PE5 Thumbnails in Organizer turn into hourglass.HELP!

[Monica]

Photoshop Elements 5.0, Windows

Issue/Problem: Thumbnails in Organizer no longer contains the photo image but instead, the hourglass. The photo CAN be seen by moving the slider to the far right (single image view). Each photo that I open in the Editor or simply view as a single view in the Organizer suffers the take-over of the hourglass.

What I've tried thus far:
-- Edit > Update thumbnail
-- File > Catalog > Recover
-- Edit > Preferences > File (in an effort to reduce thumbnail resolution. However, while the Elements HELP suggests this, it does not exist here -- along with "Automatically Index Photos for Visual Similarity." If someone knows where to access the 'reduce thumbnail resolution,' I could give it a try). Does anyone know why these two are not here at all?
-- Moved tons of photos to an external hard drive to free up space
-- Defragmented my hard drive

[troush]

Monica,

Did you move the photos using the organizer?

My second guess is that you have a lot of photos and it is just taking a while for elements to rebuild the cache. You might want to leave it.

-Trish

[troush]

Monica,

Someone posted this information over ad the adobe forums:

Image thumbnails appear as generic icons with an hourglass in the in the Organizer if the combination of the file's size and the amount of installed RAM fall within certain ranges. For files that exceed 12 megapixels, 24 megapixels, and 36 megapixels, generic thumbnails will appear if your RAM installed is 256 MB to 512 MB, 512 MB to 1 GB, or over 1 GB, respectively

So, you should probably double check your memory. (I know that they were once okay, but...)

-Trish

[troush]

Monica,

If this doesn't work for you, my next suggestion would be to delete the thumbnail cache and have Elements rebuild it. It may take a while, so pick a time where you won't be needing your computer and exit Elements.

Go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\Catalog Folders\

In there you will find a folder named the same name as your catalog (for example, My Catalog). In that folder you will find a file named either tn.5.cache or thumb.5.cache. Rename it, adding a .old extension. If you have both files (I do - don't know why), rename them both. Then, restart the Organizer. It will rebuild the thumbnail cache. Like I said, if you have a lot of photos, it may take a while, so just leave it (make sure your computer won't go into hibernate).

You will have to show hidden files in Windows Explorer to find the files.

-Trish