Organizer problem on laptop

[jray]

I have been using PSE 5 quite happily and problem free on my desktop. Recently I installed it on my laptop and organizer won't display the thumbnails. I get the gray hourglass thing instead. I tried catalog-recover, which didn't work, and then tried re-installing PSE5, and that didn't work either. Otherwise, no problems. I did install Picasa and have used it a bit, but I really do like Organizer. Any ideas out there? (And btw, my laptop has 1GB RAM and much more empty hard drive space than my desktop.)

[NickLewis]

Sorry to ask the obvious, but did you set up a new catalog, or just copy your desktop one across? If the latter, have you also copied your photo files?

I'm wondering if your laptop is either still building the thumbnail cache, or perhaps can't because the photo files aren't there?

Nick

[jray]

No, it's a new catalog. I just installed PSE5 and uploaded some new photo files. It's been weeks. I've been adding new files all along, and everything else works fine, but no thumbnails in organizer.

[NickLewis]

Hi,

Some people have resolved this problem by deleting the thumbnail cache file, so that PSE has to rebuild it. Under XP, its default name and location are C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Catalog Folders\My Catalog\thumb.5.cache . Temporarily rename it to thumb.5.old or similar. PSE should rebuild it. (This is in a hidden folder, so make sure that Windows Explorer or Search are set up to include hidden folders when you look for it.) If it doesn't sort the issue out, you can rename your original file back again.

Another possibility is to rename the Organiser preferences file so that that it also is rebuilt. Go to C:\Documents and Settings\[user_name]\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\3.0\Organizer and rename it something like Organizer_old. Exit Elements before attempting to rename the folder.

Hopefully one of these will sort your problem out.

Nick

[Codebreaker]

The grey thumbnails can be caused by not having enough memory in your computer. How much Ram do you have in your laptop?

Colin

[NickLewis]

Hi Colin,

He's got 1Gb - which I thought was Ok for most normal photos.

Nick

[Codebreaker]

Nick....

I missed that. :)

The app note from Adobe indicates a link between memory and Pixel Dimensions. I've found though that it also seems to be related to the File Size. Also if you have version sets it seems to break at some point. I had a large image of about 245M which was Ok until I added another version to the set.

Most camera images are ok but things add up quickly with layers. Also scans can get huge.

Colin

[jray]

Okay, I know this sounds weird, but I cannot get to the organizer preferences file. After I go to document and settings/allusers/ the next selections are :confused::Shared Documents, Desktop, Favorites, Start Menu, and NTUSER(dat files). No Applications. This IS Windows XP. I've also tried catalog/recover but this didn't work. Any ideas?

[jlwilm]

(This is in a hidden folder, so make sure that Windows Explorer or Search are set up to include hidden folders when you look for it.)

It sounds like you are not seeing the hidden folders.

Start up My Computer/Windows Explorer, then on the Menu Bar, click on Tools, Folder Options

Click on the View Tab, then scroll down until you see the Hidden Files and Folders and make sure the button for Show Hidden Files and Folders is selected, if not click on it.

That should solve that problem.