pse6 preference edit crash

[dxc]

my environment: windows xp, service pack 3, 1GB ram, pse6, camera raw 4.5.

when I: start organizer -> edit -> preferences -> general (or any other)

I get a small window that says "loading..." that stays up for a few seconds, then I get the M$ crash window that says elements needs to close.

I can access the editor's preferences either from the editor or from edit -> preferences -> editor preferences, fine.

I tried deleting the organizer's preferences file and that had no effect other than making my old preferences disappear (for example "show file names" stopped working) and a new prf file was created when I closed the program. restarting the program resulted in the same behavior with the new prefs file (it crashed on edit -> preferences -> general).

nothing looks goofy in the registry.

I tried (just for fun really) repairing the catalog and optimizing it, no effect.

any suggestions?

thanks

[johnrellis]

A number of people have reported this problem, but I haven’t seen an authoritative solution posted yet. PSE is notorious for soiling its own preferences.

The Organizer reads a couple of other preference files when you invoke Edit > Preferences:
C:\ Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\6.0\Organizer\APDPreferences.xml (preferences for the Adobe Photo Downloader)

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 6.0\PhotoDownloader.ini
Try renaming each of these files in turn to something different and see if the problem goes away. You may have to enable Windows Explorer to see hidden files – see the top of the tech note below.

If that doesn’t work, try File > Catalog > Repair followed by File > Catalog > Optimize – for some reason, Edit > Preferences reads the thumbnail cache, and the Optimize command will clean up the cache.

If that doesn’t work, Edit > Preferences also accesses the TWAIN drivers of your scanners and other imaging devices. You could try the solution posted here:

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx?14@405.pntdiAzD2KB@.59b74c95/4 (http://www.adobeforums.com/webx?14@405.pntdiAzD2KB@.59b74c95/4)

And finally, if none of those work, you could try doing an ultra-clean uninstall as described in this Adobe tech note:

http://www.adobe.com/go/kb405847 (http://www.adobe.com/go/kb405847)

and then reinstalling. The PSE uninstaller normally leaves lots of data and preference files and registry settings littering your computer, and this manual process will remove them. Be very careful when deleting the application data folder and files that you don’t delete your catalog folder(s). You can find its location by doing Help > System Info.

To help others here, please let us know whether this addresses your problem.

[dxc]

my processor is a pentium 540, 3.20 GHz.

I removed the prefs files and cleaned the registry as here:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb402520&sliceId=2 and it crashes the same when I try to bring up the prefs dialog.

I renamed the multiprocessor support plugin as here:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb403728&sliceId=2 and it crashes the same when I try to bring up the prefs dialog.
I renamed all the plugins, same result.

I set the processor affinity as here:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb403728&sliceId=2 and it crashes the same when I try to bring up the prefs dialog.

I started a process with the processor affinity set using psexec as here
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb403728&sliceId=2 and it crashes the same when I try to bring up the prefs dialog.

after the last step I checked and the prefs files were not recreated during the interim steps nor were the registry entries.

I reinstalled from disk and took the "repair" option, and it crashes the same
when I try to bring up the prefs dialog.

I tried file->catalog->repair; the app doesn't respond while doing it, i.e. you cannot alt-tab to it and it will not raise, but eventually it came back and said no errors. I did the "optimize" step also, and it crashes the same when I try to bring up the prefs dialog.

I renamed the thumbnail db file, started elements with the single processor
shortcut as above and regenerated the thumbs, and it crashes the same when I try to bring up the prefs dialog.

I tried the simple add/remove programs, remove and then new install. a miracle happened. why didn't I do this way up the list? because an uninstaller might do absolutely anything, and "anything" might contain a long list of things I don't want to happen.

[johnrellis]

Great, glad you got it fixed, and thanks for updating -- that will help others.

(By the way, received wisdom on the forums is that repair install never works.)

[dxc]

yes, I have little faith in the "repair" option. theoretically an installer *could* check the integrity of the install and replace corrupted files, but hey...

one more effect of the reinstall: of course it clobbered my plugins, so when I got ready to import some *.cr2 files it didn't recognize them. the message about corrupted files isn't very helpful, and since it knows it doesn't recognize the extension you'd think a better message might point you to a plugin problem.

overall I found this to be a very frustrating exercise, as apparently many others have before me. you might think adobe would be interested in fixing something that makes it barf reading its own config files, but I guess they prefer to push you toward the next version. a novel idea that, make you pay for bug fixes to a product for which you already paid in full. yes, yes, I know you can't fix them all, but what is the count of elements 6 updates? zero?

anyway, thanks, I found your links very helpful in the end.

[dxc]

well, how nice...one month later I tried to edit my sharing preferences and it barfed again, and it now barfs any time I try to edit preferences. I guess adobe must think it is ok to require you to reinstall over and over, eh?

how is elements 7 in this regard, did adobe learn anything?

[dxc]

uninstall/reinstall again fixed the barfing. of course the real problem is a bug in the software, and it didn't fix that.

[dxc]

well, marvelous...this time I got one whole day out of it before it started barfing again.

[johnrellis]

I haven't heard of someone having as much trouble as you. Most likely there's some particular commands you're giving that trigger the problem on your machine, which most people don't encounter.

If you could figure out the right set of preference/state files to delete, it would be a lot quicker than uninstall/reinstall. In general, PSE is pretty good about recreating them.

This FAQ and the referenced Adobe tech notes list all the locations for such files:

http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/photoshopelements-6-7-faq.htm#_Removing_all_traces

I've used low-level Windows tools to trace the files that PSE reads, so I'm reasonably confident this list is complete.

[dxc]

I removed the directories given in your link above. I did not do this carefully, i.e. one by one, I just blew them all away. when finished pse would not start, so I performed the usual add/remove/repair ritual, and when I was done it loaded as usual. as usual when I went to edit/preferences/files... it crashed.

I guess I'll keep a record of my preference editing sequence next time. no doubt the sequence is responsible, but I'm not doing anything exotic. OTOH I don't know if it is worth the trouble to figure it out since I doubt adobe will issue a patch just for that, given that there are no updates for pse6 for any reason as far as I can tell.

[rlapoint]

I too suffer the same result (org. preference file crashes app).

I have noticed that the "Outlook" icon from MS Office is associated with the 'prf' extension.!?

This must have something to do with the crash.

This happens in both XP and Vista machines that are running MS Office.

I have tried all fixes mentioned except the clean install which IMO is too much trouble just to get the preference file to work.

As long the OS associates the .PRF file to Outlook there is no way to fix.
Adobe needs to change the extension , however this would be a MAJOR change to the program code.

If anyone (Adobe?) can find a FIX, PLEASE POST.

[johnrellis]

I have noticed that the "Outlook" icon from MS Office is associated with the 'prf' extension.!? This must have something to do with the crash.
It's very unlikely that the association of the .PRF extension causes the PSE crash. In general, when applications open files, they don't pay any attention to the association. The extension association is primarily a mechanism for Windows Explorer to know which program to run when the user opens the file from Windows Explorer.

You could prove this to yourself by setting a system restore point and uninstalling Office.

[scrapping simply]

well, marvelous...this time I got one whole day out of it before it started barfing again.

My MAC version is doing the same thing.
I reinstall, it works for a few days and then "barfs" ????

[Wendy]

I'm a little confused as I just replied to one of your post that seemed to imply you were having a different problem ??

http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?p=462746#post462746

Wendy

[dxc]

ah, a new record...I reinstalled and it crashed the first time I opened the preferences dialog.

[dxc]

well, progress of sorts. I did the remove/reinstall dance again, and this time I set up the shortcut to start the organizer using psexec as described here http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/403/kb403728.html before starting it the first time, and I've used that shortcut every time since. now I can edit preferences without (so far) crashing, although I did have a crash in folder view for no apparent reason.

one thing different: at this point I have not yet updated ACR, so if the crash is related to that I may just be enjoying the calm before the barf.

sad to say, I'm probably going to end up buying lightroom so I can stop wasting time on the remove/install cycle...ordinarily I don't like to reward bad behavior, but I guess adobe is holding all the cards if I want to use the elements editor (which itself has not caused me any problems).