The old solution still works. You need to store both your photo folders and your catalog folder on a USB on a shared external USB drive that you plug in alternatively on two computers with the same PSE version.   You need a USB external hard drive (ideally one dedicated for backups and another one for the shared disk, preferably a very small SSD one).   https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/backup-restore-move-catalog-photoshop.html   Before starting the restore to the final SSD, best use Windows to set the letter of the external drive to a letter that can be assigned to both computers, such as X,Y,...   Create a new master folder under the root of the drive, such as 'my shared PSE library'. that will be your destination folder for the restore. The catalog folder will be restored under your master folder beside your photo folders tree. Be sure to check that the assigned drive letter of the shared drive is recognized by both computers.   You only need to perform regular backups. Your catalog is immediately available as soon as the external drive is plugged in. If you have plenty of disk space in one or both computers, You can restore the backup and catalog in those drives as a ready to use secondary backup, but to keep everything updated, the main catalog is the one on the shared disk. Another backup option for the media only  is to use an external syncing software such as Acronis which will be much faster than the organizer backup.     ... View more

Edit > Fade or cmd + shift + f  By @Diego2477264582ge   Diego, That is available only in the full Photoshop, not in Elements:  scroll down to my previous answer in that old discussion. Either do what @hatstead suggests or consider installing the very affordable plugin Elements+ as I suggestesd. (I see from your forum history that you have the full Photoshop). ... View more

Try without updating sqlite. ... View more

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I am installing PSE 2023 on a new computer. New C drive. Old C drive is now E drive. What other ways can I transfer my photos and their data to PSE 2023 on the new C drive?Best Regards, Charles C Holt By @Cliff3f Two problems: - the restore process will not work without a .tly file. The best you can do would be to create what I call a 'minimal' backup, that is a new backup folder containing only the 'catalog.buc' file renamed to catalog.pseXXdb (XX being the version number, catalog.21db for pse 2023 for instance). That creates a limited set of data, including all tags, captions, stacks, version sets and albums, but not face recognition among others. - even with that limited solution, in the database, the links would point to the C: drive letter (wrong) and the correct drive internal number (unchanged even if renamed E). Ideally, that would require updating the sqlite database to the correct volume identification (E instead of C) but I believe the internal serial number of the disk takes precedence over the drive letter. So, maybe worth a try.   ... View more

There has been several reports of missing .tly files. It seems that most of the time, the reason was closing the backup process too soon. That file is the last one created in the backup folder. I don't trust the end of process notification myself, I always wait more and check if the .tly file is present in the backup folder. ... View more

Hello everybody   When moving to my new computer, I messed things up!  I copied many files, but not all. And now it is  too late ?   😯 I have a copy of my catalogs folder with catalog.pse15db etc  . My "real" photos are on Onedrive. With PSE2022 I cannot open the catalogs.  Is all my work (faces) lost?   Advice would be welcome. By @wilfriedc88826221 Elements totally ignores the OneDrive "Cloud". Elements can only see and access files on your physical hard drives (internal or external). So, the real location is the OneDrive system folder on your harddrive, and OneDrive takes care of synchronizing the contents of that system drive to the location in the OneDrive cloud. If you move to another computer, the recommended way is to use the backup and restore solution provided by the organizer. - the backup creates a 'backup folder', ideally on an external drive. That folder stores both your catalog data AND renamed versions of all of your photos/videos. - The restore process reads the contents of that backup folder to recreate both your catalog (which does not contain any photos) and your photo folders tree(s). - The important fact to know is that the restore reads the original location of the files (path AND drive name/letter) and restores everything in the folder/drive of your choice. - The restore process is able to convert an older version of catalogs to the new one automatically. If you don't do such a backup and restore, only catalog is restored, not the photos folder trees. If you think you have restored your photofiles using the OneDrive features to sync them back to a new computer (or drive), then you are out of luck, because the links in the restored catalog still point to the old computer or drive. All files are missing if the restoration disk is different from the original. Can you tell us more about what you did with both the organizer and OneDrive?   ... View more

"Elements has already more than twenty versions. Would you expect Adobes to develop a compatible version of each of them every year ?" Well, yes. From 2022 to 2023 is only one year difference. If I have to buy a new version of PSE every year it is in effect a subscription. By @Ken22449020seti So, you are agreeing that you are not expecting updating 20 versions. Only one, knowing that it appears that the problem does not exist in PSE 2023 issued one year ago. The real issue is that Adobe never updates previous versions of Elements and they have no interest in doing so. So, think about the coming years and make your choice. Keep in mind that Elements is very marginal for Adobe. And the Mac market share seems to be equally marginal for Elements, which has to be compared with the developping costs  and share of issues in the support side. Windows users might wish that Adobe no longer offer a Mac version for Macs. ... View more

Niether is acceptable. I should not have to buy a new product that MAY work untill Apple has a new update next year. The one time payment will become an anual expence.bas By @Ken22449020seti Exactly. Apple is your operating system supplier. Software providers do use pieces of code in the OS to perform basic functions. The OS suppliers (Apple, Windows, Linux, Android...) do offer new pieces of code to offer new functions and accomodate new hardwares. They are also tempted to remove older pieces to make their OS simpler to maintain. The result is that whenever they delete older pieces of code, all older programs (not only from Adobe) won't work. That means that older programs won't work without being rewritten, which is a huge cost for software editors. So, other OS providers (not Apple) take great care to keep backward compatibility with their older versions. For instance, I have still PSE 6, 10 and all newer ones working in Windows 10. Software editors may offer free or paying 'updates' to reasonably new versions. The trend is to offer not only 'perpetual' licenses, but also subscription models, which imply every user to use the latest updated version. Adobe pros and advanced amateurs using that license scheme do receive regular updates. They have no problem with Apple changing their OS every  year without backward compatibility. Elements has already more than twenty versions. Would you expect Adobes to develop a compatible version of each of them every year ? The other way to see your choice is to consider: - downgrading to an older Apple OS version (which is available with Adobe with a subscription for their programs) - choosing other OS or software editors in the competition. ... View more

In the future, I will delete folders from the Organizer before moving them off my hard drive. I think that process will be simpler. By @My Fair London   The question is: Should I delete folders from the catalog? or Should I delete the files in those folders from the catalog?   There is perhaps no difference in your workflow, but keep in mind that deleting folders also deletes files which are not yet in your catalog. The golden rule of the organizer is to use the organizer, not the Explorer to delete, move or rename files. In this case, deleting folders from the organizer acts as if you send that command directly to the explorer. ... View more

The easiest way is to 'print' the batch of files to the pdf format on your drive. You need a virtual pdf printer driver like the 'print to pdf' one which is already installed by default with Windows. There are many similar free drivers for Windows and I suppose there is something similar for Macs. You select your files and when issueing the print command, you select the virtual driver of your choice and specify the new file name and location. ... View more

Thanks Ian, Now I understand why you have to move layers from files which have already been processed to layered files. "Other instances" are common, but not a repetitive task. Your use of layers to mimic stacks and albums in a single file is original enough. ... View more

Hi @Ian Whitworth  I did not ask before because: - I have never used 'tabbed' view (I prefer floating windows) - I am reluctant to reinstall PSE15... What is described by Jeff works for me as well as using copy and paste instead of dragging.   What I am curious about is the reason of dragging layers to and from already layered files. I first supposed that was similar to creating a composite collage from different photo files of players, not from some layers. I don't see how that fits in the description of your workflow (which seems to be very repetitive?) ... View more

Hi Michel,   I am bothered about Photoshop Elements, or actually Windows File Explorer, changing the date and time that shows up on the Date created tag because I would like to see the actual date and time at which I created .psd files in Photoshop Elements displayed on what you called the description panel provided by Windows File Explorer.   ...................................................................   I now accept that Photoshop Elements will update the Date created tag for .psd files to today's date, and if I want to find the correct Date created, I just click on File > File Info > Basic. I will then scroll down to Creation Date and see the correct and actual Date created.   Thank you for your reply. By @nathann93385955   What is confusing in the way the organizer displays the dates data in what I call the information panel in the right is that the top section shows info read from the media files metadata section while most other are coming from the catalog itself. The simple rule for pse users should be to ignore completely the "creation or modification" dates and only concentrate on the "date_taken" which is common to the data in the file itsef and the explorer as well as in the catalog database.   My guess is that if Adobe did not show those types of dates, many users would still wonder about the lack of those comon data...   I also understand that many users don't trust (understand?)  the organizer purpose and prefer to use the Explorer. For them, your question makes sense. ... View more

OK, done. Thank you.  My goal in being able to use RAW was to crop a few images while that image that still has the 24 Mb file size, and not just ~8 Mb after JPEG processing.  So Mr. Paris' warnings about the Elements version not being full-featured do not concern me much. By @Kenneth325215453psb   Hi@Kenneth325215453psb  Yes, I did mention that because many PSE users want to upgrade to a more recent ACR version to take advantage of the powerful new options only available in the full PS ACR or Lightroom. In your case, the other bonus of the limited PSE ACR is the ability to crop non destructively. Enjoy it! To be clear, I consider the "limited" features of the PSE ACR as "fondamental" rather than as "basic", but the reason to upgrade PSE ACR is to accomodate a new camera, not to get new features.   ... View more

Hi @Jeffh  I don't know anything about Macs, but I can give an explanation about what is a "catalog.buc" file. In a catalog folder, the main component is the sqlite database, named "catalog.pse15db" for Elements 15. When you create a backup, a backup folder is created. That folder contains renamed copies of all the assets in the original catalog folder. The "catalog.pse15db" file is renamed "catalog.buc" and can be renamed back if necessary provided you know which PSE version it comes from. So, a catalog.buc does not contain any other information from the original catalog than what is in the catalog.pse15db. You can't restore the whole original catalog folder from only that catalog.buc.   However, if you can rename it back, it's still possible to create a new reduced catalog folder (the name of that folder will be the new catalog name)  in which you store the renamed copy. That new reduced catalog can be opened by double clicking on the catalog.pse15db.   You'll lose several kinds of catalog info like face recognition, but you'll keep all your tagging, albums, stacks and version sets.     ... View more

hI @nathann93385955  The important info given by Greg is that what you are looking at is the description dialog of the files properties  shown by the Windows Explorer. The important item is not the 'creation or modification date, it's the 'date_taken' (in my French Windows it's date de prise de vue) which is shown in the 'details' tab with a dozen of other date flavours.   The Explorer needs to manage file descriptions for its own use (think about backups...) and also to allow photo descriptions to be used mainly by photo editors.   - The only relevant item is the 'date_taken' used everywhere in the editor and the organizer. - About the organizer: it is built around a powerful database in catalogs. Catalogs don't contain any file, only links to the information about the location and properties on the disks coming from camera exif or user tagging. Those info are provided to the organizer by the Windows Explorer routines. - So, when file properties (not photographic properties) are changed, that's the explorer which requires and operates the changes, not the editor, the organizer, Lightroom or any third party editor which dictate that the creation date must be changed.   - Back to the catalog database. The only pertinent date appearing in the organizer (or in the files properties of the editor) is the date_taken. It is used in many kinds of indexes for super fast searches. The date created alone is not even mentioned in the database, except for a combined index allowing finding 'import batches', a useful feature for searching duplicates. When you are seeing information such as creation date in the organizer information section, the data is not read from the catalog, it is read from the file metadata section itself.   My question now is: why bother about about items like creation date which are only for the use of the operationg system (the Explorer) and which are really confusing as you have found out? ... View more

In addition to what Greg explains, keep in mind that: - the ACR plugin in Elements is a severely reduced version of the full PS ACR. - Most of the time it is updated (automatically ONLY) later than the PS version to accomodate newer camera models;  and only for the current PSE version. - The workaround mentioned by Greg is to provide support for new camera, no new features. - The free solution for Elements users is to download and install the free Adobe DNGconverter. It's not a plugin, but a batch converter allowing you to batch convert a whole folder of prpprietary raw files to the open raw format DNG. A batch process, but free with the same quality. - The current PSE2023 does not support your camera, but the soon to come next version may support it. Keep an eye when it is ready. - The PS version of ACR you have downloaded will be used it you try the workaround, but you won't get any new feature, only the camera raw support; ... View more

I plan to replace my Win 10 pc with a Mac Mini. Can some provide step by step instructions explaining how to move my current catalog to the Mac Mini? I have looked these instructions and find them confusing (almost incoherent)  Move Elements Organizer catalog. I would like instructions that only explain moving a PSE 2019 catalog from Win PC to Mac OS and as detailed as possible. Thank you.   By @FDR32   The help document you are quoting is already the most detailed help which has been used by tens of thousands of users, so I don't believe there is a better one for "step by step" instructions. I rather believe that you need to get appropriate help for your own requirements. - of course, ask for given steps which are not clear for you. - most important:  if you see some steps as "incoherent", that means that something is not clear in the way You and Adobe understand the backup and restore process. Can you give some examples?   That backup and restore process is rather unique and different from standard ones. - It deals with both the catalog folder (containing the main database) and the media files folder trees. - The restore is apt to work in a new computer or drive while updating the location of every file recorded in the catalog database - it cares for the updating of the database engine for new PSE versions - it has to work for either Mac or Windows (some help must be provided by Mac users - I am not...)   ... View more

All my photos which I do not understand is in (Microsoft Storage) none of the current photos, (dresdenlondon 2023)  are in MICROSOFT STORAGE,  I plugged in my external and was glad I could edit again I do not want to leave the external plugged in while I edit .  ...again I guess I will edit in and with the external plugged in . By @Bonnie26642331u0gs   What do you mean by Microsoft storage ? I suppose you are using OneDrive. Remember that the organizer can't see or access anything from Cloud storage, only files on a physical drive (internal or physically plugged in external one). The service provided by OneDrive is to create such a folder with the ability of Microsoft to synchronize the contents of that folder with their own Cloud. The syncing is managed totally outside of Elements organizer by Microsoft in the background. ... View more

Bonjour, La fonction Suppression de la frange du calque ne fonctionne pas. Lorsque je clique sur cette fonction .... il ne se passe rien! Est-il possible qu cette fonction n'est pas activée? Est-ce un bug connu? Ou alors je m'y prends mal?? Merci de me répondre By @Jean-Luc32354956x5he Je n'ai pas trouvé où se trouve cette option car j'utilise la version anglaise. Je pense que l'aide en français commence là : https://helpx.adobe.com/fr/photoshop-elements/using/refine-edit-selection.html   Une copie d'écran de la commande que vous utilisez serait très utile. ... View more

HI, Would you happen to know when PSE 2024 will be released and will it have support for Fujifilm XT-5 images WITHOUT the necessity to put them through the Conversion to DNG process?   By @Frederick Jansohn   See: https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-elements-discussions/photoshop-elements-2024/td-p/14086445     ... View more

  Although I did notice that one of the PSE menu boxes was using the WIN11 OneDrive folder as the Save destination for my pictures.  I changed that to a new folder in my Pictures directory called PSE Saved Photos.  Not sure how that differs from the Default catalog location though.  Time to deactivate OneDrive, it seems to want to keep taking control of all my files and put them in locations other than where I want them to be. By @Bob Ward   Hi Bob, Windows makes things a bit confusion. They offer various kinds of system folders to use by default by software editors and normal users as well (such as programs, documents or pictures).  What is confusing is that the powerful OneDrive folders and subfolders use the same subfolder names as the normal ones, for instance Pictures or Documents. The OneDrive system folder is used to "sync" the data with the OneDrive cloud. - It's a local folder on your system, so it can be managed by the organizer - It's synced automatically in the background by Microsoft, so you get a kind of backup accessible by other devices.   You only have to move things in or out from a subfolder outside OneDrive to the system OneDrive folder to have the media synced.   The limitation is that even if you can "sync" a catalog folder as well as a media folder tree, the backed up folder will be restored only on the original location, not on a new computer. So, it makes sense to use the standard organizer backup to move to another computer.   I have no experience to store a huge library in the OneDrive system drive, but for a small library like yours, that makes sense. You can store only a part of your library in that drive, the rest where you want. ... View more

Thanks for that detailed info Michel.  So by creating a new PSE catalog folder, I won't be corrupting anything in the way that PSE stores my photos.  For example, if I create a "PSE Photos" subfolder in my "Pictures" directory, and then restore to that new folder, everything will work fine? By @Bob Ward   What I am suggesting is NOT to create a new "PSE catalog folder". When you have installed the recent PSE, automatically a new catalog folder (it's empty) has been created in the default location for catalog folders. When you start the Restore process from the new computer, the organizer must know where to restore two things: - the media folders tree (what I do call the "library" - the new (converted if needed) catalog folder.   If my example explains the lack of the "original location" is true, for instance your user system folder is now called "Bob Ward" instead of "Ward Bob", you'll only have the option to restore on a new location. And that applies to the library, that is the media folders tree. If you create a "PSE Photos" subfolder in your My Pictures directery (a good idea) that's the location where your media folders tree will be restored. You could as well decide to create that library on an external drive. What is not intuitive is that the new catalog folder has to be restored as well, and it can't be restored in the original folder of the old drive, so the rule for the orgnizer is to restore automatically that folder just under the "PSE Photos" subfolder. For instance, if you have restored on an extenal drive, the folder will reside on the external drive.   There are good reasons to store all catalogs under the same default (hidden) master catalog folder, there are also good reasons to store the library and catalog on a different, even external drive. If you prefer the default, the catalog manager has the option to move your catalog from the present "custom" location to the default "accesible to all users". That option may require that you launch that command from a different catalog, for instance the one created in the PSE install process.   ... View more

@Bob Ward  It's the first time I see that option missing. I don't know if there has been any change in the Organizer since PSE9, but people have always had difficulties in understanding what is "original location". For Adobe that means same drive, same location in the folder tree. For many; that option ignores the drive identification. As suggested by Greg, that option does not make sense if you restore on new computer, hence on a different drive. The second option refers to the file tree's structure. Another thing which can happen is that there is a default (hidden) location in your user folder. Changing computers often implies a slight change in your user name. Then, the original location is unknown in your new computer. Anyway, you are free to restore on the slightly changed default location of the new computer. If you open the organizer, it has been installed by default in the correct location in your new user system folder. The location is stated in the Help menu of the organizer in System Info. That's the location you should specify for the backup. If you want to choose a different location (which I always do), you create a new master folder where you want on an internal or external drive (don't specify the root folder, create your own folder).   ... View more

Why does PS Elements sometimes save my work as .jpg, rather than .psd, and what difference does it make to me? By @VerlynC   The jpg format does not support many important files attributes like layers, transparency, text and shapes, paths, 16 bits depth... So saving to jpg is apt to remove an important part of your work before saving.   The huge advantage of jpg is to create files with  drastically reduced size. They are intended for the final output, not for work in progress.   Note about your ability to edit your posts: I seem to remember that to avoid spam in this forum, new users will be allowed to edit posts after a given number of posts. ... View more

Short answers:   - your computer sees the external drive exactly like an internal one. It is supposed to be plugged in to be accessed - When you import ("download / Get files from...") you can either just read files already stored somewhere on your computer, in which case you are only registering the location and metadata information including your keywording into a catalog, particularly the location of each file on the drives ; or you "get" from camera or card reader, which means that before registering in the catalog you copy the files where you want on your computer. - There is no file duplication, no implied backup in the downloading phase. - the key idea is to work with a catalog just like in Lightroom.    Before going into details, my questions: - Do you intend to use either Photoshop or Lightroom together with the organizer? - Which Lightoom? Lightroom Classic or the Cloud version? - Which of them have you been using before going to PSE and its organizer?       ... View more