Elements Organizer locks the file I tell it to Uncatalog and Delete -- but not EVERY time. Why?

[gfbugaboo]

I’m running a bit low on hard drive space and decided to go through all my videos (many of which are large, 4K video files) and weed out my video collection. I opened the Organizer and set it to display videos only. I view possible candidates for deletion, one at a time. The problem I’m having is that, when I go to Uncatalog AND Delete the a file, the Organizer tells me the file is read-only or locked and it can’t delete it. I confirmed, via Windows File Explorer, that the application locking it is: Photoshop Elements Organizer! I guess that makes some sense, and what I’ve been doing is copying the file names in a text file and manually deleting the files after exiting the Organizer. Which, of course, is very tedious. BUT: Sometimes, the Organizer DOES delete a file. It’s happened a few times, but I have no clue as to why those files are exceptions. Does anyone have ideas? I’d love to do everything from inside the Organizer, but if I can’t, I’m probably better off just doing everything via File Explorer and cleaning up the catalog afterwards.

[Greg_S.]

How are you viewing the video? I just tried to duplicate your scenario but did not have any problem deleting the video file from the Organizer.

Is it possible that these are newly imported videos and they are going through another process such as face recognition, auto creation, or auto synch?

[Greg_S.]

BTW, what version of Elements are you using?

[gfbugaboo]

Sorry, that was dumb of me: it's the 2018 version. Perhaps the problem is specific to this version.

None of the files I'm viewing are new, and they are in a variety of Windows folders (which I did not have open at the time I was viewing them in the Oranizer).

(By the way, I tried upgrading Elements in 2020, but when I imported my Organizer there, it was all corrupted. I didn't want to spend time trying to fix it and possibly failing, so I dropped back to 2018 and got Adobe to refund my purchase that same day. I've been gun-shy about upgrading ever since!)

[gfbugaboo]

Oh, and I'm viewing them from inside the Organizer, using its viewer.

[Greg_S.]

Have you tried rebooting your computer and starting the deletion process in the Organizer without performing any other function on the computer?

[gfbugaboo]

I had not tried that, but I just did: right off, it would not delete. It was a good idea to test out, though.

[gfbugaboo · Accepted solution]

I’ve identified the series of actions I took that allowed me to Uncatalog AND Delete a handful of video files in the Organizer:

1. View a video. If I decide I no longer want it, then
2. Close the video.
3. Open another video in the organizer.

I don’t have to play the whole thing, but I do have to open the file and start playing it.

4. After exiting the second file, go back to thumbnail of the one you want to delete, right-click on it and Uncatalog it, with the Delete option checked as well.

So that's what I'm now doing. I've succeeded in uncataloging and deleting about 15 video files in a row successfully with this process in the 2018 Elements Organizer.

[gfbugaboo]

P.S. I eventually discovered that files are often not deleted, even though it's checked off and there is no error message. Sometimes they are, sometimes they're not. It took a while before I discovered that, so I probably have a few unwanted files hanging around. Just an FYI; I'm not going to try to figure that one out.

[Greg_S.]

Thanks for reporting what worked for you.