What to do if the actions/icons don't show up in Photo Effects

in Photoshop Elements 7 and later for Windows Vista or Windows 7

1. Close Photoshop Elements

2. Make sure your files are in the right folders

   There are several folder names and paths that are very similar, so check carefully against the instructions in the Read Me file.
   
   As a double-check, make sure that "Tint Purple.metadata.xml" is in the same folder as all of the .xml, .png, and .atn files. Also, make sure that "Tint Purple.atn" and "Tint Purple.png" are in the same folder. These files come with Elements, so if your files are in the same folder, you know they're in the right place.
   
   

3. Get Elements to Update the Display

   When you add actions, it can take Elements a while to update the list of icons.
   1. Start Elements, go to the "Edit" application, and wait at least 60 seconds for Elements to update everything. There's not a lot of indication that this is happening at first, although your mouse cursor may occasionally blink or look like an hourglass.
      
      
   2. In the Effects Palette, click the "Filters" icon. We're doing this just so Elements will update the list of icons when we go back to Photo Effects.
      
      
   3. Then, in the Effects Palette, click the "Photo Effects" icon. Choose your action set from the list. You should now see all the icons. If so, you can skip the next step.
      
      

4. Force Elements to Update the Database

   If the actions or styles you're installing don't show up once you're sure all the files are in the right place, Photoshop Elements is not updating the database for some reason. We will force it to do so.
   
   Note: Because this can take over 5 minutes of computer time, if you're installing more than one set of actions you may want to postpone this step until you've copied the files for all the action sets to the proper folder.
   
   

   1. Close Photoshop Elements.

   2. Rename MediaDatabase.db3 and ThumbDatabase.db3

      Go to C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\X.0\Locale\en_US, and rename MediaDatabase.db3 to "MediaDatabase.db3.OLD"
      
      NOTES:
      
      
      1. If you're not using U.S. English on your computer, the "en_US" part might be different.
         
         
      2. Replace the X with your Elements version number (7 for Elements 7, for example).
         
         
      Go to C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\X.0, and rename ThumbDatabase.db3 to "ThumbDatabase.db3.OLD"
      
      The reason you're renaming them instead of deleting them is so you can restore them if the following procedures fail for some reason.
      
      

   3. Restart Photoshop Elements

      Close all applications you have running. Then restart Elements. Elements will rebuild the effects database: you'll see a message saying "Building Content and Effects." This can take over 5 MINUTES, so be patient, and don't do anything else on the computer while the rebuild is happening.
      
      

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