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I've noticed that you mentioend "I'm working on a virtual encrypted disk".
Are you running Windows on a virtual machine, on a server, or anything else?
If you installed photodirector on a device that does not use virtual encrypted disk, and then copy your old project folders and the source photo files, which you imported in the project, to the platform, does photodirector load and convert your old project fine in this way?
By the way, it seems the virtual copies you created in a project are stroed at your project folder (where the .phd file is located).
Hi, no I'm just loading and saving to an encrypted disk, nothing special otherwise, normal version of Windows.
I copied the files out of the disk container and onto a normal Windows hard drive but this made no difference, unfortunately. Not even when I reloaded the old 13 project and let it convert the files again.
As you say, the virtual copies are not stored outside the PhD project directory, so it's a mystery why the edits are not being kept but thrown away.
Thx,
Ed
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Hello,
What version of PhotoDirector 365 are you running? The same patch was made available for 365 subscribers on September 22. You should have 14.0.0922.
Cheers
PhotoDirector Moderator
Hi,
I do indeed have this patch installed. So I am up-to-date with PhD but, as said, this version (or patch level) has removed all of my edits to almost all virtual photos in my project. That means: none of these virtual photos have any edits and in fact do not even have any of the Adjustment edits applied. So not only are all the Guided/Edit edits gone (these are the edits that create virtual photos in PhD) but the virtual photo is now showing the image as imported into PhD as a RAW file. Bizarrely, many of these photos are also rotated 90° to the left.
Until I've worked out why this happened (whether my fault or the fault of PhD), I won't be using the software again.
One thing I have thought might be a problem is cache clear-up by something like CC Cleaner. That's the only thing that would perhaps explain why the virtual photos are missing all of their edits. Although: CC only runs on drive C and these photos are on a secure drive elsewhere. But maybe that explains it?
Thx,
Ed
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Hi, many thanks for your continued help here!
However, I note that this patch states
"This patch is not for PhotoDirector 365 subscription version,..."
which I have.
Thx,
Ed
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On my system, every time I tell PhD14 to open an older .PhD file it tells me it has to close and restart. It then does that and then reopens and converts the file after I confirm that I want it to do that. Unlike what you're seeing however, all my previous edits seem to be intact, although there are many photos that I've since deleted and I'm prompted by PhD to remove them from the library.
One suggestion is to open one of your older projects and don't let PhD14 convert it after it restarts. Does that have any impact on the resulting library?
Hi again. That's interesting because my PhD14 doesn't do this.
I double-click the old project, it then asks me if I want to convert it. If I say no, it says, well, then you can exit or open some other project. It won't open the old project if I don't let it convert it.
Thx,
Ed
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Not much i can do about the myriad issues you've listed, but usually the main reason for losing the surrent set of edits after an upgrade is that the current project file ( ending in .PHD) was changed to a blank new one.
See if the steps in this discussion help. You may need to follow the link in my post.
Hi, many thanks for replying to my rant... :=)
I'll give it a go but don't expect to see any joy here, since I always back up my project file.
I brought in the version 13 project (.phd file) again today just to check and, sure enough, as it converts to 14, all the edits disappear. When you open the converted 13 project in 14, you can actually see PD updating the cached photos in real time, replacing all the virtual photos with edits with virtual photos with no edits.
It's bizarre.
I'll check out your thread and let you know if I manage to salve anything.
Ed
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Hi Folks,
Title says it all: I open PD and find that it has destroyed every single edit involving a virtual photo (i.e. all edits that are not to do with Adjustment) in all of my albums. Photos are now the wrong way up, all of my edits using the Guided and Edit windows are gone, and it has even removed some of the folders that I have been using from the folder view, i.e. now only one folder is there whereas it should be showing one or two subfolders more. Hours and hours of work adding things and making edits. All the photos are now as they were at the Adjustment stage and no more.
This may or may not be linked to the upgrade to version 14, I dunno. I obviously don't go through my entire project every day checking that everything is there. I shouldn't have to, either.
I'm so tired of all the file handling bugs in this software and the unnecessary complexity of virtual photos (which seems to be the main problem, i.e. the cache handling for virtual photos is so buggy and slow that the slightest change causes problems).
Maybe it's my Windows version (10), maybe the fact I'm working on a virtual encrypted disk, I dunno.
It's a shame, since it has such huge potential, with so many useful functions and add-ons to help with editing but there is basically nothing in PD that you can rely on to be there like a month later. This isn't the first file handling bug, which is always, always, always to do with virtual photos, I've met but it is the most catastrophic.
The file handling and virtual photo approach used in PD is just broken, at least for me. I'm tired of wasting hours on unreliable software.
I might check back when the virtual photo approach is canned, but until then, I need something where I make a change and it stays changed.
Ed
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Hi Pix,
Wow, thanks. That is absolutely not what the manual says, I had no idea that rotation handles turned up when moving the layer around on the screen.
That will do the job for me. The only slight annoyance with layer handling is that you cannot then crop the image you have added. The manual says you can but as I found out, that's untrue.
This should really be changed or just deleted:
https://help.cyberlink.com/stat/help/photodirector/13/pc/enu/08_06_08_crop_tool.html?q=layers
Nothing works as claimed here: all of this applies to the entire image in the Edit window, not to individual layers:
"In the Edit window, select the layer in the Layer Manager you want to crop/straighten."
Nope, not true!
Thx for your help though, at least I can get the rotation done now.
Ed
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Hi Folks,
Me again, with yet another issue. I love PhD but it doesn't love me, it seems.
What I want to do: add a layer and rotate it by a certain amount.
Manual says this:
Straightening/Rotating Layers
To straighten/rotate layers, do this:
1.Click and then click and drag on the layer to draw a line along the part you want to be horizontal or vertical. PhotoDirector will rotate the layer to make the drawn line horizontal.
When I add a layer and then try using Crop/Straighten, however, PhD rotates everything -- all the layers. And then resizes things as well to make everything smaller, which results in a crazy, cropped-off image.
Check out the images here. First, my background plus a dragon. We want to angle the dragon a bit and then use a mask to put him behind the building. So, first step rotate, right?
But the selection expands to the whole background image. So when we do a 33% rotate, the whole background gets rotated with it (second pic). The final image is ... a mess (third pic).
I've not grouped the layers and the background is locked.
Except it obviously is not.
Ideas?
Mike
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Ed,
I'm pleased you've nailed the problem down. I've been tying myself in knots trying to work out what was going on. I haven't been able to replicate any of the things you've reported & there's a good reason for that.
I was going to ask if you'd resized on export, or whether that was only to allow easier upload to the forum.
Nothing to do with the source of the photos. Nothing to do with adjustments. Nothing to do with applying a frame. ALL to do with export preferences!  (see attached screenshot)
In your export preferences, under Advanced, make sure you've got the setting right for you. They're obviously not at the moment or you wouldn't be disappointed.
Are you exporting in PNG format for a reason?
Yes - absolutely - downsizing significantly is likely to cause quality loss. I'm not sure what the original resolution of your photos is, but I'd be confident it was 960x720.
PIX
Hey Pix,
Many thanks for once again being the MVP for my enquiries on PhD!
I've done a few comparisons and it is indeed the resizing that's causing my issues. (Big resize: from my phone's 2988 x 5312 down to 1080p.)
Your point about PNG is well made, since I was wanting to keep as much quality as possible but your suggested JPEG setting works better: rather than resize and PNG, keep the original and max out JPEG quality.
Plus I've also discovered a whole range of software tools outside of PhD that can optimise JPEGs anyway, especially for online, so I think my workflow will now be to export a nice big JPEG from PhD like you do here and then resize for a specific kind of presentation elsewhere. Makes more sense, especially if I want to do prints at some point, which will need different handling (and maybe 300 dpi on export).
I'll also start working in RAW anyway once I find my feet more with photography. I've been trying to use JPEGs for set up shots and then RAW on the phone for the final snaps and this works pretty well. Once I switch to an actual camera this is what I will be doing always.
Thanks again for all your help!
Ed
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Hi Pix,
Just tried something else: same happens if you sharpen first.
I suspect it happens whatever adjustment you make. Something is going on when the frame template is applied after an adjustment.
This time I just sharpened the original by 100%.
The frame PNG is clearly much darker and softer.
Thx,
Ed
OK, I just thought of something else. I was resizing these photos on exporting them.
This is what causes it!
If I don't resize the pictures, then no change can be seen, everything's fine.
What might PhD be doing when resizing that would cause this softer/darker thing? I'm exporting and resizing both pictures with the same settings, after all. Changing these settings makes no difference whatsoever. The framed pic is always softer and darker. Very noticeably so in the last sharpened images.
I can of course just export at original size and resize outside PhD, but it is weird and frustrating that it does this.
Thx,
Ed
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Hi Pix,
Many thanks for checking this out as always! I now don't think it is the phone (would be odd anyway, a JPEG is a JPEG...).
It only occurs if you use Adjustment to change the pic and then apply a frame. This, I would imagine, is the normal way to do things.
I tried using one common adjustment, for example and immediately saw the effect again in exported pics.
Check out the attached pics.
The only change to the original before adding a frame was
You can see that the second pic is very slightly darker and softer, the difference is clear if you flick between them quickly.
Thx,
Ed
Hi Pix,
Just tried something else: same happens if you sharpen first.
I suspect it happens whatever adjustment you make. Something is going on when the frame template is applied after an adjustment.
This time I just sharpened the original by 100%.
The frame PNG is clearly much darker and softer.
Thx,
Ed
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There are the white balls on the dialog balloons to resize on my version of PhD once I highlight it.
Hi Tomasc,
Sorry, I didn't explain this quite correctly. Resizing works fine as you say. But the balloons are not "smart", they cannot be resized to fit the text automatically (like you could do in a word processor, for example) , because the text and the ballon are just layers. This means you have to adjust each balloon to fit each piece of text you add, which is pretty time-consuming...
At least, that's what seems to be the case.
Thx,
Ed
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Hello Ed,
That's an odd issue... & one I can't replicate.
Being an iPhone user myself, I had to download some sample files from a Samsung Galaxy S22 (& some others) for testing.
I could not find any detectable difference in image quality after a frame template had be applied, either in PhD or in the exported files.
The files in this ZIP are 1. the original photo, 2. the exported framed photo, & 3. the actual frame that was applied. See if you can find a difference in image quality. Zoom in to 100% for accuracy.
At first I wondered whether it was anything to do with how the frame is "dynamically" reproportioned to match the photo, but haven't followed that up.
What is the model of your Samsung phone?
PIX
Hi Pix,
Many thanks for checking this out as always! I now don't think it is the phone (would be odd anyway, a JPEG is a JPEG...).
It only occurs if you use Adjustment to change the pic and then apply a frame. This, I would imagine, is the normal way to do things.
I tried using one common adjustment, for example and immediately saw the effect again in exported pics.
Check out the attached pics.
The only change to the original before adding a frame was
You can see that the second pic is very slightly darker and softer, the difference is clear if you flick between them quickly.
Thx,
Ed
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Hi Folks,
Just a quick question because I really, really like these templates and use them a lot.
However, I seem to notice that when I apply a frame template, it tends to make the picture very slightly out of focus or, rather, it softens it a bit.
I would much rather it did not do this or let me adjust the level of softness it applies. I am not sure if this effect happens on all templates but it does seem to happen on many.
Now, unlike Edit, you cannot add any kind of mask to a template. But I have tested this by simply applying a frame to a fully transparent PNG and then using this as a layer over my original PNG.
The weird thing is, even though the PNG is fully transparent, the photo is still clearly less sharp then the original PNG without the frame.
Any ideas what might be causing this? I'm literally taking a PNG and adding a frame template, nothing more. When I export the PNG with and without a frame, the difference can be seen.
It only seems to affect pics from one camera (phone), however. I've tested this with other pics off the web and it's fine, no change.
For some reason, JPEGs from this Samsung phone get minimally softened and darkened when a frame template is added.
Well, I did want to buy a digital camera, maybe now is the time...
Thx,
Ed
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Hello again Ed,
In PhD, the Edit module allows you to overlay images, such as speech bubbles, add text. & rearrange them as you wish.
Yes, of course you can create & import your own "stickers" using the Add Photo Layer option.
If you use the subscription version (365) you may find some effect packs meet your needs. There's a zipped folder of varying quality speech bubbles attached. Have a play.
PIX
Hey Pix,
Thank you so much! I have had a lot of success bringing in some PNGs now that I have transparent backgrounds for, these work best for my purposes. While it is a bit fiddly because I don't think you can resize a picture to fit the text automatically, the fact you can just cut and paste dialogue bubbles from one pic to another is just brilliant.
Thank you so much for your help as always!
Ed
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Hi Folks,
Just a suggestion -- some dialogue stickers would be really good.
There aren't really any blank shapes we can use to add dialogue to photos (like for a photo story).
Another related question: can you add your OWN stickers? That would solve the problem!
Thx,
Ed
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Sorry Ed,
I can't replicate that one at all.
Steps:
- Create folder on PC containing copies of photos (10)
- Name the folder "DummyPhotos"
- Open PhD and create a new project (EdIssues)
- Import DummyPhotos folder
- Create virtual photos of all 10
- Make adjustments to all virtual photos - manual & presets
- Rename folder in PhD to "EdDummyPhotos"
- Check all photos for reported issues
All photos were in the correct state, as I expected. All adjustments present in virtual photos. No rotations.
So, I'm not sure what's happening on your PhD but we'd need to replicate it widely to put it in the bug category.
PIX
Hi Pix!
Very interesting! I was doing a lot of organising work and maybe I have missed a step I followed or something I did by mistake. I'll see if I can replicate it again at the weekend. Thanks for taking the painstaking effort to try and reproduce my issue!
I should have mentioned that my two folders where I had issues also had subfolders (3 each, to be exact). The errors were in photos in one of these subfolders (the other two folders did not contain virtual photos). So:
Main folder (renamed to e.g. "Main2 folder" )
Sub 1 -> virtual photos with issues after renaming
Sub 2
Sub 3
This is what I'll try and reproduce over the weekend.
Cheers,
Ed
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Hello Ed,
Welcome to the PhotoDirector forum
Your observations are correct & thank you for posting them.
Indeed - clicking "Clear" only removes the most recent adjustment. Using Ctrl+Z (undo) takes you back step by step through the adjustments made, but does no revert the photo to its original state.
I'm sure the designers didn't intend for this to be a "feature"! I'll bring it to the attention of my contacts at CyberLink.
PIX
Hi Pix!
Thank you for confirming the problem. I'm used to it now, so it's OK, but it was another little thing that caught me out while getting to grips with PhD. I do love the program though, I've got so many great snaps now that have been improved way beyond my meagre photo editing skills!
Thx,
Ed
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Sorry, posted in error.
What is confusing is this:
- If you take a normal photo (i.e. an original, that you have only maybe done something to with the Adjustment window) and go to Guided, many effects, like e,.g. Bokeh are done instantly and you cannot undo them. This creates a new virtual photo with the effect "baked-in". There is no way to back out of this, there is no undo, it always happens.
- If, however, you take a virtual photo and then add one of these instant effects again, you CAN undo the last effect (but not the first one that created the virtul photo).
That is very confusing!
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I have another bug report here.
If you complete the following steps on the latest version of PhD, you will get this error message and your virtual photo will be unusable:
- Add layers to a photo by making an edit in Guided. Like add a frame template.
- Go to Edit and then crop the whole image by using Crop. Do not select "Delete cropped pixels"
- Confirm the crop and then go back to the Library
The image is now messed-up (thumbnail shows jumble of pixels/image) and you cannot edit this photo any more. If you select "Delete cropped pixels" this does not happen and everything is OK.
I know PhD says the right workflow order is Guided -> Edit but I don't think offering a crop in Edit that doesn't work really helps! 
Opening and closing the program makes no difference, the photo stays broken.
Cheers,
Ed
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