How to stop 'Elements Auto Creations 2019.exe'

[Danny_DeLoach]

I just installed Photoshop Elements 2019.  In the Organizer, I went to Edit | Preferences | Media-Analysis and I un-checked everything on the tab, including:

• Generate Auto Creations
• Automatically Analyze Media: Images and Videos

However, the file 'Elements Auto Creations 2019.exe' runs in the background, even when PSE is closed.  This causes my computer fan to run loudly all the time, because of the cpu cycles the file is using.  How can I prevent 'Elements Auto Creations 2019.exe' from running in the background?

[Ron157F]

Hi (again) Lars-Olof157F:

Egad!  How did you get so lucky??  My sympathies.

One other "interesting" aspect that seemed to be important to my set-up and may be at work in yours is that I have multiple admin-level User Accounts on my PC.  I had initially installed PSE and PE 2020 while using an admin-level account that also has my Microsoft ID associated with it (Microsoft's cloud services are yet another vexing issue), but most of my activity on that PC is using a (different) local-only, admin-level account that disables all automatic cloud services access (Microsoft, Adobe, Box, Google Drive, ...).  When I installed PSE and PE 2020, I used that Microsoft ID User Account and enabled both PSE and PE 2020 for "all users" on the PC.  In order to get Auto Creations not to run at all on my system, I had to disable it from the account that I had used to install it - so, a different account from the one I usually use.  If you have multiple accounts on your set-up, you might look for other accounts that could be triggering the background use of Auto Creations.

I suggest you try my earlier suggestion of copying the "Elements Auto Creations.exe" file to an external location and deleting it from your system, including deleting it from your Trash folder so it is permanently removed.  Then re-boot.  That way, you can always copy it back to its original location if you need to and, because it doesn't exist any more (and, hopefully you are not automatically connected to Adobe's servers via an Adobe account), none of Adobe's hidden process will be able to launch it - at least not without getting a "File not found" or "can't connect to Adobe" error.  So you can track which service or application is causing you grief.

If you are comfortable editing your Windows Registry, you can also just remove all references to the Auto Creations.exe file.  However, that's a non-trivial procedure and I don't recommend it, as one wrong move playing around in the Registry and you can cause some severe problems with your set-up.

Good luck!

- Ron -

[Lars-Olof157F]

Well, thank you Ron!

This will obviously not stop the world from spinning. However, I prefer some level of possiblity to have control of what is going on in the machine. The computer is rebuilt a couple of weeks ago, and the only user for now is my account as admin.

I may try renaming the files, or remove them as you suggest. Usually this causes error messages, but we will see about that. Cleaning the Registry may be an option if this works or if I uninstall Elements. This is the second point to the energy aspect; you should NOT have to spend time "hacking" a clearly overdeveloped application!

/Lars-Olof

[Lars-Olof157F]

Suggested solution if you want to use only Elements Editor.

1. Disable Auto Creations in startup folder.

2. In Explorer, locate the exe-file "PhotoshopElementsEditor.exe" in Program - Photoshop Elements 20xx (xx for your version), right click on exe-file and make shortcut. Drag-and-drop the shortcut to Taskbar. This is where you start the editor.

3. Open the folder Program - Elements 20xx Organizer and locate "Elements Auto Creations 20xx.exe". Right click and Rename. Add ".CLOSE" (without the ") or anything after .exe. You may get a warning - click yes. You can do the same with f ex "PhotoshopElementsOrganizer.exe" in the same folder.

Have tried this for a couple of days and get no error messages, AND no Auto Creations active!

Nevertheless, Elements has evolved to something like an octopus with Adobe-files everywhere. If you are interested in editing only, you may find an alternative here:

The best free photo editors 2021: free Photoshop alternatives | TechRadar

[Walter_H]

Maybe an underpowered computer with not enough memory or disk space. I am frequently disappointed that my 2013 Genesis 5.0 R-Spec Sedan does not perform as well as a 2021 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. Oh well!

[Philip Goddard]

My own solution with PSE from decades ago has been always to run ONLY the Editor program, from shortcuts pointing directly to its exe, and not to engage with Organizer or the Elements start screen at all.

However, just today I've been doing some pruning of unused programs on my C drive, and especially bulky ones, and I was wondering about actually deleting the whole Organizer folder. Although it's not doing any harm actively, it's a space hog, and increases the duration and resources used for any system scan.

I'm not one for recklessness, so what I've just done, rather than delete at once, is to rename the Organizer folder, then to run the Editor, load a photo, make a change, and see what's showing on the Save dialog. No problems. I checked various menus to see if there was anything that uses Organizer, but all I found was one link, I think 'Open in Organizer' or similar. I clicked on that, and the program paused for a minute or two, saying 'Loading Organizer', being unresponsive to clicks on its window, but then that attempt timed out without error message, and there was no problem. Clealy no cause to click on that link anyway.

I rather think that I am going to delete that folder. I myself definitely neither want nor need it, for I use other, more lightweight and non-intrusive software for organizing my photos: XNView and Photo Mechanic. -- Yet for my purposes I find Elements by far the most effective, intuitive and quick photo editor out of many that I've tried at different times, so, as long as I can purchase a non-subscription upgrade as needed, I'll stick with it.

All the best,

Philip