Organizer 2020 Error

[Walter_H]

I use PSE 2020 on a Windows 10 PC. I occasionally get a pop-up error message from the Organizer when I'm NOT using the Organizer or any other PSE app. The message window is attached below.  I know that it's from the Organizer because it also shows the Organizer icon on my Taskbar when it pops up. I assume that it's got something to do with the "Auto Creations" feature, but the Auto Creations works fine. I get a notification about a new creation every day or so.

What causes this error? Does it indicate a possible problem with my PSE installation?

[Greg_S.]

Hi Walter.  I've never seen or heard of this error message but it seems to be a memory issue - either not enough RAM or possibly not enough disk space on your scratch disk drive.  What are you doing in the Editor or Organizer when the message pops up?

If you have not specially designated your scratch disk for the Editor, your C drive will be used.  If so, how much free space do you have on that drive?  For the Organizer, you may want to clear the Media Cache.  You will find the control for that in the Edit>Preferences>File tab.  I have no idea whether this will stop the problem but it can't hurt.

[Walter_H]

Hello Greg, Thanks for your reply. I see this error message occasionally but infrequently. I sometimes find it on my screen in the morning when I first go to use my computer after the PC was idle overnight. I was at my PC, but NOT using the Editor or Organizer when this instance popped up. I'll try clearing the Media Cache in the Organizer as you suggested. Here is my System Info from the Editor.

Adobe Photoshop Elements Version: 18.0 (20201207.m.154403) x64
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit
Version: 10 or greater
System architecture: Intel CPU Family:6, Model:14, Stepping:13 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, HyperThreading
Physical processor count: 8
Logical processor count: 16
Processor speed: 3600 MHz
Built-in memory: 32683 MB
Free memory: 19895 MB
Memory available to Photoshop Elements: 29929 MB
Memory used by Photoshop Elements: 70 %
Image tile size: 1024K
Image cache levels: 6
Font Preview: Extra Large
TextComposer: Latin
Display: 1
Display Bounds: top=0, left=0, bottom=1200, right=1920
OpenGL Drawing: Disabled.
License Type: Perpetual
Serial number: 91558078572408753118
Feature::Dummy Feature: OFF
Feature::HEIFFormat: ON
Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 2020\
Temporary file path: D:\Temp-Me\
Photoshop Elements scratch has async I/O enabled
Scratch volume(s):
E:\, 5.46T, 4.01T free
D:\, 1.82T, 1.19T free
Required Plug-ins folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 2020\Required\Plug-Ins\
Primary Plug-ins folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 2020\Plug-Ins\
Additional Plug-ins folder: D:\PSE Stuff\Plug-Ins\

[Greg_S.]

Well I don't see any problems with your hardware.  Based on your comments, I suppose it could be Autocreations doing something funky.  If you really want to troubleshoot it, try turning Autocreations off for a few days and see whether the problem reappears.

Do you have any other Adobe programs installed besides Elements 2020?

[Walter_H]

Hi Greg, Yes I have several other Adobe programs installed. Here is a screenshot of my Adobe folder in Program Files.

I also have Acrobat Pro DC installed in Program Files (x86). One thing I forgot to mention - about 2 to 3 hours after I received that pop-up error message, I got a Windows notification that Auto Creations had created another creation for me. So, Auto Creations DOES work, but I get that crazy message occasionally. BTW, I just now cleared the Media Cache in the Organizer. Maybe that helps - I'll see.

[Greg_S.]

Walter, it is quite possible that the problem has nothing to do with Elements but belongs to one of your other Adobe programs.

[Walter_H]

Hi Greg, when that message pops up, the Organizer icon also appears on my Windows taskbar. When I click OK on the error message to dismiss it, the Organizer icon on the taskbar also goes away. So, I'm pretty confident that the message is caused by the Organizer. Since the Auto Creations feature does work successfully, I guess that I'll just ignore that error message since it doesn't seem to be a serious problem.