March 8, 2007 in Photography by Mark Levison

Or how you can learn from my mistakes. In the Lightroom Forums there have been many complaints about the import from Photoshop Elements. I’m here to tell you the problem may be your own. I’ve seen two problems – not all images get imported and some of their tags get left behind. Most of the complaints assume the problem is Lightroom’s. I think the problems are from what we didn’t do before we left Elements.

Here are the steps I think you need to get things to work: 

  1. Backup everything. 
  2. Upgrade Photoshop Elements to 5.0 – this make a new copy of your catalog and upgrade. 
  3. In Elements: 
    • From the File Menu choose Catalog and run a Recovery. This step may not be strictly necessary. 
    • From
      the File Menu choose Reconnect Missing Files – pick the all option.
      Wait this may generate a shockingly large list 1500 files in my case. This is step most people (including me) miss and the reason why so many files are missing. 
      • You may have to automate this task: Try AutoHotKey (free) or another macro recording tool.
    • Run another Recovery. This time it is necessary 
    • Just be paranoid do another Reconnect. If no files are missing your good to go.
  4. Start Lightroom 
    • File Menu choose Import from Photoshop Elements 
    • This
      will take sometime to import and catalog all the images. Early on the
      process you will see one dialog that you have to click ok for.
  5. Check
    the number of images seems right – note that Lightroom can’t handle BMP
    files and some PSD’s (I think you needed maximize compatibility turned
    on when you saved).

I also found that a number of my tags
were duplicated outside their hierarchies, but a few hours of
spelunking proved that the originals tags still existed where they
belonged and with the correct number of images. In the end I just
duplicated the extra tags.

As  a result my only real problem: I
didn’t run a reconnect before doing the import – but this just means I
going back through old photos and thinning out some of the dross.

A
real bonus of Lightroom – I’m starting to pay a lot more attention to
my folder structure. In Elements the folder structure was mostly hidden
– now in Lightroom its front and centre and I’m really starting to tidy
it up.

BTW Many people continue to have problems with missing
tags that I don’t appear to have encounter. Finally since I have
neither Elements or Lightroom on this computer I’m going from memory
with my description of the menu items.

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