How to sync catalogs for Elements 2023

[Photosbyme]

I currently have PS Elements 2023 on my PC and laptop. (I will update to 2024) Can I sync the catalog between the 2? How?

[Chuck Uebele]

Moved to the Photoshop Elements forum, from the Photoshop forum.

[Greg_S.]

I'm not sure what you mean by synching the catalogs. 

Each version of Elements is a separate installation and can coexist on the same computer.

When you first launch the newly installed Elements 2024 Organizer, you will be offered the opportunity to convert your existing (Elements 2023) catalog.   You should OK that request.  A copy of your Elements 2023 catalog will then be made and you can still use it if you keep Elements 2023 on your computer.  The catalog will also be converted to the Elements 2024 catalog format and it will be entirely synched with the 2023 catalog.  All tags, albums, star ratings will be the same in both catalogs. 

But once you start making changes to either catalog, they will not be synched to each other.  You will have to do that manually.  For example, if you add some photos to the 2024 catalog and create tags for them, if you then import the files to the 2023 catalog, you can include the tags on import.  However, this gets a little complicated with system tags (People, Places, Events).  Face recognition cannot be transferred between catalogs after the initial creation of the 2024 catalog. 

I hope this answers your question.

[Photosbyme]

That is helpful for when I download 2024. What I was referring to originally was if I install 2024 on a PC and a laptop. If I add photos with tags on one device, will they automatically sync to the other device? Or, can it be done manually?

[Greg_S.]

@Photosbyme, the only way you can synch between a desktop and laptop is to have an external drive loaded with the catalog and  media files.  You can then switch the external drive between the computers as needed.

[Photosbyme]

Would you load a backup copy on one, then restore backup on the other? Or just load the whole thing to an external and use that copy to make changes, moving it from one to the other? Think I'll just stick to the PC, as in the past. 🙂

Thanks for your help. (Think you'vd helped me in the past.)

[Greg_S.]

You just use one external drive to move between computers.  I shall ping @MichelBParis, a Community Expert who uses this method, to see if he can give you some additional advice.

[MichelBParis]

The old solution still works.

You need to store both your photo folders and your catalog folder on a USB on a shared external USB drive that you plug in alternatively on two computers with the same PSE version.

You need a USB external hard drive (ideally one dedicated for backups and another one for the shared disk, preferably a very small SSD one).

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/backup-restore-move-catalog-photoshop.html

Before starting the restore to the final SSD, best use Windows to set the letter of the external drive to a letter that can be assigned to both computers, such as X,Y,...

Create a new master folder under the root of the drive, such as 'my shared PSE library'. that will be your destination folder for the restore. The catalog folder will be restored under your master folder beside your photo folders tree.

Be sure to check that the assigned drive letter of the shared drive is recognized by both computers.

You only need to perform regular backups. Your catalog is immediately available as soon as the external drive is plugged in.

If you have plenty of disk space in one or both computers, You can restore the backup and catalog in those drives as a ready to use secondary backup, but to keep everything updated, the main catalog is the one on the shared disk. Another backup option for the media only  is to use an external syncing software such as Acronis which will be much faster than the organizer backup.