Restore Captions from Earlier PSE

[chashood123]

On an older computer, I had an extensive photo library in Adobe PSE 4.  On the next computer, I successfully backed up and restored the photos into PSE 9,, but the captions did not follow.  On the current computer (the third one) I successfully backed up and restored the PSE 9 photo set going way back to the Photoshop Album days into PSE 15, but without any of the captions from the photos (the photos from PSE 4 and earlier).

I know this is a mouthful, but is there any way to restore the captions from the earlier photos without having to do two complete backup and restore operations?  That is, without having to back up and restore from PSE 4 to PSE 9, then again from PSE 9 to PSE 15?  This would be VERY time consuming because there are over 22,000 photos involved.

Thanks!.  

[MichelBParis]

chashood123  wrote

On an older computer, I had an extensive photo library in Adobe PSE 4.  On the next computer, I successfully backed up and restored the photos into PSE 9,, but the captions did not follow.  On the current computer (the third one) I successfully backed up and restored the PSE 9 photo set going way back to the Photoshop Album days into PSE 15, but without any of the captions from the photos (the photos from PSE 4 and earlier).

I know this is a mouthful, but is there any way to restore the captions from the earlier photos without having to do two complete backup and restore operations?  That is, without having to back up and restore from PSE 4 to PSE 9, then again from PSE 9 to PSE 15?  This would be VERY time consuming because there are over 22,000 photos involved.

Thanks!.  

Can you confirm that you did use the backup and restore process in the organizer, not an external backup system?

Move Elements Organizer catalog

If so, I have never seen captions missing in the process.

What is tricky in your situation is that catalogs older than the PSE6 version were built on a Microsoft Access database instead of an Sqlite one, and that the 64-bits versions including PSE15 can't convert those old catalogs in one step.

Convert-organizer-catalog-elements-13-64

[chashood123]

Thanks for the quick reply.  Yes, when I moved from PSE 4, three computers ago in 2014, to PSE 9 on the next computer, I used the backup and restore process within organizer.  What I did not notice at the time (Sept. 2014) was that the captions did not restore with the photos into the PSE 9 catalog.  All the captions I added since that time into Sept. 2014 and newer photos DID backup and restore properly in Jun 2018 onto my new computer with PSE 15.

So the bottom line is that I lost the captions from my pre-September 2014 photos (thousands of them).  I can view them on the old, first computer in PSE 4, but having to go back to that computer to see the captions is not much of a real solution, especially to my wife, who is the operator of these computers.  I guess I'm grasping for some way to overwrite old metadata onto those older photos without having to do two complete backup and restore operations (PSE 4 to 9, then 9 to 15), which I'm not certain would work anyway, since it didn't work the last time.

[MichelBParis · Accepted solution]

Are captions saved in the metadata header of the old files?

I suggest you select a few files with the captions already written in the metadata header, or to use the 'write metadata to files' command to be sure the captions in the old catalog are written in the headers.

Then, from the PSE15 catalog, select them and 'update thumbnail'. That should read the captions and add them in the PSE15 catalog.

If that works, the process could be easier than a double conversion?

[chashood123]

Unfortunately, it appears that there is no "Save Metadata to File" option in Adobe PSE 4, which is on my old Windows XP machine and is the PSE application where the older files still have the captions that are missing in PSE 15.I don't know how to extract the captioning from PSE 4 so it can be reapplied in PSE 15.  Great idea that probably works on later versions, though.  Wonder if there's any workaround?

[chashood123]

MichelBParis, thank you SO much for your tips.  Using your technique on one old photo to test it, I was successful in writing the metadata to the file in Adobe PSE 4.  The File... command in PSE 4 is "Write tag info to file."  I then overwrote the later copy of that same file on the new computer and used the Update Thumbnail command in PSE 15 to get the caption back.  What I learned is that the file properties in Windows XP (on the old computer) do not display the part of the metadata that has the caption, but the file properties in Windows 10 DOES show all the metadata, including the caption.  It shows under "Description" as "Title" and "Subject."

Now that I know your solution works, I will try it en masse with the multiple photos whose captions I am trying to restore, and I'll report back when that's done.  Bravo!

[MichelBParis]

I am glad it worked for you!

I no longer have those old Elements versions installed (I still have PSE6, 10, 12, 14, 15, 2018).

I had a look at the good old paper manual of French PSE4 but I found nothing about the subject, just a hint to use the online help.

Your finding is interesting and confirms what I suspected, which is about the various ways to store captions in the metadata header.