Change File names.

[jamesC10405]

Photoshop Elements

Is it possible, in PSE 2023, to change the file name of 20,000 photo files and put them in appropriate folders without PSE 2023 classifying them as missing files?  Love and Respect to the PSE Community.

[tomp77891254]

+1... same question... want to move a folder in Organizer/My Folders to a different location on the same PC.  Will PE track this or do I have to export/import to keep the Organizer Directory in sync??

[Greg_S.]

@jamesC10405, how do you propose renaming 20k files and moving them to different folders?  Any file operation that you undertake outside of the Organizer will result in the file becoming missing in the Organizer catalog. 

@tomp77891254, yes, if you move the files in the My Folders panel, the Organizer will keep track of the files.  Make sure you are in the Tree view, not the List view.

[jamesC10405]

Thank you for your reply.

Currently I have miscellaneous, unrecognizable, computer provided names on my 20,000 photo files. If, heaven forbid, PSE would become permanently unavailable to me, I would like to have my files in a more manageable condition, such as having metadata attached to them and having them named by date along with a brief description. Is it possible to work within PSE on all the files and make file name changes, perhaps working in bulk or in small batches, and avoid having PSE consider them as missing files?

James Connolly

[tomp77891254]

Thanks for the reply.  I was not clear in my question.  I want to change the name of the file in windows to a different directory.  I think your reply is to change the name inside the Orginazer list.  If I move a folder listed in the Organizer list using Microsoft Explorer to a different directory address will Organizer automatically update to the new location.  I think your answer to james answers my question as NO... the files will be missing.  Seems I must export the folder, change the location, and then import it.  Will this export/import process keep all the metadata intact including face, place, caption, etc.??  I looked for a tutorial on this but didn't find one.

[tomp77891254]

Edit... "... change the name of the file..." should be of the folder.

[MichelBParis]

Is it possible, in PSE 2023, to change the file name of 20,000 photo files and put them in appropriate folders without PSE 2023 classifying them as missing files?

By @jamesC10405

The key word here is "appropriate".

For whom?

The organizer and softwares based on catalogs don't rely on folders to store their files. They are even built to let you largely ignore the location of the files. They are built on data recorded in your cameras and tags, categories and albums you create yourself.

The result is that no folder organization can afford the same flexibility as a catalog. For instance, you can have a single image stored in many albums without needing any duplication,  you can search files by multi criteria queries.

Searching pictures having a combination of properties is a breeze. You can even search from pieces of a text in a tag or in a filename or a caption associated with a date.

So, even if there was some IA software able to understand your own idea of appropriate, that would not make your organization faster or more efficient. That would only make easier exporting to a new system not able to work with PSE catalogs.

[jamesC10405]

Thank you for your reply.

Currently I have miscellaneous, unrecognizable, computer provided names on my 20,000 photo files. If, heaven forbid, PSE would become permanently unavailable to me, I would like to have my files in a more manageable condition, such as having metadata attached to them and having them named by date along with a brief description. Is it possible to work within PSE on all the files and make file name changes, perhaps working in bulk or in small batches, and avoid having PSE consider them as missing files?

James Connolly

[Greg_S.]

As Michel has already suggested, there really is no need to change file names and folder organization, particularly if you are talking about files that have come from a camera.  Your camera files should already contain metadata with the dates of when they were taken.  So changing a name to include the date doesn't really seem like a worthwhile effort.  Of course, the situation may be different if you are talking about photos that have been scanned.  Similarly, while I appreciate your concern that PSE may become permanently unavailable to you at some point in the future, that idea seems to be a little far-fetched.  And in a world where that happens, I'm sure AI will find a suitable replacement to organize and find your images.

But if you insist on undertaking this tedious work, I suggest you rename the files a folder at a time. You can rename files one-at-a- time, using the Information panel.  Doing that will avoid the file becoming missing.  However, if you want to batch rename some files, performing this task a folder at a time should make it easier to reconnect the files once they become missing.

In my opinion, the better approach is to spend your time keyword tagging your files to establish their subject matter.  You should then save the metadata to each file using the Ctrl+W command.  For the foreseeable future, there will be software that will be able to read that information and help you find your photos.  In the meantime, the Elements Organizer will serve you well.

[MichelBParis · Accepted solution]

@Greg_S. 

I agree that the most important and urgent task would be to put the efforts on tagging (mnually and/or with smart tags).

@jamesC10405 

The available tools in Elements should help you to solve the two tasks of renaming and  moving your subfolders

in more logical configuration.

Moving the folders is a huge operation, folder by folder, so that I'll suggest to start with renaming.

For the folders reorganization, see if a reorganization  by date would be acceptable, I can suggest something, but not as a first step. Be prepared to perform full backups before attempting some kinds of tasks.

Renaming at import time is the most useful available solution in the advanced downloader.

Using the command "process multiple files" has to be used for already catalogued files such as scans.

It's even possible to do the renaming folder by folder with an external tool and reconnecting the files immediately after. There is a workaround for the inability of the organizer to select a folder together with its subfolders to work with bigger batches. I'll try to find the discussion on this topic.

- For ther reshaping of folders trees, I do use a date based schema. I create a folder for each year.

The idea is to use the ability of the downloader to create a date folder structure with a subfolder for each day.

- To be able to import without stumbling on duplicate files error, once the files have been copied, they must be deleted. Of course, that's a step which strongly suggests a full backup.

- then I can move the files selected for one year to a USB stick. The downloader destination option for the year has to be changed at the beginning of each year.

- The slowest task is the deletion of thousands of files before re-downloading "from camera or card reader".

I would not try this before having made the efforts with tagging and renaming.

As mentionned by Greg, don't forget to save metadata to files (Ctrl W) after your tagging.

[jamesC10405]

Thanks.
Great Reply.
You've given me a different perspective and I greatly appreciate it.

[Greg_S.]

@tomp77891254, you should NEVER perform any file or folder management tasks outside of the Organizer.  Otherwise the  files will go missing in the catalog.  You can easily rename a folder in the My Folders panel of the Organizer.  Simply select and right-click on the folder you wish to rename and that choice will be available in the context menu:

You can also move or rearrange your folders to a different drive or directory by click-and-drag.  This operation should be done slowly and can be a little finicky but is fairly easy once you get the hang of it on your particular machine.  Make sure that the My Folders panel is in Tree View not List View:

[tomp77891254]

Thanks, Greg... 

[tomp77891254]

Been testing... exported one folder from PS directory to a new folder located in a different directory structure on the PC (after CntlW saving metadata), then deleted the folder that was exported from PS directory, then imported the new folder.  All the std metadata was included... people and place names that had been written to keywords/captions but all face ids and map/place directory info is not imported.  So this is not a way that directory info can be recalled.

You mentioned: "rearrange your folders to a different drive or directory by click-and-drag"... can this be done for a single folder in the directory tree list or must this be done for the entire directory?  

[Greg_S.]

As the command says, when you Export as New File(s), new files are created.  This in fact allows the new files to be imported into the catalog even though they are exact duplicates of the original files.  Normally, the Organizer will not allow the catalog to contain duplicate files.

As you have found, People and Places tags are not imported into the catalog.  However, the People names should be found in the Imported Keyword Tags category and the geo locations should be found in the files' metadata.

Since the catalog treats the files as new files, they will be analyzed for face recognition again.  But if you only need the People names to appear and not the faces to show up in a People stack, it is fairly easy to accomplish that task:

1. Select the person's keyword tag (in the Imported Tags category)
2. Select all of the person's images in the grid (Ctrl+A)
3. Drag the person's People name to an image in the grid (or if the person's name doesn't exist in People tags create a new People tag with that person's name and do the same).

All photos of that person will now appear if you select a People tag.  But the People room will only contain a generic icon, not a face for those imported photos.  You can then delete the keyword tag from the Imported Tags category to avoid confusion.

@tomp77891254 said:  You mentioned: "rearrange your folders to a different drive or directory by click-and-drag"... can this be done for a single folder in the directory tree list or must this be done for the entire directory? 

You can do either.

[tomp77891254]

Thanks, Greg