Help with Elements Organizer

[Thornton]

I am having two problems with Photoshop Elements Organizer.

1) I have made a new folder in Pictures (Windows 10). I have managed to move some photos I've processed in Affinity Photo and DPP into this folder, but when I try to move a photo I've processed in PSE (17) I'm getting the message that it cannot be moved because it is "open in Auto Creations". This is despite the fact that according to another message, this (in my opinion quite useless) function is turned off! (and I never did turn it on at any stage AFAIK).

2) I get endless messages about "missing photos". How can I stop organizer looking for photos I've deleted?

I hate this part of Elements. I used to use Picasa, which seemed to be far easier to use just as an organizer, but Google have dumped it. I used the Elements Organizer years ago and didn't like it then, but unfortunately I'd forgotten how much of a pain I found it.

Thanks,
Julian

[xpatUSA]

I am having problems with Photoshop Elements Organizer.


I hate this part of Elements. I used to use Picasa, which seemed to be far easier to use just as an organizer, but Google have dumped it. I used the Elements Organizer years ago and didn't like it then, but unfortunately I'd forgotten how much of a pain I found it.

Thanks,
Julian

No help to you but you've brought back a memory of the Elements 7 Organizer which I accidentally activated long ago. That brought my computer to it's knees and rendered Elements almost unusable!

It was so bad that I removed 7 completely and got an Elements 6 CD cheap on eBay so that, if I made the same mistake again, I could just re-install the app.

Back then, there were a good many links on how to kill the Organizer because, once activated, you couldn't turn it off!!

Good luck with your quest ...

P.S. I still have the local Picasa installer picasa39-setup on my HD, as opposed to the web version, if you're interested ...

[pschlute]

2) I get endless messages about "missing photos". How can I stop organizer looking for photos I've deleted?

This happens when you delete a photo from your computer (windows), instead of deleting it through the Elements interface. Elements still has a link to the photo and will want to find it. Long time since I used PSE but there should be a menu item to rebuild/recompile the catalogue. The wording may not be as I describe but I am sure you will get my drift.

Best way to delete any photo that has been added to the Elements catalogue is to choose delete photo from within Elements and you will be given the option to delete from just the catalogue or from the computer as well

[Thornton]

Thanks Ted and Peter for your replies. I feel I ought to persist with the Elements organizer because I deliberately acquired it because I don’t like the Windows photo viewer that comes with Windows 10. I’ll follow Peter’s tips. In fact that is how I usually deleted photos from my old laptop, from inside Picasa. The problem of the photo which is allegedly open in Auto Create I got around by simply opening it in Elements editor and adding a suffix, then saving it direct to the folder I’d tried to move it to.

Julian

[pschlute]

I used PSE for a number of years and found it to be an excellent organiser. Using tags or collections means you can very easily find all your photos of a certain subject or with a certain lens without having to trawl through your entire library.

The editor in PSE is also very good.

Plus , if ever you decide to get the Photoshop/Lightroom bundle from Adobe, you can import your PSE library into LR with one mouse click and all your tags/keywords and collections will be available in LR.

[Thornton]

I used PSE for a number of years and found it to be an excellent organiser. Using tags or collections means you can very easily find all your photos of a certain subject or with a certain lens without having to trawl through your entire library.

The editor in PSE is also very good.

Plus , if ever you decide to get the Photoshop/Lightroom bundle from Adobe, you can import your PSE library into LR with one mouse click and all your tags/keywords and collections will be available in LR.

Thanks Peter. Hopefully once I’ve de-cluttered it of all the missing photos I’ll be able to use it properly. I still think it’s a shame that Google ditched Picasa, because it was certainly a nice piece of free software and very good for the lower-level user. Unfortunately it seems to have fallen victim to Google’s desire to compete in the social media sphere. And now they’re dumping Google+ anyway.
I agree with you about PSE. I recently upgraded from version 7, so I think I got my money’s worth out of that! In fact it was realising how little money I’ve spent on software (as opposed to hardware) over the past few years that eased my conscience about buying both PSE and Affinity.

Julian

[rpcrowe]

I once tried PSE-7 and the organizer absolutely drove me crazy. I even went to a full day class to learn the program. The instructor told me that I could easily delete the Organizer from PSE-7. He gave me his "secret sauce recipe" for deleting he Organizer from PSE-7 which I tried and which crashed my computer.

I am sure that my problems with Organizer were user, not software, derived but, I could never get my brain twisted in the right direction to make use of PSE-7 with its organizer. I figured that for the price of the computer tech to restore my computer to working order I could purchased a legitimate but used copy of Photoshop Photoshop CS-6...

I worked with that for a year or two and then decided to go whole hog and join the subscription service. This way, my wife and I both have the latest version of Photoshop on our computers. I also use Bridge but she doesn't. I additionally have Lightroom but never use it. I have everything at my fingertips with Photoshop, Adobe Bridge and Adobe Camera RAW.

[pschlute]

The instructor told me that I could easily delete the Organizer from PSE-7. He gave me his "secret sauce recipe" for deleting he Organizer from PSE-7 which I tried and which crashed my computer.

Without the organiser, what is the point of Photoshop Elements ? Sounds like your instructor was clueless. Should you want to use just the editor in PSE you can, by simply opening it. You have the option after any edit whether to include the edit in the organiser or not.

Photoshop CS was (correct me if I am wrong) simply an editor.

[xpatUSA]

Without the organiser, what is the point of Photoshop Elements ? Sounds like your instructor was clueless. Should you want to use just the editor in PSE you can, by simply opening it. You have the option after any edit whether to include the edit in the organiser or not.

I had exactly the same experience as Richard did, Peter - including crashing my computer with various on-line solutions. Back then, I wanted to store images where I wanted them, not where Adobe thought I should. The major problem was, once enabled, I couldn't get rid of it.

As to using PSE, "simply opening it" brought a) a 100-year wait on my Windows XP single cpu Pentium on start-up and b) endless obligatory dialogs from the said Organizer when all I wanted to do was edit and save. Case in point - EVERY save action brought up the dialog where you have to uncheck the stupid 'use organizer' box (your the include or not option) ... having to do that every time gets quite wearying in a very short time.

I quit Adobe long ago when they stopped supporting Sigma's newer models in ACR.

[pschlute]

Interesting. i don't doubt the problems that two experienced forum members had with Elements, it is just that I didn't.

I always told elements where to save an edit, and I recall the default was "the same folder", but admittedly it is a while since I used it.

The dialogue box where you have the option to save to Organiser or not, i seem to recall (again it's been a while) that it would remember my last selection.

The time to load was an issue. I could often go and make a cup of coffee, have a ciggie, pop to the loo, and just get back to the computer as it was ready I had the same issue with Photoshop/Lightroom, but since moving to a SSD drive load times for the latter are about 5 seconds.