Transferring tags

Question

I want to transfer my photo tags list from Photoshop Album 2.0 currently on an old PC to a newly purchased version of Photoshop Elements 2020 now residing on a new laptop. How can I do this? Some instructions would be much appreciated. I have already transferred the photos across.

Phil Pickering · Accepted Answer

If the Recover option described above still doesn't fix the issue, try looking at the log file that the Converter generates.

The log file will be located in C: > Users > user_name > AppData > Local > Temp

If you sort the folder contents by Date Modified the log file should be near the top - it begins with pse-conversion-log_ then the name of the Catalog you're trying to convert and will have a .txt file extension.

Open the log file in Notepad and scroll down to the end of the file. The last line will contain the name of the image that is causing the conversion to fail.

The line will start something like created media a:772 for file "image_location_and_name".

Make a note of the image location and name.

Open up Photoshop Album and delete that image from the catalog (you've kept a note of the image location so you can add it back to the catalog once you're up-and-running in Elements 2020).

Quit Photoshop Album and try the Converter once more. If it fails again, which is possible as you appear to have a very large catalog of images, then just go through the new log file and remove the image from the catalog that is causing the problem. Keep repeating this process until the conversion is successful.

Phil Pickering · Answer

Hi,

Using @MichelBParis 's tip, I've successfully converted a very simple Photoshop Elements 3 catalog to Photoshop Elements 2021.

The Photoshop Elements Organizer in versions 3, 4 and 5 uses the same database structure (Microsoft Access) and the same file format (.psa) as Photoshop Album, so theoretically, you should be successful too.

(I left the image files that were used to populate the Elements 3 catalog in exactly the same place to minimise any hiccups along the way).

Here's the steps I used:

1. Make a note of the location of the Elements 3 catalog (Mine was C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Catalogs\Catalog.psa). You'll need to make sure you've got Hidden items turned on in the File Explorer to see the Program Data folder.

2. Download the PSA Catalog Converter. - Thanks @MichelBParis 🙂

3. Extract and run the Catalog Converter.

4. Choose the Photoshop Album catalog that you located in Step 1 as the Source file.

5. Choose a destination folder for the newly converted catalog file you will be creating. You could choose any folder you like (but choose somewhere handy like the Desktop).

6. Click the Convert button and a new Elements 13 catalog will be created, named catalog.pse13db (or something along those lines) inside a folder named after the original catalog. Note the .pse13db file format - you're now using the SQLite database format that's been used for the Organizer since Elements 6.

7. Open up the Elements 2021 Organizer. Go to File > Manage Catalogs...

8. Click the Convert button. Then click the Find More Catalogs button, and navigate to the folder that contains the your .pse13db file. Select the folder (not the file name) and once that's done you should see your Elements 13 catalog listed in the Convert Catalog dialog window. Select it and click Convert.

9. Once that's completed you should be able to choose that catalog in the Catalog Manager window.

My catalog only contained a few new keywords I added to the images. They were successfully converted over but I can't say for certain how you'll get on with any other information being transferred over.

Hope that helps!

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