Chessysailor Loc: Southport, NC

I have committed the ultimate photographer’s sin. I was in a hurry and ignored my own rules on backups and lost a bunch of pictures. My wife and I took a very nice trip where I took about 700 snaps all in jpeg. I loaded the pictures onto my external drive. At this point, everything looked good. I also loaded them onto Photoshop Elements. I was busy with a lot of other things at the time, so I’m not sure what happened but the next time I looked at my photos the file type had changed from jpg to tmp. I don’t think there is a way to correct this problem but I’ll offer this problem to “experts”. I’m sure everyone is thinking “what about your backup”. The short story is that I didn’t make one. No excuses, too rushed, etc. Lesson learned.

gwilliams6

TMP files, also called "temp" files, are automatically created by apps to temporarily hold data while the app is in use. You can open a TMP file with the same program that created it on your computer.

"Photoshop uses Scratch Space to store data too big to fit in your computer's memory. You set what drive Photoshop uses in Preferences > Performance tab, but it will default to your C:\ drive if you do not set a particular drive. The files are stored in the root directory of the Scratch drive, and take the form of Photoshop Temp #### with a .txt =file format.

Photoshop temp files can be huge with large projects, and if Photoshop does not close correctly, the files can be left on your drive. To check for this, navigate to your scratch drive, and any Photoshop temp files that do not have that days date, can be deleted. Scratch space can have a significant impact on performance, and a lot of people use dedicated drives just for scratch space."

Sounds like your available memory on your computer was not enough to handle downloads of those 700 photos at one time. Maybe some other programs were also running and they took much of the available memory. So your computer converted them to smaller tmp files .

You have to understand it isn't just the storage capacity of your hard drive that matters when downloading large amounts of data, but you must also have enough usable and available computer memory to accomplish the task, and every running program or running action takes some of that available memory.

You should never be running other programs or tasks when moving large amounts of data (photo files). All other tasks should be halted , as they rob needed memory.

Your images should still be on your camera's memory cards or wherever they were first stored as jpegs.

luvmypets Loc: Born & raised Texan living in Fayetteville NC

Just out of curiosity does your camera have 2 card slots? I am guessing that you erased your memory card as well?

If there are 2 slots you might consider setting up the second slot with a high volume card like a 256 or 512 that you do not erase. When full you change it out and store that card as another form of backup. Just make sure you check it every now and then to see how close it is getting to being full.

Dodie

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

There's probably lots of ways to recover. As you probably don't have a video tape of your actions, our guesses are just guesses without more details and evidence of what exactly happened.

Are you saying all 700 images are listed as <file###>.tmp instead of <file###>.jpg?

If yes, try changing the type (file extension) back to jpg for one of the files and see if that recovers that file. Then, you'd know what to do for the remaining.

As Dodie points out, another idea is to just copy the images from the card back onto the computer and start over, with your proper workflow.

gwilliams6

FYI, 8GB is the minimum amount of RAM (computer memory) required by Photoshop. However, your application, file size, and system must also be considered when determining how much RAM is best. A typical system uses 6GB of RAM just to run, so you won't get optimal performance from any photo editing software with only 8GB of RAM.

As I said before, if you were doing other tasks at the same time, you needed even more computer memory (Ram) to handle running these tasks as wells as moving that large amount of data (in this case, jpeg files) .

My PC is running 32GB of ram and that allows me to do the tasks of moving large amounts of files, and yet I will not run other unnecessary tasks or programs at the same time.

Cheers and best to you. Just start over again from your original source of the images. Close unnecessary programs, dont do other tasks at the same time, take it slow and pay attention .

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Chessysailor ????? What camera, What Computer [details, especially memory]
People are doing their best but could be better if you did detailing. This is not the old TV "whats my line" or "20 Questions"... give facts.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Never take down your jpeg's from the camera memory card until your trip is over. Memory cards are cheap and great insurance. Get a 128 and it can take 1,000's of images, more than enough to handle your whole trip.
$20.00 is not a lot for insurance.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Just to make sure people don't misunderstand your comment, the computer doesn't hold all of one's pictures in "memory" on download. It is just a transfer, of X amount of data at one time, from the card to the disk. One's editor/cataloger doesn't put ALL of those photos in system/operating memory.

bobbydvideo

Try changing the extension back to jpeg

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

The files on your external drive should all still be JPEGs. PS Elements doesn't do anything to them. It simply adds their location to its Catalogue. Use Elements to remove those imported files from its Catalogue and then import them again in smaller batches or better yet, copy them to your HD and then import their location into Elements. I had an older computer that Elements didn’t like working with files on an external drive so I always copy them to a folder on my HD.

gwilliams6

Yes, but understand if the computer doesn't have enough computer memory (Ram) to complete the task, due to other programs and task taking the necessary Ram, then the computer will put the photos into the temp folder of the app you are running or on your scratch disc.

Simplest solution for the OP is just to start the download process again from the beginning, close unnecessary programs running and pay attention to the process. We dont know how much RAM the OP has, and what if any other programs and tasks were running at the same time he was downloading, and how much Ram those other running programs and tasks were using.

Cheers and best to you all.

Cheers

Jimmy T Loc: Virginia

Great idea for that second card slot!
I was using my second card for overflow from the primary card during a trip.
Smile,
JimmyT Sends
Bravo Zulu

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

My workflow is to copy photos from my SD card to a folder on my external drive, then copy that folder to my HD, then use Elements Organizer to import those photos into its Catalogue so Elements knows where they are on the HD. My originals are always safe on the external drive.

Did you run into the problem when you imported all those photos into Elements?

delder Loc: Maryland

SD cards are highly affordable.
At a MINIMUM I would bicycle 2 sets of cards, keeping your images on both until you have possessed thm.
I keep ALL of my images on 2 External HDD's for redundancy.
On RAM, yes, I immediately upgraded my new [@ the time] XPS 8930 from 16 to 32GB of RAM to handle larger amounts of data.

Good luck!

maxlieberman Loc: 19027

Even if you erased your memory card, if you did not record over it the files can be recovered. Most if not all memory card manufacturers have free recovery software you can download. Generally, the software is not unique to the manufacturer, so you can use Lexar's program, which is very good, to recover images from a Sandisk card, for example.