Yikes! Where'd My Tagged Photos Go?

[druhl]

In an effort to better learn Elements 3 I've just begun working through the lessons in "Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 Classroom In A Book" (CIB).

Up to this point I have saved photos to my external (E) drive because of it's greater capacity. Inefficient as it may be, I have simply tagged and stacked the photos in the organizer without creating catalogs.

Following the instructions in CIB I loaded the lesson files included with the book onto my hardrive. Because there are only a few files I placed them on my C drive. I followed the instructions to create catalogs for the CIB lessons and Lesson 1.

I can't find any of the photos added to the organizer prior to creating these two new catalogs. None of those photos were in catalogs but that didn't keep me from seeing and working with them before creating these new catalogs.

Any ideas?

Donn

[Ward Grant]

Donn
My guess is Organizer remembers your last open catalog, which may be one of these CIB catalogs. If you do File>Open>Catalog, do you get several catalogs (the two CIBs and your original)?

I'm guessing it is just a terminology thingy, but you say these photos were tagged but your last sentence says "None of those photos were in catalogs...". Tagging information is stored in a catalog, so there must have been at least one of them before.

Please post back if this does not solve your problem

[druhl]

Hi Ward, thanks for your interest.

The problem is 'new' photos (imported and cataloged today) and 'old' photos (imported, tagged and stacked but not actually placed in a catalog prior to today)

When I File>Catalog I get the dialogue box that includes Open. When I click on Open I see the catalogs I created today: CIB Catalog and Lesson 1. When I choose one of those catalogs I see the photos I placed in those respective catalogs along with their tags. Those files are located on my C drive.

What I can't find are photos as well as their tags that were placed in the organizer prior to today.

When I insert an SD card into my card reader one of the things it does is open the Elements 3 Organizer. In the name of keeping it somewhat manageable I had in the past created a descriptive tag for the newly imported photos, applied the tag to all the photos then stacked them. Those photos were not, contrary to conventional wisdom :( placed in catalogs. I don't know if it should make any difference but those photos (hundreds of them) are located on my E drive.

When I opened the Organizer prior to creating the CIB and Lesson 1 Catalogs today, there were all these stacks of tagged photos. Now that I have created the CIB and Lesson 1 catalogs, when I open Organizer that's all I see - the newly created catalogs. None of the tags created for those old photos at the time of their import are visible. Using the timeline at the top of the Organizer doesn't help. If I choose File>Open Recently Edited File in Editor from the Organizer menu it still lists the last of those 'old' files I worked on and opens them in the editor if selected. I can still find the files by navigating to their location on the E drive from the Editor - I just can't find them in the Organizer.

I don't know if this makes sense but it's as if the Organizer is now looking for catalogs and those 'old' pictures weren't in catalogs (or collections for that matter).

Thanks again for your (and anyone elses help) Ward

Donn

[Pauline]

Donn if you tagged your old photos they WERE in a catalogue. The catalogue is done automatically. When you set up new catalogues to work on your book the last catalogue open is the one that will reopen the next time you enter elements. You must go up to the menu and select "my catalogue" (which is the default name) and then you should find your old pictures.

It is not recommended that you set up more than one catalogue for this reason. I have an extra one that I set up when I worked on One on One Elements for windows. I had to make sure when I was done with the session that I returned to my catalogue in order for it to open upon inserting my memory card or entering the organizer.

[druhl]

Thanks Pauline

The Organizer does open to the last catalog used as you've said.

"My Catalog"... I can't find it. Should it be included in the box that opens with File>Catalog>Open? When I do that all I get are the catalogs created today (CIB Catalog and Lesson 1).

I've tried "Recover". It seems to run quickly, tell me that the catalog has been successfully recoverd but still no "My Catalog".

I haven't reloaded the program or cleared or deleted anything...don't know where it could have gone.

Donn

[TonyW]

My guess is that My Catalog.psa which is what you need to find may be on your other drive. Do a search for it and then when you find it do a File>Catalog>Open and navigate to where you found it. That should get your original catalog back

Tony

[druhl]

Understanding is such a satisfying thing!

In frustration I resorted to Norton Go Back. I restored my drive to a point prior to beginning the Classroom In A Book (CIB) lessons.

I left one crucial point of this tale out. I started CIB once before, about a year or so ago, got involved in other aspects and instructional items and hadn't gotten back to it.

After restoring my hard drive to an earlier point I was relieved to find the Organizer just as I'd remembered it....all those stacks and tags. I noticed the name of the catalog was Lesson 1. That's when the light came on. In my previous start at CIB I had created the those same catalogs. As Pauline pointed out "When you set up new catalogues to work on your book the last catalogue open is the one that will reopen the next time you enter elements." I'm sure the Lesson 1 catalog had been the last catalog opened a year or so ago. Not understanding the need to open the My Catalog catalog when I went back to working on my own photos in the Organizer I'd inadvertantly been adding them to the Lesson 1 catalog.

While looking at my 'old' photos after restoring the hard drive I did File>Catalog>Open and switched to CIB Catalog. It was unchanged. When I went to switch back to Lesson 1 I got the 'new' Lesson 1 (a catalog containing the photos imported today and none of the 'old' photos). I'm not sure how that happened but it's clear I need to restore my drive again. Then File>Catalog>Save As and rename the catalog containing all my old photos to My Catalog....whew!

Thanks for all your help. Little pieces here and there lead to understanding!

Donn

[druhl]

Yes...all, well some is again right with the world.

Tony I had looked through every folder I could think of for My Catalog.psa on C and E drive. I didn't find it and if I had it wouldn't have held the files I was looking for (which raises the question did I ever have a My Catalog file? I'm not sure I had saved anything to the Organizer prior to my initial use of the Classroom In A Book lessons a year ago.) I suspect it doesn't matter which drive the photos are on. That's just a feeling though.

After once again reverting my hard drive I opened the organizer to the 'old' photos and saved them as My Catalog. When I File>Catalog>Open it now list all three catalogs.

Proving once again in this Forum you do learn something new everday.

Donn

[Ward Grant]

Donn
Glad you were able to get things straightened out. I'm glad you wrote back about having the old catalogs-I was really puzzled on what was going on before that.

[Pauline]

Donn, I'm glad you got it all sorted out. Chances are in the beginning, you changed the name from 'my catalogue' to lesson 1. Now hopefully you will remember to change back to your picture catalogue after working on a lesson. It's usually these little messes that help us to remember! :rolleyes: