Not able to backup to external hard drive. Error message.

[OVBob]

I previously used PSE 5, 12, and 14.  When Mac upgraded to Catalina, I got a trial version of PSE 18.  Before it expired, I bought PSE 2020.  It works but when I try to backup catalog, I can't get it to complete the backup.  I choose the catalog (only have one), choose full backup, choose external HD, and after a minute of preparing, I get an error message.  I can't copy/paste it so I will type it in below.  The only thing I notice is that it ends in pse 18db.  Do I need to somehow get rid of PSE 18, even though I'm using PSE 2020?  I have read through 15 pages of questions and have not found anything exactly like this.  I'm not a computer geek so please type slowly. 😉  Thanks.

"Error encountered while writing files.  /Users/Bob/Library/Application Support/Adobe Elements Organizer/Catalogs/Mac Catalog 1/catalog.pse 18db"

[ankitd]

Hi,

The error message is not related to PSE 18 so you don't need to uninstall it. The error is related to PSE 2020. The error shown may be due to multiple reasons. Can you please answer some questions so that we can have a better understanding of the issue?

1. Are you trying to make a copy f the catalog manually or are you using Element Organizer's backup feature present in the File menu-> Backup catalog?

2. Do you have the write access on the external drive you are trying to take the backup on? You can validate this by copy-pasting any file on your machine to the external drive. If you are not able to copy the file then you may not have write access on the external drive or the external drive may be in a format that doesn't support writing on mac.

Thanks!

[OVBob]

I am using the Organizer's backup feature, backup catalog.

Yes, the external HD is the only one I have and it backs up my mac.  I was able to copy/paste a file to it successfully just now to verify access.