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TACrites
TACrites
Known Participant
November 15, 2022
Question

Need to move Elements Organizer Catalog to a different drive.

  • November 15, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 1670 views

Can someone give me some pointers on moving C:\Program Data\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs to my D:\ drive?  My C: is a SSD and is getting way too full.  Elements Organizer (51.6GB) is the heavy hitter on the drive and needs to move.

Questions:

1 - Can I use Windoze Explorer to move the files?

2 - Do I move just C:\...\Catalogs\* or everything under C:\...\Elements Organizer\*

3 - How do I tell Elements Organizer where I moved the catalog data?

 

Elements Organizer 21.0.0.0
Core Version: 21.0 (20220906.Git.master.4218aba)
Language Version: 21.0 (20220906.Git.master.4218aba)

Current Catalog:
Catalog Name: Crites General
Catalog Location: C:\Users\TAC\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\Photos
Catalog Size: 677.4MB
Catalog Cache Size: 1.4GB

System:
Operating System Name: Windows 10
Operating System Version: 10.0
System Architecture: Intel CPU Family:6 Model:14 Stepping:3 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2
Built-in Memory: 15.9GB
Free Memory: 5.7GB

 

 

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3 replies

TACrites
TACritesAuthor
Known Participant
November 22, 2022

I looked around on my computer for the catalog.pse21db files for each of my catalogs and see that my General is in \AppData\ and others are in C:\ProgramData\...  See attached. So I should just move the ..\Catalogs\* to some where on my drive D?

Greg_S.
Community Expert
Greg_S.Community Expert
Community Expert
November 16, 2022

@TACrites said:

Elements Organizer (51.6GB) is the heavy hitter on the drive and needs to move.

I agree with Michel 100%.  I'm just curious why you may have such a large catalog.  My main catalog contains over 225k media files and has complete face recognition files, yet is only 23.1GB in size.  So how large is your catalog or do you have multiple catalogs in the default location?  And where do you intend to move the catalog folder to?

 

If you have multiple catalogs, perhaps from prior versions, you may find that it is best to copy them to an external drive as a backup.

 

If you have a lot of face recognition (.json) files and/or .xmp raw sidecar files, these tend to be very small text files that take an exponentially longer time to copy from one drive to another than larger files, particularly to an external drive.  I have found that the copying time can be substantially reduced by compressing/zipping the catalog folder and copying the zip file to the new location and unzipping it there.

TACrites
TACritesAuthor
Known Participant
November 16, 2022

@Greg_S.I thought Elements Organizer was running slow because too many files so I recently split my catalog into three catalogs.  My main every day catalog has 56,016 pictures, the second 17,098, and third catalog 60,215 files.  I do have face recognition turned on for all catalogs.  I just want to my the catalog off my relativly small SSD (drive c:) to a much larger drive  d:.

I'm running Elements 2023 but if I look my install apps I see Adobe Premirere Elements 15, Elements 2021, and of course Elements 2023.  Should probably have Windows 10 delete Elements 15 and 2021.  Will it leave data associated with those apps on my computer?

Thanks for the comments!

 

    MichelBParis
    MichelBParis
    Legend
    November 15, 2022

    Hi @TACrites 

    Have a look at that other discussion:

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-elements-discussions/how-to-move-the-photoshop-elements-2020-catalog-file-only-to-new-windows-computer/m-p/13206481#M83757

     

    quote

     

    Questions:

    1 - Can I use Windoze Explorer to move the files?

    2 - Do I move just C:\...\Catalogs\* or everything under C:\...\Elements Organizer\*

    3 - How do I tell Elements Organizer where I moved the catalog data?

     


    Catalog Location: C:\Users\TAC\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\Photos

     

    By @TACrites

     

    1 - Yes, that's I would do myself

    2 - You can move or copy the catalogs in defautl location. They are the subfolders of the \Catalogs\ folder.

    My advice would be to copy all the subfolders under a new master folder you create just under the root of the new drive

    3 - Either you use the catalog manager to browse to the chosen catalog and then use 'open' or in explorer with the organizer closed, you double click on the 'catalog.pse21db database file to open the organizer with that catalog.

    1 - When you have tested that the copied catalog works as expected, you cat delete the original catalog from its original location undedr "Catalogs".

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