Restore catagog saved under Photoshop Elements 5

[peters78330142]

Having recently bought a new PC with Windows 10 to replace an older PC once upgraded from Vista to Windows 7, and on which I have >20,000 pictures indexed and cataloged under my tried and true Photoshop Elements 5, I tried downloading a test version of Photoshop elements 2019 to see if I could restore a catalog backed up under version 5, but it did not work. Is there still a version of Elements which can restore such a backup. In the meantime I installed Verdsion 5 on the new PC, but it won't let me register it (the link does not work). Is there anyway I can stop it asking?

[MichelBParis]

See:

Convert-organizer-catalog-elements-13-64

For versions older than PSE6, the catalogs are managed on a MS Access database, not an Sqlite one.

You need to convert your catalog (catalog.psa).

It should be possible to install PSE5 on your new computer, but you need the licence key linked with your PSE5 CD. There is no way to get back that key from Adobe, it's only valid for your physical cd. If you still have that key and you get an error message, please mention it here.

[peters78330142]

Do I understand correctly then that the only Photoshop Elements version which can process a backed-up Version 5 catalog is Version 5? Having installed Version 5 on my new computer, I was able to read the backed-up catalogs from my old computer and so complete the move from Windows 7 to Windows 10, so it is not really necessary to upgrade if it is not possible.

I still have the Version 5 CD and the necessary key so have installed it on my new W10 computer. Each time I start up Photoshop Elements V5 however, it says I should register it, but when I try to do so, it gives an error (presumably there is an embedded Internet address in the program which is no longer valid).

[MichelBParis · Accepted solution]

peters78330142  wrote

Do I understand correctly then that the only Photoshop Elements version which can process a backed-up Version 5 catalog is Version 5?

No.

PSE5 catalogs (catalog.psa) can be directly converted by versions 6 to 12 because they are in 32 bits, even if they use another database engine. The limitation is with PSE13 and more recent which use 64-bits.

I have been able to restore a PSE5 catalog following on those recent versions following the above link, after using the conversion utility.

It's a two steps process. Use the utility to convert to the PSE13 format, and any ulterior versions is able to convert the PSE13 format.

I still have the Version 5 CD and the necessary key so have installed it on my new W10 computer. Each time I start up Photoshop Elements V5 however, it says I should register it, but when I try to do so, it gives an error (presumably there is an embedded Internet address in the program which is no longer valid).

If I remember well, you simply ignore the registering request. If you have entered the right license code, PSE5 should work.