Unlocking pictures

M
Posted By
maweletino
May 25, 2004
Views
567
Replies
13
Status
Closed
I have 500 pictures and they are locked. To unlock the pictures, I have to open each picture individually in Photoshop, and with the layer pallete open, I double click on the lock to unlock the picture and save it as a copy. As you can imagine this takes a long time!

Question, is there a multiple unlock function in Photoshop so that I can unlock a number of pictures at once? I am using Photoshop 7.0 and my operating system is Win 98.

Thanks

Tino

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RW
Rene_Walling
May 25, 2004
WHat do yo mean they are locked?

Are the files themselves locked or is a layer in the image locked?

If the former, you can unlock them in the explorer window. If the latter, what does it matter, unlock the layers if and when needed, you can probebly record an action for it too.
M
maweletino
May 25, 2004
Rene, thanks for your reply. Each picture is locked and therefore cannot be edited or renamed. The solution is to open the picture and in the layer pallete double click on the background and it will create the Layer 0 which is unlocked. This is fine when you have a couple of pictures but becomes tedious when they are many.

I am experiment with recording the actions and then proceed with Automate and Batch proessing.

Thanks
CC
Chris_Cox
May 25, 2004
You can edit the image without it being a layer, and you can certainly rename the image file.

Why do you need to convert the background to a layer?
RW
Rene_Walling
May 25, 2004
Each picture is locked and therefore cannot be edited or renamed

Again: do you mean the files themselves or a layer on the image?

Again: if it’s the files themselves you are talking about, you can unlock them from the explorer window by selecting them and choosing properties from the pop-up menu. If it’s the layers, why would you want to do that?
M
maweletino
May 26, 2004
These are files that are locked. Using explorer, you still need to unlock each picture one by one, and if you have several pictures, it is a pain.

Thanks for you hint on recording actions, I went back and read my book on "Photoshop – Classroom" and figured out the problem. Works like a charm and you batch unlock as many files or pictures as you like.

Thanks again
PS
Phil_Scarsbrook
May 26, 2004
Just select all, right click on properties, uncheck read only, then click apply. This will unlock all selected images at once.
M
maweletino
May 26, 2004
Phils,

Thanks for your input. Tried your way, although all the files were unchecked for read only, when I went back to Photoshop, each of the pictures or files were still locked.
However, the ‘recording action’ works very well.
Thanks again
PS
Phil_Scarsbrook
May 26, 2004
Are you trying to do this with images that are still on a cd? If so copy all files to a folder on your desktop before unlocking. I don’t think that you can unlock images that are currently on the cd.
Glad the actions worked.
L
LenHewitt
May 26, 2004
you still need to unlock each picture one by one<<

NO YOU DON’T! Select them all, right-click, select Properties and uncheck the Read Only – ALL selected files will be unlocked simultaneously
RW
Rene_Walling
May 26, 2004
Intrinsically, files on a CD are locked and cannot be unlocked
LC
Libby_Collins
Jun 16, 2004
I had a commercial place scan my images onto disc. When I import them into Adobe Elements, they come up with the little lock symbol. I have tried opening them in Explorer/Properties/(disable)read only. This doesn’t unlock them, when I return to Adobe.

When I click on the images in Adobe, they say to paraphrase "we can’t open this file because of a program error." I don’t think there is a program error but wonder if the suffix is a problem – these are pcd files not psd. Need converting in some way??
LC
Libby_Collins
Jun 16, 2004
What do you mean the hint on "recording actions??" Tnx.
DM
dave_milbut
Jun 16, 2004
copy the files from the cd to the hard drive. in windows explorer select them all (crtl-a) right click them and select "properties". uncheck the read only box.

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