Offline files in Organizer: I have about 50 photos in Organizer that have offline files and can't be opened. How do I fix this? I did a search here, but couldn't find anything. thanks...

bohleber Loc: southern Indiana

I have about 50 photos in Organizer that have offline files and can't be opened.
How do I fix this? I did a search here, but couldn't find anything.

thanks, Don

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

bohleber wrote:

I have about 50 photos in Organizer that have offline files and can't be opened.
How do I fix this? I did a search here, but couldn't find anything.

thanks, Don

Don, more info is needed, I believe.

- What is Organizer? Is it part of an editing application? Part of the OS?
- How did the files get there to begin with?
- Are these 50 files displayed as thumbnails?

Hope we can get you squared away.

bohleber Loc: southern Indiana

Organizer is the cataloging portion of Photoshop Elements. These photos were in the Organizer and all of a sudden these 50 or so have an icon showing that they are "offline files". I hooked up an external drive that should have those photos on it, but can't retrieve them. I guess I don't know how to import them from the Ext HD
that has them backed up. thx

blackest Loc: Ireland

bohleber wrote:

Organizer is the cataloging portion of Photoshop Elements. These photos were in the Organizer and all of a sudden these 50 or so have an icon showing that they are "offline files". I hooked up an external drive that should have those photos on it, but can't retrieve them. I guess I don't know how to import them from the Ext HD
that has them backed up. thx

Sounds very lightroom like, the usual solution in lightroom is to right click on the folder with the question mark and navigate to where the photo is now. Then it mends the path. I'm not auser of elements but i would imagine its similar. It maybe that at one point the external drive may have had a drive letter such as E: and it is now F: which has changed the file path. That can be caused by say inserting an SD card first and then adding the hard drive and next time reversing the order.

bohleber Loc: southern Indiana

Thank you Blackest for your comments. I think you are right!

Don

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

If "Organizer" is the name of the software, it's one of many bad names in the world of photography. Doing a search turns up photo organizers - not surprising.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

bohleber wrote:

Organizer is the cataloging portion of Photoshop Elements. These photos were in the Organizer and all of a sudden these 50 or so have an icon showing that they are "offline files". I hooked up an external drive that should have those photos on it, but can't retrieve them. I guess I don't know how to import them from the Ext HD
that has them backed up. thx

Delete those photos from the Catalogue. Then use Import - From files and folders, and navigate to the external drive where the photos are, select them and select Open. Just remember that when you want to work on these you have to have the external drive plugged in or Elements won't find them. I always put my originals on an external drive and then copy them to my computer's HD to work on.

2mdman

Organizer will tell you the names of the files that are missing. Look for those in your offline media using windows file explorer. If you find them, then go to FILE - RECONNECT and then browse to where the missing files are located. If you wish to move them to your main storage device, copy the files to that drive, then run IMPORT to get them into organizer. Deleted the old "missing from catalog" files and you'll be all set.

don26812 Loc: South Bay of Los Angeles, CA

The comment that stated that the Organizer sounded like Lightroom was right on. They both use database technology. To give you an idea of how this could have worked in your case, let's just say that these photos were on a CD, and you somehow imported them into Organizer Catalog from where they were - not copying them to you hard drive. All you would need to do is load that CD into the drive, and the Organizer would immediately find them. At that point, using the Organizer's command, you could Move them to your hard drive, so the CD would not be needed anymore to work with the images.

So, the key for you is to find where the 50 images are now. Perhaps their subject matter will hep you find them. Once you do that, you can delete the current 50 from the Catalog, and re-import them.

FWIW

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

bohleber wrote:

I have about 50 photos in Organizer that have offline files and can't be opened.
How do I fix this? I did a search here, but couldn't find anything.

thanks, Don

Whenever you move files, you have to do it whithin the Organizer! There are actually no files in the Organizer at all, all it does, point to the location they are stored on your system. If you move any files outside of the Organizer, it will have problems locating them and therefore not be able to open them. The Organizer is a particular "weak spot" of PSE that eats a lot of ram!