Convert catalog PSE 15 to PSE 2021

[Jha28]

I installed Photoshop Elements 2021 and am in the process of Convert catalog.  I have a large catalog (over 80,000 images, catalog is 456MB) with all of them tagged.  The process has now been running for over 6 hours.  What is this process doing?  The images should not be moving as I understand it.  All linkages from the PSE 15 catalog to the images are there.

[Greg_S. · Accepted solution]

Yes, it takes a long time to convert a catalog, especially one as large as yours.  If your Elements 15 catalog contains face recognition information, there will be 80,000 very small .json files that need to be copied from the old catalog to the new one.  This can take a very long time because of the small size of each file.  It is not the same as copying a large 456 MB file from one folder to another. 

If the conversion has completed, then there is further media analysis that goes on in the background and that can create a lot of disk activity.

You haven't given us any details about your OS or your computer specs, so it is hard to provide you with a comparison.  For example, if your OS disk is a regular hard drive rather than an SSD, it will take considerably longer for the conversion to be completed.

[Jha28]

I am running Windows 10.  The drive for the PSE 15 catalog and all the images is an external Toshiba drive. I believe it is a regualr drive, not SSD.   I did not have facial recognition on in Photoshop Elements 15 so there should be no json files. There seems to be a lot of disk activity on the C drive where neither the images nor the PSE 15 catalog are stored.  Is the conversion putting the new PSE 21 catalog on the C drive?    We are now about 19 hours in. 

[Greg_S. · Accepted solution]

All I can say is that, in my experience, an external drive takes longer to copy files than an internal one.

And, yes, I believe the initial conversion of a catalog will be stored in the default location on the C drive in the following location:

C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs

You can check to see whether there is any activity in the folder location by looking at the dates of files created.  For example, look in the CAXMPFiles  folder.

[Jha28]

Thanks.  Yes it is still chugging away, now close to 30 hours into this.  I was able to open the organizer and I immediately set my preference to not do facial recognition.  And there have been no more updates to the files with face in file name.  Do I leave everything up until the CAXMPfiles folder has not been active for an hour or so?   

[Greg_S. · Accepted solution]

Were you able to open the converted catalog or did you open an empty catalog to change the preferences?  If the catalog has opened, you are good to go.