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Marjon1
Known Participant
July 1, 2020
Question

Reorganizing folders in Photoshop Elements Organizer warning

  • July 1, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 600 views

I want to reorganize the folders in my Organizer (from within the Organizer).  I would simply like to cretae new folders for each year and then move existing folders that are sorted by date, into corresonding new folders for applicable years.

 

To start, I created a new folder "2009" (right click, New Folder) and the new folder appeared in the tree. I then tried to drag the first existing folder "2009 03 31" into "2009" but received the following message "The folder being moved contains files that are not visible in the Organizer.  Are you sure you want to move this folder?".  I responded "No" and took some steps to try and understand what was going on.

 

When I hover the cursor over folder "2009 03 31" in the tree a short message says "Pictures\2009 03 31 41 imported pictures from this folder".  I counted up the pictures I can see in this folder in the Organizer and sure enough, there are 41".  No evendence of additional invisible files there.

 

The only other thing I could think of to do was to go into Win 10 File Explorer and under the View tab I checked "Hidden Items".  I then went back to PSE Organizer to see if iny previously invisible files had become visible.  But nothing else had appeared.

 

Can anyone explain what the message about files that are not visible actually means, and whether it is possible to make them visible and delete them?  Is this message a reason not to reorganize my existing "date" named folders into the applicable new "year" named folders?

 

Any help from the Community to clarify and if possible resove this would be greatly appreciated.  

 

 

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

Greg_S.
Community Expert
Greg_S.Community Expert
Community Expert
July 3, 2020

Maybe I missed it, but I don't see what version of Elements you are using.  If you are using an old version of the program, it is possible that it does not support the raw files you are trying to import.

MichelBParis
MichelBParis
Legend
July 2, 2020

"How can images imported into my Win10 Pictures folder not also get imported into the PSE Organizer/catalog along with the others?  And is there a way to get the (three) .CR2 files I see in File Explorer but not in PSE, into the PSE Organizer before I move the folder?"

Two different situations:

1 - the files have been downloaded or copied externally and not yet imported in PSE. In which case they should import if you right click on the folder and choose 'Import media'...

2 - unless you get the message that no files have been imported because they are already in the catalog. It's quite possible that you have duplicates in a different subfolder. In such a case, do a search by file name for possible duplicates. If the duplicates have different file names, you may search for files with the same exact date_taken and check visually;  PSE checks duplicates based mainly on date_taken then file size in kilobytes.

 

 

    M
    Marjon1Author
    Known Participant
    July 2, 2020

    OK.  I'll try this and see where it takes me.

    Thanks for the advice on my questions. What you told me should give me all I need to proceed with my project to tidy up the Organizer file and make it more manageable.

    Much appreciated.

    MichelBParis
    MichelBParis
    Legend
    July 1, 2020

    Your reorganizing project is fine.

    The warning message is meant to protect you from moving other file types than normal photo/video media, such as text, pdf or doc or xls files at the same time as your media. That would also mean moving media files not yet imported in the current catalog, but I am not sure (not tested) that would trigger this message. So, In your case (moving already dated subfolders) I don't see any risk for your project.

    That said, I am curious to know if you can compare the number of media files reported by the organizer and what you can see in the explorer (right click on the subfolder and 'reveal in explorer'). 

      M
      Marjon1Author
      Known Participant
      July 2, 2020

      Thanks. That’s very helpful, and interesting. I believe your suggestion revealed the problem. When I look at the folder in File Explorer I see 46 files, vs. the 41 in the PSE Organizer.  So five more files are visible in File Explorer than in the PSE Organizer, and this mismatch, presumably, is what is triggering the warning message.

       

      The first file in the 2009 03 31 folder, visible in both PSE and File Explorer is IMG_0969.CR2.  The second, visible only in File Explorer is IMG_0969.xmp.

       

      The next 3 files, visible in File Explorer but not in PSE are IMG_0987.CR2, IMG_0989.CR2, and IMG_0989.xmp.

      The next two files are IMG_0991.CR2 visible in both PSE and File Explorer, and IMG_0997.CR2 visible only in File Explorer.

       

      So three .CR2 files are visible in File Explorer but not in PSE (although two other .CR2 files are visible in both); and two .xmp files are visible in File Explorer but not in PSE.

       

      So my questions now become:

      1. How can images imported into my Win10 Pictures folder not also get imported into the PSE Organizer/catalog along with the others?  And is there a way to get the (three) .CR2 files I see in File Explorer but not in PSE, into the PSE Organizer before I move the folder?

       

      1. I looked up .xmp file extensions and see they are files containing metadata, automatically created by PSE when opening raw image files like .CR2 (unless the images are saved in the .DNG format).  So I don’t understand why only 2 of the .CR2 images have corresponding .xmp extensions and the other .CR2 images don’t.  Any thoughts on that? As regards my folder consolidation project I see no real problem in leaving the 2 .xmp files alone, and moving them, along with the other images in the 2009 3 31 folder, to the new 2009 folder.  Or alternatively, deleting them completely.  Would you agree?
      MichelBParis
      MichelBParis
      Legend
      July 2, 2020

      I looked up .xmp file extensions and see they are files containing metadata, automatically created by PSE when opening raw image files like .CR2 (unless the images are saved in the .DNG format).  So I don’t understand why only 2 of the .CR2 images have corresponding .xmp extensions and the other .CR2 images don’t.  Any thoughts on that? As regards my folder consolidation project I see no real problem in leaving the 2 .xmp files alone, and moving them, along with the other images in the 2009 3 31 folder, to the new 2009 folder.  Or alternatively, deleting them completely.  Would you agree?

      The xmp sidecar files do store the edit settings. If they are alone, they are of no use unless you can find their original raw companions in another folder;  you can safely delete them. They are created at import time in the catalog. If some raw files don't have xmp sidecar files, they were probably not imported regularly in the catalog, only copied externally.

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