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perm50537885
Participating Frequently
December 14, 2019
Answered

Same Catalogue but different view in 2019 and 2020 PE Organizer

  • December 14, 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 1003 views

I have PE 2019 and only one catalog. Have a lot of albums and People. Upgraded to 2020. Opened it up and it was empty (no pictures, no albums, no people e.g.). Imported 4 films. When looking into problem solving when I wanted my albums and pictures into 2020, I realised I used the same cataloge for both 2019 and 2020 but have different views. In 2019 I have all pictures etc but in 2020 I can still only see my 4 films. How do I get all albums, pictures, people, places etc into 2020? Have done all the trouble solving, e.g. convert, optimize, re-index, with no result.

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Correct answer MichelBParis

A catalog is a folder.

The catalog name is the folder name.

As you can see, both catalogs (with different names) are stored in the same default catalog location.

Each organizer has its own catalog version. PSE2020 can't open catalogs from PSE2019, it has to convert the old catalog to its own format. Then the converted catalog inherits the name of the old catalog, and the old catalog is renamed with a -1 suffix. The old organizer recognizes automatically this renamed catalog folder.

So, how do you know which version is a given catalog.

In the explorer, you look at the contents of the folder.

PSE2019 contains a file named 'catalog.pse17db

PSE2020 contains a file named 'catalog.pse18db

If a catalog file has a -1 suffix, that means it has been converted

If a catalog file has a -1-1 suffix, that means it has been converted twice.

You can convert a catalog several times. It is shown in the available catalog list when you tick the checkbox 'show already converted files'.

The normal procedure when you install PSE2020 is that you receive a prompt to convert the old catalog. It seems you have missed that opportunity. Not a big deal, you can convert manually afterwards, even several times. If there has been no catalog conversion (may take some time), you must start it yourself from the catalog manager.

You have the choice to keep the catalog folder either in their default location, or anywhere else in your computer. You only need to move the catalog folder from the explorer. For instance you can create a catalog folders tree with subfolders for a given PSE version (see the 'catalog.pseXXdb' criteria above).

To open a  catalog from the 'custom' location, you can either navigate in the catalog manager, or simply double click on the catalog.pseXXdb file in the folder, which opens the organizer with the chosen catalog.

 

4 replies

MichelBParis
MichelBParis
Legend
December 18, 2019

The screenshot of your Explorer search for files starting with 'catalog' is interesting. It shows folders as well as file names.

If you use the Explorer to display the default 'catalogs' folder containing all catalog folders by default, you won't know the format for each catalog, you'll have to look into the catalog folder. Folders containing catalog.pse17db will open with pse2019, folders with catalog.pse18 will open with PSE2020.

(Ignore files with tmp or -shm or -val, they are used by the sqlite database engine to insure integrity.)

Like 99jon, I think that the first conversion prompt has been ignored.

What is interesting in your test of replacing the catalog.pse17db in a folder by a more recent catalog.pse18db is that it seems to work when double clicking on that file. That's what I have just checked. The file opens ok with PSE2020. However I have not tested everything and I don't use face recognition nor auto creations.

It's not totally surprising as I have often suggested solving some catalog issues by creating a new folder with ONLY the catalog.pseXXdb file. The tags, captions, albums, stacks and version sets are recovered, not other features like face recognition or visual similarity. In your solution, it remains to be seen if the swapped catalog.pseXXdb can connect with the other components of the catalog folder to recover all catalog features.

 

99jon
99jon
Legend
December 15, 2019

Is PSE 2019 still installed? If so launch the Organizer and go to:

Help >> System Info

You should see the folder path and catalog name.

Now try browsing and navigating to that named catalog to open in PSE 2020

P
perm50537885Author
Participating Frequently
December 15, 2019

PE 2019 on top and 2020 below. As you can see it is the same catalog. The folder is nearly the same, "....MinElements2019\" in 2019 and "...MinElements" in 2020, could that be the problem and I don´t know how to solve that if so. As we can see there is a huge differens in the size with 251,6 MB in 2019 with 43K pictures and 402KB in 2020 with only now 14 films (therefore I guess the cache is similar as the films is so much larger in file size).

MichelBParis
MichelBParisCorrect answer
Legend
December 15, 2019

A catalog is a folder.

The catalog name is the folder name.

As you can see, both catalogs (with different names) are stored in the same default catalog location.

Each organizer has its own catalog version. PSE2020 can't open catalogs from PSE2019, it has to convert the old catalog to its own format. Then the converted catalog inherits the name of the old catalog, and the old catalog is renamed with a -1 suffix. The old organizer recognizes automatically this renamed catalog folder.

So, how do you know which version is a given catalog.

In the explorer, you look at the contents of the folder.

PSE2019 contains a file named 'catalog.pse17db

PSE2020 contains a file named 'catalog.pse18db

If a catalog file has a -1 suffix, that means it has been converted

If a catalog file has a -1-1 suffix, that means it has been converted twice.

You can convert a catalog several times. It is shown in the available catalog list when you tick the checkbox 'show already converted files'.

The normal procedure when you install PSE2020 is that you receive a prompt to convert the old catalog. It seems you have missed that opportunity. Not a big deal, you can convert manually afterwards, even several times. If there has been no catalog conversion (may take some time), you must start it yourself from the catalog manager.

You have the choice to keep the catalog folder either in their default location, or anywhere else in your computer. You only need to move the catalog folder from the explorer. For instance you can create a catalog folders tree with subfolders for a given PSE version (see the 'catalog.pseXXdb' criteria above).

To open a  catalog from the 'custom' location, you can either navigate in the catalog manager, or simply double click on the catalog.pseXXdb file in the folder, which opens the organizer with the chosen catalog.

 

99jon
99jon
Legend
December 15, 2019

Try selecting MinElements2019 and then click the button at the bottom “Oppna”

P
perm50537885Author
Participating Frequently
December 15, 2019

I Open (Öppna) my catalog (MinElements2019) but only see my films and the only album which is there is "Filmer" (Films).

99jon
99jon
Legend
December 14, 2019

Go to File >> Manage catalogs

look for previous catalogs and choose and click the open button

P
perm50537885Author
Participating Frequently
December 15, 2019

Swedish but I guess the text will be in the same places in the English version. Yes, I tried to Convert (Konvertera) the Catalog, as you can see and also set a name on them so I really understood which version I actually used. The original one is "MinElements2019". So when I use this in 2019 I see my old pictures, and in 2020 I only see four films. I am not sure where to look for the previous versions. The other three (1, 11, and 2020) I have tried to Convert and also looked into the Win folders and copied files, but nothing helps. Different views 2019 and 2020 in the same cataloge.

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