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Question

Reconnect files with old version of catalog

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
August 1, 2025
3 replies
312 views

My photo collection has around 75,000 files. At one time with a past version of PSE, I had tagged many with names of events, people, places,. etc. When I upgraded to a new version the catalog got corrupted. Most of the tags got grouped under another heading and it was a mess. I first tried to use the Restore feature in PSE, reading from a backup that PSE made, but it just produced garbage. I then tried to reconstruct it and got frustrated and stopped. I still have the old catalog file.

The file names of the photos are the same as before, although they may be in different folders. Is there any way to have PSE search for files matching the file name in the old catalog, and re-apply the tags? That would save me a huge amount of time.

Greg_S.

Community Expert

Based on your screenshot, I'm thinking that your best bet will be to try (re-)converting the database located at

H:\Pictures\My Catalog 1

This appears to be the most recent catalog created with Elements 2020. It also contains a catalog file the same size as a catalog stored on your C drive in the default location. Based on your other answers, this may be a backup of your catalog that has been restored to your H drive. But I'm not sure.

What is puzzling to me is that your search did not find any Elements 2025 catalogs (with a file named catalog.pse25db). So, it is possible that a prior conversion may have failed. But even if that were the case, you should still have had a new catalog created in the default location on the C drive when you launched the program.

Perhaps give us a screenshot of the H:\Pictures folder for more clues?

@copwriter1 said: My hope is/was that PSE could search for the file names and reconnect without my intervention for every file.

While, in theory, that is possible, it may not be realistic. It seems to depend on a number of factors, including your folder structure. Generally, if you point a disconnected file to the correct/new folder, all other missing files in that folder will be reconnected automatically.

Greg_S.

Community Expert

Actually, Elements gives you full customization over where to store your catalog and the files associated with it. (But I guess you need to know where the customization settings are located.)

The fact that you only have Elements 2025 installed may make the process easier. So, first you need to figure out the location of the old version catalog that was working with all your tags etc.

I suggest that you perform a search of Windows File Explorer for: catalog.pse

The search result should yield a number of files named catalog.pseXXdb where XX is the version number of the Elements program that created the catalog. If you double-click on this file, the Elements 2025 Organizer should open and convert the old catalog to a new Elements 2025 catalog. A copy of the old catalog will be created so that it will remain intact and a numeric suffix will be added to the catalog folder name. (The catalog folder is the one that contains the catalog.pseXXdb file.)

If the conversion process works, you should end up with a catalog that contains all of your face recognition and keyword tags etc. However, because some of the files have been moved, they will be displayed as missing files. You can determine which files are missing by using the Find>All Missing Files menu command.

The missing files can be reconnected to their current location (on your local hard drives). There are several ways to do this. But if too many files have been moved to too many different locations, and particularly if the new locations are scattered, this process may be laborious.

I shall wait for you to follow my suggestions and report back how many files are missing. I will then give you my suggested strategy for reconnecting the files.

BTW, in the future, never go outside of the Organizer to manage your files. All move, delete or renaming operations can and should only be carried out in the Organizer.

C

copwriter1Author

Participating Frequently

It appears I have multiple catalog files. The attached screenshot shows the results of a search for catalog.pse on multiple drives. The C: drive is where PSE insisted on storing everything in previous versions. My intention is to keep all my photos on the H: drive.

An external disk holds a PSE backup from 12/7/21. My records show I purchased PSE 2022 on 11/29/21, and I imagine I did a backup shortly after the install. The folder holding the backup is 46 GB with 45K+ files. Most are named B00xxxx, with one Backup.tly and one catalog.buc.

I can try your suggestion, but since the files have been moved from one drive to another, I suspect they will all be missing files. My hope is/was that PSE could search for the file names and reconnect without my intervention for every file. I'm unclear whether the app has enough AI horsepower to do that.

I'm not going to try to reconstruct the index until I know I have all my files back and they're where I want them to be. When the OS on my previous desktop machine crashed, it took my data drive with it. I had hoped to transfer files from it onto the new machine, but the partition that held them is nowhere to be found. Insead, I'm restoring files from a Carbonite backup. The Carbonite backup is 957 GB, and after running for three days, it's 5% done. I know it will contain mostly duplicates of the files I had on an external drive I used for a local backup, but until I can do a synchronize and compare, I won't have everything back. Once I have all that done, I'll try your suggestion.

I learned the hard way that, once your photos are in th Organizer, all editing and moving should be within the Organizer. That is, in part, how I got here. Previous versions of PSE insisted on putting everything on the C: drive, or I didn't know how to direct it elsewhere.

I do appreciate your time and expertise. I'll be back when I can try your suggestion.

Greg_S.

Community Expert

I believe your best option will be to convert the old catalog again.

Are you now using Elements 2025?

What version was used to create the old catalog?

Do you still have the old version of Elements installed on your computer?

Do you have more than one catalog?

About how many files have been put into different folders? Is there some system you have used to change the folders?

If you answer my questions, I will give you the appropriate instructions to convert the catalog (if you don't already know).

C

copwriter1Author

Participating Frequently

>>Are you now using Elements 2025? <<

As of today, yes.

>>What version was used to create the old catalog? <<

I'm not sure. I'll have to pull up the catalog off another drive. I've gone through a lot of versions of PSE. I probably won't be able to do that for a week or two, minimum, as I'm having to restore files from a Carbonite backup. I had a disk crash and had to move to a new computer.

>>Do you still have the old version of Elements installed on your computer?<<

No, but I still have the installation files. If I install the old version, will it cause a conflict with the new one?

>>Do you have more than one catalog?<<

No, there's just one.

>>About how many files have been put into different folders? Is there some system you have used to change the folders?<<

It's difficult to say. The files have been moved several times, and somewhere along the line got split or duplicated into multiple folders. There are undoubtedly duplicates. The only consistency is that the images should have the same names through all of the changes. I'm hoping to rely on PSE's ability to match file names with tags, regardless of where the files are stored.

Part of the problem is that the versions of PSE have always wanted to store the images and catalog on the C: drive. I prefer to keep only apps and the OS on the C: drive, with data on a separate drive. This simplifies backups. PSE kept moving stuff back to the C: drive with each installation. It doesn't offer the user a lot of options at installationl, but rather just goes ahead and does what it wants. I've kept going back to the app through various versions as I like the functionality, but it's a love-hate relationship because of the lack of customization.

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