Help!!!!

[Bayla]

I just downloaded one of Panos's actions. Put it in the right folder, deleted the cache.....then realised about ten minutes later that my previews folder is NOT THERE, it has completely disappeared along with everything that was in it:eek: Cache has still not rebuilt itself....when I open PSE there is nothing in the Filters & Effects folders, only my layer styles are still there. I have done this procedure loads of times & this has never happened before. Have tried deleting preferences, no result.

I am about to have a panic attack! Any suggestions gratefully received.

Bayla

[TonyW]

Check your Recycle Bin to see what you did delete. Could be that you deleted the folder rather than the cache by mistake.

Tony

[Wendy]

Bayla ...

Do let us know if you find it OK ...

Wendy

[Wendy]

Tony ..

I just sent you a pm :)

Wendy

[Bayla]

Tony, Wendy,

Only thing in the recycle bin is Filters Cache & Effects Cache:(

Bayla

[Wendy]

Hi Bayla ...

Are you using PSE3 or PSE4 ??

Wendy

[Bayla]

Wendy,

PSE3.

Bayla

[TonyW]

Do you still have a Previews folder when you look for it with Windows Explorer? If so then put the old cache back from the recycle bin and try again. If your previews folder really has gone completely missing and isn't in your recyle bin then I'm stuck :(

Tony

[Bayla]

Tony,

I restored the two caches and there is a Preview folder now, but there is nothing in it!

Bayla

[Wendy]

Hi Bayla ...

I'm confused too ... did you say that you don't have the Previews folder at all :confused:

The Filters Cache and the Effects Cache would have come from inside the Previews folder ??

Can you just check again ... please :)

Wendy

[Wendy]

Hi Bayla ...

We must have been typing at the same time :)

Did you find an empty Previews folder and put the two lots of cache files in it ??

Wendy

[Bayla]

Wendy,

Oh I've had one hell of an afternoon.:( As I was trying to reply to you the whole computer froze, all the windows were hanging & I couldn't do anything, not even switch the blessed thing off!

Anyway, here's a screenshot:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1yah1goWXlfAcKBg7aS3qJUEQYqu5y_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1yah1goWXlfAcKBg7aS3qJUEQYqu5y)

When it first happened there was no Previews folder at all. Since I restored the caches from the recycle bin, the folder has returned but there are no folders in it...no Grants tools, none of Panos's actions, no filters, absolutely nothing! Where on earth could they have disappeared to?

Would a system restore be the answer do you think?

Bayla

[Bayla]

Wendy,

I've just got my act together, stopped hyperventilating & decided that on a scale of 1 - 10, this rates very low down. My son just phoned to tell me that an old friend of my oldest daughter, a young (26) mother of two small children, has just passed away. I am certainly not going to get myself worked up over some stupid missing files.....

Bayla

[Wendy]

Hi Bayla ...

Oh dear what a day ... and the awful news does put the file problem into perspective. That is just so sad ...

I'm a Mac user so I don't really know about system restore ... but if all else fails then I can send you the Filters File (1.9Mb) and the Effects File (1.0Mb). That would mean that you wouldn't need to do a reinstall. Grants tools you can pick up again and the same thing with the ones from Panos.

Just let me know if you need them ... and I am just so sorry to hear about your daughters friend ...

Wendy

[Bayla]

Wendy,

Thanks.

Well I just did a system restore & everything is back as it was. :D The interesting thing is even though the restore went back to 9.27 am, the Panos Movie Film action that I downloaded just before I started having problems is there. However the Synthesis one which gave me all the problems isn't. I'm going to try and download it again.....wish me luck.

Bayla

[Wendy]

Hi Bayla ...

Glad to hear that it has sorted it out ... I will keep my fingers crossed :)

Wendy

[Bayla]

Wendy,

Well I've tried unzipping the Synthesis download twice now, the first time directly into the Effects folder where all my other Panos effects are, the second time somewhere else with the intention of moving it into the Effects folder. It just isn't showing up in either place:confused: Maybe I'll go over to Panos's recent thread & see if anyone else is having problems.

(I was clever this time....I checked before deleting any caches, didn't want to go through all that again!)

Bayla

[TonyW]

Bayla: Been out all day and just checked in to see if you got it working. Glad to hear you did and that system restore works in cases like this. I have synthesis and it works - I have it in a Panos folder under Effects along with some other - but not all the Panos effects. Seems to me I saw a thread where some work best in their own folders but can't remember which ones.

Tony

[Bayla]

Tony,

The system restore worked but I still had problems with the download so I put the question to Panos on this thread (http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11862) (message #14) & between him & Wendy I got it sorted.

Thanks for your input....

Bayla

[TonyW]

Bayla: That's great - I see now you got it working. Funnily enough I never had a problem with adding effects until today when I installed the high pass sharpening one. My fault completely. By unzipping directly into the Effects folder I managed to create two levels of folders under Effects and PSE3 doesn't like that at all.

Tony

[Wendy]

Hi ...

I always unzip on the desktop, sort out the folder and then put it into Elements ... I never thought of unzipping into Elements.

Wendy

[TonyW]

Hi ...

I always unzip on the desktop, sort out the folder and then put it into Elements ... I never thought of unzipping into Elements.

Wendy

I don't think I'm going to be thinking of it again either :D .

Tony

[kabe83]

I always unzip directly into Elements. What happened to you? Two levels of folders? What does that look like? So far the only thing that has happened is that a Readme file winds up with my brushes or whatever until I clean it out. I know this sounds dumb, but how do you get it from your desktop to the folder? Sounds like a cumbersome extra step, but I'll do it if danger lurks.
Karen

[Bayla]

Up until yesterday I've always saved the unzipped file to My Downloads, then unzipped it & moved it to the appropriate folder by dragging within Windows Explorer. Yesterday I was trying out Winzip & decided to unzip directly into Elements. The first download (the Movie film one) worked fine, but the second one most certainly did not, hence this thread! I've taken Winzip off my computer & I'm going back to the old way of doing it even if it takes slightly longer.

Bayla

[Wendy]

Bayla ...

Sounds like a very good idea to me :)

So please that you now have everything working OK .. I got a litttle worried yesterday :eek:

Wendy

[TonyW]

I always unzip directly into Elements. What happened to you? Two levels of folders? What does that look like? So far the only thing that has happened is that a Readme file winds up with my brushes or whatever until I clean it out. I know this sounds dumb, but how do you get it from your desktop to the folder? Sounds like a cumbersome extra step, but I'll do it if danger lurks.
Karen

Wendy is describing the Mac way I suspect which is probably a bit different from the Windows way or at least the way I do it. I don't use Winzip but use the Windows XP file extractor. I save the actions in a Download folder and then extract the files. XP creates a new folder and puts the extracted files in it. Usually I then just copy the extracted files into the appropriate spot in the Elements program files. This time I tried browsing to the right spot in Elements and telling XP to extract them there. Somehow I managed to double up on the folder structure so I got something like Previews>Effects>New Actions>New Actions and then the files which won't work. Elements lets you group actions but only 1 level deep so I had one too many New Actions folders.

Tony

[Wendy]

Tony ...

Oh you explain that far better than I did ... :)

Wendy

[kabe83]

Thanks for explaining. I use that extractor wizard, but if left to its own devices, it puts the downloads in some obscure place I have trouble finding. Then I'd have to copy and eventually go back and delete the first copy. It has an option "Browse," so I thought it was pretty slick to browse right to where I want to go. It does show you at the end where it put the new files. I don't download Actions often, though, so I think I'll save this thread as a reminder next time of how to do it correctly.
Karen

[Vesta]

I have always downloaded to my desktop. Sometimes I might have several things there that I have to unzip when I have time. I use the unzip windows extractor. When it comes up on the screen asking me where to put it, I browse to my adobe Previews Panos folder I made and unzip in that and have not had a problem yet. Am I asking for trouble doing it that way?

Vesta

[TonyW]

I don't think you can get into too much trouble that way - like Elements there are lots of ways to get the same result in Windows. I think you can also just double-click to open the zip, double click to open the folder in the zip and then select all the files you want and copy or move them to wherever you want them. I might try that next time as it was the wizard that got me into trouble - although it wasn't that much trouble :)

Tony

[Bayla]

I've never had any problems using the Windows XP file extractor....it was using Winzip that got me into trouble! I'm going back to the old way which worked perfectly!

Bayla

[Dorrie H.]

Bayla,
I use WinZip all the time and have never had any trouble. But I do download the zipped file to my Download Folder, then use WinZip to unzip it to my Extracted Folder and then copy or move the appropriate file to the proper location in Elements.

Dorrie