Photoshop Elements 2022 Organizer leaves files in Temp directory

[Bill Junk]

When adding a tag to an image, Photoshop Elements Organizer 2022 makes a copy of the image file in C:>Users>[my user name]>AppData>Local>Temp and does not remove the file from this location when the Organizer is closed.  This results in a large accumulation of files in this Temp directory that can significantly affect the amount of available storage on the C: drive.  This problem requires the user to manually delete the file(s) from the directory.  If deletion is not done Windows 10 will eventually display a critical warning about low available disk space .This has been a problem with the Elements Organizer for many years.  I wish someone would fix it.

[Glenn 8675309]

I saw this other comment you made about something simliar 5 years ago--- your previous comment back in 2017 didn't yield any responses.    I would think that if some tmp files are causing you to get warnings about low disk space- then it's time to get another, or a new, bigger harddrive. 

The directory you pointed out, for me anyway, about 34 MB of temp files- nothing I'm worried out--- I could just sort them by file extension and delete them an be done with it. 

What's the total size of the temp files you are concerned about?

[Bill Junk]

Glen,
I've been deleting the unwanted jpg, tif, and nef files from that directory for years. I'm getting tired of doing that and I don't think that is something that a user should have to do - clean up after a program leaves stuff where it shouldn't. Most of my image files are in the range of about 40 to 50 MB each. I've had 10 to 20 GB of files accumulate there and one time it caused Windows to issue a serious warning that it was running out of space for the OS. That's when I spent a lot of time figuring out where all my C: drive space was going.

Bill

[Bill Junk]

Having over 40 years of experience in the hardware / software industry, I'd say this is a good example of what can happen when a developer just forgets to take care of removing files / data that's stored some place temporarily while the app is running.  Usually files / data are temporarily stored in a safe "working" place while some operation is being performed.  It could them be used for an "undo" operation or is there as a backup in case something failed.  Files stored deep in the operating system's temporary storage space should not be left there indefinitely.  Good programming practices whould ensure that when the application terminates, the program's design and implementation remove files / data that are stored for temporary purposes .  If the files / data are needed for a subsequent exection of the app, then they should not be stored in a "temporary" file storage location. There's and "Adobe" folder in AppData>Local that could be used for such purposes.  My C: drive is a 100 GB SSD supplemented by a 1 TB conventional data drive (D:).  I also have a 4 TB conventional drive that is used for image storage and a 5 TB conventional drive for backup.  Even if I did replace my computer with one that had a larger SSD, that wouldn't change the fact that Elements Organizer should not be leaving copies of my image files in places were I don't want them or I don't know they exist.  No matter how large the drive, eventually it will get filled up with copies of files that I have stored elsewhere.  As far as I know there is no way for a user of the Organizer to access the files stored in the Temp directory from a feature in the Organizer.  You might be able to argue that what the Organizer is doing won't be an issue for most users of Photoshop Elements who might have a few hundered to a thousand small jpg files in their collection.  I'm now approaching 100,000 images and a large percentage of them were made with Nikon digital cameras, the D700, D800, and D850.  While I could switch over to using Lightroom I've never really liked it and prefer the approach used in Adobe Camera Raw and the layered features of the full version of Photoshop CC.

[MichelBParis]

Having over 40 years of experience in the hardware / software industry, I'd say this is a good example of what can happen when a developer just forgets to take care of removing files / data that's stored some place temporarily while the app is running.  Usually files / data are temporarily stored in a safe "working" place while some operation is being performed.  It could them be used for an "undo" operation or is there as a backup in case something failed.  Files stored deep in the operating system's temporary storage space should not be left there indefinitely.  Good programming practices whould ensure that when the application terminates, the program's design and implementation remove files / data that are stored for temporary purposes .  If the files / data are needed for a subsequent exection of the app, then they should not be stored in a "temporary" file storage location. There's and "Adobe" folder in AppData>Local that could be used for such purposes.  My C: drive is a 100 GB SSD supplemented by a 1 TB conventional data drive (D:).  I also have a 4 TB conventional drive that is used for image storage and a 5 TB conventional drive for backup.  Even if I did replace my computer with one that had a larger SSD, that wouldn't change the fact that Elements Organizer should not be leaving copies of my image files in places were I don't want them or I don't know they exist.  No matter how large the drive, eventually it will get filled up with copies of files that I have stored elsewhere.  As far as I know there is no way for a user of the Organizer to access the files stored in the Temp directory from a feature in the Organizer.  You might be able to argue that what the Organizer is doing won't be an issue for most users of Photoshop Elements who might have a few hundered to a thousand small jpg files in their collection.  I'm now approaching 100,000 images and a large percentage of them were made with Nikon digital cameras, the D700, D800, and D850.  While I could switch over to using Lightroom I've never really liked it and prefer the approach used in Adobe Camera Raw and the layered features of the full version of Photoshop CC.

By @Bill Junk

Hi Bill,

I am pretty sure that your original post as well as the current one have made a number of your forum friends to try to replicate your issue as I have done. The fact is that you did not get any useful answer and I must assume that your issue is not so common. You know that to fix this bug, it must be:

1 - reproducible by Adobe

2 - frequently reported by many users.

I have not been able to reproduce it myself after your posts. Only Adobe can say why those temp files are created in that location and if and how they manage the wiping of the temp files. What puzzles me is that you find media copies in temporary folders, not single .tmp or .temp files: or do I misunderstand your issue?

The general issue about 'cleaning' the temp files is that they are created everywhere.

You have seen a recent post in which you find unexpected copies of some media made by the organizer in the garbage bin. Why has this not reported at all since the answer by John R Ellis after PSE8?

My guess is that like me, most users are used to clean their garbage bin regularly and even use utilities like CCleaner to take care of those temporary files and folders.

On the other hand, my own example may not apply if the temporary folder is created by features I don't use myself, like automatic creations or face recognition.

We need more user feedback about this to get a reaction from Adobe. I hope that this discussion will bring more support and details.

[Glenn 8675309]

You're making a mountain out of a molehill. No one, but you, from the looks of it really cares about this. Good luck, I'm done here.

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
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[Bill Junk]

Glenn 8675309<>,

I guess you're entitled to your personal opinion, but I can say that your comment was not friendly nor helpful so the fact that "you're done here" is good in my book. If you were in my position you probably wouldn't be thinking this is just a small molehill, but rather a continuing annoyance that makes one think seriously about finding another product that will work reliably and without undocumented side effects that one has to discover with extensive digging.

Bill

[paleolith]

Michael wrote: "I have not been able to reproduce it myself after your posts."

I checked the folder Bill cited, C:>Users>[my user name]>AppData>Local>Temp. Specifically, I checked the Adobe subfolder within that path. I do a lot of tagging, and I found only three files there, using less than 1MB. (This is with PSE 18.) The entire Temp folder is less than 3GB, and I have never done anything to clear it out. The Windows 10 installation is two years old.

Michael also wrote: "to fix this bug, it must be: 1 - reproducible by Adobe 2 - frequently reported by many users". I partly disagree with point 2. If the product is advertised to work with the user's configuration and it fails, the software producer should fix the problem, even if it's rare.

What the lack of others seeing the problem says to me is that there is something unusual in your configuration causing the problem. Possibly something has caused a flag to be set in the registry that inhibits temp file cleanup. The Temp directory is a Windows feature, not solely a program responsibility, so this would make sense, though I have no knowledge of relevant registry settings.

In short, when you are the only one seeing a problem, look local.

Edward

[ShelLuser]

With all due respect...  I've been into IT ever since the 80's on my C64, that's ... interesting. But it has no merit what so ever on modern times. 40 years within the field has 0 meaning without keeping your experiences up to date.

And... from my personal experience the only people who seem to believe that the age has any merit are those who never did.

Not to mention... you are aware that modern operating systems also keep track of their temporary folders? Unless you're using an outdated OS or you overriding system settings then - no offense - but this is a non-issue.

[Bill Junk]

I recently received a generalized e-mail from the "Adobe Support Community" asking if any of the replies helpded me solve the problem I reported.  The basic answer is NO, but I did get one suggestion to use Ccleaner to delete unnecessary files from my C drive.  That did recover around 4 GB of space, but the Photoshop Elements Organizer continues to leave files in the AppData>Local>Temp directory.  One response was essentially telling me that I shouldn't expect Adobe to do anything since there aren't a lot of people reporting the same issue.  There was also another response that was a bit of an insult and chastised me fro even posting the issues since I had already found a workaround and no one else cares about the issue.

[John34110094ue8n]

In 2023 the problem still exist. And i'm pretty sure, it will be exist in 2045 too
Why?  Because Adobe doesn't care about users problems...

You hdd/sdd will filled up with unwanted/unnecessary files because the Photoshop is wrong. Also doesn't care where did you set working directories... And just leave its garbage on drive C

The only solution is add xx\username\AppData\Local\Temp directory to Quick access in your Windows and delete all the files manually, often.