How to move Organizer 10 catalog to specific location?

[Ron Hunter]

Hello! I am interested in moving my Organizer 10 catalogs (one for photos, another for videos) from my "C" drive to my audio/video internal drive. By doing this the catalogs will be on the same drive as the media themselves, and when I back up that drive to an external drive, I will back up the catalogs and media at the same time.

Problem is I can't find the catalog files.

I have tried File>Catalog, selected a target catalog and clicked "Move". The subsequent "Move Catalog" box has two choices, but the "OK" button is grayed out for one of them. My only option is to select "Catalogs accessible by the current user", and when I click "OK" I am taken back to the Catalog Manager screen. I am not given an option to select a destination location for the moved catalog.

What I want is to move the catalog to a location I specify, but I don't know how to do that. Can anyone here help me?

[Steve Grisetti]

Is it really just the catalog you want to move, Ron? That's just a small file that holds your Organizer data. I'm not sure there's an advantage to moving it to another drive.

But the easiest way to move it is just to go to the Organizer's File menu and select Manage Catalogs.

On the Manage Catalog panel, you can select your catalog and then click the Move button to relocate it.

[Barb O]

Ron and Steve,

1 - Because Ron has his media (photos and video) on a separate internal drive, I would agree with the approach of placing the Elements Organizer catalog on that same internal drive.

Ron, does the Windows userid under which you are running have Administrator authority in Windows ? (I ask because I was guessing that some type of authorization failure for the files of the Catalog could have caused your problem.)

2 - I suggest that you also consider posting this Organizer catalog question at the Adobe Photoshop Elements forum. You may find that forum has more participants who have done exactly what you are now considering for your catalogs. See
http://forums.adobe.com/community/photoshop_elements

Barbara

[Gerlinde]

Ron is right. In PRE 10 + 11 the catalog manager has changed. You can't choose anymore where the catalog file is being moved to. But here is what I came up with:

The catalog is in this location: Computer > Local Drive (C:) > ProgramData > Adobe > Elements Organizer > Catalogs. Inside the folder Catalogs is a folder MyCatalog.

Right click MyCatalog folder > Copy, browse to your new location on your other HD and > Paste. Go back to MyCatalog folder in its current location and rename it to something like MyCatalog_old.

Now open Elements Organizer, you will get a message: The default Catalog could not be found. Please open or create a different catalog. Click OK, the Catalog Manager opens.

In the middle of the window under Catalogs, click on Custom Location > Browse..., a new window opens. Now browse to the copy of the MyCatalog folder on your other HD and select it.

MyCatalog will appear in the white section of the Catalog Manager, select it and click > Open

Do this at your own risk and only if you feel confident with the procedure!

[Ron Hunter]

Thanks all, I really appreciate the help!

Barbara, as far as I know I do have admin privileges on my home PC. I will visit the PSE forum you suggested and look for tips. And thanks for the feedback that I'm on the right path with wanting to place my catalog on the media drive.

Gerlinde, I'll try your suggestion of copying/pasting/renaming catalog folders tonight. I like your parting quote, "Do this at your own risk and only if you feel confident with the procedure!" What could possibly go wrong?

[Gerlinde]

What could possibly go wrong?

Nothing, Ron, absolutely nothing!

You could also just make a backup of your Organizer on your 2nd drive, hide the MyCatalog file, then restore from your backup. But I'm not sure if this will move the new MyCatalog file to the 2nd drive. But maybe you will get during the restore process the option to save in a custom location.

[Barb O]

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1251153?tstart=0

Is a thread at the Adobe forum which has similarities to your dilemma. Now it is version 11 (instead of 10) and not exactly the same problem, but I still think it is worth reviewing. Then you could create your own thread describing your specific problem plus asking for recommendations.

FYI Adobe personnel sometimes participate on their user forums. This thread had a comment from an Adobe staff person: however, I have also observed very active participation in problem solving from Adobe staff.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Barb O]

Ron,
A quick question (and I suggest you include this info in your Adobe forum post) ---
Since you have 2 catalogs, I wonder how you named those catalogs ? And specifically, does either catalog have the default name ?

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Ron Hunter]

Barbara, each catalog is stored it its own folder and each catalog is named "catalog.pse10db". It is interesting that each catalog has the same name; I didn't do that, PSE did.

I did post a question in the PSE community forum about this. I'll advise if I learn anything useful.