Reconnect Missing Files?

[notmuchclue]

I have updated to Photoshop 2018. I also ran a program called Duplicate Sweeper. I then realised that I had about 6000 files that need to be reconnected. I restored the deleted files that Duplicate Sweeper had deleted. I set Duplicate Sweeper to 'Keep latest version' or similar.

I have tried to reconnect the files by Reconnect Missing Files>Select All-but cannot find the Find button which is mentioned in  the Browse panel.

I have tried to reconnect manually but I just get a message saying that the folder is empty.

I don't know if this means I have restored the deleted files but they are not in the folders.

The files are all saved in Google photos, and I wonder it I could download them onto the hard drive.

Or, would re-installing the 2018 update help.

Thanks for any help

Morris

[MichelBParis · Accepted solution]

notmuchclue  wrote

I have updated to Photoshop 2018. I also ran a program called Duplicate Sweeper. I then realised that I had about 6000 files that need to be reconnected. I restored the deleted files that Duplicate Sweeper had deleted. I set Duplicate Sweeper to 'Keep latest version' or similar.

Morris

The golden rule for the organizer is NEVER to delete, rename or move files OUTSIDE of the organizer.

The golden rule for any organizing system is to make a backup before any drastic change like duplicate sweeping or moving to another computer.

Why?

Because any catalog is a record of where you have put things. If you have a catalog for your books (or wine) library, moving those items without updating the catalog, your catalog won't know and be false.

Does it mean that you should not use external duplicate sweeper software with a PSE catalog?

The external software will scan all your files; it may be smart enough to select the best files to keep and the ones to delete.

First problem: you are not sure that all the files in your computer are in your catalog. Not sure which duplicates are or not in the catalog.

You decide to let the sweeper delete the selection  from disk. The result is that the selected files previously in the catalog will be shown as missing. You can use the organizer to select and delete all the disconnected files in a single operation. However, you are not sure that the corresponding good  'duplicates' are in the catalog, so, they will be left on disk and ignored by the catalog. Reconnecting only works when the files are still on the computer (moved or renamed) and still in the catalog.

Let's summarize:

- sweeper physically deletes its chosen bad duplicates from disk

- the deleted files are shown as missing in the catalog, you can select and delete them all in two steps

- Good if all duplicates were already in the catalog... but are you sure?

Frequently, you have a lot of duplicates outside of the catalog. Relatively frequently, you don't care for those and wish to ignore them. Then, do a full backup and restore on another drive or master folder. The restored library can be safely processed by the sweeper avoiding the problem mentioned above. Additionally, your original library and catalog are still available as a backup and you can even compare their structure to find out the reasons of duplicate folders.

I don't see where reconnecting would be useful in the process if you use the sweeper to simply erase from disk the bad duplicates.

Warning: deleting a big number of files in a catalog at the same time has always been a challenge for the Organizer. With recent versions and 64-bits hardware and enough RAM, the process will not abort after hours of lost processing... but that can take a lot of time. You can delete the selected missing files by smaller batches if necessary.

The files are all saved in Google photos, and I wonder it I could download them onto the hard drive.

That should not be a problem?

[notmuchclue]

Many thanks for your detailed and helpful reply.

morris

[Boris-Molina]

Thanks for this post.

I have a similar problem. For some reason I had each photo uploaded 3-4 times into the catalog (ie 3/4 pictures of a total 150k where duplicates). I used a duplicate remover to erase the duplicate files in the file system (Elements Orgnizer find find/erase duplicates is a manual/tedious task).... now I need to find a way to remove the duplicate entries in the catalog which have a "missing file" icon.  I don't seem to find a way to select/erase catalog entries with missin files unless it is the same tedious manual process of removing 123k pictures. 

Is there a way to "select" all the pics with missing files?

Thanks!

[Greg_S.]

Boris said:

Is there a way to "select" all the pics with missing files?

Use the Find>All missing files menu command.  Once the search is completed, select all of the media in the grid (Ctrl+A) and press delete.