Moving catalogue from elements 14 to 15

Report · Apr 04, 2017

Purchased Photoshop Elements 15 from Apple Store.

I took a backup of the catalogue from elements 14 and restored it on 15. Everything ran smoothly till the last step, when it showed "Preparing the catalogue" and then after around half an hour the MacBook showed "Your system is out of memory". Deleted the restored folder and created more than 300gb of free space and started again. But again same problem occurred. Had to force quit and restarted Elements. Folder structure is there but the photos are not linked. Tried catalogue repair and search for the images but nothing worked.

Then tried to restore it on an older MacBook (mid 2012 RAM 4GB). Its stuck on "Preparing the catalogue for around 3 hours.

Just for information: The total photos are around 150gb and the original catalogue was on a mac different from the two that i tried restoring on.

Dont know how to proceed now.

Report · Apr 05, 2017

Hi Sandeep,

If I am getting it correct then your problem is: You have a 150GB PSE15 catalog on an older Mac. Now you want to move it to a newer Mac having PSE15. Now when you restore it, the process doesn't end normally. Am I correct here?

Some basic queries here:

As you said, you have a 150GB catalog, I assume it is the size of catalog backup folder, right? Also where is this backup stored (on external Hard drive or on network)?
Just a redundant info: the backup process on PSE14 went fine, right?
Is it a single/full backup or incremental backups?

To move further, try following steps:

Quit Organizer if running.
Delete the contents of '/tmp' folder. (As this folder contains temp files generated by OS/application, you wont face any issues by deleting the contents of this folder).
Delete the files, folders and catalog (location information can be retrieved from Help->System info) which were created due to last incomplete restore process. By this step, we can ensure that the next restore we will be doing, wont have any issues because of last incomplete restore.
Since you have a 150GB backup, make sure that you have around 200GB free. This is just to rule out any possibility of issue from OS.
Launch Organizer. Click on 'File->Restore'. Select the 'backup.tly' file from backup folder.
Under 'destination' option, select 'New Location', give the location where you want to restore it. Also click to check the option for 'Restore Original Folder Structure'.
Let the Organizer to run and complete the process.

Let me know in case you see any issues this time.

~Surendra

Report · Apr 05, 2017

Hello Surendra

Thank you for assisstance.

Reply to your queries:

1. Yes the back size is 150gb and the original catalogue and back are stored on the same external drives.

2. The backup on 14 was without any issues.

3. It is a complete backup.

the first restore on MacBook was done on the MacHd (more than 200gb was free)

the second restore was done on another older MacBook by connecting two external drives. One with backup catalogue and another one for restore more than 200 gb free on ext drive.

Have not tried the steps recommended by you. But that's the way I tried restoring on two different machines.

Report · Apr 06, 2017

Hi Sandeep,

Thanks for the info.

"Yes the back size is 150gb and the original catalogue and back are stored on the same external drives."

Just an FYI: When you take backup of your catalog, you no longer need the catalog. The backup you have taken, when restored, should recreate the catalog along with media similar to that in older version.

"the first restore on MacBook was done on the MacHd (more than 200gb was free)

the second restore was done on another older MacBook by connecting two external drives. One with backup catalogue and another one for restore more than 200 gb free on ext drive."

Going by this, it seems that you have tried on two different machines and on both it failed. This is very unfortunate. A quick question, while restoring the restore dialog asks for destination under 'Restore Files and catalog to' tab. What option did you selected? Was it 'original location' or 'new location'?

~Surendra

Report · Apr 06, 2017

on both machines restore was done on a new location.

cannot be restored to a new location as the original catalogue was on a third machine. Hope this helps