Elements Organizer Slow Network Drive

Report · Apr 26, 2024

Hi

Am testing the latest Elements 2024 and wanted to start using the Organizer to make library more manageable (I have Elements 13 but can't get it to load on new PC due to a license loop at start-up, thought maybe a good time to upgrade).

So far I just tested importing two folders, maybe 200ish files each mostly photos, some videos.

One of these lives on my NAS as a mapped network drive - browsing this folder in the Organizer is extremely slow and painful, eg. huge delay on scrolling, not useable really and that's with just one folder. I assumed thumbnails would be generated and stored locally, is there something I'm missing?

I tested a second folder saved locally and it is definitely much faster. However I see other users complaining about slow performance also - adding another SSD to save a copy of all the photos locally could be an option but would want to be sure it would definitely work before doing that?!

(Just to add - pc I'm using is a 12th gen intel laptop with 16gb ram, fast 5ghz network connection, decent synology nas)

Thoughts appreciated, thanks!

Report · Apr 26, 2024

As you have probably seen in other threads, Adobe does not recommend using a NAS to store Organizer media files for the very reason you describe - poor performance. IMO and experience, it is not necessary to store your media on an SSD. Even an adequate external hard drive should be sufficient to cure any performance issues, particularly with your computer specs.

If you already have an Organizer catalog that you have employed with Elements 13, you may want to convert that to an Elements 2024 catalog rather than import the images to a new catalog. It would be best to use an Organizer backup for this purpose. See, this HelpX article. But if you don't have a catalog backup to use, we may be able to help you with other methods, if you give us some details about your media folder structure.

Report · Apr 26, 2024

Thanks for the reply! Good to confirm that using the NAS folders not the way to go.

Will be building a new catalog as never used Organizer with Elements 13. Thinking will test out with 100GB or so, if that works okay then happy to upgrade to 2024 and add an SSD. Approach will be (adding here as helpful to write down as much as anything) to set up some folders as synced between NAS and laptop so both versions remain 'live', the local folders go in to the catalog as watched, the NAS folders would be what phones sync to, and where any backups are taken from.

Background... Have about 450GB at the moment. Photos from camera get manually saved into dated and labelled folders, which works well enough to browse with Windows photos. Photos from phones though just go into a folder per phone. As the proportion of photos from phones has increased over time (plus increase in junk chat photos) it's got harder to find anything, hence finally getting round to looking for a better approach! Just being able to find all photos from one holiday will be a big win!

Report · Aug 29, 2025

If placing photos and catalog on a NAS device is not recommended, is there another way to use PSE from one of two computers? We have one (older) desktop and a (newer, faster) laptop. Often, the desktop is in use by others and I need to use PSE on the laptop. I have read various threads (here and elsewhere) about the process of moving photos and catalog to an external drive, but given this thread, I am hesitant to do so.

I also wonder if this functionality is improved in recent versions of PSE. I am currently running PSE 2019 am planning on an upgrade, but would like to solve this "multiple computers" problem first, if possible.

Report · Apr 27, 2024

Since you are building a catalog from scratch, it really doesn't matter how your files are organized. But your approach seems to be very similar to mine. I have a Pictures parent folder on my P Drive and a Videos parent folder on my V drive. The Pictures folder has a hieararchy of Date Taken sub-folders for my main camera. I also have separate sub-folders for each phone that also have separate Date Taken sub-folders.

With 450 GB of newly imported files, there will be a lot of media analysis that is taking place in the background. You may find that this media analysis interferes with the operation of both the Organizer and the Editor. To confirm whether that is the cause of a problem for you, simply turn off all Media Analysis in the Organizer's Edit>Preferences>Media Analysis dialog. If you want the media analysis and face recognition to take place, I suggest you leave your computer on overnight. With a catalog of the size you indicate, it may take several days for the analysis to be completed.

Report · Aug 29, 2025

@PJ42: Placing the Catalog folder and all media on an external drive is the best way to share Elements on two computers. The OP in this thread should not discourage you from using this process. If you need more instructions about how to do that, let me know. NOTE: Elements 2025 is now only a 3 year license, not a permanent license.

There have been many improvements and new features in Elements since 2019. Here is a comparison of recent versions. You can get a 7 day free trial here to decide for yourself whether it is worth it to you.

Report · Sep 14, 2025

After some research and experimentation with NAS drives between Windows 10 and Windows 11, I have decided to instead try with with an external drive USB attached to our DESKTOP system, and then shared over our local network with the LAPTOP. The drive would be mounted to both systems as the P: drive, and my intention is to move all the existing photos currently on the DESKTOP C drive to the external P drive.

Is there a way to do this without PSE having to "re-discover" all these image ?

All images are located under a single directory tree named "C:\Users\username\Pictures
The digital images from several cameras and phones amount to approximately 490 GB (approximately 65,000 digital files)
One concern is that some percentage of these images have both JPEG and RAW versions which PSE nicely stacks upon import, but not (as I have discoovred) if you have to re-discover them.
My goal if eventually that all these images are stored on this external P drive, as would be the catalog. That way, the catalog will list images in their "P:/Pictures/..." naming which will be understood by both computers.
Is this in fact the best way to do this and if so, is there a procedure which would let me get there most efficiently, hopefully not losing the stacking and the tags and keywords which currently exist in my current PSE environment?

Thanks!

Report · Sep 14, 2025

You could simply drag and drop the Pictures folder from your C drive to the external P drive, using the My Folders panel in the Organizer. It will take quite a while. Make sure that you have a full backup of the catalog and media before you do this.

You can then copy the catalog folder to the external drive (using Windows FIle Explorer) so that it can be shared between the two computers.

Another method would be to backup the catalog and restore it to the external drive, using the Restore option to maintain the folder structure. Using this method would place the catalog folder on the external drive. Once the restoration has been performed, you would open the copy of the catalog that will now exist on the external drive. This can be done either by navigating to the new catalog folder on the external drive via File>Manage Catalogs or by double-clicking on the catalog.pse24db file which will be found in the catalog folder.

Report

Thanks, @Greg_S. . I assume that by using the "My Folders" panel in Organizer, this will update the catalog to point to the P drive images. Any idea how long this would take for this volume of images (approx 65,000 images) ? Hours or Days ???

I am not sure I understand how your second suggestion (backup and restore of catallog) would change the catalog entries from C: to P: ? Although if this does happen, it sounds like it might be faster.