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Post by Sepiana on Jan 19, 2017 2:52:01 GMT
Sepiana, The good news is that Auto and Options work... you had tested various versions of Elements and confirmed that these two features in Grant's Curves work fine in 11 and 12.
Paul, glad to hear the good news. Now back to this issue.
The ThumbDatabase.db3 file has nothing to do with you having or not having opened a photo. The ThumbDatabase.db3 file "caters" to the Effects panel, to be more precise, to the thumbnails for the effects in that panel. This applies to the effects which come pre-installed in Elements as well as any third-party ones you may add. This explains the size of this database when you installed Elements 11.
Something is definitely wrong. Elements should not have generated a new ThumbDatabase.db3 file which is 0 in size. It should have generated a file with the original size plus the additional size of Grant's Tools. Let's try again to see if Elements will generate the appropriate thumbnails.
1. Make sure Elements is closed. 2. Rename or delete the ThumbDatabase.db3 file. You can also just move this file away from Elements (to Documents, Pictures, etc.) 3. Open Elements. Be patient! Sometimes, although the process seems to have completed itself, this database is still being rebuilt in the background.
Hope this will work this time. If not, do not despair; this is just Plan A. We can move on to Plan B (or even to Plan C if needed).
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Post by Paul Whiting on Jan 19, 2017 14:00:41 GMT
Sepiana, Well, the good news is that my db3 file is no longer zero... the previous file was about 25K, now it's about 27K, which would indicate the new thumbnails are there. However, the thumbnails are all the generic tree, can't tell them apart unless I hover over them. As well, all the other effects, those that are part of the original install, show the generic tree. BTW, I gave the new db3 plenty of time to install... went back to bed, got a cup of coffee, etc. By the way of more background... I had trouble installing this version, the DVD drive would just "chatter" when I inserted the disk. I found out later that other users of Win 10 had trouble with DVD disks being recognized. (found out later my computer's default was to not recognize autoplay.) I ended up viewing the contents of the disk and manually clicking on autoplay.exe. Clicking on autoplay.ini had no effect. Then, the first few times I ran Elements, I'd get a rapid flicker on the opening screens. Now after opening it several times, there are no more flickers. (Not the bird.  )
On to Plan B?!!
Regards,
Paul
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Post by Sepiana on Jan 19, 2017 16:37:03 GMT
Sepiana, Well, the good news is that my db3 file is no longer zero... the previous file was about 25K, now it's about 27K, which would indicate the new thumbnails are there.
Paul, yes, that seems right. The ThumbDatabase.db3 file shows around 27KB in my copy of Elements 11.
As to the thumbnails for the built-in effects, that's not a problem. That's the way they are supposed to be. In Elements 11 a generic "tree" thumbnail is displayed for those effects. For Grant's Tools, you should get their original thumbnails as my screen shot shows. Question: Can't you see the names of the effects under the thumbnails in your copy of Elements 11? Including the ones for the built-in effects?
Yes, I believe it is time. Let's delete or rename another database -- MediaDatabase.db3. This is the database that "caters" to the Effects panel.
1. Navigate this path. Delete or rename the MediaDatabase.db3 file. C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\11.0\Locale\en_us (or your locale)\MediaDatabase.db3 2. Rename or delete the ThumbDatabase.db3 file again.
Be patient! Wait for Elements to rebuild the two databases.
Hopefully this will do the trick. If not, we can try Plan C.
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Post by Paul Whiting on Jan 19, 2017 18:07:09 GMT
Sepiana,
Well, well... two database files. I didn't know there were two. Anyway, I did plan B. I was patient, and after about 15 minutes I no longer had a blank screen with the little blue circle spinning, I had the work space of Elements. But over in the Effects panel, I still had trees. (by the way, I was able to get titles for the tree thumbnails.) So, I next opened up File Explorer and looked at the two db3 files. The media db3 was still building, slowly, and two small .dat files were flickering on and off. Then I looked at the folder with the thumb db3 file, it was stable and exactly the same size as the previous one. Came back about five minutes later and the media db3 had stabilized, no longer building. The date files had stabilized, and I was interested to see their time and date stamps had not changed - they were several years old.
I went back to Elements and the tree thumbnails were still there. I shut down Elements and re-opened it, same results.
Did I follow the steps correctly for Plan B? Time for Plan C?!
Paul
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Post by Sepiana on Jan 19, 2017 18:54:04 GMT
I went back to Elements and the tree thumbnails were still there. I shut down Elements and re-opened it, same results. Did I follow the steps correctly for Plan B? Time for Plan C?! Paul Paul, yes, you did everything right. I sincerely don't know why Elements 11 keeps generating generic thumbnails for the Grant's Tools. I guess it is time for Plan C -- to delete the Preferences file. According to the Help file . . .
Go to Edit>Preferences>General. Click on the "Reset Preferences on next launch" button. Ignore the "This cannot be undone." warning and click OK. Close Elements and then start it again.
NOTE:
The Preferences file is where Elements keeps track of your preferred settings. When you delete this file, Elements will automatically generate a replacement file. The only downside is that the replacement file will have the settings back to the default. This means that you will have to redo any changes you made. For example, if you have rearranged the panels, you will have to do it again because they will be back to their original (default) positions. However, this should not affect the effects you had loaded; Grant's Tools should still be there.
If deleting the Preferences file doesn't help, I can think of only two other possilities.
- Make a download of Elements 11 to replace your copy. Use your serial number when asked. Maybe a new copy of Elements 11 will solve the problem.
helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/photoshop-elements-downloads.html
- Replace all the generic thumbnails (.jpeg and .png) for the Grant's Tools which were created by Elements 11 with the "right" ones created by Elements 13. This means doing a copy/paste job from Elements 13 onto Elements 11 in the appropriate folder.
C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\x.x\Photo Creations\photo effects
A word of caution:
This can be tricky. You need to be very careful not to mess up this folder and delete something you shouldn't. Don't try this suggestion unless you feel comfortable doing it. If it helps . . . Elements 11 comes with 97 built-in effects.
EDIT: I have just thought of something. Will you please do this and post back with the results?
Launch Elements 11 as administrator. Right-click on its shortcut and select "Run as administrator" from the menu. Check the Effects panel. What do you see for Grant's Tools? The generic thumbnails or the "right" ones?
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Post by Paul Whiting on Jan 19, 2017 20:57:45 GMT
Sepiana,
Just a progress report:
I deleted 11 to prepare for a fresh download, then saw your Edit about running 11 as an Administrator. Rather than download I stubbornly used my disk again. This time I set the preferences in Windows 10 to accept Autoplay... and the install from the disk was much better behaved. The ini file worked, the drive didn't chatter a protest, the install was much smoother. However, running 11 as Administrator didn't work. Then I tried renaming the two database files again and let Elements create new ones. (Getting pretty good at this!) You were right about being patient. After about 10 minutes the blue circle went away, and the thumbnails were still the generic trees. I thought I had waited long enough but no... the thumb db3 was still a zero. The media db3 was still under construction, increasing slowly a few bytes at a time. Two small strange files with the word "journal" in them popped into view then vanished, viewed again, vanished again, on and on. After about 24 minutes both db3's had settled down. (I hope it was safe to watch them in progress.) The size of these db3's was exactly the same as previous ones.... exact to the byte. That was encouraging.
Ran 11 as Administrator again, no luck. Now, I will not be so stubborn, acquiesce and download a fresh version 11.
May not get to it today... the download comes in two parts. I'm hoping that at end of Part 1 it automatically calls up Part 2.
Thanks for hanging in there with me!
Paul
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Post by Sepiana on Jan 19, 2017 21:04:27 GMT
Ran 11 as Administrator again, no luck. Now, I will not be so stubborn, acquiesce and download a fresh version 11. May not get to it today... the download comes in two parts. I'm hoping that at end of Part 1 it automatically calls up Part 2. Thanks for hanging in there with me! Paul Paul, I was not sure running Elements 11 as administrator would solve the problem but it was worth a try. At least we can rule out the "permission levels" variable.
It is no problem. Take your time. Post back with the results whenever you can.
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Post by Paul Whiting on Jan 19, 2017 23:09:58 GMT
Sepiana,
I was able to download the two parts to PSE11. But Part 2 is a small executable that calls up the cab files in the much larger Part 1. So, you start with Part 2! Grrr.... ! Luckily I'm familiar with this procedure.
Anyway, no luck there. In fact, somehow Grant's Tools effects got loaded in the fresh downloaded version of 11. How did that happen? I must not have gotten a clean delete from the disk's version 11. And, needless to say, the generic tree thumbnail is all I see... even with the factory-installed effects, all of them. Some ideas:
1) There's an option in the install procedure, right at the beginning, that gives you the option of deleting Preferences, presumably from a previous install. Think I should've checked that?
2) I think I had Grant's Tools installed in the PSE 11 I deleted. But if those effects being "foreign" did not get deleted, maybe they got carried over into the new install. And perhaps they altered the thumbnails that were already part of the fresh install.
3) I have a utility called CCleaner that includes a registry cleaner, and it's very safe. I use it about once a week. Could any remnants of 11 get in the registry?
I have yet to try installing the Grant's Tools from 13 over into 11, as you suggested earlier. I'll have to study that first.
Paul
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Post by Sepiana on Jan 20, 2017 0:55:28 GMT
Paul,
There is nothing wrong if you are getting generic "tree" thumbnails for the effects that come installed in Elements 11. That's the way it is. Don't worry about it!
As to why Elements 11 is not generating the "right" thumbnails for Grant's Tools, . . . I am no expert but to me it seems that the points of the compass are leading towards some corrupted file or files down within Elements 11. It would not hurt to uninstall Elements 11 and remove any residual files. As you said you have CCleaner and are familiar with it, I would suggest you run it after you uninstall the program.
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Post by Paul Whiting on Jan 20, 2017 14:13:06 GMT
Sepiana, Thanks for posting a screen grab of your version 11 effects folder ... I get exactly the same thing. I think I'll have to put this issue aside... I must confess I've probably been a little obsessive over this. As long as I can see the names of the effects under each thumbnail, I really don't need the full thumbnail. There's a couple more suggestions you've made and I'll play with those a bit but it's time to lay this down. I truly appreciate your patience! Just in parting, here's a screen grab of the effects panel in my version 13. It's the All Effects panel and you can see Grant's Tools intermingled with the original effects. Awfully strange how this was so easy in PSE 13.  Thanks again for your efforts... who knows, maybe some day it will simple decide to behave itself and I'll post the good news! Best Regards, Paul |
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Post by Sepiana on Jan 21, 2017 15:30:52 GMT
Paul, you are most welcome! I wish this mystery could have been solved. Unfortunately, I cannot replicate the problem. Hopefully someone else will encounter the same problem and will post a fix.
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Post by Paul Whiting on Jan 22, 2017 13:39:23 GMT
Yes, let's hope!
Paul
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