Transferring PSE 2019 photos from one computer to another

[leslier82190437]

HELP... I am currently running PSE 2019 on a Windows 10 PC. Got a new computer. Need to transfer over 45,000 photos organized into albums and with keyword tags to the new computer. Trying to backup the catalog to an external drive that has plenty of storage. Multiple attempts to back up gives me an list of hundreds of files with a .xmp, .json, or .jpg extension. I also get a file that that is titled catalog.buc but not a catalog.tly file. I have reconnected all missing files, repaired the catelog even though it did not need a repair, and optimized the catalog.  I am at my wits end and have spent more time than this should take! How can I successfully get the old catalog onto my new computer with all the keywords and albums intact? Please help!

[MichelBParis]

The solution is in this doc:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/backup-restore-move-catalog-photoshop.html

The transfer process is NOT a copy of your media files and your catalog folder.

It's a double process:  creating a backup folder containing everything you need to store your data and your organization

and

a process to read that backup folder that can't be used otherwise than with the 'restore' command.

The restore process then will copy your file trees where you want (generally a new computer or drive) and will update the contents of the catalog database to point to the new destination you have chosen, while recreating the same folder tree(s) structure as the original.

What is not normal in your description is the lack of a backup.tly file at the end of the backup first step. It should be the last item created and saved in that backup folder. A frequent error is to abort the backup stage prematurely; my advice is to wait a little time after the message for the end of the backup. No way to restore is that file is absent in the backup folder.

[leslier82190437]

I have attempted this a half dozen times. I am not prematurely aborting the backup. I am letting it play out. I have waited hours and now days. I NEVER get the backup.tly file. It's incredibly frustrating and should not be this difficult. 

[MichelBParis]

I have attempted this a half dozen times. I am not prematurely aborting the backup. I am letting it play out. I have waited hours and now days. I NEVER get the backup.tly file. It's incredibly frustrating and should not be this difficult. 

By @leslier82190437

Hi @leslier82190437 

Ok, I believe you are performing the backup correctly.

For users with a similar issue the fastest way to be sure they are doing the backup correctly is to create a new small catalog (creating a backup.tly file) and then test if the restore works as expected.

You'll find some identical complaints in the forum and unfortunately there is no typical 'bug' or known explanation. Most of the time, it seems that the catalog contains 'corrupt' or 'non supported' files. In those cases, the restore generally fails before the end of the process, with some error message. I don't use face recognition myself, but that makes the 'backup and restore' much longer due to the high number of very small text files.

A troubleshooting solution which has worked for me with some catalogs has been to create a new catalog by copying the

catalog.pseXXdb file into a new folder. Give that folder a clear name such as 'my test cat copy'. Double clicking on the catalog.pseXXdb should open the organizer with that minimal catalog. You should recover tags, captions, albums, stacks and version sets, but not face recognition. A number of missing resources should be automatically recreated such as the thumbnail cache. If that works, that would mean that the main database of the catalog is not corrupt. That minimal catalog should be ok to backup and restore on another drive or computer (also, it should be faster without having to deal with face recognition items).

[leslier82190437 · Accepted solution]

I finally got it to backup successfully. Here was the issue... even though I am the only user of my computer, some files (including about 6 photos) would not open in my PC. I'd get an error message saying that I did not have access to these files. No idea how this happened since it's my personal computer, and I'm the one and only user. Anyway, I corrected the file access and my backup was successful!