Elements Organizer 2025 Catalog issue

[Michael B. UK]

Hello

I'm running Photoshop Elements 2025 on a Windows 11 PC. I use the Organizer program far more than the actual Photoshop program but there is no separate forum for Organizer, hence the post here.

 My problem 

Organizer has stopped creating smart tags. Any newly imported photos have no smart tags. 

Attempted fixes so far that have not resolved the issue
Deselected and Reselected the Analysis Options in preferences, all options are ticked

Run the Repair and Optimize catalog many times, including the fix anyway and the re-index option

Renamed C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Elements Organizer\25.0 folder 
Uninstalled all adobe products and then reinstalled Photoshop Elements 2025. Always to the default location

Made a copy of my entire catalog folder, using the copy I then deleted all media in organizer and imported new photos

What does work
If I create a new catalog and import pictures then the smart tags are generated.
My fear is that there are 24,000 photos and videos in my current catalog which have taken me years to sort out and mark faces, locations etc. so I really don't want to start again with a new catalog that has no face or location data
 Does anyone have any tips to get my current catalog working as it should?

Thanks Michael

PC specs: Windows 11 24H2 AMD Ryzen 5600, 32GB RAM, Samsung SSD 980 Pro NVMe hard drives, Geforce RTX4060 

From the Organizer system info:

Elements Organizer 25.0.0.0 Core Version: 25.0 (20240913.EO.de524712)  Language Version: 25.0 (20240913.EO.de524712)
Current Catalog:
Catalog Name: Micks Photographs A
Catalog Location: C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\Micks Photographs A
Catalog Size: 248.1MB  Catalog Cache Size: 1.7GB
System: Operating System Name: Windows 10
Operating System Version: 10.0
System Architecture: AMD CPU Family:15 Model:1 Stepping:0 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2
Built-in Memory: 31.9GB Free Memory: 20.5GB

[Greg_S.]

I have never heard of this issue before.  Can you pinpoint a date when the smart tags stopped generating?

Is your catalog set to auto sync with the Elements Web?

When you uninstalled the prorgram did you delete the preferences file when offered that option?  If not, try the following:

• Hold down the Alt+Control+Shift keys immediately when launching the Organizer
• A dialog should pop up asking you whether to delete the preferences.  Say yes.

If that doesn't work, you can try contacting Elements support. You can start a chat session by going to the Contact Adobe Support page.  Make sure you are signed into your Adobe account and try typing Agent when the chat window opens. (If you use my link, the chat window should open automatically.)  This will bypass the robo chat.

Please let us know what happens.

[Michael B. UK]

Hello Greg

Thanks for replying to my post.

In answer to your questions
Photos on the 11th November 2024 and earlier are fine. My next import of photos on the 14th November 2024 are all missing smart tags
I bought and installed elements 2025 on the 9th October 2024

Some of my photos were set to sync with the web, I have now turned that feature off and I’ve also done the Alt+Control+Shift routine to delete my preferences file. It’s still not generating smart tags.
When I uninstalled I deleted everything.

I did contact Adobe support, they are the ones that told me to create a new catalog to see if was a program or catalog error.
 That’s when we discovered that organizer was happy to create smart tags using a new catalog.

The agent I spoke to was then going to have a think about what to do next and call me back within 24 hours. Sadly, that was 3 days ago, and they haven’t called.
I shall try contacting them again, tomorrow.

[Greg_S.]

I've just taken a closer look at your original post.  Can you please explain in more detail what you meant by the following:

Made a copy of my entire catalog folder, using the copy I then deleted all media in organizer and imported new photos.

[Michael B. UK]

Hi Greg
I copied my catalog folder and renamed it. Then I opened the copied catalog in organizer.
I could see all my photos and browse as normal. I then deleted all the photos in organizer.
My plan was to see if it was a malformed photo that was causing the issue. I kept all the actual photos on the hard drive

Using this copied catalog I then imported new photos to see if the tags were generated.
They were not.

[Michael B. UK · Accepted solution]

Update. 3rd Jan 2025

Adobe support have looked, they took control of my PC via the agent chat and tried a few things, things that I had done many times before. The results were the same, no tags. Then they clicked the 'Reset Face Analysis' button. It's a good job I had backed up my catalog folder before they did that as I would've lost years’ worth of tagging.

 After about 30 mins they said my only fix would be to start again, from scratch as my catalog is likely corrupt and unfixable.
 So I tried again, I uninstalled everything Adobe as my  Organizer > File > Preferences weren’t saving and even Adobe reader was crashing.
 It was during the reinstall using the default location that I found this log file:
C:\Users\mickb\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Elements Organizer\25.0\logs
in it was an error message stating it could not open files

C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\25.0\CAHeadless\AutoCreationsConfig.xml and AutoCreatorPrefs.xml
I changed the 25.0 folder permissions and all child objects to allow full control to users and restarted the app.
Result, I have my smart tags back and also my preferences now stick.

I'm so pleased!

[Greg_S.]

Great sleuthing, Michael!!  Thanks for letting us know what worked.  (Sorry Adobe Support was not more helpful.  I think they should have found that, but it seems to be an unusual problem.)

[Greg_S.]

BTW, you say that you reinstalled in the default location.  Was the prior version not installed there?

[Michael B. UK]

Hello Greg

Everything was always installed into the default location. I'm not sure why Adobe support didn't check any logs. It was all there, in black and white.