Red offline icon appearing (Was "how do i talk to some one about this")

[Jaybird03]

how do i talk to someone about this lousy product

[Barb Binder]

Hi JayBird. What's the question?

[Jaybird03]

Up in the top left hand corner of some of our pictures there is a little box with what looks like a red power button.  When I clicked on the picture it put a check mark, I clicked again so I could print now that space is blank with a question mark in the middle.  I am afraid I lost the picture and am concerned because many are marked as described aboe.

[Barb Binder]

Jaybird: are you using Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop Elements?

I've never seen the icons you are describing (and I've used Photoshop since 92) but I see this on another thread:

Some of my photos have a red circle in the upper left hand corner and will not let me edit them in Photoshop elements 13. 

The icon you are describing is for files which are stored on an external media not presently plugged in to your computer. That may be a CD/DVD, a SD card... The properties and the 'thumbnail' icon are stored in the catalog, but you can access those files only if the original media is plugged in to your computer.

—Have red circle in upper left corner and will not let me edit

So were you using some sort of external drive to store the photos or were they stored on your local hard drive?

[Jaybird03]

We took the pictures from out camera.  So they are no longer there. Adobe sees them as they are there until I try to get the picture for printing.  Is there someway to speak with someone?  We are not real good at explaining our problem.

[Barb Binder]

Jaybird: are you using Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop Elements?

[Jaybird03]

Adobe Photoshop Elements 14

[Barb Binder]

Hi Jay:

This is the Photoshop forum, and your question is about Photoshop Elements. They are two entirely different programs, and you have a better chance of getting a good answer over there. I'll move your question for you.

If you prefer to bypass the forum, you can contact Adobe directly: Contact us | Adobe.

[Jaybird03]

Okay.  Where will we be able to find their answer?

[MichelBParis]

Jaybird03  wrote

We took the pictures from out camera.  So they are no longer there. Adobe sees them as they are there until I try to get the picture for printing.  Is there someway to speak with someone?  We are not real good at explaining our problem.

The icon you are describing is the 'offline' icon as exactly described by BarbBinder in post #3.

That means that those photo files were 'imported' in the catalog (which means 'indexed') and not copied from your camera to your disk.

To understand your problem, you have to keep in mind that catalogs don't contain photos. They contain information about the location of the files on your disk, their metadata (exif), your tags, captions as well as small 'thumbnails' to identify visually.

The 'downloader' module first 'copies' the files from your camera to the drive of the computer and 'indexes' the above information in the catalog for powerful retrieving.

You can get photos in your computer (and index them in the catalog) in various ways other than reading directly from the camera or card reader. For instance, you can use your OS to copy photo files on your drive and 'index' them later. You can scan to your drive and 'index' later. Originally, the 'offline' tag was mainly used when you kept your image library on CD/DVDs. People did not want to copy the files to the internal drive, just 'index' them in the catalog. That feature is still available for external media like USB sticks. You can decide if you want to keep the photo  files on their origninal media or copy them to your drive as well as indexing them. If you don't copy, the photos are only accesssible if the media is plugged in.

So, I suspect your must have 'got' the photos not directly from camera or card reader, but from another external media (USB stick?)

Looking at the properties of those 'offline' icons might tell you what media has been used.

Your problem is that the only way to get your photo files back is to plug in the original media again.

Knowing what went wrong does not help, except that in the future you should never get 'offline' files by importing directly from the camera or by first getting your files to your computer before indexing them in the catalog.

[Jaybird03]

Obviously we don't know what we are doing.  We hooked up the camera and the photos are gone. Is there a step by step for us to follow?  None of what you said helps us as we don't understand all that.  We never had this problem before.  Can you tell me where the picture went when we clicked on it as now it is blank with a question mark?

[Peru Bob]

If they are no longer on the camera or the camera card, do a search on your computer.

What is your operating system (Mac or Windows and which version)?

[Jaybird03]

Windows 7.  Thank you for answering.

[Derek Cross]

You maybe able to recover some pictures from your camera card. You can do a search for your particular card or buy recovery software such as this: Data Recovery for Windows & Mac,Specialized in Photo, Video and Music Recovery

In the meantime do not use the card to take more photographs as they will overwrite the existing images.

[Peru Bob · Accepted solution]

This may help you to use the search function:

https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+7+search+files&oq=windows+7+search+files&aqs=chrome..69i57j0...

Search for the file type your camera produces, possibly jpg or jpeg.

[Jaybird03]

Thank you so much. We will try this and let you know.  In the meantime what is the camera card and how do we get to it?

[Derek Cross]

A camera card is the removable memory disk in your camera that stores your images. There are various kinds to suit your particular camera. You generally remove it from the camera to download the photographs from your disk to your computer, where they can be optimised in applications like Photoshop.

It's extraordinary that you call Photoshop a"lousy product" when you don't even know what a camera card is!

[Jaybird03]

Well, my husband was very frustrated and felt unable to be able to speak with someone.  Perhaps you should know his full health story before you judge.  We would like to deal with Peru Bod and Barb.  Thank you for your judgements!

[Paul357440073bc0]

So now I have 20k+ pictures I can't access!  How did this happen and why?  These pictures have been collected over the last 20 years. 

[Derek Cross]

Jaybird, chill a little and listen to BarbBinder, she knows what she's talking about and maybe can help you out.

But answer the questions!

[Jaybird03]

Sorry we could not get back to see her answer.  I am afraid I have lost an important picture of my father. 

[Barb Binder]

JayBird–I have you in the right forum now, and hopefully someone with Elements knowledge will come along to help you locate this important image.

~Barb

[Jaybird03]

Not sure if we thanked you for all your help.  Really appreciate the time!

[Barb Binder]

JayBird—I see you marked Peru Bob's answer as correct. Does this mean you successfully located the photo of your father?

~Barb

[Jaybird03]

No but we thought if answer was helping we should have marked.