Images Disappear

[ElPaso]

I think I caused some issues by using Photoshop Elements and iTunes concurrently. Images have disappeared from albums, folders, drives. Images have been given erroneous information like dates, tags etc. My question is how can I recover and was it caused by iTunes?

[Greg_S.]

We need some more details from you. What OS are you using and which version of Elements?

What are you doing in iTunes that you think may have caused the problems. Elements is merely a database for your files and keeps track of where your files are located.  If you are managing files by moving them in any program other than Elements, it is going to cause problems for you in Elements.

We need more details about the images that have "disappeared."  Do  thumbnails still show up in your catalog but when you click on them they are displayed as "missing"?

Have you backed up your catalog, either using the built-in backup utility or some other backup software?

[ElPaso]

I’m using Windows 10 Pro with Elements 2019. I was viewing photos in the tile view. When I clicked to open one. Several photos “disappeared” and were replaced by unrelated photos. I have not been able to locate the missing files, although the issue seems to change photo information too such as dates and tags and possibly filename and/or extension? I backup my files to an external hard drive, but I also take a lot of pictures and am concerned that if I do a restore I will lose a lot of recent photos.

I read on-line that Photoshop and Itunes were incompatible. I had both programs running when this happened?

Thanks

[Greg_S.]

I can't imagine how iTunes could affect files in Elements.  Unless you delete an image in the Organizer and confirm that you want to remove it from both the catalog and the hard drive, your files will remain stored on your computer wherever you saved them to.

When you "clicked to open" a photo and several items "disappeared", were you trying to open the file in the Editor or were you trying to zoom to single image view?  If you were trying to open the file in the Editor, did it in fact open in the Editor?

Has the problem happened more than once?

Just to try some other diagnostics, in the Organizer please click on Find>All Missing Files, and let us know whether any missing files are found.

Also, go to File>Manage Catalogs, and select the Repair and Optimize buttons.  Allow the processes to complete even if no errors are found.

[ElPaso]

Tried “Reconnect” – nothing was found.

To be specific, I had an album of photos from a September 2018 trip to Mexico. Within the Organizer program I was looking at the photos in tile view. When I clicked to view the photo in single view, they disappeared and were replaced by a random collection of photos from up to ten years back and using multiple cameras. The files in the album now are all dated in the September 2018 time frame and have sequential names, as if the album still contains the correct file names but the underlying file has changed. I have about 10,000 photos, so I’m not sure how often this has happened. This instance was obvious as the whole album was replaced.

[Greg_S.]

I'm still not sure that I am understanding what is happening.   When you refer to an album, are you talking about an Album that you have created in the Organizer?

If so, are the photos in your Mexico 2018 Album all stored in a single folder on your hard drive?  Are all of the files in the folder contained within the Album?

Within the Organizer program I was looking at the photos in tile view. When I clicked to view the photo in single view, they disappeared and were replaced by a random collection of photos from up to ten years back and using multiple cameras.

If you double-clicked on a photo in the tile view, only a single image should have been visible.  Is that what happened or something else?

(By the way, when you say you were viewing the photos in tile view, are you talking about the adaptive view where there is no border between the images or in the grid view like my screenshot above?)

The files in the album now are all dated in the September 2018 time frame and have sequential names, as if the album still contains the correct file names but the underlying file has changed.

Can you give us an example of the original file name.  Did the names of the files in the album change?  What is the actual location of the changed files.  (Select one of the files and click on the "location" link in the Info. panel on the right side of the Organizer.)  Is the file in the location that you expect it to be?

One other question:  What is the Sort Order that you have selected for the Media Browser?