PSE12 Hangs on Backup

[Guest]

Hello All,

Pulling my hair out on this one, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Running Windows 10, PSE 12 (Core Version: 12.1), pictures are stored on a NAS, catalog files are on C:drive.  Been using this setup and catalog (10,000 pics) for 2 years and has worked fine in the past.  Now when I try to do a full backup it hangs on calculating media size at 1%.  Here is what i have done so far:

- No video files in catalog, only photos.  When I apply filters only photo types exist.

- Repaired / optimized catalog, no errors found, re-indexed visual similarity data.

- Re-imported all files in the catalog, no missing files found.

- Turned off all media analysis

- Wrote meta-data to files

- I made a copy of the catalog files and deleted all the pictures except one, still hangs (now at 0%).  Deleted all the pics from catalog and re-imported one, still hangs at 0%)

- Made a new catalog, imported some pics, backs up fine to same locations as previous.

I have been using PSE12 for two years now and I have to say it is the buggiest piece of software I have ever paid for.  Photoshop is great but the Organizer is horrible, this is probably the last straw for me.  I just don't have the time to deal with all these glitchy problems.  I have considered upgrading to the latest version but I just can not justify rewarding a company that puts out such immature code with my return business.

Would love to hear if anybody has any good recommendations for an alternate cataloging software.

[MichelBParis]

arnertemp  wrote

- No video files in catalog, only photos.  When I apply filters only photo types exist.

Filtering only applies to displayed files. That does not 'remove' video files from the catalog, which is the most common source of backup freezing.

[Guest]

OK, maybe I am missing something here.  If i display "all media" (by clicking the all media arrow) and then filter to show everything but photos (view, media type, un-check photos) and nothing appears could I still be missing something?

I also tried a find, by media type, video and nothing shows up.

Actually now that I say that, there is something odd going on.  If I display all media, then find by media type, video, all the pictures go away except the top row of eight pictures.  If I then do find media audio those pics go away.  If I again then click find media video the top row of pics do not reappear.

I have also noticed that if I make the pic grid window smaller when i search for video then fewer pics are left, again only the top row.  I can repeat this behavior in any directory with apparently any set of pictures.

[MichelBParis]

arnertemp  wrote

OK, maybe I am missing something here.  If i display "all media" (by clicking the all media arrow) and then filter to show everything but photos (view, media type, un-check photos) and nothing appears could I still be missing something?

I also tried a find, by media type, video and nothing shows up.

That would mean you don't have any video file in the catalog.

Another way to check.

Be sure all types of media are ticked in the menu View by media type, and no other filter is active (no hidden files, no time range, 'All media' shown on the middle of the top bar. Show the information panel on the right.

Select all (Ctrl A) and look at the number of items per media displayed on the right panel.

Actually now that I say that, there is something odd going on.  If I display all media, then find by media type, video, all the pictures go away except the top row of eight pictures.  If I then do find media audio those pics go away.  If I again then click find media video the top row of pics do not reappear.

I have also noticed that if I make the pic grid window smaller when i search for video then fewer pics are left, again only the top row.  I can repeat this behavior in any directory with apparently any set of pictures.

That's totally unexpected. Did you try the 'Restore Default Settings' button in the menu Edit >> Preferences >> general tab?

[Guest · Accepted solution]

Eureka!  I figured out the problem.  Had 2 photos with hacked filenames, not sure how that happened.  For posterity here is how I figured it out.....

I displayed all media files, filtered to not display photo types (it showed the top row of pics as mentioned above) I noticed that the lower left corner indicated two items where displayed, I selected all of them via CTRL-A, I was not able to determine which files they were as i could not see them in the grid and can't display file info for more than one file at a time.  So I deleted them all from the catalog.  I then re-imported all files, it found two new files, the corrupted ones.  I modified the filenames in organizer.  Backup now works.

Thanks so much for getting me pointed in the right direction.

I have to say.... the problem may not have been caused by the organizer but a little diagnostic info would have been really helpful and saved me a ton of time.  If I knew the issue was a corrupted file and I knew which file it was hanging on this would have been a three minute fix.  Buggiest program I have ever paid for.

[MichelBParis]

Really smart debugging!

Many thanks for sharing.

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