Open a PSE15db catalog

[wilfriedc88826221]

Hello everybody

When moving to my new computer, I messed things up!  I copied many files, but not all. And now it is  too late ?   😯

I have a copy of my catalogs folder with catalog.pse15db etc  . My "real" photos are on Onedrive.

With PSE2022 I cannot open the catalogs.  Is all my work (faces) lost?

Advice would be welcome.

[Greg_S.]

We need more details about your problem.  Have you installed Elements on your new program or did you simply copy the program files?  What happens when you try to open your catalog(s)?

Is your old computer still available?

Have you copied/synchronized the OneDrive local folder to your new computer or are your photos only in the Cloud?

[wilfriedc88826221]

I have both PSE versions (15 and 2022) installed on my new PC. I had copied the folder catalogs to my new PC. I see it opening in PSE15 but the pictures are missing. Do I have to reconnect them 1 by 1 ?

The photos are in the cloud, but also on my computer.

[Greg_S.]

After reading your post again, are you saying that you had PSE 15 on the old computer and PSE 2022 on the new computer?  If so, you need to convert the catalogs to the newer version. I will give you more detailed advice when you confirm exactly what you have done. Do not despair yet. 

[MichelBParis]

Hello everybody

When moving to my new computer, I messed things up!  I copied many files, but not all. And now it is  too late ?   😯

I have a copy of my catalogs folder with catalog.pse15db etc  . My "real" photos are on Onedrive.

With PSE2022 I cannot open the catalogs.  Is all my work (faces) lost?

Advice would be welcome.

By @wilfriedc88826221

Elements totally ignores the OneDrive "Cloud".
Elements can only see and access files on your physical hard drives (internal or external).
So, the real location is the OneDrive system folder on your harddrive, and OneDrive takes care of synchronizing the contents of that system drive to the location in the OneDrive cloud.
If you move to another computer, the recommended way is to use the backup and restore solution provided by the organizer.
- the backup creates a 'backup folder', ideally on an external drive. That folder stores both your catalog data AND renamed versions of all of your photos/videos.
- The restore process reads the contents of that backup folder to recreate both your catalog (which does not contain any photos) and your photo folders tree(s).
- The important fact to know is that the restore reads the original location of the files (path AND drive name/letter) and restores everything in the folder/drive of your choice.
- The restore process is able to convert an older version of catalogs to the new one automatically.

If you don't do such a backup and restore, only catalog is restored, not the photos folder trees.
If you think you have restored your photofiles using the OneDrive features to sync them back to a new computer (or drive), then you are out of luck, because the links in the restored catalog still point to the old computer or drive. All files are missing if the restoration disk is different from the original.

Can you tell us more about what you did with both the organizer and OneDrive?

[wilfriedc88826221]

Indeed, I did not make a proper backup 😒  The photos were copied via explorer.  So there is no problem. I have restarted the work of face recognition from scratch....

Tx for your help. I'll make more backups now !