PSE 9 Photo Downloader Advanced Dialog

[kimjane]

I upgraded to Elements 9 from 7 (and earlier versions). In version 9, the advanced dialog option is missing in the photo downloader on my laptop and desktop. This is very inconvenient because I cannot designate distinct folders for distinct groups of photos. Consequently, I have been using PSE 7 to first download photos and then importing them into my 9 catalog. Am I missing something? I have reported this on the Adobe site as a bug, but they seem inclined to view it as intended functionality which I think is outrageous. I saw some suggestions to change monitor resolution, but none works on my new Dell 15R laptop or my Dell XPS desktop. I just thought I would check here to see if anyone might have heard of this problem.

I have a Dell 15R, i5 CPU, 2.53 GHz, 6GB Ram, Windows 7, 64 bit, 15 inch monitor, Resolution set to 1366 by 768.

Thanks so much for any suggestions!

[George Tyndall]

In version 9, the advanced dialog option is missing in the photo downloader on my laptop and desktop.)

It's in the lower left of the Basic Dialog:

Downloader.jpg

[Barb O]

Unfortunately most of my post is not good news.

As Adobe probably told you. In version 9, the Advanced Dialog Window of the Adobe Downloader window requires a pixel resolution height of approximately 800 pixels. If your monitor resolution has less than the 800 pixels height, then the Advanced Dialog does not display or show the choice to display it. This is a change in v9 whereas in some of the previous versions the Advanced Dialog window displayed incomplete, in v9 it does not display at all. And I agree that this change is outrageous. There have been various threads on the Adobe Photoshop Elements forum discussing this problem.

Desktop -
I am surprised that you experienced this problem with your XPS desktop. What monitor are you using with the desktop and what is the resolution setting for that monitor? Perhaps - just maybe - there is some other factor here that can be resolved.

Laptop,
Here I am not optimistic because I suspect that 1566 x 768 is the maximum resolution possible for your Dell 15R laptop screen, so I don't have any good suggestions for circumventing this problem with your laptop. Since your approach of using PSE 7 seems to be working for you -- I suggest continuing to use that.

FYI - Someone else might suggest any of the following
-- that you load all to one folder and then move using the Organizer to the other folders: but I think that would be even more of a nuisance.
-- or that it does not matter which folder contains the photos when using the Organizer. (my response to that is usually, I prefer to retain a folder organization in addition to using the Organizer tags.)
-- my alternative would probably be to use a camera card reader and Windows Explorer to copy the photo files to my computer hard drive. However I don't think it is necessary for you to take that approach.

[George Tyndall]

If your monitor resolution has less than the 800 pixels height, then the Advanced Dialog does not display or show the choice to display it. .... And I agree that this change is outrageous.

When Adobe rolls out a new version of its software and lists all the reasons to "upgrade," shouldn't it also be required to list all the reasons--and there are often many--not to?



P.S. I've installed PSE9, but I rarely use it. PSE7 is still my "workhorse," and it is what I continue to use for downloading.

[kimjane]

Thanks so much for the replies! I thought that maybe I was going to be out of luck based on what I had seen in forums, but I guess I just hoped that maybe someone out there knew something I didn't know. I will continue to use PSE 7 for downloading though it seems crazy that I must do it this way! I will try again on my desktop and see if I can get it to work there.

Thanks for the help!
Kim

[George Tyndall]

Thanks so much for the replies! I thought that maybe I was going to be out of luck based on what I had seen in forums, but I guess I just hoped that maybe someone out there knew something I didn't know. I will continue to use PSE 7 for downloading though it seems crazy that I must do it this way! I will try again on my desktop and see if I can get it to work there.

Thanks for the help!
Kim

Is 768 the maximum vertical pixels you can get from that desktop and 15-inch monitor?

If so, then according to BarbO, use of PSE9's downloader is not going to happen, because you need a minimum of 800.



Now for the irritating part: Your system likely meets the minimum system requirements per Adobe:

PSE9 System Requirements.jpg

[Barb O]

I will try again on my desktop and see if I can get it to work there.
Kim

Kim, do post back again if your desktop does not work the first time.

Also, it may be worthwhile to discuss more about the use of PSE 7 for transferring photos to your laptop and then use PSE 9 for your subsequent work.

FYI - You will need to be aware that if you move photo files using PSE 9, the PSE 7 catalog will not be aware of that new folder location. When you do editing, PSE 7 will not know about the _edited photo file.

Also -- Do you sync any albums from your PSE catalog to photoshop.com ? If yes you can only do that sync from 1 catalog : that might need to be the v9 catalog.

.. and yes, it is very unfortunate that the Advanced Downloader functions do not work for a laptop resolution that many people would use while traveling. I think that some people have gone as far as to return Photoshop Elements 9 because of the Advanced Downloader not working on their laptop.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Kim, time to upgrade the monitor on the desktop?

[kimjane]

Barb and George - I changed the resolution on my desktop monitor and now the advanced dialog does indeed appear. Sadly, my laptop maximum height is 768 pixels, which I suspect is true for a large number of users carrying around laptops. It definitely is one of those "features" that Adobe should warn users about - my previous versions included a working advanced dialog box, so it never occurred to me that version 9 would be any different in that regards.

Regarding version 7 - my plan is to only use it for downloading on my laptop. Had I known what I know now, I would not have upgraded (I did not upgrade to 8 because of all the warnings by users in forums). Unfortunately, after installing 9, I converted my catalog and did a lot of editing of photos and tags etc. and a lot of major reorganizing of photos and folders before realizing the problem. Consequently, I will stick with 9 for my catalog and just use 7 to download initially.

I do not sync with Photoshop.com, so that should not be a problem. I let Carbonite do my online backups and I also backup to an external harddrive. That is another tricky point to mention for Carbonite users - Adobe stores the catalog in a folder that is not backed up by Carbonite which means I manually have to copy it to my documents folder for backups. I learned this the hard way when my catalog was corrupted once.

John - I would love to upgrade my monitor, but unfortunately I guess I don't have an excuse since I was able to change the resolution. It is a very old monitor but still works. I guess that is good and bad news. I like your dog pic.

Thanks for all the info,
Kim

[George Tyndall]

I learned this the hard way when my catalog was corrupted once.

It appears that, like me, you are an avid (no pun intended) organizer/catalog user, so you might be interested in the following.

For me, the Organizer 7 catalog is the heart of my workflow, so here is the method I use to ascertain that it is protected: I put my catalog, plus the media that it manages--images, motion and other backgrounds, clip art, etc.--on one and the same external HDD and then keep 2 backups of that drive in 2 separate locations. If ever my "primary" HDD crashes (which it has), all I need do is click on the catalog icon on one of the other two external HDDs and--voila!--my catalog instantly opens with all tags, albums, etc. intact as if nothing had happened.

Note that this will happen with any machine, anywhere in the world, that has PRE/PSE7 installed on its C drive.


____
*iTunes mangages all my music files, and SureThing5 manages all my art, templates, etc for my DVD labels. As my work consists mostly of slide shows, my "primary" Organizer 7 does not manage any video clips. (I have a separately-located copy of Organizer7 to manage my relatively-few video clips.)

With regard to iTunes, I have it set up the same way as my catalog: While the program itself is on my C drive, both my music and my library files are "consolidated" on external HDDs; what this means is that I can 1) easily back up my files and 2)legally play my continusouly-updated library on any of the 5 machines that Apple has authorized for my account.

[kimjane]

Thanks for the tips, George. I would actually like to follow up on instituting such a scheme since I have accumulated quite a lot of photos and projects. Hopefully, I follow through before I have to say, "I should have done that yesterday", kinda like I did with the pet insurance brochure that sat on my desk for months until my dog broke his leg to the tune of $????.??.

Thanks,
Kim

[George Tyndall]

Thanks for the tips, George. I would actually like to follow up on instituting such a scheme since I have accumulated quite a lot of photos and projects. Hopefully, I follow through before I have to say, "I should have done that yesterday", kinda like I did with the pet insurance brochure that sat on my desk for months until my dog broke his leg to the tune of $????.??.

Thanks,
Kim

BTW, here are the USB 2.0-powered HDDs that I use to store my slide shows:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/product/product_detail/BK242AA%2523AC3

Note the included carrying case and short USB cable.

[Barb O]

Kim,

what model is your XPS desktop ?

I am asking because at least some of the Dell XPS desktop models support either e-Sata or USB 3 connections for external hard drives.

If you are purchasing a new external drive, I think it is worth investigating the fastest connection possible when you will have the Elements catalog on an external hard drive.

[kimjane]

Thanks for the info, but I actually already have an external hard drive will just be using it rather than spending money on a new one. Thanks to everyone for all the help and info.