Why is my Lightroom not exporting the edited versions of my photos?

So we are all trying to get are heads around your workflow. If I have this correct:

1. You use LR for data access management

2. You accomplish much of your post processing in LR

3. You are working on the RAW image, either a native RAW or a DNG (side question, during import, Copy as DNG, or COPY?)

4. You select at some point to Edit in a external program (as in not LR) in this case PhotoElements.

5. As the output of the PSE is a PSD, you probably were presented with the Adobe Camera RAW, did a quick convert, then did your additional post processing in PSE.

6. When you go to close the session in PSE it saves as a PSD.

7. In LR you do not see the PSD copy.

Obviously the above makes some assumptions.

so, several things.

1) Yes a complex PSD file can fail to be visible in LR, see above members comment about comparability, and/or flattening the image

2) Yes, you could save as instead of save or close, and select TIFF, or for that matter, answer correctly to a screen that should have come up warning about compatibility.

3) Just for shit and giggles, double check the folder in LR for missing image, sync the catalog (this should not be the problem, but just in case)

Now, let me suggest a different approach.

First, any program you use outside of LR, be it a third party plug-in, be it PS, be it PSE, is probably going to want to work on a raster image, not the RAW data, oh, PS and PSE sort of, they bring up ACR to convert the RAE to raster, and output a raster image (PSD, TIFF, JPEG). Be that Photoshop, PhotoShop Elements, DxO NIK, On1 RAW, Luminar, etc etc.

Second, and as you want to have in your LR catalog the finished product from that external program (PSE), why not start with a TIFF?

In LR, create a folder if you want just for TIFF, or sure, just keep the TIFF with the RAW, your choice. Select the image(s) you want to send to PSE and EXPORT them as TIFF (no resizing, no sharpening, leave metadata alone, no post processing). Then, instead of selecting the RAW file with LR mods, select the TIFF, no extra ACR screens to deal with, PSE will just ignore the PSD or not to PSD issue. (By the way PSD is just a glorified TIFF, that will piss some off, waiting for the  no its not), Might dtill want to flatten the layers though.

dborato  wrote I add the same problem.....format was original.   Why cant I view my PSD file from my hard drive?  I have to open it up in PSE.   I want to view edits from my hard drive so I know what I going to save to memory stick. The DNG file exports small.  Down to 1 mb

If I understand you correctly, you exported the image ‘as original’. That is not correct in this case. Lightroom stores the edits in its catalog and the original remains unchanged. Even if the original is not a raw file but a psd file. That means that if you want to export a copy with edits, you should export as psd, not as original.

dborato  wrote I add the same problem.....format was original.   Why cant I view my PSD file from my hard drive?

maybe you want to choose some other format than PSD when you export, why do you feel you have to have PSD? JPG or TIF work fine for this purpose, and can be opened by many different software.

PSD files are Proprietary Photoshop files. Only PS, or I guess PSE, can open them.

If they are saved without the Max Compatibility option selected LR can't read them. That option saves a flattened version of the image inside the PSD file so LR can read it.

Exporting as Original only exports the ORIGINAL file without any edits included.

As to exporting as DNG. DNG files are usually smaller than the original RAW file. Sometimes only by a small amount sometimes by a larger amount.