Go to your home>library>preferences folder and delete com.adobe.photoshop.elements.plist and the Adobe preferences folder. Repair permissions and try launching again.
In addition to Barbara’s suggestion – which is good – I also spotted the fact you said sometimes the launches are fine and other times they stall out at "browser." Although this might not be the problem, other people have reported having this happen, and we’ve traced the problem back to a folder with many image files in it that was left open in the Browser at the time Elements was last closed. One person had something like 900 images in iPhoto, and Elements was totally overwhelmed at having to generate that many thumbnails! If you ever use the File Browser, pay attention and see if that could be causing your intermittent problems.
Thanks very much for the replies. I had a go at throwing the preferences which didn’t seem to make any difference and I then completely uninstalled all Elements components and did a re install. The problem still persisted with some launches working others not. All is ok at the moment and I am beginning to wonder if the second suggestion is the answer as I think there may have been a page left open. However each crash happens immediately the opening screen with the options appears. I will post again if there are developments. Once again thanks for the speedy replies.
Did you Repair Permissions after you installed Panther? If not, try that. Deleting the Preference folder should have cleared up the problem if it was a big folder open, because every thing would have returned to default, and the browser would have been closed. I think it’s time to look at the system. Did you repair permissions after reinstalling Elements, too?
Hi Beth, Yes I did repair permissons after the Panther install and a couple of times since. Elements seems to be working fine now and I am making sure each time I close that there are no folders open. I have opened it randomly while I am working just to see what happens and so far no more crashes. I think the "open folder" was the most likely cause. If there is any repeat I’ll go for deleting the preferences although interestingly the only Elements entry in the home/library preference folder is "Photoshop Elements 2 Paths" and a folder "Photoshop Elements 2 prefs" which as well as Prefs has brushes, color settings contours and others. Would this be the one to delete. There doesn’t appear to be an Elements "plist" file. Thank you very much for your help..
Barbara is the expert on this kind of stuff, and her post indicates there is a .plist folder in Panther. ??? I’m not using Panther yet, and, now that I think about it, I’ve never had to delete the Preferences folder in the copy of Elements I use under Jaguar, so I haven’t tried this myself. Ooops. Maybe I oughta go do it just so I can say I’m "experienced"?! The computer I’m on right now is still running 9.1, so I can’t even look.
David, there has to be an elements .plist file if you’ve run the the program. It’s com.adobe.Photoshop.Elements.plist. If you don’t have one, something is really wrong, unless you’ve deleted prefs since the last time you ran the program.
Hi Barbara & Beth. Well this is quite a mystery. There definitely isn’t a com.adobe.Photoshop.Elements.plist. Since I reinstalled the program I have not deleted anything. I ran the program (which seems to continue operating normally) and then did a search. This showed up nothing I couldn’t see in the user/library/preferences and the only Elements preference files are the two I indicated previously. While everything seems normal I haven’t as yet done any work in PE other than browse through a few files to make sure they open, which they do. Would it be worth reinstalling again or is it best to leave things as they are as it seems to be operating normally? I rather feel "if it aint broke don’t fix it". But is it broke is the question.
regards and thanks again for your help.
If it’s working, leave it alone, by all means. But it is strange. Try actually doing something to a file and see if it shows up after that.
Success Barbara. Doing something was the answer. I made a copy of a photo and did a few things then saved it. Quit the program went to Preferences and there is was com.adobe.Photoshop.Elements.plist. I am very grateful for your support, advice and super speed of response. Thanks.
