PS 4 Missing Files...Every picture is locked!

[JEKAM]

I'm having a problem with every picture in my catalog. They ALL have the "reconnect missing files" emblem on them. I've been using PS4 for about 3 months with no problems until a few days ago. I did recently put some pictures on (without using the MOVE that I'm finding out about), but every picture is locked.

Any help is appreciated!

[kimi_boo]

In the Organizer, try... Files, Reconnect, Reconnect All.
If it works it may take a while.

[Ward Grant]

Hello Elisa and welcome to the forum,

When you say, "put on" did you do any moving of pictures outside of Elements? This is what usually causes the files to be disconnected.

One thing to try when Organizer acts up is a File>Catalog>Recover. If this does not fix the problem, you can Right Click the pictures you need immediately and reconnect them. At some point, you can do a Reconnect All Missing and rebuild the links to the pictures.

[Wendy]

Hi Elisa ...

... and welcome to the forum :)

Do lt us know how you go on with this ...

Wendy

[JEKAM]

Ok, I tried the two suggestions - reconnecting all and catalog recover - and neither one made a difference. When I moved pictures, I moved them to the recycle bin (and deleted the recycle bin later). I'm thinking that is where my problem lies....it can't find them. But why would that affect ALL of my pictures and not just the ones I sent to recycle?

Thanks for your help!

[Ward Grant]

...When I moved pictures, I moved them to the recycle bin (and deleted the recycle bin later). I'm thinking that is where my problem lies....it can't find them...

Ouch-that's going to be difficult to recover.

You are correct-it should just effect the pictures you moved, not all of them.

Try this, please

Open Organizer and look in the bottom, left corner. Click on this and change to Folder View.
Find one of the pictures and see what folder Organizer thinks it is in.
Look in Windows and see if the pictures is actually in that folder.
If not, do a search and find where the file actually is.
Right click on this file in Organizesr and see if you can reconnect this one picture.
You may find all the pictures have somehow been moved to some new location, perhaps a new top folder. If we can find where the pictures actually are on the hard drive, we can reconnect them.

[JEKAM]

Ok, Ward, I tried your suggestion. It at least feels good to try something....I searced for the a few of the files (ones of pictures I had not moved) and it couldn't find anything.

Any new suggestions?? Thanks!

[Ward Grant]

I'm a little concerned about the "could not find" anything comment.

Organizer is just a windows to view photos on your hard drive and does not store photos. If you can not find the pictures on your hard drive, there is nothing for Organizer to view.

Do you have any backups of the photos? It might be time to reload the photos to your hard drive.

[JEKAM]

Fortunately, I do have backup that is fairly recent. Any special tips that I should be aware of before I use my backup discs.:confused:

Thank you for all the suggestions!

[Ward Grant]

If you used Elements Backup, then the Restore command should get you back to where you were the day you made the backup.

If you just copied the files, then copying them back to the same folder structure should get you back to where you were. Elements should reconnect the link if the file name and folder name is the same.

Best of luck to you. In the future, you can use Elements Move and Delete commands to manage your Elements-related photos.

[JEKAM]

Thanks, Ward. Hopefully, the restoration will work. I did use the Elements back up so I've got that going for me, I guess.

It was nice to find some help even if it didn't restore all my pictures. I'll be more careful in the future. :)

Thanks again,