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W
what screen name is avail
Participant
March 29, 2021
Question

Moving Elements 14 to a new Computer

  • March 29, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 760 views

My old computer had Elements 14 loaded on the C drive with all the photos on the F drive.  In moving to a new computer I cloned the F drive wth all my data (the corresponding drive on my new computer is D).  Then I downloaded Elements 14 on to the C drive of the new computer.  (I did pretty much the same thing with Lightroom.)

 

Then I went back to the old computer to load my Elements "catalog" on to a flash drive to transfer to the new computer.  To my surprise the term "catalog" in Elements apparently means something completely different from the term "catalog" in Lightroom.  Unlike Lightroom, in Elements the catalog is the photos and everything.  Why Adobe would use the same term for two completely different things in two related programs is baffling.

 

Of course, the photos were already on my new computer so I didn't want to copy and transfer the entire Eements "catalog" again because then the photos would be on my new computer twice. 

 

So, I had Elements import in bulk all the photos I had transferred to the new computer's D drive thinking thst since there is not a separate data catalogue like Lightroom maybe that was all I needed to do.  When it asked, I also told it to import the keyword tags as well.

 

This didn't really work.  The same folder structure shows up (except under drive D instead of F).  However, all the keyword tags are now under "Imported keyword tags" instead of being separated out under people, places, events, etc. like they were before.  Elements also started trying to re-analyze faces, so whatever facial recognition had previously been done to the photos didn't carry over.  It also started re-creating all the thumbnails, so that didn't carry over either.

 

How can I fix this?  Is there some file under the Elements installation in the C drive of my old computer that is an analog to the Lightroom catalog that I can transfer over?

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2 replies

Greg_S.
Community Expert
Greg_S.Community Expert
Community Expert
March 29, 2021

Yes, there is a catalog database folder which you can copy from one computer to the other and store wherever you want but the problem is you have moved the location of the files from your F to D drives.  So the media will be "missing" in the new catalog and you will have to relink them which is a tedious business.  If you want to do this, search for the folder containing the catalog.pse14db file and copy its containing folder over to the new computer. You can also find the folder using the Help>System Info. . .  menu command in the Organizer.

 

I think if I were you, I would start over and do a full Elements backup and restore (with media).  Once that is done, you could import the Elements catalog to Lightroom.  You can't convert a Lightroom catalog to Elements. 

    Greg_S.
    Community Expert
    Greg_S.Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 29, 2021

    Added:  Michel has already given you a more detailed explanation than I have.  But one additional point - the reason your files are being face recognized again is because you have created a new catalog with media in a different location.  So the catalog is treating the files as new photos to analyze.  You cannot import face recognition information from one catalog to another in the same way you can import tags.

      MichelBParis
      MichelBParis
      Legend
      March 29, 2021

      Did you know that Elements will be twenty in the next release in September? Older than Lightoom.

      So, the choice of the Organizer for backups was based on two principles: be simple for the 'non pro = amateurs, enthusiasts... ' and to work with the current backup media available at that time, mainly CDs.

      If you choose a managing software bases on a catalog, like the organizer or Lightroom, your backups are safe if you can restore both your photo files and the catalog, while keeping the links in the catalog to the new location of the restored photo files.

      The organizer not only saves both, but ensures you can restore easily on a new computer or drive. True, the words 'catalog backup' are a bit misleading. I would have preferred 'library and catalog backup'.

      For Lightroom, after a few years when external drives or NASs become common and for the 'pro' audience, the program totally skipped the media files backup and only concentrated on the catalog (the database). Provided the folder structure was kept in the external backups, Lightroom was able to reconnect easily the restored files on another drive or computer. Unfortunately, a similar reconnection is not really practical in the Organizer.

       

      Now, there is a similar catalog in the organizer to the one in Lightroom. It's a folder containing the main database and other components including the thumbnail cache. You find its location from the menu Help >> System info of the organizer. You can copy or move it if you want. However, since you have already restored the media files, you have to 'reconnect' all files, which is not as easy than with LR.

      So, that's why one of the most read faq about the organizer is 'how to move your catalog'.

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

       

       

        W
        what screen name is availAuthor
        Participant
        March 30, 2021

        Thanks to both of you for the responses.  I previously looked at the link Michael provided which is when I found out that the "catalog" in Elements is everything.  By that time I had already cloned my data drive with the pictures. 

         

        Even if I hadn't already cloned the drive, I am not sure how I could practically use the backup and restore catalog method.  If I backed up my Elements catalog and put it on the new computer it would not capture all the pictures in my pictures folder on the old computer since not all of them are in Elements.  Trying to figure out which ones were left out to transfer them separately would be a big task.  That is why I cannot just delete all the pictures from my new computer and then transfer the catalog.

         

        But if I transfer the catalog to the cloned drive then I assume it will duplicate all the pictures in Elements.  That's 3/4 of a terabyte of data and trying to delete the duplicates would take forever.

         

        I located the folder on my old computer that is referenced in the Help >> System info.  It shouldn't be hard to copy that and put it on the new computer.  What would be involved in reconnecting the information?  In Lightroom it was easy; I just pointed it to the correct folder in the new D drive and it linked right up with all the sub folders since the folder structure was maintained.

         

        If necessary I can uninstall and reinstall Elements and start over to that degree but maybe I can just replace the folder identified in Help System Info withthe same forlder from the old computer.

         

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