PE9 Organizer has stopped working!

[Bob D]

Hi all,

I have a new computer and has PE9 installed on it. I had some issues getting the catalog converted from PE6, but for the most part it is in place. I have been working with PE9 off and on for a month now without any problems. Now I'm getting the "Elements 9 Organizer has stopped working" message. Then it just closes the program. The organizer does come up and displays some thumbnails. I can see the message in the lower left indicating it is actively generating thumbnails, but then it stops.

What have I done to try and correct?

1. Hold shift key down when launching organizer. This allows me to do a "repair" and "optimize" on the catalog before opening. The repair indicates there is nothing wrong. The optimize finishes normally. Then when opening it stops again, - same message

2. I am able to create a new catalog and proceed without problems, but the real catalog I want does not open.

This may have been answered, but my search didn't supply me with a resolution. Has anyone experienced this? If so, any solution?

Bob D

[Steve Grisetti]

New computers can be a mess of tmp files and fragmentation. So first try running a program like Advanced System Care Free and see if that fixes things.
http://www.iobit.com/advancedsystemcareper.html

Here is also a hint for repairing a catalog.
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/497528

As a last resort, you can simply remove or rename the current catalog, forcing Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements to rebuild it.

To do this, go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\Catalogs\ (In Vista go to C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\Catalogs\)and change the name of the folder "My Catalog" to "Old catalog". When you relaunch the program(s), they will recreate the catalog based on the media it locates on your drive(s).

[Barb O]

Here is also a hint for repairing a catalog.
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/497528

As a last resort, you can simply remove or rename the current catalog, forcing Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements to rebuild it.

To do this, go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\Catalogs\ (In Vista go to C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\Catalogs\)and change the name of the folder "My Catalog" to "Old catalog". When you relaunch the program(s), they will recreate the catalog based on the media it locates on your drive(s).

Bob,

The Adobe forum post that Steve referenced was originally intended for use before you upgrade a catalog from prior versions.

I am not sure if it is relevant to you now. Why? - because you have already done the upgrade and then done the Repair and Optimize against the upgraded Catalog files and their supporting files. To use that suggestion you would need to go back to your v6 Catalog and do the process to upgrade it again. If it were me I would try other alternative on v9 first before redoing the conversion process.

You said that you have used v9 successfully before this problem happened.
1 -- Do you know if all of your thumbnails were ever successfully generated after you upgraded from v6 to v9 ?
I think the the ReadMe file with PSE has advice in some version about regenerating thumbnails after an upgrade: I recommend that you check the ReadMe file with your PSE 9 and post any references it has to the thumbnail cache.
2 -- If you see only a partial screen of thumbnails, is there anything different (unusual) about the files that would display next
at the time of the crash? If you can determine which files would display next, would these be video files or photo files and what format? My intent here is to explore the idea of a "divide and conquer" if a specific video or photo file is causing the problem.
3 -- Do you recollect what you were doing the last time you successfully used the v9 Organizer ?
I ask this because sometimes an incomplete process can leave invalid parameters in Organizer related files. Examples seem to be uploading to web sites (like photoshop.com or print ordering sites). However, don't limit your response to just those processes because there might be others.
4 -- Do you have any backups of your v9 catalog file ?

Bob and Steve,
I disagree with the conclusion that having the Organizer rebuild its Catalog from the media currently on the hard drive will give the same results as a current catalog. Missing Organizer keyword Tags and invalid Date Taken for video files are among the potential problems. Although I might rebuild an Organizer Catalog from the media on my hard drive IF I could not identify a better alternative, I would investigate other courses of action first.

[Steve Grisetti]

Once again, Barb, your insight is brilliant! Thanks!

[Bob D]

Thanks Barb ... ans Steve!

I think I may have it resolved now. If I recall this started after I ran the Auto Analyzer. Not sure why I ran it. I think more out of curiosity.

Anyway, I decided to delete all the files in the catalog folder, other there than the actual catalog. So essentially, I was deleting the thumbnail caches and a TMP or mk4 file. Two of the files (thumb.5.cache & face.thumb.9.cache) I was unable to delete because it said the program auto analyzer had the file and to please close the application/file. Restarting the computer and not launching Adobe still did not alleviate the problem. So with Windows 7, I used the restore feature of a file from a week ago on the 2 files causing me issues.

I was able to start PE9 and so far it seems fine.

Thanks for your response and suggestions!

Bob D

[Barb O]

Great news Bob D that you are up and running again.

FYI - Because you said that you did run some Auto Analysis, I suggest that you read this thread started by RJ in the PRE 10 subforum. I think that it will also be relevant for version 9. Then you may want to examine some of your video files (for which you did the auto analysis) using Windows Explorer to check the date fields.

viewtopic.php?f=99&t=10076&p=87944&hilit=+date+modified#p87944

In this thread RJ described what he experienced and what action he took to circumvent.

[Bob D]

Wow! That is interesting.

As best I can tell the dates are OK, probably because I have a separate catalog for videos than I have for pictures. Additionally I have all my videos in separate folders by year and month range. But from what I can tell the file dates look OK.

Adobe is making it harder and harder to be an "elements" user with their products. You really have to spend a considerable amount of time reading and investigating things to keep up on the issues the product presents. That's not the fun part of working with this stuff.

Thanks again!

Bob D

[Barb O]

As best I can tell the dates are OK, probably because I have a separate catalog for videos than I have for pictures.

Bob - Glad that your file information looks good. I agree with your observation.

[Bob D]

Thanks Barb. I'm just glad there is muvipix to turn to and all the people that freely contribute here.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Bob D