Get Photos from Removable Media

[bhougland]

I take thousands of photos on the road, periodically upload them them to a USB removable drive (to free CF space), then return home. Once home, I'd like to "Get" the photos into PSE6. However, unlike "Get Photos from Camera..." which copies the photos to my hard disk, my only option is to "Import" which catalogs the photos on the removable drive, leaving them there.

I've searched the forum, and the only answer I could find was to import the photos, then move them. I tried that, and it was ugly. Any other tricks or methods to try?

Thank you in advance. -Benson

[Ric Cisson]

Hi Benson, and welcome to the forum. I do not use the organizer, as I use Light Room to do all my importing and catalog work. I just looked at the organizer in PSE 6. When you attempt to "import" your image files, I wonder, is it my understanding that you are importing from location to location. For instance, if you import from USB Drive say "F", is it importing to same location? Following File>Get Photos and Videos>From Files and Folders in the resulting dialog window in the lower left corner there is a selection box "Copy Files on Import" If that is checked then your files will be copied from your USB Drive to your hard drive (watched folder). If it is left unchecked then no copy is made and the it remains located on your USB Drive, is my understanding. Hope this helps you along in the right direction.

[Karin Sue]

In my extremely old version (2) I have the option of checking or unchecking a box "Keep Original Offline (only copy a small proxy on to the local disk)"

If you uncheck it Organizer will make copies of the images (default location My Pictures/Adobe/Photos from removable media)

I am not sure if Organizer would recognize a usb thumb drive as removable media the way it does cds and dvds.

In any case, I usually use Windows to place my images in a folder on the hard drive and then use "Get from files and folders" to import them into Organizer. A habit from before I got Organizer and so far I have had no reason to change my workflow.

[bhougland]

Hi Benson, and welcome to the forum. I do not use the organizer, as I use Light Room to do all my importing and catalog work. I just looked at the organizer in PSE 6. When you attempt to "import" your image files, I wonder, is it my understanding that you are importing from location to location. For instance, if you import from USB Drive say "F", is it importing to same location? Following File>Get Photos and Videos>From Files and Folders in the resulting dialog window in the lower left corner there is a selection box "Copy Files on Import" If that is checked then your files will be copied from your USB Drive to your hard drive (watched folder). If it is left unchecked then no copy is made and the it remains located on your USB Drive, is my understanding. Hope this helps you along in the right direction.
Thanks Ric. I also use Lightroom. My actual workflow is as such (previous post attempted to spare gory details):

Take pics.
Import from Canon 40D to USB removable drive using LR 1.4.
Convert RAW/edit/delete/tag.
Export resulting collection to another folder on removable drive.

Once the above are complete, my wife would like the photos on her PC in PSE6 so she can create albums, email to friends, further tag, etc. This is where I'm getting tripped up. I could regress to Windows Explorer to move the files to my wife's PC, then Import to find the photos. I was just hoping there was a more intuitive workflow so I didn't always have to do it (I could just hand her the removable drive, tell her to "Get Photos..." from X directory, and off she'd go just as she does with her P&S camera).

But from what I can tell, that's not possible. Thanks for your reply.

[Ric Cisson]

Benson, once you have the files on the USB drive, remove from USB port to start up PSE6. When you have the organizer, install drive to port. Within the organizer click on Menu>File>Get Photos and Videos from Files and Folders, select the Drive and import within the organizer to a new location on your PC, as long as you name a new location. Since you have exported files from LR, to the USB drive, you should be able to utilize Adobe Photo Downloader, as an alternative, and direct these files from your drive to the new location on your Hard Drive and the thumbnails will show up in the Organizer as well. There is no need to get Windows Explorer involved in the workflow at all, unless you want it involved. I just tried your workflow from my PC to my Laptop. Works like a champ no matter whether I initiate the Organizer first and select from Menu as described above or allow the Photo Downloader to intercede. You can PM me if you have further questions.

[TonyW]

Interesting discussion as I think I might be about to run into the same problem. I've always used flash drives until now when on-the road and wanting to off load pics from my SD cards and PSE6 always recognizes those as devices. But I just bought a mini EHD thinking it would work the same but maybe it won't - my bigger EHD's that are fairly permanently USB connected aren't recognized as devices by the Photo Downloader. I would probably have just used Windows Explorer to transfer the files but now it does make me wonder if there's a trick to making a USB EHD be recognized as a "Device with Removable Storage" which is what my flash drives, cards etc show up as in Windows (my USB connected EHD's show as Hard Disk Drives).

Tony

[JonE]

If you can "get" the photos into PSE, then you can use PSE's "move" function to move them to the right place on your hard drive. If you need to make up a new folder, you can create a folder within PSE by using the "view by folder location" mode and then right click on the parent folder you will use to create a new sub-folder.

Alternatively you can use Windows Explorer to move the files from the external memory device to your hard drive, then "get" them into PSE.

If that is not clear, then post back with further questions.

[Ric Cisson]

I must say that I have been "playing" with a couple of scenerios as Benson has described his needs. Here is what I have, Laptop O/S Windows XP Pro and PC O/S Windows XP Pro. After a field shoot, tethered to laptop import into LR, I made all my Preset adjustments. Test #1, transferred new catalog from LR to Western Passport 250GB portable HD. Test #2, transferred additional catalog from LR to SanDisk Cruzer USB Flash Drive. When I got home, prepared transfer to PSE6 from HD in Test #1. Scenerio 1A Adobe Photo Downloader opened, allowed passage to PSE6 Organizer, where upon I intiated Organizer Menu>File>Get Photos and Videos from Files and Folders. Within this dialog, browser opened, saw Passport HD, I selected location I wanted images to go on PC HD and selected "Get Photos" All images were copied from Passport HD to location successfully.

In Test #2, Adobe Photo Downloader saw SanDisk Cruzer USB Flash Drive as Drive "M", opened the Dialog to import into PSE6. Selected "Get Photos" and all image files copied to new PC HD location successfully. Given my ability to successfully copy/transfer files as described, I see no reason why one should have to go through Windows Explorer, and involve Windows when, between PSE6 and Adobe Photo Downloader, software works seemingly as advertised, at least that is my experience. FWIW.:cool:

As a footnote, and for the record, I do not use the Organizer for any purpose except for instructional purposes. I import, organize, and catalog all image files through LR, then send to PSE6 or CS3 for additional editing as necessary. When done editing in either case, file is returned to LR for cataloging, Bridge and Organizer are outside my workflow.

[TonyW]

Ric: Thanks for that info. I think the problem I have is that that the Maxtor 160GB portable HD I just picked up is recognized as an EHD by Windows and not as a removeable storage device which is what my flash drives are recognized as - so both Lightroom and PSE6 just catalog images on the EHD rather than transfer and then catalog them on my main computer HD. I suspect that I'm using the wrong driver - I just plugged and played and let Windows find a driver. There do seem to be other drivers available on the portable HD - so I think may just need to find the right one. As usual the documentation isn't much help! I wish I knew more about the inner workings of computers :D

Tony