Does PSE 15 Organizer allow you to expand multiple versions sets at once?

[essarraitch]

I am having to go through and reconnect a large number of photos, quite a few of which have version sets. I'm doing this in PSE 13 Organizer and it makes you expand each version set individually. I've looked through the PSE 15 Organizer reference PDF and searched online, but I've been unable to find out if PSE 15 allows you to highlight multiple version sets and expand them all in one go.

I'd really appreciate it if someone with PSE 15 could let me know if that is possible.

Also, in PSE 13 Organizer, each time I open the Reconnect | Missing File... dialog to reconnect some images in a folder, it starts right back at the root folder of my data drive. I then have to go through multiple folders to get to the new location of the images. Does PSE 15 Organizer remember where you got the last batch of images from, or else let you save a starting point for the search?

Thanks in advance!

[MichelBParis]

essarraitch  wrote

I am having to go through and reconnect a large number of photos, quite a few of which have version sets. I'm doing this in PSE 13 Organizer and it makes you expand each version set individually. I've looked through the PSE 15 Organizer reference PDF and searched online, but I've been unable to find out if PSE 15 allows you to highlight multiple version sets and expand them all in one go.

I'd really appreciate it if someone with PSE 15 could let me know if that is possible.

It's not possible to 'expand' several version sets at the same time as with stacks.

However, if you select several version set thumbnail, you can right click and 'Convert version set to individual items'.

(Note for new users of the organizer: set the display to 'detailed' view, not 'adaptative' grid to see the stacks and version sets with their icons on the thumbnails.)

Also, in PSE 13 Organizer, each time I open the Reconnect | Missing File... dialog to reconnect some images in a folder, it starts right back at the root folder of my data drive. I then have to go through multiple folders to get to the new location of the images.

See:

Photoshop Elements (PSE) knowledge base.

Does PSE 15 Organizer remember where you got the last batch of images from, or else let you save a starting point for the search?

Yes, you simply use the sort order, it can be by date, filename, album order or... Import batch.

(third line on top, 'Albums, Folders --- Sort by...')

[essarraitch]

Thanks for your answer MichelBParis​.

However, I would like to retain my version sets when I reconnect the files. If I were to 'Convert version set to individual items', my understanding is that the images would be reconnected as individual files...please correct me if I have that worng.

Also sorting just affects the order in which the images are displayed. It has no effect on the starting point of the search for the images that need to be reconnected.

In my case, my images used to be on a folder of "R:" drive, but they are now on a "P:" drive. When I reconnect, the file selction dialog always starts showing the root folder of R: and I have to navigate to the P: drive and then down several folders to find the images.

If PSE 15 allows multiple version sets to be expanded in one go and/or remembers the last folder in which images to be reconnected were found, then I will immediately upgrade from PSE 13. Still hoping someone can answer these questions for me!

[MichelBParis · Accepted solution]

essarraitch  wrote

Thanks for your answer MichelBParis .

However, I would like to retain my version sets when I reconnect the files. If I were to 'Convert version set to individual items', my understanding is that the images would be reconnected as individual files...please correct me if I have that worng.

You are absolutely right. It would be handy to be able to display versions sets as collapsed or expanded just like stacks. Vesion sets are a particular kind of stacks, so my guess is that this will never happen.

Also sorting just affects the order in which the images are displayed. It has no effect on the starting point of the search for the images that need to be reconnected.

I am not sure I understand your point here. There is no information about the 'starting point' of the search for the reconnection command. We don't know anything from the algorithm for reconnection search. From my experience, the only signifiant criteria is the particular subfolder. What we can say is that the algorithm seems much less efficient than the one in Lightroom. As a matter of fact, the only situation in which I am sure to get an easy reconnection is when I move (or rename...) a folder outside of the organizer and reconnect imediately.

In my case, my images used to be on a folder of "R:" drive, but they are now on a "P:" drive. When I reconnect, the file selction dialog always starts showing the root folder of R: and I have to navigate to the P: drive and then down several folders to find the images.

When the files are moved from 'R' to 'P' with the same folder structure, the  easiest way is by far to rename the 'R' drive to 'P' in Windows. Directing the search to the master folder in 'P' will work... at least partially. The source of that problem is that  folders trees are moved outside of the organizer. If you move those from within the organizer or if you use the backup/restore process there is no need for reconnection. Better to prevent than cure.

If PSE 15 allows multiple version sets to be expanded in one go and/or remembers the last folder in which images to be reconnected were found,

I don't understand the second part: the organizer browses the files in your catalog and checks if they are present in your computer. When you reconnect, you are shown a search dialog displaying the list of missing files. You can sort it by name or by 'original location'. That tells where the missing files were originally, that does not help to find where they are now? The principle is that a catalog can't record what happens  externally. How should the organizer remember your steps outside it?

What is useful in practice is that it's common that when a file is disconnected, there is a chance that the whole subfolder has been moved... and often in the same other subfolder.

I'd like the reconnection process in the organizer to be as poweful as the one in Lightroom...

[essarraitch]

It would be handy to be able to display versions sets as collapsed or expanded just like stacks.

PSE 13 already allows you to display version sets as expanded or collapsed by use of a menu command or a button displayed next to the version set. When you manually reconnect images you have to expand all version sets before navigating in the reconnection dialog to the new location of  the images. If you don't, PSE only reconnects the image at the top of the version set. The version set expansion has to be done manually for all version sets, which gets tedious if a folder contains lots of edited images. I was hoping PSE 15 now provides the ability to select all the version sets and expand them all at once (e.g. by use of a 'Expand All Version Sets' command).

There is no information about the 'starting point' of the search for the reconnection command. We don't know anything from the algorithm for reconnection search.

I think you may be confusing the automatic reconnection command with the manual one. In the manual process (started by selecting the Reconnect | Missing File... command), PSE presents a folder selection dialog and lets the user navigate to the new location of a single image (or a group of mages in the same folder). Once that new location is accepted by the user, the selected image(s) are reconnected. After that manual reconnection process has been done for the first time, the 'starting point' could/should be the last folder selected by the user rather than the root folder on the drive that originally held the image(s). It is very common for applications that present file/folder selection dialogs to 'remember' the last folder selected by the user...I was hoping PSE 15 might now do that.

When the files are moved from 'R' to 'P' with the same folder structure, the  easiest way is by far to rename the 'R' drive to 'P' in Windows.

Unfortunately, the folder structure was not the same on P as on R, so renaming the drive in Windows was not an option.

I had hoped to use the automatic reconnection command to reconnect my images. However, because of the huge number of files on my data drive, that was going to be an excruciatingly slow process.

The source of that problem is that  folders trees are moved outside of the organizer. If you move those from within the organizer or if you use the backup/restore process there is no need for reconnection. Better to prevent than cure.

Indeed. However, Adobe clearly recognise that this is not a perfect world, and images are going to become disconnected periodically, or else they wouldn't provide the reconnection commands. I'm really just trying to learn if they've made the manual reconnection process more efficient in PSE 15 by 'remembering' the last folder selected by the user...

[MichelBParis]

essarraitch  wrote

It would be handy to be able to display versions sets as collapsed or expanded just like stacks.

PSE 13 already allows you to display version sets as expanded or collapsed by use of a menu command or a button displayed next to the version set.

Sorry, I have not kept all pse versions... I still have versions 6, 10,12,14 and 15. None of those versions enable 'expanding' versions sets as you are describing (like expanding stacks). That's why I believe PSE15 is not different from version 13.

When you manually reconnect images you have to expand all version sets before navigating in the reconnection dialog to the new location of  the images. If you don't, PSE only reconnects the image at the top of the version set.

I still don't understand, when you navigate in the reconnecting dialog, you are browsing all the missing files, not only the top of version sets ones? So, when you are starting the search, it's by browsing the folder tree on your computer from the folder you set at the starting point. Depending on your sort choice for displaying missing files, filename or subfolder, each file of the displayed missing file list is searched starting from the selected subfolder. In versions sets, original and children versions can be in different subfolders. In that case, all files in the missing list will be searched, independently from the fact that they are on top or not. Obviously, if different versions are not in the manually chosen search folder or its subfolders, they won't be found.

It would be useful if you could describe in detail a case of only top of versions being found.

Unfortunately, the folder structure was not the same on P as on R, so renaming the drive in Windows was not an option.

I had hoped to use the automatic reconnection command to reconnect my images. However, because of the huge number of files on my data drive, that was going to be an excruciatingly slow process.

Note that what I said about Lightroom is based on the fact that the folder structure is supposed to be the same. You move part of folder trees outside of Lightroom, and reconnect easily, better than in Elements. If there is no similarity in that structure, you have to compare each one of your missing files to all exsiting meda files on your computer. I still hope that Elements be improved for similar cases.

However, Adobe clearly recognise that this is not a perfect world, and images are going to become disconnected periodically, or else they wouldn't provide the reconnection commands. I'm really just trying to learn if they've made the manual reconnection process more efficient in PSE 15 by 'remembering' the last folder selected by the user...

Do you mean the last folder selected as the starting point of the search? I still don't see the point. If I manually start a second search from the last selected folder, I don't get any other reconnection.

[essarraitch]

MichelBParis  wrote

Sorry, I have not kept all pse versions... I still have versions 6, 10,12,14 and 15. None of those versions enable 'expanding' versions sets as you are describing (like expanding stacks). That's why I believe PSE15 is not different from version 13.

On page 82 of the current PSE Organizer reference manual (downloaded from https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/elements-organizer_reference.pdf) it states:

View all photos in a version set

While viewing all photos in a version set, you can edit any photo, make a photo the topmost, delete

any photo in the version set, or add tags to any photo (when you add a tag to one photo in a set,

it is applied to all photos).

1  In the Media view select a version set and do one of the following:

    • Click the Expand button beside the version set thumbnail.

    • Choose Edit > Version Set > Expand Items In Version Set.

So, from that it would appear that PSE 15 does in fact have the same options to expand version sets as PSE 13. And I assume that, like PSE 13, it doesn't let you expand multiple version sets at once (in PSE 13, the  Edit > Version Set > Expand Items In Version Set menu command is disabled if more than one version set is selected).

Anyway, MichelBParis​'s posts led me to using the Reconnect Missing File dialog in a more efficient way. Instead of selecting the images to be reconnected in a single folder at a time and then opening the Reconnect Missing File dialog for each batch, I selected all missing files at once and sorted them by folder in the dialog (as suggested by MichelBParis). Then, after reconnecting a bunch of images in a folder to their new positions, PSE 13 'remembered' that most recently selected folder. Navigating to the correct folder for the next batch of images to be reconnected was much more efficient than before, because the starting point for the search was within the correct portion of the folder structure of the drive that now holds the images (rather than the root folder of the drive on which the images used to be located).

So, thanks MichelBParis​ for making me realise I wasn't using the Reconnect Missing File command in the optimal way!