Time Machine (Apple), Organizer & Disconnected Files

Report · Jul 30, 2019

A time machine backup has resulted in disconnected files.

Have others had this problem and what is the process for reconnecting.

Now I have valuable photographs that I cannot find.

Report · Jul 30, 2019

Hi 2LloydP,

It seems like an issue with the catalog itself. I'd recommend that you take a look at steps mentioned in this article Troubleshooting catalog issues in Elements Organizer and let us know if that helps?

Thanks,

Akash

Report · Jul 30, 2019

It looks ugly so far, but I have found a related thread "

Elements Organizer 14 and 2019 on Mac OS Keep Losing Files Because They Switch to Time Machine Drive"

Comments here and in this reference thread point to Organizer and Time Machine incompatibility.

I searched for just one file by name in my computer and found it, in the directory where I knew it to be. However, when I look at info in Organizer the location path is different and includes the name Time Machine. So the file has not been moved. Organizer, however, has a different name for its location.

Report · Feb 16, 2023

Why did I not know this before I loaded 40,000 files into Organizer Elements 2023! Same problem - all 40,000 files are disconnected and refer to the TM drive whist all the originals are still in the correect watched folder on the hard drive. Also manually searching for missing files (on a few selected files) failed to connect. To me this seems like an easy fix in the software, but is still happening with Ventura and Elements 2023. I was happy using iMovie and iPhoto but felt it was time to move on as the 64 bit cataloging did not meet my needs. Seems like I was wasting my time.

Report · Jul 30, 2019

I am not a Mac user, but I can tell you that it has always been advised not to use Time Machine with the organizer. I can't find the most pertinent discussion from last year by a Mac user expert.

Apart from explaining the incompatibility problem, this user explained that the solution is to setup Time Machine not to cover all your disks in your computer and to store the catalog and the media files on a separate volume, not referenced in Time Machine.

The organizer has its own backup mode.

I hope Mac Expert will come and explain the process to setup Time Machine to ignore the catalog and library.

Report · Jul 30, 2019

I right now I'm faced with a disconnected files that I can't get to, which I mention here just in case someone looking at this thread has the solution to that issue. No files were deleted. So presumably I can find them with a search.

<<this user explained that the solution is to setup Time Machine not to cover all your disks in your computer and to store the catalog and the media files on a separate volume, not referenced in Time Machine.>>

My MacBook Pro has just one disk. I guess your comment means I must break it into a volume that Time Machine is constrained from addressing.

Report · Feb 17, 2023

My MacBook Pro has just one disk. I guess your comment means I must break it into a volume that Time Machine is constrained from addressing.

By @multitalented_mindset16B8

I have no new information since that discussion. As I don't know anything about Macs, I can't suggest a way to solve the disconnection. However, I seem to remember that the info given by a Mac user was a way to keep using TimeMachine for all apps except Elements and its organizer catalog. Knowing that to use TM and the organizer at the same time,is inconpatible, you have to choose one or the other. So the suggested workaround was to somehow set TM to cover the desired disks (volumes) except the one containing the media files and the catalog folder.

The easiest solution to move files and catalog seems to be to choose a small external USB drive and to do a full backup (without TM !) and restore on the external drive. That's my choice, I do use a 1 TB external SSD drive. The library and catalog are immediately accessible from different computers with the same version of Elements. I have no performance problem and I can use other backup systems in addition to the organizer backups.

The critical issue in Windows is to be able to use the organizer backup solution to move your files with the catalog on a new computer (or new drive). Even if you rely on another good backup system, the links in the catalog won't be updated to reflect the new drive or computer. So it's best to do organizer backups at intervals and always before you migrate to new computer/drive.