Lost MyCatalog.psa? How to restore?

[brucemck2]

I had 3000+ photos in Elements 4, all with Tags and in Collection groups.

Recently installed CS2 and then CS3 and Bridge3, and then uninstalled CS2.

When I restarted Elements it told me it couldn't find MyCatalog.psa, and, a search didn't turn it up anywhere.

I know I can reimport my shots and the tags will come with them, but, they won't show up in proper place (they'll be in "imported tags") and I won't have my collection groups, and I won't have my version stacks.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[PattyD]

I hate to ask this but did you by any chance back up your catalog before you did the installing and uninstalling of programs? It's easy to restore a catalog. I'm not sure why the catalog would have disappeared.

If not hopefully someone else has a solution.

[NickLewis]

Hi,

Like Patty, I don't understand why what you've described would cause your catalog file to disappear. Installing and uninstalling other products shouldn't have touched this PSE-specific data file.

However, when you did your search, did you include hidden files and folders? The catalog file is, by default, in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Catalogs. This is a hidden folder. I suggest having a look to see if there are any other catalog files in there, in case your catalog didn't actually have the default name. Similarly, I'd search all your hard drives for any files with a .psa extension. (You can enable viewing of hidden folders in Explorer using the Tools>Folder Options>View>Hidden Folders>Show Hidden Folders option. There's a box to check in the Search options to widen a search to include them, under More Advanced Options.)

If you can't find the catalog file and you have no backup, then all you can do is reimport your photos. But I'm afraid that, unless you have systematically written your tags to the image files, then you may not even get all your tags back. (The tags are not written automatically to all files - only as the result of a deliberate operation, or a subsequent edit. Also, they can't be written to RAW files, if you shoot that way.)

If the catalog's gone, there's nothing you can do about your collections, or other Organiser content except tags (i.e. star ratings, hidden photos, version sets, stacks, creations, etc.)

However, you can manually recreate version sets, using the workaround instructions here (http://www.photofanatic.com/topics/add_version.php), but it's a tedious business.

Sorry,

Nick

[brucemck2]

I've reported this as a bug to Adobe.

When uninstalling CS2 the file is deleted as part of the uninstall process. I agree that it shouldn't happen, but it does.

Fortunately I back up all my photos onto an auxillary hard drive. Unfortunately, I didn't back up the catalog, so I'm hosed.