dadorphan

I have thousands and thousands of photos on my laptop computer's disk (a PC) and I am running out of disk space.
I have backed up my photos to a Western Digital external hard drive, but have no idea how to keep the structure – albums, tags, facial recognition, etc. intact- that I created using Photoshop Elements 2020.

The external hard drive contains .json files, .xmp files and I think I know what those are. I would like to use Elements to edit photos, but keep the bulk of my photos on the external hard drive allowing me to delete them from my laptop's hard drive. In other words, I want to use Photoshop Elements, but have access to the thousands of photos now stored on the external hard drive and be able to delete the photos on my laptop's hard drive, so I have disk space on my laptop.

Exactly, how do I do this? Thanks so much for any help given.

Thank you.

Michael Sirota
dadorphan@aol.com

TonyBrown

I use the Nikon processing software. I simply copied my photos onto an external hard drive in separate subject folders and open them to process on my computer. I’m sure Photoshop would do the same.

hcmcdole

I keep all my photos on 3 external drives (2 identical 4TB USB and 1 3TB NAS). I found years ago that I have to organize my photos for easy access and searches so I came up with my own system how I wanted it to look (I do Drive:\photos\year\month\day&brief description of where or what I was shooting that day). Now if I could find the ambition to go do that with my first four years when I started doing digital (very disorganized). I see some like to organize by subject matter but I found that got large very fast - hikes, plants, family, events, etc.

I don't want to do a back up of the system and apps along with hundreds of thousands of photos so on my last laptop I moved all photos off the C drive to all external drives (triplicate). This way makes the C drive backup quicker and I save a ton of space as well.

Wanda Krack Loc: Tennessee, USA

I also organize my photos (in my own manner) for keeping using two external hd's (duplicates in case one goes bad). I start off with general types of files listing them as the first categories (such as raw, large jpeg's for possible prints, 5X7's, HDR's, etc.) That gives me about 10 or 12 categories that all pictures I have to save will be listed under. Next, when downloading a new card of images onto my computer, using PS Bridge, I go through and discard any that I will not be keeping, next, hook up the externals and 'copy to' each external, the file that I have just downloaded under the corresponding title of 'raw' that I have set up on the externals. Forgot to say that after downloading to bridge to the computer hd, I rename the file using first the date, then list the picture subjects in the file name. For each category of images I am working with on the 'puter, such as 'cards' or 5X7's, or pano's...........when they reach a significat size, I will take time to transfer or 'copy to' the file that has the same name as my current working file (to the externals). On the second transfer, I actually do a transfer instead of a copy, so that removes the entire file from my computer's HD.
Hope this makes sense to you.

Howard5252 Loc: New York / Florida (now)

I'm not sure what your problem is. If you copy all of your photos onto the external HD just the way you have them on your computer then all you have to do when you use ELEMENTS is click on Open and browse to the external HD and from there to the photo you want.
If your asking for a system to organize your photos - with thousands of photos, do you not have one now?
I will send you screen shots of my photo file organization; I do not use the systems from LR or ELEMENTS.
Long before I bought any editing program, I started a file system and I saw no reason to change it when I bought those programs.

JW from PA

Michael, I am still learning and using PSE 15, you can access your photos right from the external hard drive, edit to your liking and save them right back to their original location. My file structure, although not the best: on my External HD= year/name of folder, within that folder, Raw, Finished Photos. When saving you can choose the file type, Jpeg, Tiff, Ect. This way my photos are on the EHD and frees up the internal hard drive. I hope this helps. Linda from Maine as well as others on this site that use PSE will be able to give a better explanation than I can. Good luck and stay safe.
Semper Fi,
JoeW.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Were the "albums, tags, facial recognition etc" done within PS Elements Organizer? If yes, view this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzkkZgqEE34

From all the UHH topics created about "losing" files in Lightroom, knowing how to do this transfer is very important. I have never used the Organizer, so I can't give you any insider tips, but if the link I provided isn't helpful, there are other videos and articles that come up in a Google search ("how to move files in PSE Organizer").

If you are not using the PSE Organizer, then the earlier comments in this thread about simply navigating to the external HD and opening files will be of value.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The similar issue in Adobe Lightroom is image files on C: drive. Then, C: drive is full. Images are moved to attached external HD with drive H: (examples on Windows). LR can't find the images because they no longer exist on C:.

Solution: Inside LR, update the image locations to now be found in H:. Assuming the folder structure remains unchanged, just the drive letter assignment is changed, updating the 'parent folder' location will cascade through all the images, making the update mostly automatic after updating the parent location inside LR.

I haven't used the PSE organizer, but Adobe should have provided much the same functionality and maintenance capability.

Your current PSE 2020 software includes access to Adobe technical support. If you go to their site, sign-in using your Adobe credentials, find Support and the Chat option for contacting them. Ask them for help on how to move the original image files to the HD maintaining all the edit and organization information inside the Organizer.

lookingglass18

Linda,
I’m new to Elements, formerly used Bridge and PS. I use a Mac so a card is not opened automatically. How do I open and view the photos in a Bridge-like format where I can view them as a group and weed out those I don’t want to keep, like those out of focus?

Thank you.

dadorphan

Thanks to everyone for their detailed suggestions. I wound up contacting Adobe and as a result am purchasing another a (4 TB) backup drive. I will then use “back up and restore” on Photoshop Element’s Organizer to restore my photos to that new backup drive. Thanks again.

Michael

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Using Elements, "Move" your target files to the external drive. I’m assuming that all of your files and their edits are in the Elements Organizer already. Then when you want to work on those files, just be sure that the relevant external drive is plugged into the computer before you start Elements.

Mojaveflyer Loc: Denver, CO

I'm on my fifth version of PSE since I got into digital photography - PSE 14. Since my first day doing this I stored my RAW images on an external hard drive. Once I edit a photo a photo down to ~200 - 300 kb and store it on the hard drive in my laptop. Every now and then I'll back up the edited photos to an external hard drive and label it at "Back Up". It's worked for me for years....

don26812 Loc: South Bay of Los Angeles, CA

Michael, that is the easiest way, and will work great. That is why Adobe included the Backup and Restore commands in the Organizer. I have used this approach for many years to upgrade equipment, move from one computer to another, etc. As part of your process, first Reconnect any files in your current Catalog. Also, before backing up, Repair and Optimize your current Catalog. The idea is you want your current Catalog to be as clean as possible, before backing it up. Do all of this prior to running the Backup command. I assume that you will be backing up onto a separate drive drive than where you plan to store your originals.

By the way, you want to make sure the Catalog is stored on an internal drive. It's not that large. That way, Elements will run efficiently. Elements has a command to move the Catalog if you need to.

Finally, depending upon the number of items in your Catalog, the process could take a few hours.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I’m not sure of Elements makes backup copies copies of the original photos during its backup procedure. I think it just backs up the Catalogue database with the edit data, its thumbnails for viewing in the Organizer and the links to the file locations. That’s why I always copy my originals to a folder on an external drive first And then copy that folder to my HD before importing into Elements. You could copy yours to another external drive before importing.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

Machael. I would buy TWO (to protect your pictures from hard drive failure) external hard drives and down load both as a matched set. Always back up you pictures as ALL hard drives fail sooner or later. If it's worth
saving save it twice.