Photoshop Elements on PC with OneDrive backup in place

@Chris22853298zhyx said:

I would like to use the Photoshop Elements Orgnaizer to mange my photos. Will the Orginizer pickup the newly synced photos using the OneDrive app? Or do I have to run some manual operation to find them?

Real world example would be I take a photo on my iPhone, the OneDrive app uploads it to the cloud. I turn on my desktop PC and it syncs down to the Pictures folder. I then open up the Organizer app....what happens??

Is your OneDrive folder set as a Watched Folder?  If so, the files that are placed in your OneDrive folder will be picked up in the Organizer and imported to your catalog.  I believe that OneDrive folders are automatically set as Watched Folders, but I always delete them.  However, I just added my OneDrive folder to my watched folders list and it automatically imported a file I placed there to my catalog.

Storing your photos in OneDrive in Elements means that you are using a special folder on your computer and that the provider does insure that this folder is reguarly 'synced' to the Cloud. Same situation as Dropbox, Google etc. So you are right, you can store and manage your photo library there or a part of it.

Those 'Cloud' solutions have big advantages in ease of use, sharing ability and backup safety. I do use both OneDrive and Dropbox to share a part of my photos or documents. My wife has chosen to sync her smartphone photos in Google Photos. I no longer need to transfer our smartphone photos directly with a cable from the phone.

This is ideal if you don't have a very important library to share with the Cloud or if you are happy to share only a selection.

However, the limitations in sharing and backup safety are depending on the way you manage catalogs and catalog folders.

By default, the catalog folder is not located within the OneDrive folder. It is neither shared nor backed up.

If you move it within the OneDrive folder, it's backed up, but not shared. You can retrieve it from another computer but it will always show links with the original computer. In the event of a crash or disparition of the original computer, you'll retrieve all your photos from the Cloud and possibly the catalog folder, but all files will appear as 'disconnected'.

In other words, easy to share and backup the files and file structure, but not the catalogs.

 My advice is to leave your catalog folder outside of the Onedrive folder (for efficiency) and to store a copy periodically in OneDrive if you want.

The last word is that if you want full safety, you should ALSO use the organizer backup function periodically. That will insure an easier way to restore a big library or to move it to another computer or drive.