Elements 7 catalog loss

I just purchased a new computer and had the computer geeks reinstall software and transfer data. However, when I opened my Elements 7, the catalog is empty. I photograph birds for a hobby and had thousands of photos all categorized by bird families, plus landscapes, trips, family - all gone! Is there any way to recover the catalog? I still have my old computer and could pull information from it if I knew what to look for. Please, someone out there must know the answer. I can't imagine trying to recreate the catalog - it would take hundreds of hours!

Since your old computer is working, you have another approach that is open to you.
On your old computer, run the Full Backup in the Organizer to an external drive. You may want to Reconnect any missing files and run the Repair command, even if no errors are found first.
Now on your new computer, run the Restore command using the full backup on your external drive. Your tags etc will now be just as you left them on your old computer.
At this point, you will have two copies of the photos on your new computer, those from the Restore command and the ones that were copied by the computer tech. Once you are comfortable that everything is as it was on your old computer, you can delete the copies made by the computer tech.
Personally, I find this approach to be more straight forward for the average user, since you are using the built-in commands of PSE's Organizer.
FWIW

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Photoshop Elements 11 catalog conversion solution

The Photoshop Elements 11 Organizer failed to convert my Photoshop Elements 6 catalog until I ran the PSE11 Organizer under the built-in Windows 7 Administrator account. I did not find this solution mentioned during my efforts to solve this installation problem. It was not a suggestion I found in Adobe's help files dealing with catalog conversion. So here is a summary for others with this problem.
I installed Photoshop Elements 11 on my Dell XPS 9000 running Windows 7 Pro x64. I retained my PSE6 installation. I have nearly 20,000 cataloged images in my PSE6 catalog.
Problems began when the PSE11 Organizer failed to convert my PSE6 catalog to the new PSE11 format. The process seemed to run to completion, but then an error message said the conversion had failed. The suggestion was to repair and optimize the PSE6 catalog using PSE6, then try converting again. Conversion to PSE11 still failed. I spent a few hours searching for suggestions and solutions and tried each of them without success.
I then found one suggestion that the problem might involve permissions. The suggestion was to right click PhotoshopElementsOrganizer.exe in its installation folder (which on my computer is at at D:\Photo\Elements 11 Organizer) and run Organizer as an administrator. This also failed. However it did get me thinking about permissions.
Even though my personal account on my computer is an administrator account, I logged off my personal account and logged on to my computer's built-in Administrator account that comes with Windows 7. I don't think I've used that account for any other purpose since I set up this computer 3 years ago.
I then ran the PSE11 Elements Organizer using the Administrator account and the catalog conversion ran to completion and all seemed correct.
However, when I went to the folder where I kept my PSE6 catalog (G:\0-PSElementsCatalog\FamilyPhotos-6), the new PSE11 catalog was not there. Instead, PSE11 had put the converted catalog in the (absolutely awful) default location at C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\FamilyPhotos-6). Using the PSE11 Organizer, I renamed the catalog to G:\0-PSElementsCatalog\FamilyPhotos-11(ConvertedFrom6). I then used PSE11 Organizer to move the converted catalog to my preferred location on my G: drive.
All is now well.
Why did I have to use the built-in Administrator account to do the catalog conversion? What permissions does it have that my personal account (also an Administrator) does not have? Some years ago I encountered a similar problem that involved permissions on a registry key, not permissions on files or folders. Perhaps someone at Adobe can enlighten us.

One thing puzzles me:
RedClayFarmer wrote:
I then found one suggestion that the problem might involve permissions. The suggestion was to right click PhotoshopElementsOrganizer.exe in its installation folder (which on my computer is at at D:\Photo\Elements 11 Organizer) and run Organizer as an administrator. This also failed.
I don't understand why running the exe from the installation folder would have worked.
I would have simply tried to run that exe from its real location :
Sorry, I can't help you more about permissions...

Where is photoshop elements 11 catalog files stored in windows 7 for carbonite to back up?

Where is photoshop elements 11 catalog files stored in windows 7 for carbonite to back up? Also any other files besides the pictures that I should back up?

[email protected] wrote:
Where is photoshop elements 11 catalog files stored in windows 7 for carbonite to back up? Also any other files besides the pictures that I should back up?
Very important : your catalog does not contain your pictures. They are where you have imported them in your computer. If they are all under a master folder like 'My Pictures' or 'Pictures', you should set your backup software to backup those folders.
The catalog itself is mainly a database keeping all the information about your pictures : location, keywords, ratings, albums...
It's a folder containing the dababase and several other components. You find its location looking in the help section, system info.
The integrated backup / restore process in Elements saves both your media files and the catalog.
http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/photoshop-elements-faq.htm#_Backing_up_your

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Thanks in advance.

John,
Thanks for the information.
I will begin the conversion this evening.

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This Adobe page has information regarding the changes when catalogs are converted `from earlier versions:
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I want to upgrade from Photoshop Elements 5 to Lightroom 5. Can Lightroom 5 read/convert a Photoshop Elements 5 catalog, or is Elements 5 too old to read?

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Adobe changed the catalog software from PSE6 onwards to the SQLite database – as used in Lightroom.
Earlier versions of PSE including PSE5 used a Microsoft Access database, stored in a file called [Catalog Name].psa.
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Photoshop Elements 11 Catalog Trouble (Windows 7)

I've had to reinstall PSE 11 after hard drive trouble and have also restored my Catalogs and Photos. I can't seem to get PSE 11 to recognize my old catalog location. I can find some older PSE 5 catalogs which are .psa files. Here's a screen shot of my catalog location using explorer:
And here's what's inside PersonalCatalog:
When I point PSE 11 to either directory using Catalog Manger->Custom Location, there are no catalogs shown in the catalog box.
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The default location for catalog is C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs. Here is what one of my catalog folders looks like:
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Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children

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Photoshop Elements 7 Catalogs Not Where They Should Be?

My first post. Greetings all!
Using PSE7 to 'catalog' my pictures. Have about 400 gig worth. I use drive c for my apps and data and all my pictures are on a different internal hd. Back them up every 3 mo or so onto external drives. But...........
I've added some since last backup and my drive c took a dump!. Drive still works but can't boot up. So my pictures are intact on the other internal hd.
I removed the bad hd (with elements & my catalogs (4)), put in a new drive c hd and reinstalled the os (Vista 64bit) and most of my apps including PSE7.
I bought an external hd enclosure and put the bad hd into it in hopes of recovering my catalog data. After searching and reviewing numerous threads on forums, I gleemed that my catalog files should be in
C:\Useres\me\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\Catalogs\sub
I've checked all the users (me, Default, Public) on the old but there are no catalogs (catalog.pse7db) or any other .pse7db files there.
So I did an 'advanced search' on the bad hd for ".pse7db" and found one called catalog.pse7db in
root\ProgramData\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\Catalogs\My Catalog
but that file is the exact same file size as the one created this a.m. when I reinstalled PSE7 with an empty 'My Catalog'.
So I renamed the new catalog file to.old and copied the catalog.pse7db from the old hd to the same place it was on the old hd to the new hd. Fired up Elements 7, selected 'Catalogs' for the File menu, but my old catalogs weren't there. So I put everything back to the default state (file-wise)
My original catalogs were named:
Dave & Debi's Collection
RAW Files
Business
Clip Art
Are all my original catalogs condensed into on master catalog file somewhere?
Anybody have any ideas of where my old catalogs are on this bad HD?
Thank you
toots101

Thanks for the reply. I did another advanced search including non-indexed, hidden, and system files on the sub-dir ProgramData on the bad drive and it only found the same catalog.pse7db as it did before.
It is the same filesize as the new one with no files cataloged in it.
Again are all four of my catalogs condensed into one catalog file by default?
Any other help guys?
toots101

Ho do I convert my Elements 5 Catalog to Elements 13 which I just purchased. I followed one of the tutorials and converted my Elements 5 Catalog to a "pse.13db" file. How do I get Elements 13 to recognize that converted file? When I open Elements 13 Ca

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Bumps a écrit:
Yes - I can run both versions on my PC. But I really would like to have all of my pictures in the same catalog.
You can't merge catalogs (even PSE13 ones) in any PSE version (only LR can do that). So, converting catalogs is not the solution to your problem.
Since you have PSE5 working on your computer and your images also, the solution is to 'write metadata to files in PSE5) and to re-import the images in the PSE13 catalog. That won't duplicate your image files and you'll lose albums/collections, stacks and version sets, but you'll recover tags, captions and ratings.
To be able to re-import the files indexed in PSE5, you may have to move them to a new master folder.
I am not sure what your problem with the conversion may be. It's quite possible that the resulting catalog.pse13db is ok and that the issue lies in the ability to open it in the PSE13 organizer.
As stated by dj_page, double clicking on that file should open the organizer with the new catalog. You could test that by creating a dummy catalog in PSE13 and importing a small batch of photos. Locate the path of the catalog with the menu Help/system info. Copy the catalog.pse13db in another folder and the 'double click' way to open the organizer with that moved catalog database.
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Adobe - Photoshop Elements : For Windows : Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0.2 update

Can I import a photoshop elements 11 catalog into lightroom 4 ?

Can I Import a photoshop elements 11 catalog into lightroom 4

"Catalogs from Photoshop Elements 11 would not update in Lightroom."
Reported as fixed as of LR 4.3: http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2012/12/lightroom-4-3-now-available.html

Restore (Windows) Elements 11 catalog on Mac

Hi everyone--
I am a Windows user moving to a Mac. I did a backup of my (Windows) Photoshop Elements 11 catalog on an external drive in preparation for restoring in on my MacBook pro.
I've read a number of different posts on here regarding the restore process and gathered the following information:
1) Open up Elements 11 on the Mac and select File > Restore Catalog
2) Navigate to external drive and select the .tly file. (choose as source of restore)
Backup folder contents on external drive (former Windows Catalog to be used on Mac)
1) My backup folder contains about 9,500 items. The majority of the files all beging with a "B" and are jpg files. However, a small number also end with the following: .cache, .dat, and .xml. Should these be in the backup file?
2) I also have "Catalog.buc" and "Backup.tly" files within my backup folder on my external drive
Question(s)
1. Based on the information I've read online, it would appear that the only thing I want to be concerned with in the backup folder is the "Backup.tly" and the other files contained within my backup folder on my external drive aren't relevant to the restore. Is that correct?
2. Do I need to select anything else as part of the restore process after selecting the "Backup.tly" on my external drive? For example, do I have to point to a folder on my Mac for the restore to occur or will this happen automatically since I will already have Photoshop Elements 11 open on my MacBook pro when I am performing the restore process?
3) Currently, I have hundreds of "folders" under "My Pictures" on my Windows machine that separate out each event (Xmas 2010, Xmas 2011, etc.). Up until now I haven't been using the tagging feature within Photoshop. My initial intent was to copy the "My Pictures" folder from my C drive on my Windows machine to the "Pictures" folder on my Mac. (not planning to import them into iPhoto).
Will PSE 11 on my Mac be able to "find" this new path for the photos that were moved from my Windows machine to the "Pictures" folder on my Mac? Do I need to do something to make sure this happens during the restore process on my Mac?
As an example, the patch for a random photo in PSE 11 on my Windows machine looks like the following:
C:\Documents and Settings\Tom\MyDocuments\MyPictures\Xmas 2010 (as an example for one of the pictures contained in my Windows catalog)
Clearly, this path won't exist on my MacBook Pro and I just want to make sure I know whether or not I have to do something to redirect the pictures in my (restored) catalog.
Sorry for all the questions. I did go to the following link but unfortunately the link for process I am most interested in (restoration) appears to be broken:
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/backup-restore-move-catalog-photoshop.html#ma in_Transfer_your_catalog_from_Windows_to_Mac_OS
Thanks very much!

Hi Andaleebfatima1,
Thanks for your response. I had no idea it wasn't necessary to manually move over the contents of the "My Pictures" folder on my PC when I moved to my Mac. I always assumed (obviously incorrectly) that restoring the catalog was simply necessary to read what was already moved over in My Pictures and that if that had already not been done, I would not be able to open any of the pictures in the organizer. Similar to what happens when you delete something in the My Pictures folder but not from the Organizer.
Regardless, I did what you suggested and set up a new folder to do the restore. However, instead of putting it on my desktop, I added a new folder under the "Pictures" folder on my Mac as this is where I ultimately wanted to have the contents. Since I had already manually created a "My Pictures" folder under Pictures, I renamed that folder to "My Pictures Original" and used the name "My Pictures" for the new folder I wanted to use for the restore.
In summary, I had the following folders under the main "Pictures" folder on my Mac
Pictures -> My Pictures Original (this includes the pictures I manually copied over from my PC)
Pictures -> My Pictures (this folder was empty prior to the restore)
I went back into the Organizer and selected the "restore catalog" option and specified the "My Pictures" folder as the folder for the restore (this is the one that I just created and was empty) of the the catalog and files that were on my hard drive. I also specified to maintain the original folder structure.
The good news is that everything seemed to get restored correctly and I can now see (and open) all of my pictures in the organizer. On the left hand side of the organizer I can see the original folder structure I initially had on my PC that I wanted to maintain on my Mac.
The bad news is that rather than restore all of the files and folders under "My Pictures," the restoration process seemed to create a few additional folders under 'My Pictures" that I have to flip through to actually see the folders containing my Pictures.
Again, my expectation was that I would simply select Pictures -> My Pictures and that I would see all of my various folders (Xmas 2012, Birthday 2013, etc.).
However, now I have the following structure
Pictures -> My Pictures. Under "My Pictures" I have 2 more folders (Documents and Settings and My Catalog). When I click on "Documents and Settings" I get 2 more folders (All Users and Pete). When I click on the "Pete" folder another folder appears called "My Documents." When I select "My Documents" I get another folder labeled "My Pictures." Once I select "My Pictures" I can FINALLY see all of my files and folders. (ugh)
I am happy that I was able to restore all of the information in the Organizer but I really hate that I have to go through 5 or 6 different folders on my HD before getting to the picture folder.
Is this just part of the restore process and somethign I have to live with as part of the migration of my data from Windows to Mac?
Ideally I'd like to just be able to go to the Mac default "Pictures" folder and select the "My Pictures" folder I created to be able to view the various folders that contain my pictures. I realize a lot of the time I will be viewing the pictures directly from the organizer so it's not just a big deal but in other cases I will be doing this outside of the organizer and would hope to have a more streamlined method.
Sorry for the wrong rambling message but I wanted to try and give you as much background information as possible.
Thanks again for your help!

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