...)

External drives are seen the same as internal ones by the organizer. You'll never get 'offline' messages. You'll simply have to plug the drive. They are also ideal for backups.

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