Sorting scanned photos by edited taketaken

[ray_den]

I previously loaded scanned old photos into PSE 2022 Organizer and updated the General Info / Date field, for example with just the year using the ??? option for month in PSE.  I then decided to update the Date taken field outside of PSE. I then deleted the folder of scans from the catalog and then imported the folder with the updated dates.  However, PSE Oganiser still has the General Info / Date field set to the date that I entered into PSE previously. Can I clear these dates somehow and use the edited Date taken dates?

[Greg_S.]

It's not clear to me exactly what you have done.  But ALL file management should be undertaken in Elements.  Otherwise, Elements doesn't have a clue what you did.  (Well, maybe it has a clue - but that will depend on what action you take within Elements.)

So, when you say that you deleted the folder of scans from the catalog, did you also delete the folder from your drive?  If not, it seems like you are working with the original files and they will continue to have the metadata data information that you inserted while in Elements.  You haven't told us what you did to update the Date Taken field outside of Elements, or exactly what field you updated, or how your updated Date is different than the original date.

Your post suggests that you may be confused about what Elements does.  It merely provides a catalog of your files and the metadata within those files.  When you import a folder into the catalog, Elements stores where that folder is kept on your computer.  It does not store another copy of your photos on your hard drive.  So, if you delete a folder from the catalog, nothing gets changed on your computer unless you also tell the program to delete the files, which it can do.  Otherwise, you can import the files again into your catalog, or even a new and different catalog.

Finally, there is no consistency between how different software utilises the metadata within files.  That is why it is so important to ONLY USE Elements for your file management needs.

For further information about how Elements uses different date fields, take a look at this article.

[ray_den]

Thank you for your email and your comments.

I appreciate the need to only make changes in PSE Organizer. However, I
have scanned hundreds of photos and am trying to figure out their
chronology. Sometimes I want to change the dates on many pictures that are
already in PSE which might have a Date in PSE that is just the year, eg
1948.

Changing many dates in PSE Organizer is very labour intensive. So I thought
deleting those pictures from the catalog, but not from the Windows folder,
would delete the metadata for those pictures in PSE, including the date. I
then bulk edit the Date taken of the photos in their Windows folder ( eg
25/12/1948) and then import the photos back into PSE. I expected the Date
taken in PSE would then be the recently edited Date taken, but it remained
the same (eg 1948).

So the date of the photos in PSE of newly imported photos is not the Date
taken of those photos, which seemed odd to me.

I hope this is clearer.

[Greg_S.]

If the metadata has been saved to a file, deleting the file from a catalog does not delete the metadata from the file.

@ray_den said:

Changing many dates in PSE Organizer is very labour intensive.

You haven't told us how you are changing the dates, but whatever you are doing, I can't imagine that it is any easier than using the Organizer.

To change the display date of multiple files in the Organizer, simply select them and use an Adjust Date and Time command (either from the Edit menu, or via a right-click context menu, or simply Ctrl+J).  If you want to save the new date to the files, choose the Ctrl+W command.  Elements will remember the new date in its database even if you don't save the metadata to the file, but if you have a need to see the date outside of the Organizer, the metadata needs to be saved.