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kevinl-pgh
kevinl-pgh
Participant
May 29, 2018
Question

Organizer - not seeing old information after restore to new installation.

  • May 29, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 249 views

First some background:

I had been using Elements 10 organizer on Windows 7 for quite a while until Dec 2017.

I keep most pictures in directories under c:\mine\Pictures\, not in the standard library locations.  Not everything in those directories is in the catalog.  (At least not yet).

Note - "C:\mine\Pictures" is a junction/link to a directory on a USB drive, so I can keep the same pictures file directory structure over time easily.

A couple months ago I replaced my internal hard drive, installed Windows 10 on it and updated to Elements Organizer 15.  I made the pictures directory available again using the same path.  I used the new Photoshop Elements 15 and Premier Elements 15 a few times.  There's nothing in the default catalog on the new installation that I am interested in saving. 

Today, to move my existing catalog (captions, people, albums, etc) to the new installation, I followed procedures in:

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

And referenced this:

https://helpx.adobe.com/elements-organizer/using/backup-or-restore-catalogs.html

To do that, I started on the old installation, and I did the following:

  • Reconnected old hard drive (Windows 7)
  • Started Elements 10 organizer on it.
  • Either Reconnected missing files or removed them from catalog as appropriate.
  • Backed up the catalog to a backup USB hard drive

This created a directory with about 40GB in it.

On the new installation, I did the following:

  • Connected the new hard drive (Windows 10)
  • Restarted Elements 15 organizer on it.
  • Did File-> Restore Catalog
  • Selected the directory on the backup USB hard drive.
  • Used "Restore Files and Catalog to... Original Location"
  • I did not overwrite files when prompted, as they already exist in the c:\mine\Pictures\ directories
  • When prompted, I confirmed that catalog version conversion should be done, and "My Catalog 1" was created.

At this point, there was no information from the previous catalog in the Organizer - no albums, people or even pictures.  I Used File-> Manage Catalogs to switch between "My Catalog" and "My Catalog 1".  They appear identical, with only the few things I had done on the new installation.  I exited and restarted Organizer, but there was still none of the old information.

I did a File-> Manage Catalogs-> Convert to convert the Elements 10 Organizer backup to version 15 again ("My Catalog 2" was created).  Although it says there are 7110 Media Items in the old catalog, there is still none of the old information shown with the converter catalogs.

More information:

After I do the conversion, I can find the catalog files:

Directory of C:\Users\All Users\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\My Catalog

05/28/2018  05:12 PM        30,685,184 catalog.pse10db

05/28/2018  09:38 PM         1,935,360 catalog.pse15db

               2 File(s)     32,620,544 bytes

Directory of C:\Users\All Users\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\My Catalog 1

05/28/2018  05:12 PM        30,685,184 catalog.pse10db

05/28/2018  09:28 PM         1,942,528 catalog.pse15db

               2 File(s)     32,627,712 bytes

Directory of C:\Users\All Users\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\My Catalog 2

05/28/2018  05:12 PM        30,685,184 catalog.pse10db

05/28/2018  07:33 PM         2,081,792 catalog.pse15db

               2 File(s)     32,766,976 bytes

There's copies in other locations as well:

C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\

C:\Windows.old\Users\All Users\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs

In all locations, the version 15 files just seem to be too small.  I'm not sure if this is the root of the problem or not.

Any ideas of what I need to do to get my old information on the new installation?

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

MichelBParis
MichelBParis
Legend
May 29, 2018

kevinl-pgh  wrote

First some background:

I had been using Elements 10 organizer on Windows 7 for quite a while until Dec 2017.

I keep most pictures in directories under c:\mine\Pictures\, not in the standard library locations.  Not everything in those directories is in the catalog.  (At least not yet).

Note - "C:\mine\Pictures" is a junction/link to a directory on a USB drive, so I can keep the same pictures file directory structure over time easily.

Not a good idea.

- There is no point of worrying about the pictures file directory, since the backup and restore process is able to recreate the structure.

- The way the location of your files on your external hard drive is normally recorded by two parameters: the internal serial number of the drive and the path in the folder tree. I can't imagine how your files were recorded with your junction/link. Changing the drive holding that link has probably messed up the recording on account of the different internal drive numbers. It would have been much easier if you had

simply referenced the external drive directly with its letter number.

Tip:

If you keep your catalog folder  on the same external drive and plug in the external drive to any other computer with the same Elements version, your catalog is immediately available. That's the common way to share a catalog between two computers. You can copy or move your catalog folder where you want. If you do a backup and restore, both the photo files library and the catalog folder are moved together.

Now, it seems you have a valid backup. Since the restore can reproduce the folder tree, you can choose to restore on any drive. Note that in your case, I would not use 'original' location, only 'custom' location; I would also allow overwriting existing files;

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