Lost noise tool

[forestpics]

OK, I just downloaded the trial version and started playing with PE 6 so I am completely new to this. Under Effects in the palette area I picked the noise selection and had 5 noise tools to play with. I used the Add Noise tool to add noise to an image. When I wanted to remove the noise again, rather than using the "Undo" command at the top of the screen I used the trash bin in the palette area. I know ... stupid! So rather than delete the noise I deleted the tool. So now I only have 4 tools showing in the palette area under Effects > Noise but if I use the Filter > Noise dropdown menu from the top I still have the Add Noise option. How do I get the "Add Noise" tool back in the palette area?

Thanks for any help!

[Wendy]

Hi ..

... and welcome to the Village :)

Its OK it is fixable ... first make sure that you have show hidden files and folders check in Windows.

Next rename the Mediadatabase.db3 to MediadatabaseOLD.db3 it is located at C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\6.0\Locale\ en-US and restart Elements ... the Mediadatabase.db3 will rebuild but you may have to wait a while for it to do so

(the path is Vista is C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\6.0 ... etc)

Wendy

[forestpics]

I did the file rename and PE took forever to start up again but once it got going I still have the same problem, i.e the Add Noise option is available in the Filter > Noise dropdown menu but it is not shown under Effects > Noise in the palette area. Any other ideas?

[forestpics]

I see in the thread "Did I really delete an effect from the effects palette?" where micheldiane deleted the "find edges" effect and apparently was able to recover it by following the same instructions that Wendy gave me to restore my "Add Noise" effect. I have now followed those instructions 2 more times. Both times during startup the program says "Building Content and Effects" and takes about 9 more minutes to start up than normal and a new Mediadatabase.db3 file is generated. But the "Add Noise" effect is still only available via the drop down menu at the top of the screen, i.e. not in the palette area. I don't know if it means anything but the folder C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\6.0\Locale\ en-US\Photo Creations Metadata\filters has xml files for the other 3 noise filters but not an "add noise" filter xml file.

Does anybody have any other ideas as to what to do to get the Add Noise filter back in the Palette Bin?

Also, I see where some people in discussion of the upcoming Photoshop Elements version 7 have stated that they would like to see a bug fix for version 6. Due to processor limitations I may not be able to run version 7 on my computer. Is Photoshop Elements 6 a stable program or is it unreliable enough that I should just switch to Gimp if I can't run PE 7?