Participant

Question

Elements Organizer reduced my original picture files

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
June 10, 2020
3 commentaire
427 vue

Hi,

almost my complete picture stock is damaged. Almost all files are reduced to a size of 640x480px. At their original place on my HD!

And this occured after I tried out elements organizer 2020 for the first time by letting run the catalogue.

Adobe Support refuses to help me find the mistake.

Is there anybody who has the same problem or heard about that? Please don't tell me things like "can't be" or "Organizer normally doesn't touch the original file" or stuff like that. I know that.

As a matter of fact, my pictures are on an internal HD (connected via S-ATA), and they are almost all reduced.

I also try to read out the Adobe Log file (ZXP). How can I do that?

Does anybody know how to find out, which software made the latest change of a file? Is that possible?

Thanks, Ted

Ce sujet a été fermé aux réponses.

Greg_S.

Community Expert

Ted said:

In the main settings of Organizer there is an interesting option: When you import pictures from an EXTERNAL drive, Organizer is creating copies of these files with a reduced size, so that you can work with these pictures in case the external drive is offline. So far so good. The default setting for this reduction stands on 640x480 px.

That thought also crossed my mind. But, it would only create a copy (in the Media Cache folders, I think).

Ted said:

Maybe the Software interpreted my HD as an external drive (for which reason ever) and did so. I don't have a clue.

Did you perhaps use an external drive to clone your HD. If so, depending on what software you used, the HD has been given the same internal ID as the external drive and this may have caused some confusion in how it is being treated by Elements and the OS. Do you have an external drive attached to your computer? If so, what are the Autoplay settings for the drive? Is it to open the Organizer?

Regardless of the answers to my questions, I still don't see how the original files could be saved at a reduced resolution by the Organizer. And certainly not without multiple warnings and dialogs.

At this point, all I can suggest is to do a deep search of your computer for some of the affected files to see whether the original has ended up in another location. I use a free software utility called Search Everything. It is very fast and easy to use.

And for the future, DO NOT conduct file management of your photos outside of Elements, if you want to use it as your media library.

99jon

Legend

As Greg says it would seem very strange. Even if you had run instant fix, including cropping, the originals would still be available. You just need to expand the stack. See image below.

T

Ted_20Auteur

Participant

Thanky you Jon,

but I don't have stacks. As I said, I deleted the catalogue.

Greg_S.

Community Expert

If you won't let me tell you that this can't be, I have to ask you some questions. What do you mean when you say:

And this occured after I tried out elements organizer 2020 for the first time by letting run the catalogue. What did you let run?

How many files are you talking about?

What was the original size of the files? What was the source?

Is there any difference between the date created, date modified and date accessed shown in Windows properties for each file. Do those dates provide any clues?

Have you used any prior version of Elements Organizer?

And in the almost 20 years that I have been using the program, I have never seen or heard of such a thing.

T

Ted_20Auteur

Participant

Hi Greg, thanks for answering,

sorry, my english is quite OK, but I am German, so maybe one or the other sentence is not really clear.

With "letting run the catalogue" I mean: I imported a main photo-folder. I am talking about some 37.000 pictures, all in many subfolders with pictures of the last 12 years. Then, in the background, the face-identification was running. Amazing tool :-), I was using the map-tool to set many pictures on the map. Also a nice tool. Just to try out the features.

Then I reorganized my original folders, I moved a lot of folders, I brought pictures together and deleted some folders. As a result, of course, Organizer was showing a mark at those folders or files in the catalogue that were moved or missing.

I also know, that there is the option for an automatic or manual search for these folders or files. (unfortunately Organizer is not able to synchronise the imported folder, such as Lightroom can do. So for I had moved to many folders, I decided to delete the catalogue to just create a new one later. "Knowing", that Organizer wouldn't touch the original files, this step would have been without any damage...

The original sizes have been different, because the pictures had been delivered by different cameras. I had some "smaller" pictures at about 1000 px, but also with over 4000px.

In the properties, the date of creation (for all pictures) is set on 10th of may 2020 (the time I first used Organizer!!!!!), although this picture is from the year 2009, and was modified in 2015. Strange, no?

I have not used a prior version of Organizer. This software was installed on a new fresh computer.

The point is: I am a professional photographer and very fit in Lightroom, Bridge and Photoshop CS4. I could never imagine a process, how I should be able to reduce some 30.000 pictures within a couple of hours, also not by accident. This just cannot happen! This is not possible. And the problem only occurs in this folder I had imported to Organizer. I have another photo-folder. This other folder is OK. Strange, no?

What occures strange to me is: I know, that Elements Organizer is only a data-base (as lightroom), that only refers to the original files without touching them. So when Adobe tells me: This can not happen, I have so say: Well, it just happened!

And I found information in the internet, that for example the Creative Cloud Desktop, caused by an error, had once deleted files from the HD on Macs. Adobe had to admit this error and solved it by an update. So these things happen! Software can fail.

Another interesting thing:

In the main settings of Organizer there is an interesting option: When you import pictures from an EXTERNAL drive, Organizer is creating copies of these files with a reduced size, so that you can work with these pictures in case the external drive is offline. So far so good. The default setting for this reduction stands on 640x480 px.

640 px is exactly the size of my new files. So there is no other way than to be sure, that Organizer reduced all my pictures, indeed without knowing how and why this could happen.

Maybe the Software interpreted my HD as an external drive (for which reason ever) and did so. I don't have a clue.

Interesting also: I had a long talk with a supporter from Adobe. Then I send all my system information, the adobe log file and a long description to adobe. And since then, my case was closed immediately. Strange, no?

I need help.

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