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chashood123
Participant
September 17, 2018
Answered

Restore Captions from Earlier PSE

  • September 17, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 774 views

On an older computer, I had an extensive photo library in Adobe PSE 4.  On the next computer, I successfully backed up and restored the photos into PSE 9,, but the captions did not follow.  On the current computer (the third one) I successfully backed up and restored the PSE 9 photo set going way back to the Photoshop Album days into PSE 15, but without any of the captions from the photos (the photos from PSE 4 and earlier).

I know this is a mouthful, but is there any way to restore the captions from the earlier photos without having to do two complete backup and restore operations?  That is, without having to back up and restore from PSE 4 to PSE 9, then again from PSE 9 to PSE 15?  This would be VERY time consuming because there are over 22,000 photos involved.

Thanks!.  

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer MichelBParis

Are captions saved in the metadata header of the old files?

I suggest you select a few files with the captions already written in the metadata header, or to use the 'write metadata to files' command to be sure the captions in the old catalog are written in the headers.

Then, from the PSE15 catalog, select them and 'update thumbnail'. That should read the captions and add them in the PSE15 catalog.

If that works, the process could be easier than a double conversion?

1 reply

MichelBParis
MichelBParis
Legend
September 17, 2018

chashood123  wrote

On an older computer, I had an extensive photo library in Adobe PSE 4.  On the next computer, I successfully backed up and restored the photos into PSE 9,, but the captions did not follow.  On the current computer (the third one) I successfully backed up and restored the PSE 9 photo set going way back to the Photoshop Album days into PSE 15, but without any of the captions from the photos (the photos from PSE 4 and earlier).

I know this is a mouthful, but is there any way to restore the captions from the earlier photos without having to do two complete backup and restore operations?  That is, without having to back up and restore from PSE 4 to PSE 9, then again from PSE 9 to PSE 15?  This would be VERY time consuming because there are over 22,000 photos involved.

Thanks!.  

Can you confirm that you did use the backup and restore process in the organizer, not an external backup system?

Move Elements Organizer catalog

If so, I have never seen captions missing in the process.

What is tricky in your situation is that catalogs older than the PSE6 version were built on a Microsoft Access database instead of an Sqlite one, and that the 64-bits versions including PSE15 can't convert those old catalogs in one step.

Convert-organizer-catalog-elements-13-64

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chashood123Author
Participant
September 17, 2018

Thanks for the quick reply.  Yes, when I moved from PSE 4, three computers ago in 2014, to PSE 9 on the next computer, I used the backup and restore process within organizer.  What I did not notice at the time (Sept. 2014) was that the captions did not restore with the photos into the PSE 9 catalog.  All the captions I added since that time into Sept. 2014 and newer photos DID backup and restore properly in Jun 2018 onto my new computer with PSE 15.

So the bottom line is that I lost the captions from my pre-September 2014 photos (thousands of them).  I can view them on the old, first computer in PSE 4, but having to go back to that computer to see the captions is not much of a real solution, especially to my wife, who is the operator of these computers.  I guess I'm grasping for some way to overwrite old metadata onto those older photos without having to do two complete backup and restore operations (PSE 4 to 9, then 9 to 15), which I'm not certain would work anyway, since it didn't work the last time.

MichelBParis
MichelBParisCorrect answer
Legend
September 17, 2018

Are captions saved in the metadata header of the old files?

I suggest you select a few files with the captions already written in the metadata header, or to use the 'write metadata to files' command to be sure the captions in the old catalog are written in the headers.

Then, from the PSE15 catalog, select them and 'update thumbnail'. That should read the captions and add them in the PSE15 catalog.

If that works, the process could be easier than a double conversion?

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