What Happens to the Original File Folders When Going to Organizer?

[whtnwrench42]

I have years and years and years worth of digital photos on my old desktop pc. I've stored most of them in the PICTURES folder and have them organized in sub-folders by date or event.  Now it's time to move to a new desktop pc. The plan is to move the entire PICTURES folder over to the new pc as it exists on the old one. The new pc has the latest version of Elements installed. If I begin to use the Elements Organizer, what happens to all of my sub-folders?  Are they retained or deleted?

Thanks for any responses.

[MichelBParis · Accepted solution]

whtnwrench42  wrote

I have years and years and years worth of digital photos on my old desktop pc. I've stored most of them in the PICTURES folder and have them organized in sub-folders by date or event.  Now it's time to move to a new desktop pc. The plan is to move the entire PICTURES folder over to the new pc as it exists on the old one. The new pc has the latest version of Elements installed. If I begin to use the Elements Organizer, what happens to all of my sub-folders?  Are they retained or deleted?

Thanks for any responses.

No problem, since the organizer is an image management software based on catalogs, like Lightroom, Aperture or many other softwares. The catalogs store and index the location (path and drive) of each file as well as its properties and its small thumbnail. They don't store your photo files.

Take the time to discover how it does work:

Elements Organizer Help | Elements Organizer User Guide

When you have copied your extisting photo files folder to the new PC via the Explorer or any other backup tool, you have to use the organizer and 'Import' (from files and folders) selecting your master folder. All your files will be scanned. Their location and properties will be recorded and indexed in the catalog. A background task will start to create the thumbnails, which takes more time, but does not prevent you from organizing.

[whtnwrench42]

Thank your very much. That was the answer expected and hoped for. Also thanks for the link to the user guide.