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Known Participant
March 22, 2017
Question

Organizer in Elements 15 shows only some of the files in a directory

  • March 22, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 950 views

Organizer refuses to show three of the photos in a directory.  If I try to drag the files from Explorer and drop them into Organizer, it tells me it won't do it because the files are already there, but nothing I do will make Organizer show them.

Windows 7, 8 gigs of ram, 64-bit machine

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1 reply

MichelBParis
Legend
March 22, 2017

whatahassle!  wrote

Organizer refuses to show three of the photos in a directory.  If I try to drag the files from Explorer and drop them into Organizer, it tells me it won't do it because the files are already there, but nothing I do will make Organizer show them.

Windows 7, 8 gigs of ram, 64-bit machine

Do you mean you don't see those files in the Folders tree view on the left panel?

I suppose you would see them if you used Import from folders, which opens the Explorer view.

If you can't see the containing folder in the left panel, that would be because there are still no pictures registered in your catalog. Subfolders which don't have already pictures in the catalog are hidden by default. To show them, you select the folder at the above level and right click to get the option to show all subfolders.

Second question: if the organizer tells you that the files are already in the catalog, that means that it has found what it considers as possible duplicates: files having the same size in kilobytes and same date taken in another folder: even if the file names are different, they are considered duplicates. You might try to sort by date_taken, to find a file for the same date/time to check visually if you recognize the same file as the one you want to import.

SmorfAuthor
Known Participant
March 23, 2017

The directory appears in the directory tree in the left panel, but the

pictures do not appear in the main panel in the center. The (sub)directory

in question has other pictures in it that appear in Organizer, just as they

should. When I open Windows Explorer, the pictures are all there, but I

cannot persuade Organizer to show three of them.

Those three pictures are in the catalog in another directory. I copied and

pasted them into this subdirectory, just as I've done with the other

pictures in that that do appear in the Organizer center panel.

Thanks.

On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 2:52 PM, MichelBParis <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

MichelBParis
Legend
March 24, 2017

As explained above,

1 - The left panel in the organizer will only show media files present (referenced) in the current catalog

2 - The files you don't see can't be imported in the catalog because they are already in the catalog (in a different folder). That would create duplicates.

The organizer main tool is a database. In a database, you don't want to create duplicates and you never need to. Instead of working only in a hierarchical folder tree, you are working with the virtual organization in categories, tags and albums. A given file may be assigned several tags and be included in several albums.

Just do a search around the word 'duplicates' for Elements Organizer, you'll find a ton of posts about how to get rid of duplicates.

Edit:

Actually, you can have the organizer accept duplicates in the catalog in the following way:

- from the organizer, you select your file and choose File > Duplicate. A renamed version, similar in size and date will be created.

- from the organizer, you drag and drop the copy in another folder.

But if you copy from the Explorer or Finder, the organizer will refuse duplicates.