Question mark on Adobe Elements 19

[Sierra32791304ivv3]

All of a sudden today, all my photos have dreaded question mark.  If I try to reconnect/delete - reload/etc, it puts the photo in a download file instead of the document file.  What did I do to cause this?  Any ideas?

[Glenn 8675309]

Did you physically move the images?  Something like unplugging an external HHD, Physically moving the files from one hard drive to another, or changing the location on the same HDD could cause the question marks.

Think of organizer like an old school card catalogue in a library-- it's a snapshot of the photo, it's information of where's it's at, and a thumbnail of that image.

[Greg_S.]

As Glenn has indicated, files only go missing (causing the question mark) if you have conducted some file management outside of the Elements Organizer.  If ALL of your files went missing at the same time, then either you moved them to a new hard drive or folder, or an external drive that you use to store the files has been given a different drive letter assignment.   As Glenn says, this can happen if you disconnect and reconnect an external drive.

To help you figure out what went wrong, select one of the missing files in the media grid.  Then, in the Information panel on the right, you will find the exact location where Elements thinks the file should be. 

Hopefully, this will give you a clue as to what you have done to create the situation.  When you give us some more information about what has happened, we may be able to offer some suggestions as to how to reconnect the files.

[Sierra32791304ivv3]

Thank you for the input.  Turns out my Carbondale backup created a second document file under download.  Finally got everything straightened out.  Thank you again 🙂

[Sierra32791304ivv3]

Oops - I meant Carbonite 🙂