Changing sort order in Photo Downloader

[stickpoole]

I have started seeing a different behavior in Photo Downloader when loading images from my memory card into Elements. I use the Downloader in Advanced mode so that I can select which images I want to import. I also rename (and renumber) my images as I import them in order not to conflict with images imported earlier from a different camera. I therefore want the images imported in the order they were taken (oldest first) in order to keep the numbering in the proper order. However, I am now seeing the images displayed newest first and that is the order in which they are imported. I have tried to find where this sort order is set and have not been able to find it in the preferences, in the online help nor in the large Photoshop Elements 6 book that I bought. I can set the sort order in Organizer but need to be able to do that in Downloader as well. There must be a setting that controls this since it changed at some point; it previously had displayed them in oldest first order. How can I change the sort order in Downloader back to oldest first?

[johnrellis]

I haven't found such a setting exposed to the user. You might try deleting the preferences file for the Adobe Photo Downloader:

C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\7.0\Organizer\APDPreferences.xml

(That will be stored somewhere under c:\Documents And Settings\user\ on XP. Make sure you've set Windows Explorer to show hidden files.)

There are some fields in that file that look like they might affect the sort order:

<Sorting>1</Sorting>

But rather than try to reverse engineer that, it might be quicker and more reliable just to rename or delete the file to get back all the defaults.

[stickpoole]

Thank you very much. Your suggestion almost totally fixed things. Renaming the file did allow things go back to their defaults. That showed the images in the proper order but grouped within the days they were shot. However, those "day groups" were in newest first order. I then changed the Create Subfolders field value to None. The images then were all displayed in oldest first order. Thanks again for your help.