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Pictures directory a mess after using PSE Organizer!!

Explorer ,
Oct 31, 2017 Oct 31, 2017

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I organized photos in Photoshop Elements Organizer 2018 in Tree View.

Then I checked my Pictures directory (Windows 10) and it is an absolute mess!!!!!!!! I had about 30 folders (not counting subfolders) before using Organizer. Now there are 314 folders!!! I've used a few other organizers before and when I changed something in the organizer, the same changes took place in the Pictures directory (eg. moving, renaming)...and visa versa,

Questions: Why did this happen, and what can I do? Is it a glitch? What am I missing? If I reorganize everything in the Pictures directory, which will take hours, what can I expect to happen in Organizer?

What a mess!!!!

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LEGEND ,
Nov 01, 2017 Nov 01, 2017

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What are the other Organizer apps? Are you using something like Picasa or similar? Could these apps have created folders to protect the integrity of a library?

Organizer simply manages the photos you tell it to. You can import one folder at a time, choose a batch of folders or import all folders & subfolders. You can also turn off the watch folder (Pictures by default) if you prefer not to have images imported automatically.

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Explorer ,
Nov 01, 2017 Nov 01, 2017

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What are the other Organizer apps? Are you using something like Picasa or similar? Could these apps have created folders to protect the integrity of a library?

Thank you for your reply. But I really don't understand it. What do other programs have to do with the way Organizer is behaving?

I've only had my notebook for about four months and have done no photo organizing with other programs. Saying that, I do have Picasa on my computer but have only used it two times to make photo collages. I also use Canon ZoomBrowser and photos are imported into it from a SD card.

Organizer simply manages the photos you tell it to. You can import one folder at a time, choose a batch of folders or import all folders & subfolders. You can also turn off the watch folder (Pictures by default) if you prefer not to have images imported automatically.

I still want to understand why Organizer changed all the photos in my Pictures directory and messed everything up. In fact, when I looked closely, the directory is now "organized" the same as all the folders appear in List View in Organizer.

No folders are being watched. All Meta Analysis is unchecked.

Now I'm afraid to change or move anything in the My Pictures folder like I've been doing for years. Organizer will probably tell me that the photos are unlinked.

If you or someone can help my better understand what is going on, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 01, 2017 Nov 01, 2017

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I still want to understand why Organizer changed all the photos in my Pictures directory and messed everything up.

Simply, I don't believe it.The organizer does not create or move folders unless you decide so.

There is still a mystery about what you are seeing as 'a mess' and what you are seeing in the left panel folder.

How does it compare with the folder tree in the explorer?

What do the 'created' additional folders look like?

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Explorer ,
Nov 01, 2017 Nov 01, 2017

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Simply, I don't believe it.The organizer does not create or move folders unless you decide so.

The changes in my Pictures directory happened after I moved things around in Organizer. There are now 314 folders in my Pictures directory!!! Before there were only about 20!

314.JPG

There is still a mystery about what you are seeing as 'a mess' and what you are seeing in the left panel folder.

See above reply.

How does it compare with the folder tree in the explorer?

What do the 'created' additional folders look like?

The folders in the Pictures directory now correspond by filename exactly to the way they show in List View. I don't think they are newly created folders. Actually, I just checked, and it seems that all the subfolders are still in their primary folders (named by year, eg. 2016, 2017). All the subfolders have just been duplicated and placed outside the main folder. In other words, I have double the amount of photos and .psd files.


I'm completely perplexed. I will call back Adobe tech support within the next few days and see if they know what happened. Maybe, unbeknownst to him, something happened when he was trying to reinstall PSE.

I'm going to temporarily take the duplicated folders out of the Pictures directory and see what happens in Organizer. If this continues to cause problems, I'm going to ask for my money back!

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Community Expert ,
Nov 01, 2017 Nov 01, 2017

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I am sorry, your screenshot does not tell me anything about your 'mess'. I don't see the added folders, I don't see what you are seeing in the explorer or in the left folder tree. I don't see if there is a duplication of folder names... I suggest posting screenshots to help understand.

The only way you can create new folders in the organizer is in the 'Import from camera or card reader' process.

All the subfolders have just been duplicated and placed outside the main folder. In other words, I have double the amount of photos and .psd files.

Really? All the files and folders in 'My Pictures' are shown in two places: your 'user' folder and the 'My Pictures' Windows shortcut folder in the explorer. They are not duplicated. If you delete a photo from one of those two locations, it is deleted from the other. Maybe you know it, but I have seen other users delete precious pictures by not knowing this.

About the folders 'flat' or 'list' view: what is shown is only the last subfolders of each tree branch. You can see duplicate folder names for subfolders in different branches. My advice: to be used only for searches by folder names (only for subfolders of each branch).

The 'tree' view should correspond to the tree view of the explorer, but only the folders/subfolders containing pictures imported in the current catalog are visible by default.

Moving folder or folder branches in the left panel works the same as in the explorer (the organizers uses the same resources and APIs as the explorer). The difference is that the catalog is updated (no missing or disconnected files).

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Explorer ,
Nov 01, 2017 Nov 01, 2017

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but I have seen other users delete precious pictures by not knowing this.

I'm going to have to play a bit to see what's going on...but not until after I speak with adobe.

About the folders 'flat' or 'list' view: what is shown is only the last subfolders of each tree branch. You can see duplicate folder names for subfolders in different branches. My advice: to be used only for searches by folder names (only for subfolders of each branch).

Thank you for all the information! I'm trying my best to get a handle on all of it. All I know is that I've never had this problem before using Organizer.

I'll be including two screen shots. My Pictures (partial view of the 314 folders) and List View in Organizer. It's important to note that most of my main folders had the year only. So the others you are seeing are subfolders within the main folders. Hope I'm explaining myself alright (some names blurred by me).

list view pse o.JPG

pictures directory.JPG

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LEGEND ,
Nov 01, 2017 Nov 01, 2017

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The Folders view simply shows every folder or subfolder which contain photos being managed by organizer.

If you click the pull-down menu and switch to tree view you can expand or contract each branch of the tree by clicking the plus or minus icons.

You should not re-arrange the folders in Windows Explorer as that will break the links Organizer has made and you will end up with lots of missing photos that Organizer knows nothing about.

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Explorer ,
Nov 01, 2017 Nov 01, 2017

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The Folders view simply shows every folder or subfolder which contain photos being managed by organizer.

If you click the pull-down menu and switch to tree view you can expand or contract each branch of the tree by clicking the plus or minus icons.

I understand this. What I don't understand is why I now have 314 folders in the Windows Pictures directory, which is now double the size (in GB) than before I started using Organizer a few days ago. Are you saying all these folders (sub folders that are in main folders) were created by Organizer in the Windows Pictures directory?

I should point out that I was using Organizer for more than a month before the Adobe Tech person helped me reinstall the program two days ago. I didn't have all these extra folders showing in the Pictures directory!! This is something that occurred just two days ago.

You should not re-arrange the folders in Windows Explorer as that will break the links Organizer has made and you will end up with lots of missing photos that Organizer knows nothing about.

Okay. So, when I want to transfer images from a camera SD card to my hard drive, I should use Organizer instead of Canon ZoomBrowser? ZB puts the puts the photos in the Pictures directory, will Organizer?

I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the help I've been given so far!

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LEGEND ,
Nov 01, 2017 Nov 01, 2017

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I would say use Organizer or Zoom Browser but not both. I believe you can set up Zoom Browser to use external editing. So you could set up the Elements Editor in Zoom Browser Preferences. Or simply stick with Organizer for a fully integrated workflow. Import your photos directly into Organizer from camera or card reader.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 01, 2017 Nov 01, 2017

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fotografffic  wrote

I should point out that I was using Organizer for more than a month before the Adobe Tech person helped me reinstall the program two days ago. I didn't have all these extra folders showing in the Pictures directory!! This is something that occurred just two days ago.

Obviously, we can't exclude that the Adobe Tech did something more than reinstalling the software. However, since duplicating a whole folder tree can't be made from within Elements, we have to imagine which workflow could have duplicated the folders.

- The downloader module would be only used for importing files from camera or card reader, and it has a default option to skip the files already in the catalog. Importing from files or folders. It simply indexes the files location and tags/exif, it does not create any duplicate.

- if you want to duplicate voluntarily all the files of your catalog in a duplicate folder tree, that implies creating a full backup and restore. I don't see why and how the Tech could have done this.

Okay. So, when I want to transfer images from a camera SD card to my hard drive, I should use Organizer instead of Canon ZoomBrowser? ZB puts the puts the photos in the Pictures directory, will Organizer?

To download (transfer images from a camera SD to the hard drive), you can use Zoombrowser (it's a long time I did that...) The result is that the files are copied on your hard drive, and you 'import' in the organizer from drives and folders. No duplication is made, only indexing in the catalog. That's a valid option.

If you choose to download from the organizer, it does both 'download', that is copies the content of the card to the hard drive and indexes the contents. You should not use Zoombrowser at all in that case. That would probably imply a duplication of your photo files and folders, even if the indexing part of the organizer should ignore 'duplicates'. You would have duplicates on your drive but not in your catalog.

Another detail: when importing from card or camera, you have the interesting option to create date-based subfolder hierarchy. That's the single situation I know of where the downloader part of the organizer creates subfolders. Obviously, that could explain the appearance of new subfolders. However, I don't see why you would have to 'import' from cards or camera in your situation?

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Explorer ,
Nov 01, 2017 Nov 01, 2017

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The two screenshots I did for this post are now showing in Organizer "All Media" view. How, why? I didn't important them.

I've checked all the preference settings can't find any setting that relates to this. Maybe I've missed it in the replies, but I still don't understand why all those hundreds of extra folders appear in my Windows Pictures folder. I will call Adobe when time permits.

No one suggested I not open Picasa, which I only use for collages, but I just did. It's showing two of every folder now. Argh!

2newitems-organizer.JPG

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Explorer ,
Nov 01, 2017 Nov 01, 2017

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If you choose to download from the organizer, it does both 'download', that is copies the content of the card to the hard drive and indexes the contents. You should not use Zoombrowser at all in that case. That would probably imply a duplication of your photo files and folders, even if the indexing part of the organizer should ignore 'duplicates'. You would have duplicates on your drive but not in your catalog.

Hmmmm. So, if I understand you correctly, the problem of duplicates may be caused, directly or indirectly, by ZoomBrowser?

I honestly don't mean to belabor the point, but this didn't happen until PSE was reinstalled by Adobe Tech Support. I'm not saying he did anything wrong, but something went wrong somewhere.

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Explorer ,
Nov 17, 2017 Nov 17, 2017

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I'm rereading this entire thread again, to refresh my memory at the many fine pointers I've received in this thread. Today is the day I import my photos info Organizer.

If you choose to download from the organizer, it does both 'download', that is copies the content of the card to the hard drive and indexes the contents. You should not use Zoombrowser at all in that case. That would probably imply a duplication of your photo files and folders, even if the indexing part of the organizer should ignore 'duplicates'. You would have duplicates on your drive but not in your catalog.

The bulk of my photos were copied directly into my Pictures folder from an external hard drive backup. Prior to the problems there had been no important at all from a SD card, only drag and drop. Then I imported them into Organizer, and initially did a lot of reorganizing via Organizer.

My best guess is that the problems were as a result of some type of corruption/conflicts due to the fact that I tried four Photo Editing progams at the same time; most were trial versions: PSElements 2018, PSP2018, Affinity, Gimp, each of which I played extensively. I decided on PS Elements. I uninstalled the three latter programs, Gimp left lots of remnants. And when I couldn't switch List and Tree views, I tried to uninstall PSE. When I couldn't, that's when Adobe tech stepped in and installed it for me.  I'm also wondering if ZoomBrower and Picasa (older programs) added to the problems.

I'm not asking for replies to this thread, just summarizing because it may help Adobe Tech folks who probably read this forums.

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Explorer ,
Nov 17, 2017 Nov 17, 2017

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As it relates to Organizer, whats a photo files library? When I back up the catalog, I do it through File Menu > Backup Catalog. It says nothing about a photo files library.

Michel, how come you never put my photo files in the 'Pictures' folder and create a new master folder instead ('My_ photos')?

Organizer has an advantage: it can display .psd files thumbnails (the Windows Explorer can't)

I'm using Mystic Crumbs to view thumbnails in Windows Exporer. I shoot high quality jpgs. Never shoot RAW.

files will be renamed with a -1 suffix

I had countless images where the -1 suffix was added. They were duplicates, the origninal file was not overwritten. I don't understand why. I've had to manually delete all the duplicates in the Pictures directory as I reogranize all my images before importing into Organizer.

If you move all files from folder A to folder B, folder A will stay empty.

Why don't they just disappear instead of having empty folders? I see no useful purpose for this.

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Explorer ,
Nov 17, 2017 Nov 17, 2017

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I imported all my image folders into Organizer. During the process I got a message that not all images could be imported because they were already in the catalog. But how could there be a catalog when I just did a fresh install of my OS, and never used Organizer before this morning????!!!!

Many duplicate images images have been created again during the import and appended the duplicate images with -1, -2.

And all those images have been created once again the Pictures folder too, increasing disk space, for starters.

Please forgive my frustration, but I simply don't know what to do!

shr.PNG

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Community Expert ,
Nov 17, 2017 Nov 17, 2017

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Once again, when you import 'from files and folders', no files are copied or added on your disk. The files you are 'importing' are simply referenced in a catalog. Impossible to double the size of the media files, impossible to create duplicate files on your computer. You simply add new entries in the catalog.

I imported all my image folders into Organizer. During the process I got a message that not all images could be imported because they were already in the catalog. But how could there be a catalog when I just did a fresh install of my OS, and never used Organizer before this morning????!!!!

The message is ambiguous: 'because they were already in the catalog' or 'because they are not recognized' or similar.

If you have files such as the one you are showing, with ".pdlx-1.jpg", not sure that the double "." dot suffix separation is correctly recognized. How can you explain it?

If you try to import files from your computer (your 'library', your folder trees of photo files) you may have already duplicates. The process checks that the files to import have not been already imported in the same session. Not necessarily the problem you are seeing, but you would get the message if you tried to import already imported duplicate files in the same import session. You might even get the message for 'hidden' duplicates, that is files with different names, but with the same size in kb and date_taken... just examples for which you could get the message.

And all those images have been created once again the Pictures folder too, increasing disk space, for starters.

From where are you 'importing' your pictures? I still don't understand. You say they have been imported once again in the Pictures folder: did you copy them from your backups before starting the import session? What was the size of those photo files before, and how can you say the size has doubled?

You asked before why I don't store my photo files in the 'Pictures' pre-defined Windows folder. This is generally recommended to separate the location of the OS and programs from the data (picture files); the pictures files going in a separate drive or drive partition. The other reason is that the 'Pictures' default folder can be used by many softwares. I prefer to store only the files I am the only one to manage under a single different master folder. It's also generally recommended to use a single master folder on a single drive, even if you can have a single catalog to manage files on different drives.

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Explorer ,
Nov 17, 2017 Nov 17, 2017

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Thank you Michel, Please read the PM is sent you a few minutes ago. I'm trying to find out how to delete the catalog and going to use a different photo viewer. Despite all the time I've put in and despite all of your help, Organizer is just over my head and I don't want to spend any more time trying to figure it out. Thanks for your understanding and sticking with me to try to help!

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Explorer ,
Nov 18, 2017 Nov 18, 2017

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Well, I've reviewed several photo organizers and downloaded and tried a few free/trial versions. Nothing is really as good as Organizer, on the surface and at this time, Since I'm not inclined to purchase more software, I'm going to continue....very carefully, to get a better handle on Organizer.

One thing I fail to understand is outlined in this depreview thread. Maybe someone in these forums knows the answer.

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Explorer ,
Nov 18, 2017 Nov 18, 2017

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Once again, when you import 'from files and folders', no files are copied or added on your disk.

In my case, this is untrue. I have many duplicate files that appear in my Windows Pictures folder. -1 is added to the duplicate file. They appear to be photos I've moved through organizer from one folder to another. It seems Organizer makes copies of them, rather than overwriting the original image with the same filename. And they are very real files, consuming on average 3.5 mg of space each on my drive.

If this is not the way Organizer is supposed to behave, there there is a major glitch in the software!

-1.PNG

The message is ambiguous: 'because they were already in the catalog' or 'because they are not recognized' or similar.

If you have files such as the one you are showing, with ".pdlx-1.jpg", not sure that the double "." dot suffix separation is correctly recognized. How can you explain it?

I can't. explain it. And while I'm not overly technically inclined, I know more about computing that most people I know or meet.

If you try to import files from your computer (your 'library', your folder trees of photo files) you may have already duplicates. The process checks that the files to import have not been already imported in the same session.

Clean OS install; clean install of PSE; Only one import after everything auto in Organizer was shut off!

From where are you 'importing' your pictures? I still don't understand. You say they have been imported once again in the Pictures folder: did you copy them from your backups before starting the import session? What was the size of those photo files before, and how can you say the size has doubled?

All photo files and folders transferred from external hard drive to computer hard drive. Then imported into Organizer from the hard drive. I no longer make any changes to image and image folders outside of Organizer.

The other reason is that the 'Pictures' default folder can be used by many softwares.

This makes a lot of sense. While I am using the Pictures folder, I'm not using any programs such as Picasa/Zoombrowser that puts hidden files all over the place. As previously mentioned, I've deleted all P/ZB hidden files. I don't intend to use those programs again.

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Explorer ,
Nov 18, 2017 Nov 18, 2017

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One more thing: In Organizer there are 15 images in the "deer" folder. On my hard drive there are now 24 images (only 18 are showing in the screenshot above). This is not normal! Something is wrong!

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New Here ,
Apr 09, 2018 Apr 09, 2018

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mine is also a mess after using organizer

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New Here ,
Sep 12, 2020 Sep 12, 2020

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LATEST

I have seen the same problem and I dare not get rid of the extra folders in the folder tree in Organizer or it deletes valuable photographs.  I did not create the additonal folder tree. I have a theory.  Although my Windows explorer folder tree is reproduced from the root C:, I also think it is duplicated from the Windows library "Pictures" folder.  If this is the case, then I can understand why I and others are confused.  While in essence PSE is not adding more folders and files to the PC, it is graphically showing one tree twice.  This is dangerous  as it causes confusion.   Like your subscriber "photografffic"  I was tempted to delete the extra tree image.  If I had, I would have deleted thousands of photographs unknowingly.   Also, I'll take the opportunity to say that we users of PSE should set-up watched folders.  I nearly had had my C: drive and my two backups being imported.   Please let us, the customer decide how and what the program does. Auto-creation is yet another frustration.   The program is great - there's no two ways to say that, but the way it's setup to "auto do this", and "auto do that" it cost days and days of time to sort out the mess.

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Explorer ,
Nov 02, 2017 Nov 02, 2017

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While I may never know what caused the problem of hundreds sub-folders showing up in my Pictures after an Adobe tech person reinstalled Photoshop Elements 2018, I think I solved the problem.

I manually removed the hundreds of extraneous folders from the Pictures directory and backed them up to an external hard drive. I then deleted the extraneous folders off my hard drive. Thus far, Organizer seems to be behaving, and everything else seems to be working fine to this point.

Thanks everyone for trying to determine and help me solve the problem.

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Explorer ,
Nov 06, 2017 Nov 06, 2017

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Yesterday, Organizer duplicated a subfolder that appeared in my Pictures folder. At least it made only one and not close to 300!

Another strange folder appeared: PictIQ. I assume, maybe erroneously, that it was created by Organizer?

pictIQ.JPG

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