PSP Cannot see files in folders

[jekronenfeld]

I am running PSP X7 on a Windows 8.1 platform. Until recently it worked great: When on the navigator panel of the Manage Tab, I would click on a folder and see all of the image files in that folder. A couple of days ago, something changed. When I click on a folder I am told that the folder is empty. When I use windows explorer I see all of my files. It is just that PSP apparently cannot see them. I am not sure what setting (if any) I may have changed to get this behavior. If anyone could suggest how to fix the problem or where to look, I would appreciate it.

[Ken Berry]

You could first try resetting PSP to its original state. Press the Shift key and keep it pressed when you click on the PSP icon on the desktop to open it. If you have made any special settings for your workspace, you should save them since they will disappear in the reset.

[Forriner]

Have you checked under menu File/Preferences/General program preferences/Manage, the File format exclusions button? Maybe somehow some file types are selected.

[JoeB]

Also, does this happen with all folders in which you have images, or just some folders?

[jekronenfeld]

Thanks all for your help.

Ken Barry: I tried the resetting you suggested but it did not seem to have any effect. By the way, I assume that Shift-Click trick is specific to PSP. Is that correct?

Forriner: I checked the list of excluded file types. None are checked.

JoeB: I can see the photos on some of the folders but cannot see them on most folders. I have tried to determine if there was any difference between the ones I could see and couldn't see but did not find any.

Jerry

[JoeB]

Thanks all for your help.

JoeB: I can see the photos on some of the folders but cannot see them on most folders. I have tried to determine if there was any difference between the ones I could see and couldn't see but did not find any.

Jerry

This is a bit strange then, so you'll likely have to bear with us with what might be some niggly attempts to try to narrow down the issue.

1) In the folders which do not show images, are there any files which are not image files, anything from executables, pdf to video? If so, remove those files with Windows explorer with PSP closed, then open it again and see what the results are. While PSP should simply ignore such files and show the images it might be possible that it is choking on something that might be corrupt that it should be ignoring.

2) There are 3 methods of navigating to files. In Manage there is Collections and Computers, and in Edit there is the Organizer. If you haven't done so, add one of the problem folders to Collections and see if the problem exists when trying to view in both Computer and Collections. Also, look at a problem folder using Organize in Edit and see if the problem still persists.

3) One other thing to try is to close PSP and take all of the files, whatever they are, from a folder which does not show up and put them in a folder that you can actually view, then open PSP and see if you can still view ANY images in that folder. If you can no longer see any images you used to see in that folder then there is something in the added files that is causing the issue. If you can still see the images that were originally in that folder but none of the others, let us know that also.

Please report back. Hopefully others will have a better idea than I have come up with so far to help with your troubleshooting.

[jekronenfeld]

JoeB - Thanks again for your help. I tried the following per your suggestions . . .

1) In all of the directories, there are only image files (ARW, JPG, and TIF) and a picasa.ini file (I use picasa to help organize). Its presence or absence does not seem to make a difference.

2) I can open any of the files in the folders that appear empty in the navigator. They open individually in the Edit tab. They do not appear in the organizer palette at the bottom of the Edit Page nor do they appear on the bottom of the Adjust page. The navigator palette continues to show the folders as being empty even though I can open a file from that folder.

3) I tried taking photos from a directory I could not view and copying them to a folder I could view. The result was strange: I could continue to see the files I could originally see but none of the files I copied over appeared in the Navigator. (I checked and made sure the new files were in the correct directory).

Now it gets stranger . . . I copied one of the viewable directories to another location (another hard drive) and tried to look at it in PSP. It looked empty to PSP, even though the original continues to be viewable (with new photos missing). Again I could load any of the file into the Edit tab even none showed in the Navigator.

I am beginning to wonder if this can be some sort of weird operating system problem. I run Windows 8.1 on an ASUS desktop PD. The processor is an Intel(R) 64-bit. Microsoft seems to regularly update the OS. Recently one of those updates caused a glitch in my login so that I had to change my login profile. For a while I thought that that might be a problem, but I have tested it against a variety of other programs and have had no problems with them.

I wonder if completely deleting PSP from my system and then reloading it might help. If the problem still existed, then that would pretty much isolate it to the OS. If that fixed the problem, then it was something I did to PSP.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Jerry

[JoeB]

2) I can open any of the files in the folders that appear empty in the navigator. They open individually in the Edit tab. They do not appear in the organizer palette at the bottom of the Edit Page nor do they appear on the bottom of the Adjust page. The navigator palette continues to show the folders as being empty even though I can open a file from that folder.
Jerry

I don't know whether we'll be able to fix this easily or not, but first I need you to clarify what you meant by your paragraph 2 (quoted above). Did you mean: "Files that are in folders that appear empty in the navigator can be opened by using the File>Open menu item in the Manage tab and the images open in the Edit tab."? I'm afraid that I found your syntax somewhat confusing.

I wonder if completely deleting PSP from my system and then reloading it might help. If the problem still existed, then that would pretty much isolate it to the OS. If that fixed the problem, then it was something I did to PSP.

As you said, it does seem to be some corrupted interplay between PSP and your system, although a strange and unusual one. I also agree that a proper complete untinstall and reinstall might have to be attempted. If you are going to go that route then here is my suggested procedure:

Start by uninstalling PSP using the specific tools provided in the sticky post near the top of this forum - don't use Add/Remove programs to do this, and make sure that any resources you downloaded or created yourself (i.e., resources that don't install with the PSP installation as well as your customized workspace file) are in folders separate from the PSP installation folders before uninstalling. Then scan for viruses and Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUP's). My suggested software for these operations are Malwarebytes, Hitman Pro and Adaware, all of which have free versions (at least free for a period of time). Run all three. Then download a new installation package of X7 and install it. The package will likely only include SP1 and, if so, will want to automatically update to SP2. Let it do so.

Once installed, test PSP before you do any customization, including before you set file locations, and see if the problem still persists. If it does you might want to post back here to see if anyone else has further suggestions, including the use of a registry cleaner - something I believe should be a last resort tool!

If things are good to go, then download SP3 and install it manually. It never hurts to reboot your system after installing any software prior to using the software, although many think this is not necessary so you might consider rebooting after the initial installation and then after installing SP3. Test again. If the problem reappears then the issue starts with the SP3 update. Again, you might want to post back here asking for more help.

If PSP works OK after doing the above, you can start your customization if that's something you do.

In any event, please let us know how things progress (or not, as the case may be... )

[klausadam]

I just got PSP and had the same experience, namely that PSP could not find any images. In order to get files lined up at the bottom of the edit/manage PSP window I did the following. First I opened PSP. Then went to the picture folder. Selected the one I wished to use and (right-)clicked the browse in PaintShop option. This seems to always work and I find it more convenient than using the Navigation pane.
Also setting workspace settings so that PSP opens in Edit and with the last active image folder at the bottom, makes opening from Navigation possible. That is, not telling you that the newly selected folder is empty.

Thanks all for your help.

JoeB: I can see the photos on some of the folders but cannot see them on most folders. I have tried to determine if there was any difference between the ones I could see and couldn't see but did not find any.

Jerry

This is a bit strange then, so you'll likely have to bear with us with what might be some niggly attempts to try to narrow down the issue.

1) In the folders which do not show images, are there any files which are not image files, anything from executables, pdf to video? If so, remove those files with Windows explorer with PSP closed, then open it again and see what the results are. While PSP should simply ignore such files and show the images it might be possible that it is choking on something that might be corrupt that it should be ignoring.

2) There are 3 methods of navigating to files. In Manage there is Collections and Computers, and in Edit there is the Organizer. If you haven't done so, add one of the problem folders to Collections and see if the problem exists when trying to view in both Computer and Collections. Also, look at a problem folder using Organize in Edit and see if the problem still persists.

3) One other thing to try is to close PSP and take all of the files, whatever they are, from a folder which does not show up and put them in a folder that you can actually view, then open PSP and see if you can still view ANY images in that folder. If you can no longer see any images you used to see in that folder then there is something in the added files that is causing the issue. If you can still see the images that were originally in that folder but none of the others, let us know that also.

Please report back. Hopefully others will have a better idea than I have come up with so far to help with your troubleshooting.