Missing Media in Organizer 2021

[MatRot]

I have Photoshop Elements Organizer 2021 installed.

All my pictures are in the folder C:\Daten\Bilder including sub folders. The Organizer doesn't showes all the pictures. Some pictures and folders are missing. It doesn't matter what kind of medis, jpg and mov and whole folders are missing.

I hope someone can help in this case
Matthias

[Walter_H]

Hi MatRot,

Have you set your Watch Folders to look in "C:\Daten\Bilder"? If not, you'll need to make this setting and then import the missing folders.

[MatRot]

Many thanks for the fast answer, Walter,

I can confirm, my c:\Daten\Bilder folder is in the watch list. (It ist he only entry  there.)

And I made the setting „Automatically Add Files to Elements Organizer“.

Regards Matthias

[Greg_S.]

. . .  and just so we fully understand your problem, have you actually imported the files into the Organizer catalog?

You have to actually import the files into the catalog in order for them to show up there.  If you haven't imported all of them, the fact that you may see your bilder (Pictures) folder in the Folders panel on the left of the Organizer does not mean that all of the photos show up in the catalog:

The Organizer is not a file viewer like Windows Explorer. 

And is it possible that you are viewing the Folders Panel in List view rather than in Tree view?  This will list your folders in alpha-numeric order rather than as a folder tree.

Walter's suggestion to use Watch Folders will only work for new files that you add to the watched folders.  If you want to add all photos or videos currently in your bilder folder and its sub-folders, you need to

1. Use the Import>From Files and Folders option
2. Select your Bilder main folder
3. Make sure you have the box to Get Photos from Sub-folders checked; and
4. Click the Get Media button.

This will search all of the folders and sub-folders for media that is not yet in your catalog and it will import them into the catalog (without creating duplicates).  Any files that are already in the catalog will be ignored.  (Actually, you will receive a message that the files are already in the catalog.)

If this does not solve your problem, we need more details.

[MatRot]

Hi Greg,
Thanks for the great support.
I was trying to import the whole folder again.

After the import, there are still some files and folder missing.
See the folder  „C:\Daten\Bilder\2018 04 Marokko\ToView\2018 04 24 Wasserfälle - Wasser von oben“ in the Windows Explorer:

And see the same folder in the Organizer, it is only one picture in it:

When I import this folder again, I get:
16 media files skippet, they are already in the catalog.

This is true (and maybe this ist he reason form y problem?), they are in another folder in addition, but I want to see them in all folder where they are located.

Regards Matthias

[Greg_S.]

The Organizer does not allow duplicate files to be placed in the catalog (normally).  I understand that you have the same file in more than one folder. However, doing this defeats the purpose of the Organizer and you will end up with a display of duplicate files next to each other in the catalog (if you display by date).  It is possible to fool the Organizer into importing the same file more than once.  But I would recommend that you use the power of the Organizer for its intended purpose rather than have duplicate copies of the file in different folders.

If you would give us some idea of why you need to have the same file in more than one folder, we may be able to offer you some suggestions of a better way to fill your needs. And if not, we can maybe figure out the best way for you to fool the program.

[MatRot]

Hi Greg,

I know it is resource consuming having the same fotos on different places.

For a holiday or bigger events, I store the original files in a seperate folder and copy them to folders with I use for presentation and for editing the files. So all my files are "save" in the original folder.

Is the organizer showing the picture in the folder with the youngest date? I expect, it is not only the file name, it is also the size of the pic and other criterias for the Organizer to decide whehter it is the same file or not.

Regards Matthias

[Greg_S. · Accepted solution]

My suggestion is that you use Albums for your presentations.  An Album is a virtual folder that has the advantage of allowing you to organize the files in whatever order you want.  And you can use photos stored in different folders.  When you select an Album in the panel on the left, you have the option to sort the files by the Album order rather than any date or file name order.

Is the organizer showing the picture in the folder with the youngest date?

As shown in the above screenshot, there are several ways to sort how the images are displayed in the Media grid.  There is also an option in Edit>Preferences>General to sort the photos taken each day by the earliest or latest in the day.

As for your practice of copying files to a different folder in order to edit them, there are several ways to handle this using the Organizer's tools.  For example, if you choose your best photos from a day of shooting that you want to edit at a later time, you could apply a keyword tag to them called Photo for Editing.  Once you have some time to edit the photos, you can select the tag and choose which file you want to work on.  Once the file has been edited, you save it in a version set which stacks the edited photo on top of the original photo.  This avoids displaying multiple copies of the same file but keeps the original available for different editing options in the future.  Once you are finished editing the photo, you can delete the Photo for Editing tag.

If you really want to maintain duplicate copies of files in different folders, then I believe you can select the files in the Organizer and use the File>Export as New File(s) command.  A dialog will appear allowing you to choose a new folder for the files.  If you create the folder under a main folder that is a watched folder, the newly created files should be automatically imported into the catalog.

Let us know if you have any further questions or need clarification of this response.

[MatRot]

Hello Greg,

I will follow your sugesstion.
I see, I have to adapt my way of work with my photos.
🙂
Have a nice day
and many thanks for your help!!!