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Question

Restore catalogue in Photoshop Elements 2023

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
December 14, 2022
1 reply
2587 views

Hi,

I just bought a new laptop with Windows 11, version 22H2 for x64.

On my old laptop I had Photoshop Elements 2018. I bought an upgrade to PE 2023 from Adobe and installed it on my new laptop which worked fine.

I then wanted to restore my catalogue but I can`t get it to work. I have the backup on an external hard drive. I clicked on restore from hard drive and chose backup.tly. I then clicked on restore files and catalogue to original location. I am not sure if it should be restored to Elements 2023 Organizer or Photoshop Elements 2023. I have tried both and both times a window comes up saying ”You have no write permissions or write access (it is in Swedish so I don`t know which translation is correct) to the file you marked. Mark another file.”

What in the world is wrong?? What shall I do?

Hope to get some help.

Sture Persson

This topic has been closed for replies.

S

Somya_Agarwal

Adobe Employee

Hi,

What destination did you choose in 'Restore To'? This is the location where your catalog database and media files will be copied to, and it needs to be a location on your computer you have write access to.

Thanks!

S

swedish birdwatcherAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hi Somya,

I restored to C: /Program/ Adobe/ and then tried both Elements 2023 Organizer and Photoshop Elements 2023 and both times a window came up saying ”You have no write access to the file you marked. Mark another file.”

I don`t know what other file I could mark?

Hope you can figure out what I shall do.

Thank you.

Sture Persson

S

swedish birdwatcherAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hi,

I haven`t heard from anyone so I hope someone will come and help me soon.

Best regards,

Sture Persson

By @swedish birdwatcher

Hi Sture,

Re-reading your posts, I think that there is something which could be a good start to restore your backup. Maybe a few questions first to be sure I have understood your situation, sorry if they have been answered in different posts, but it seems that we can agree on the following:

You have your desktop with PSE2018 (or is it PSE2020, which is version 18? ) Not a problem anyway to upgrade to PSE 2023 - version 21)

You have created a full backup from the backup function of the Organizer. This backup is a folder on an external drive, and it does contain a file named 'backup.tly'. Very good. This folder should also contain a database file named catalog.buc. This is a renamed copy of the database file in the catalog folder: either catalog.pse16db if your desktop PSE is PSE2018, or catalog.pse18db if it is PSE2020. That's not important for the restore, but it may help to understand the process. So, I believe everything is good at that stage.

The misunderstandings seem to be concentrated on WHERE you want to restore, which is obviously somewhere on your new laptop. Good practice with computers is to store programs (Operating system = Windows and your programs) somewhere and your data files elsewhere. So anyway, you don't have to choose between organizer or editor, you have to choose either a sytem folder like the 'Pictures' folder which is created for this purpose by Microsoft and selected by default by the organizer, or any other folder, preferably created by yourself. That 'master' folder which will contain all your media folder tree(s) can be created in your laptop. I recommend creating it just under the C : root drive; for instance 'My PSE Library'.

You'll just have to test that there is no restriction for reading or writing in this folder, there should be no problem.

Also important, you can choose to store your photos on your new laptop, or on an external drive (other than the backup drive). There are advantages for each option.

Now, when you restart the 'restore' process from your laptop, you select the catalog folder, not the backup.tly file which I think is only necessary on Macs ???) and you should point to that newly created folder as the destination.

The restore process first restores the media files tree(s) exactly as the original. Then it restores the original catalog folder itself and stores it under the 'My PSE Library'' folder beside the media subfolders trees.

That's not finished yet, the photo files are restored ok, but what about the catalog folder? When users install a new PSE version, they are prompted to accept the 'conversion' of the current database folder to the new database format. Since you have installed PSE2023 on the laptop, you'll have to start the conversion process yourself from the catalog manager panel, click on 'Convert'. select the old catalog (on 'custom' location); the old catalog is read and a new catalog is created with the same name. the old catalog is renamed with a -1 suffix. The restore process is then finished and you can try it.

You have a choice: leaving the catalog on that custom location, or you use the catalog manager to move it back to the default location on your C : drive.

Hi Michel,

Thank you for your post. That was a lot and I don`t know if I understand all of that!!

On my old laptop I had PSE 2018, which is version 16. On my new laptop it is PSE 2023, version 21.

In the backup on my external drive I now found ”catalog.buc”

So you mean I should make a new folder just under C: and for exampel call it ”My PSE library”?

I started Photoshop Elements and a window came up saying ”Catalog cannot be opened. An internal programming error has occurred”. I clicked OK and Catalog Manager came up. In the top right corner there were two buttons, New and Convert. I clicked on New and wrote My PSE library? Did I do right?

Organizer looks OK now but of course whithout pictures. It looks like I could I start Restore again. ( I opened This Computer on the desktop and open C:\ to check but there was no folder called My PSE Library. Should I create a new folder called My PSE Library there as well?)

I dare not do anything more now until I hear from you again.

Best regards,

Sture Persson

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