Premiere elements 14 Elements Organiser not receiving new files - Catalog corrupt

Question

I have been working on two large projects in Premiere Elements 14 for several months. They are, agonisingly, not finished. Suddenly from a few days ago when I try to add a new file using 'add media' files/ folders the file does not appear in elements organiser. I have retested the process umpteen times. When I close Premiere and re-open it I get the error message that it has failed to open the catalog and that it is corrupt or out of date and can't be updated.

If I try to create a new album I get the error message "Error creating new album". No new album.

If I try to delete any file from the Organiser I get the error message "Error deleting media" and the media is not deleted. (I had hoped that if I deleted recent files that might help.)

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Premiere Elements 14. Curiously when I did this when I opened Premiere I got the same error message about it failing to open the catalog but when I opened a new project I was able to add a new file and the Organiser was empty except for that one new file. Excited I closed that test project without saving it and re-opened one of my on-going projects but the old Catalog was back in Elements Organiser and again I was unable to add any media to Elements Organiser. I closed it down and opened a new project again but the old (apparently corrupt ...) catalog was back. I have not been able to get a new file into Elements Organiser again.

Are my projects and months of work doomed? :-(((( I have spent two work days trying and failing to sort this out myself. I am wretchedly stuck. Is there a way I can stop Premiere from going to the old corrupt Organiser and start with a blank slate? If so, will I still be able to open my half-finished projects (will Premiere still be able to find all the bits?)

I will be hugely grateful for help. I am not an expert in Premiere and will need spoon-feeding. Many thanks!

BTW I have already 'optmised' and 'repaired' my catalog to no avail. At least Premiere said it had done that successfully, though I was surprised how quickly it did it. No need for repair was discovered but I clicked on the 'do it anyway' button.

Chy Ylow · Accepted Answer

Also ... possibly relevantly - I cannot open Project Assets - I click on it but nothing happens. I tried running the basic how-to video which shows you how to use Add Media and Project Assets and Project Assets actually worked when I did it within the video and I could by-pass Elements Organiser and still get media onto the timeline. But as soon as I open my on-going projects Project Assets won't open and Elements Organiser won't receive my new files.

Solution finally found - a way of by-passing the corrupt catalog (corrupted goodness knows how). Here's what you can try if you have the same problem I described above:

Remove the Adobe folders that are created by Adobe in the same folder as you saved the Premiere Elements video file that you can no longer work on that are called: Encoded Files, Layout, Adobe Premiere Preview Files and put them in a new folder on your desktop while you check that everything works without them i.e. your video file opens and the problem has gone away. If all is well then simply delete these folders on the desktop as they will be remade by the software, but hopefully without the problem element recurring. This worked for me. I can now create a new album (which I was unable to do before) and so I can now avoid using the corrupt one. The corrupt album is for ever more corrupt but at least I can get back to work and my videos are safe and can be further worked on. The Project Assets window will open again and the Elements Organiser is showing new files I've added. Hurray!!!

Bill Sprague · Answer

I'm confused by your sentence, "When I close Premiere and re-open it I get the error message that it has failed to open the catalog and that it is corrupt or out of date and can't be updated."

Organizer is only a link to your media files. Once your Premiere Elements projects are created, links to media are direct. Premiere Elements will function without Organizer.

If you have moved, deleted or renamed source media files, Premiere Elements will have broken links to the source media and will not function.

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