PSE6 Catalog conversion warning

[Bob D]

I am posting here basically what I posted on the Adobe forum and will call tech support when I get time to see if they plan on fixing. I want to post here as I know some of you use my method for archiving your DVD clips and upgrading to PSE6 will not work until they fix the issue. Here is the issue:

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In PSE5 I have 2 catalogs. One for still pictures and one for videos. In PSE5 I would catalog the videos and then use the function within PSE5 to move them offline. This works great in that I have a catalog of all my clips on DVD. I can call them up anytime I need them by clicking on the thumbnail and it would tell me which DVD it is on.

When converting this catalog to PSE6 things don't work out too well. Everything appears to catalog OK, until I click on a thumbnail and just about all the thumbnails ask me to load the same DVD to load it. Luckily I named all my clips by year-month and backed them up as such. So I can see I'm clicking a 9801 (for 1998 January) but it tells me the clip is on 9010 (1990 October)!

Has anyone else experienced issues like this? If so is there a fix? I tried converting again, but ended up with the same results.

I did some more investigating. If I went to the thumbnails that are most recent they were correctly cataloged. So I knew somewhere it would switch over. I found the thumbnail where it starts cataloging incorrectly. Interestingly enough it starts on the 257 thumbnail. I've been in computers long enough to know that 256 is an important number. Seems like a legitimate bug.


Bob D

[tjodork]

this sounds like a MUST FIX....I've read your method....and plan to use it...and I just upgraded.,....so I would sure like to know if they intend to fix.

[JRjr]

I'm not sure if what I found this morning is related, but I went looking for some catalogued images I'd moved offline onto DVDs last year, and could not find them anywhere. This is in my converted PrEl2 to PrEl4 database. I still have the original in a safe place thank goodness.

I didn't really have too much time to check this out carefully and will do so when I can investigate in a more liesurely manner.

Has anyone run across this?

JRjr

[Bob D]

This only seems to affect the offline cataloging. My catalog of still pictures (in the thousands) currently on my hard drive do not seem to be affected by this issue.

I won't be able to even attempt to call Adobe until tomorrow.

Bob

[Bob D]

So Adobe's inital response is...

______________________________________________
Hello Bob,
Thank you for contacting Adobe® Web Support for assistance with Adobe
Photoshop Elements 6.0®
I understand that when you click on a thumbnail it will come up under
the wrong date.
Do you have all your files stored on DVD? Try moving the files to your
hard drive and to see if they will display the proper dates. If they do
you may need to copy all your files to the hard drive and then do
another copy/move offline.
I hope this information helps to resolve your issue.
If you require further assistance with this issue, please update your
web case with complete details, including what steps you have applied
and any error messages you are receiving.
You may also call Technical Support at 800-642-3623. We are available
from 6:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday - Friday, Pacific Time.
Kind regards,
Matt M.
Adobe Web Support"

My response was "are you kidding?!!" Anyway this response is not acceptable and I will continue to pursue. I hope to be ablt to call them on Monday. I don't think they fully understand the issue, as they think it has to do with dates, when it really has to do with file names.

[Bob D]

Adobe's response. I couldn't hang on the phone any longer so it is being conversed through the ticketing system. Obviously it is not getting far very easily.
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Hello Bob,

Thank you for contacting Adobe® Web Support for assistance with Adobe
Photoshop Elements 6.0®

I understand that it is not an option to copy your files from DVD to
your hard drive.

We do not recommend or support any offline storage. It is always best to
have your files stored on your main hard drive of your computer. It may
work from an external drive or a DVD, but we can not support it if it
does not work as expected since Photoshop Elements was not designed to
work this way.

I hope this information helps to resolve your issue.

================================================================================================

My response.....

I think we may need to start over on your understanding of the issue.

When clicking on the thumbnail it is not an issue of the "date" not displaying correctly, it is an issue that the file name it was m
oved to offline is incorrect. It is fine for the first 200+ thumbnails, then it just stops.

To state that Adobe doesn't support offline storage doesn't make sense to me. I used this function in PSE5. I haven't had a need to
do it yet in PSE6, but assume it is still a function. The function is the backup funtionality. When doing this it states the feature
of being able to move the files offline but still retain their location via the catalog.

I have over 2300 video clips that I cataloged this way with PSE5. It works great! It is a big plus to having PSE. In converting the
catalog to PSE6 it appears to work and it isn't until you click a thumbnail somewhere in the 250 range that the file name is incorre
ct. Where some confusion in stating my problem may have occured, is that I create file names with year and month as a naming convent
ion. But it is not that a "date" displays incorrectly, it is the "file name" displays incorrectly.

My feeling is this should be identified as a bug. Additionally, it should have a fix.

[Rockdoc]

Bob,

I am guessing you have not heard further from Adobe yet, but I wanted you to know that I am watching this topic with interest. My catalog is messed up in the same way that you describe. Many of my offline files are missing (no thumbnail), and list one particular dvd as their location. I was hoping that I could reconnect those files, but when I go to File-Reconnect, it won't allow me to reconnect the file to one in the dvd drive. I can only see hard drives (2 internal and 1 external) when I go to My Computer in the Reconnect dialog box. I definitely agree that this is a bug that should be fixed! Do you think it would help if I contacted Adobe with the same problem?

Jennifer
P.S. As you say, we can actually still locate the dvd with the particular file by its naming convention, but now all the tags I have applied to these files in my video catalog are useless until I can accurately reconnect. And, I can't even see the thumbnails on these files, so how do I know if that is the one I want?

[Bob D]

I had a response late Thursday from Adobe on this via my open ticket. Their unsuccessful suggest is ...

Subject: Your TS Web Case Number 172952944 has been Updated by Adobe
Dear Bob Driscoll,
Adobe Technical Support has responded to your Technical Support Web
Case 172952944.
You can view the response by visiting http://www.adobe.com/go/supportportal/
and clicking on Case History after you log in.
This email address cannot receive messages. Please do not reply to this
email.
Thank you,
Adobe Technical Support
Web Case Details: [172952944]
_____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________
*** Notes to Customer ***
11/08/2007 23:22:06
______________________________________________
Hello Bob,
Thank you for contacting Adobe® Web Support for assistance with Adobe
Photoshop® Elements 6.0.
I understand that after converting your catalog to the version 6 format,
all of your offline files after the 256th one appear with the incorrect
file name.
The behavior that you describe indicates that your catalog database is
damaged. Optimize and then repair it by using the following steps:
1. Quit all applications.
2. Hold the Shift key down on your keyboard as you launch the Photoshop
Elements Organizer. Hold the Shift key down until the Catalog Manager
appears.
3. In the Catalog Manager, select your current catalog and then click
Optimize. When the optimization completes, click OK.
4. Click Repair. When prompted, click Repair or Repair Anyway. When
this completes, click OK.
5. Click Open to open your catalog of images.
-Even though the file names are incorrect, does the correct file open
when you choose to Edit it?
I hope this information helps to resolve your issue.
If you require further assistance with this issue, please update your
web case with complete details, including what steps you have applied
and any error messages you are receiving.
You may also call us at 800-642-3623. We are available from 6:00 am to
5:00 pm Monday - Friday, Pacific Time.
Kind regards,
Carey B.
Adobe Web Support
=========================================================================================

I also understand that someone should be contacting me directly in the near future to get this resolved.

Rock,

My experience is what you are getting, but I did a more specific count and found it was using the same DVD location for all clips after #247, I have over 2300 clips! And if you are using my method then the file name gets you to the correct year and month, but usually there are a number of clips in that range spread over 3-4 DVDs, so you can't determine which DVD it is on.

I will update if I get another response from Adobe.

Bob D

[Rockdoc]

Thanks Bob,
I have almost a thousand clips as well, and I do not look forward to constructing a new catalog from scratch. I appreciate you sharing your responses and will be interested in an eventual answer (a patch perhaps?).

Jennifer

[tjodork]

Any new news ? How do we put pressure on Adobe to fix things they broke over prior releases..... like the Find->By History->Imported On now sorts by in some random way instead of how it did in PS4 where it sorted by date with the most recent first. I could EASILY find the pictures I just imported.
I submitted a ticket to Adobe and then came back and said it DOESN'T sort right and suggested I write a feature request for a future release....This is ridiculous.

[Bob D]

I don't have anything definitive to report at this time. I just responded to their latest series of questions. We'll see what they come back with. I will say based on trying to answer their questions that basically the offline cataloging is completely broke. Although the first 247 of my clips look like they have the correct catalog name, when I put the DVD in it is looking for it can't locate my DVD drive to "reconnect" to.

Anyway, when/if they come up with something concrete, I will report back.

[Barb O]

Thanks for the update Bob

[Rockdoc]

I'm with Barb and Bob. Getting the catalog to work correctly and sort correctly are not feature requests. This needs a patch. I just wish I knew how to really make myself heard on this.

[Chuck Engels]

I can tell you that Adobe is working on the problem and they do know how serious it is.

[Rockdoc]

Thanks Chuck - that does make me feel a bit better. I will try to be patient.