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megagrumpyness
Known Participant
January 16, 2020
Answered

Moving PSE Catalog to a new location

  • January 16, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 1563 views

I have my Photoshop Elements catalog located in a custom location on Drive 😧 and I would like to move it to a sub directory on 😧 rather than in the root directory. I select the catalog and then select Move but the option to move to a custome location is greyed out. I can only move it to a location accessible to all users or to a location accessible by the current user. I assume that this would then move it onto my C: drive to a default directory in /Users. 

Could I move it to one of these locations and then move it back to the location that I really want it in?

I am very wary of experimenting as I have 28,000 photos and am in the process of sorting things out since my last attempt to rebuild a catalog when my last computer died.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer MichelBParis

You can move or copy your catalog folder (the whole folder) where you want from the explorer. I would copy it to prevent any risk. As you have seen, the catalog manager does not allow moving in custom location, you have to do it from the explorer. You can open the organizer with the catalog copy by double clicking on the 'catalog.pseXXdb' file in the folder. Or you open the organizer and in the catalog manager, you navigate to the new location to open. You can delete the old catalog provided it is not in use;  open the new catalog or another one and the remove button will be accessible. You can also delete from the organizer.

Note for other readers: we are speaking about moving the catalog, not the library (the media files tree). The normal way to move the catalog with the library to another computer, drive or master folder is the backup and restore method.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/backup-restore-move-catalog-photoshop.html

2 replies

99jon
99jon
Legend
January 16, 2020

Why do you want to move the catalog? It is usually quite a small file. It may be preferable to keep the photos on a separate partition or external drive. The catalog will perform better if the default location is a fast SSD.

M
megagrumpynessAuthor
Known Participant
January 17, 2020

I think you are probably right but as well as backing up PSE on a separate hard drive I have all the folders on OneDrive but the catalog not on OneDrive. Just wanted to add the catalog to OneDrive as well.

MichelBParis
MichelBParisCorrect answer
Legend
January 16, 2020

You can move or copy your catalog folder (the whole folder) where you want from the explorer. I would copy it to prevent any risk. As you have seen, the catalog manager does not allow moving in custom location, you have to do it from the explorer. You can open the organizer with the catalog copy by double clicking on the 'catalog.pseXXdb' file in the folder. Or you open the organizer and in the catalog manager, you navigate to the new location to open. You can delete the old catalog provided it is not in use;  open the new catalog or another one and the remove button will be accessible. You can also delete from the organizer.

Note for other readers: we are speaking about moving the catalog, not the library (the media files tree). The normal way to move the catalog with the library to another computer, drive or master folder is the backup and restore method.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/backup-restore-move-catalog-photoshop.html

M
megagrumpynessAuthor
Known Participant
January 17, 2020

Thanks, I have always been scared about fiddling around with the catalog. If I had known it was so easy I could have probably saved myself a lot of problems in the past when I have ended up having to rebuild a catalog from scratch - not easy!

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