Photoshop Elements 2025

You can never have too many backups!! 

The auto backup that is created when you close the program (according to the schedule that you set in Preferences) only protects the catalog itself, not the media files.  The backup is fairly small and I believe it rotates on a 3 file cycle.  IOW, older automatic backups are deleted when the newer ones are created.  The purpose of this backup is to resolve issues that (rarely) occur when the catalog becomes corrupt and won't open.  The backup is then supposed to automatically kick in.

Personally, I don't use this automatic backup (primarily because I can be opening and closing the Organizer many times a day and it would become an annoyance).  Copy-and-pasting the catalog folder to another drive is my preferred way of backing up my catalog (along with synching copies of my media files among several different drives).  If this is what you do, I have a small tip that saves some time.  Compress/zip the catalog folder before copying it to another drive.  Then unzip the file when it has been copied.  In my experience, even with zipping and unzipping the folder, this can be much faster than copying the folder itself, particularly with a large catalog.  The reason for this is that the catalog folder contains thousands of .very small text files.  These take exponentially longer to read and write to a hard drive than a single (zipped) file of the same size as all the small ones.  The compression also slightly reduces the total size of the files being transferred.

Your folders (albums) are in the correct order, but not the correct view.  I don't know why Elements uses this list view as the default but it is easy to fix.

Click on the down arrow next to the My Folders heading and select View as Tree.  The My Folders panel will then display your folders in the same structure as Windows File Explorer. 

If sub-folders are not being displayed, right click on the parent folder and select Show All SubFolders from the context menu.

Yes, you can uninstall and reinstall Elements.  But I'm not sure whether reinstallation will automatically create a new prompt to convert the old catalog if any version 2025 catalog can be found on your system.  It would probably require a total uninstall of the program, removal of preferences, removal of all Elements 2025 catalogs, and possibly some cleanup of the registry.  Given the ease with which your old catalogs can be converted, I would not bother with that approach.

BTW, there is no way to stop the installation of the Organizer.  It is automatically part of the program's installation.

@mec4cast said:  I did the backup from the old and restore it in the new but my organization structure didnt come over.

I'm not sure what you mean.  In your screenshot, you are showing that the Pictures folder at the top has been expanded to display all of the sub-folders.  The Pictures folder is a virtual folder and its physical storage location is displayed at the bottom of your screenshot under your user name.  If you expand that folder display, it should be the same as the one at the top.

In any event, I am assuming that you have not changed computers.  If that is the case, there is no need to do a backup and restore.  What you need to do is convert the old catalogs to the new version.  As Glenn indicates, when you first opened Elements 2025 you would have been prompted to convert the last used catalog to the new version.  However, even if you had said yes to the prompt, you would still need to convert your second catalog.  So, here is what you need to do:

• Go to File>Manage Catalogs
• Click on the Convert button.  This will open a new dialog.
• In the Convert dialog, there should be a list of your Version 18 catalogs (if they have not already been converted)
• Select one of the catalogs and click the Convert button

Depending on the size of your catalog, it will take several minutes to convert it.  A copy of your old catalog will be made and you will still be able to open that catalog in Elements 2020.   A new catalog will be created for Elements 2025 and will have the same name as the old one, but with a numeric suffix.

Repeat the process for your second catalog.

As for Photo X, find the folder in the My Folders panel on the left. Select the folder and right-click on it.  There will be an option in the context menu to Import Media.  If Photo X is not already in the catalog, it will be imported.  (You will get a message that any photos in the folder that are already in the catalog have not been imported because they are already there.)

I did the backup from the old and restore.... Hopefully you did that from with the program, and not manually.  You should have been prompted about importing your cataloges when you installed pse 2025, did that happen?