Folder Location won't retreive photos

[Photobug]

I just set up Elements 5. In the organizer, with Folder Location selected in the lower left corner, I can use the tree at the left of the screen to navigate to the albums on my external hard drive. When I select an album, I think the photos are supposed to appear in the center section of the screen, but they don't. I have to go to the Get Photos icon at the top of the screen and go through many steps to retrieve the photos from the album. Once I do this for an album, then I can then select this album on the tree and the photos appear. I have many hundreds of albums. Is there any way I can activate all of them at once and any future albums, so I can select any album on the tree and get the photos to appear?

[Ward Grant]

Hello Photobug
The next time you use Get Photos, you should be able to select a top folder and then click subfolders. It will bring in all the photos of that "tree".

I am assuming you have a structure similar to this-
My Pictures (or some other name)
---Folder 1
---Folder 2
------Folder2a

Could you clarify one thing-it may just be a terminology thing-you say you already have many "albums". What program did you use to make the albums in the first place?

Just FYI-V5 is the first version to show a true folder tree in Organizer. The folders that have images are marked (forgot what the marker is). With all versions, you have to Get Photos to link the photos on your hard drive to the Organizer database.

[Photobug]

Hello Photobug
The next time you use Get Photos, you should be able to select a top folder and then click subfolders. It will bring in all the photos of that "tree".

I am assuming you have a structure similar to this-
My Pictures (or some other name)
---Folder 1
---Folder 2
------Folder2a

Could you clarify one thing-it may just be a terminology thing-you say you already have many "albums". What program did you use to make the albums in the first place?

Just FYI-V5 is the first version to show a true folder tree in Organizer. The folders that have images are marked (forgot what the marker is). With all versions, you have to Get Photos to link the photos on your hard drive to the Organizer database.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try it later today. Your assumption about the folder structure is correct. All photo albums are under My Pictures. All our photos are downloaded from the CF card using Nikon View, and album naming and organization within the tree is done with Nikon View. But this was not a problem with Elements 3, which I have been using. With Elements 3, once I click on an album in the tree to the left of the screen, the photos appear in the middle of the screen. I did not have to do anything special to get this to work.

Had I used Photoshop Elements to download my photos (I had Elements 2, then Elements 3), would I have the problem I have now where clicking on an album does not produce the photos?

My Pictures is normally found under Documents and Settings. This is deep in the tree. So, a long time ago, I created another My Pictures right under C drive. It is much faster to get at there. So I have two My Pictures. This hasn't caused any problems with Elements 2 or 3. I wonder if it may be causing my problem now with Elements 5. And now that I started using Elements 5, the My Pictures under C drive has suddenly been renamed Copy of My Pictures. I wonder if this is part of my current problem.

[Photobug]

Hello Photobug
The next time you use Get Photos, you should be able to select a top folder and then click subfolders. It will bring in all the photos of that "tree".

I am assuming you have a structure similar to this-
My Pictures (or some other name)
---Folder 1
---Folder 2
------Folder2a


Hi Ward,

I tried this. It doesn't work. My Pictures is the top folder in the tree above and in my tree. Given your structure above, which is the same as my set up, what I need to do, I think, is put My Pictures in the Look In window at the top of the Get Photos window and then click subfolders. This way I would get Folder 1, Folder 2, etc. But I can't do this because the Get Folders from Subfolders button is phantom. If I put Folder 1 in the Look In window, then the Get Folders from Subfolders button becomes active but this will give me only the contents of Folder 1.

[rembertc]

Hello Photobug,

I think I figured it out! I just installed PSE 5 and was having the same problem.

1. Open up the Editor and go to "File" and then "Open"
2. After you click on "Open" a box should pop up and allow you to manuever through the tree structure (you can choose thumbnail view so you can see what you're after).

It's not quite what I'm used to from PSE 2, but I'm starting to get the hang of it :).
From what I have read, the organizer is a newer version of what used to be Photoshop Album and as far as I know the files you want to veiw in the organizer have to be imported.

[JPVann]

Very frustrating coming from previous versions of PE. I have a folder I imported canned pictures into and the folder shows up in PE5, as a watched folder. However NO pictures can be put into the folder even when I tell the program to go get them - I save originals into an original folder and use a copy folder to work on.

Tells me it refuses to import/show them in my copy folder because they already exist in the Organizer and are 'duplicates'.

I have to say PE justs gets more frustrating with every new version - do you folks actually use your own program before releasing? Having to retrain yourself because PE thinks that is the way it should be done is NOT what I look for in buying new programs.

Thnaks in advance.

JP