Elements 12 organizer crashes a few seconds after opening

[ianm62702235]

Hi,

I can see my photos for a few seconds then am told it has stopped working and I am dumped back to the desktop after Windows has "tried to find a solution"

If I load a hundred or so photos it seem to work but I have thousands

I have:-

Repaired and optimised catalogs

Reinstalled Elements

Repopulated Elements by searching with and without loading keys

Torn my hair out!!

I used to be able to load pictures from any user, then it would just be from my wife's user, then it would only be from folders on the hard disk not SD cards. Now I can't use it at all.

If anyone has amy more ideas (I can't afford Elements 15!) I'd be very grateful

[MichelBParis]

ianm62702235  wrote

Hi,

I can see my photos for a few seconds then am told it has stopped working and I am dumped back to the desktop after Windows has "tried to find a solution"

If I load a hundred or so photos it seem to work but I have thousands

I have:-

Repaired and optimised catalogs

Reinstalled Elements

Repopulated Elements by searching with and without loading keys

Torn my hair out!!

I used to be able to load pictures from any user, then it would just be from my wife's user, then it would only be from folders on the hard disk not SD cards. Now I can't use it at all.

If anyone has amy more ideas (I can't afford Elements 15!) I'd be very grateful

Did you try the option to open the organizer with another or a new catalog?

You keep the shift key pressed when launching the organizer until a dropdown menu offers those choice (as well as the 'repair' you have been able to perform). If you can work with test images in the new catalog, try again to open the current one.

You can also use the menu Edit >> Preferences >> General to reset all default options. Note that uninstalling/reinstalling does not solve a corrupted preferences file.

[ianm62702235]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your reply.

I have tried creating a new catalog (called Tryout) with 105 photos and that works OK but my main one still opens then crashes after 5 seconds or so. When it was open in Tryout I reset General Preferences to default with no luck. I read online that if you rename some .prf files (in effect hiding them) Elements 12  wil recreate uncorrupted ones. However, I can't find them where they are supposed to be and the only .prf file I can find on the hard disk is for a completely unrelated program.

Please could you suggest how I could find and correct corrupted preference files?

Thanks again,

Ian

[MichelBParis]

The organizer preferences :

1. Preference file locations for Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements

So, in Windows:

Elements Organizer preferences

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Application Data\Adobe\Elements Organizer\{version number}\Organizer

Windows Vista / 7 / 8 / 10: C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Elements Organizer\{version number}\Organizer

It's psa.prf

[ianm62702235]

Thanks again.

I found it, renamed it to oldpsa.oldprf, tried to reload the problem catalog and didn't even load the thumbnails before crashing. A new psa.prf file had been created alongside oldpsa.oldprf

If you can spare the time I'd happily have any more ideas you can give me 🙂

Regards,

Ian

[anweshac54391914 · Accepted solution]

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Please try out the steps mentioned below:

1. Launch Elements Organizer while keeping the Shift key pressed to open the Catalog Manager.
2. In the Catalog Manager dialog, click New to create a catalog. Provide a name for the catalog, and then click OK.
3. Launch the Preferences dialog (Ctrl/Cmd + K).
4. In the Preferences dialog:
   • In the Media Analysis tab, deselect all checkboxes.
   • In the Files tab, deselect the checkboxes:
     --Automatically Search for and Reconnect Missing Files
     --Automatically Generate Thumbnails for Video Files
5. Start Elements Organizer.
6. If Organizer launches without any issues, switch back to your older catalog.

Let us know if issue still persists.

Thanks,

Anwesha

[ianm62702235]

It works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks so much, I’d almost resigned myself to never using Organizer again

Now I’m a very happy bunny

I’ll go on the forum and mark it as answered

Thanks again,

Ian

[barryj59871377]

Thanks for your advice, I was having the same trouble. barryj59871377