Posts by granitemason55

Starting a new thread here.

I’ve been scouring every corner of the internet for answers regarding a specific headache I'm having in InDesign, but I’m either finding outdated info or absolutely nothing that actually addresses my situation.
To give you some context, a long time ago, I took a brief two-week course at a local community college that touched on InDesign. Since we moved through the material so quickly—and since I haven't really had much chance to use those skills in a professional setting since then—most of that knowledge has completely evaporated. Now, I find myself relearning everything from scratch because I'm working on a book layout, though it's nothing overly complex or interactive.

Right now, I’m wrestling with footnotes and trying to get them positioned correctly. Every time I try to port content over from Word into InDesign, the formatting gets wonky because the document settings don't align perfectly.

But there is a more pressing issue: early on, I set up my master page characteristics, using them to handle the page numbering and adding the book title via the "A" master so it appears at the bottom of every page alongside the page number.

However, after that initial setup, I went back into the master pages to add some text frames and reduced their height. I tried to apply this resized frame to the entire document, but it just isn't working. When I navigate to any random page—say, page 37—I see both the original text frame I placed directly on the document page (not on the master) with its solid blue border, and then this smaller, offset frame I created on the master. The one from the master is impossible to edit.

What should my next move be? Is there a way to resize all the frames across the entire document simultaneously, either by tweaking the master or through some other method? I did try selecting the master Pages and attempting to apply the changes, but nothing happened to the actual document pages.
I remember reading somewhere that you shouldn't put text frames on master pages at all, but rather just use them for page numbers, headers and footers, along with any recurring graphic elements used throughout the book.

Would it be easier to just change the bleed/slug settings instead, and if so, how would I go about doing that?

granitemason55 said:Good grief, I really have to hand it to myself here. 😁 🤦 For the longest time, I was under the firm impression that I only had two front ports—which were broken, mind you—and one in the back, but I just discovered two more unused slots hiding right there. I’d never actually taken a close look at them before; they always looked a bit different in shape, leading me to believe they wouldn't fit the specific USB plugs I needed (since I usually just relied on the expertise of the pros I’d hire to fix my gear). It wasn't until I finally sat down and gave them some proper scrutiny that I realized I could easily plug this clunky thing into another port. Honestly, I can't decide if I'm some sort of self-taught genius who solves technical hiccups better than even the engineers I've worked with—to their own admission, of course—or if I am just a complete klutz, though in this instance, my artistic clumsiness definitely won out. 😁 The lesson learned is all about finding focus and shifting from that scattered, chaotic headspace into a practical mode where obvious solutions actually present themselves. I shall now go retire in shame. 🕺 🙂

And I suppose using a pseudonym doesn't help my case either; I'd make a pretty terrible spy 🙂 but the main thing is that the technical issue is more or less sorted. 🙂 (If anyone has any additional thoughts, please feel free to share them 👍)

Christian Torres3 said:Any USB 3.0 device should work perfectly fine when plugged into a USB 2.0 port. I’m a little confused by you saying you can't run an external drive and a drawing tablet at the same time; if you're running low on ports on your motherboard, you could always pick up a card like this one to give yourself three additional USB 3.0 slots.

Geez, shame on me! 😁 🤦 I had spent the entire time living under the assumption that I only had two front ports (which were broken) and one in the back, but after looking closer, I discovered two more unoccupied slots hiding right there. I had never actually given them a proper inspection; I always assumed they were a different shape and wouldn't accept the specific USB plugs I needed—mostly because I used to rely entirely on the supposed expertise of the technicians sent to fix my gear. It wasn't until I finally took a good, hard look that I realized I could just plug this clunky thing into another hole without any trouble. Honestly, I can't tell if I'm some kind of self-taught genius who solves technical glitches effortlessly—better than my dad or those engineers (according to them, anyway)—or if I am just a complete klutz, but in this instance, my artistic scatterbrainedness clearly won out. 😁 The trick is really about focusing and switching from that overwhelmed, chaotic mindset into a practical one where solutions become obvious. I shall now go sprinkle ashes over myself in shame. 🕺 🙂

Jerry Robinson56 said:Just a quick observation from my side—for about six years now, I've been using USB3 external drives that come with just a single cable, and they have worked flawlessly every single time... I'd highly recommend sticking with Verbatim
and, as we discussed earlier, please try to avoid using those multi-port hubs if you can help it

Thanks so much! 👍

Michael Jackson10 said:As I was saying, those hubs are really intended for connecting "minor" peripherals; they're essentially just a more elegant way to expand or manage your available USB ports instead of plugging everything directly into the computer or the motherboard.

An external HDD isn't exactly a "minor" peripheral, if we're talking about power consumption or, more importantly, the sheer criticality of its function. With an HDD, you absolutely need steady, continuous power without any fluctuations, and you need a reliable data stream. You can really only guarantee that if it's using a single USB port connected directly to the board. Now, whether "direct" means via a shorter USB cable or just sticking to the original cable provided... well, that's the extent of it. That's my take, anyway. When you're connecting other types of USB gear, like mice or keyboards, it isn't quite as critical if a few bits of data drop out—you might just notice a little stutter in the cursor's movement—but with a disk drive, that kind of thing simply isn't acceptable.

It is also worth keeping in mind that even though USB cables and hubs claim to be fully compatible and "up to standard," they almost never perform well at their maximum rated lengths. Even if a USB cable is technically rated for up to 5m, they are often such flimsy pieces of junk that you won't even be able to get a printer to work on them because the voltage drop is just too significant.

So, a USB hub is best left for less important, less "critical" peripherals...

Well, lesson learned. I have just plugged the external drive directly into the computer. The only downside is that I can't have both the external drive and my Wacom tablet plugged in at the same time while I'm drawing, which would have been lovely. Ideally, I wanted to be able to save my work simultaneously to the E/F drives and the external drive (for backup purposes) as I go, but now I'll have to save my illustrations to the internal hard drive first and then transfer them to the external one later. It looks like I'll have to get used to the tedious routine of unplugging one USB device to plug in another, or perhaps just rely on using a DVD.
I neglected to mention that the vendor pointed out that this latest Maxtor drive I was struggling with features a USB 3.0 connection, though he did note "it will still work with USB 2.0 ports." Since my hub is USB 2.0, it’s hardly surprising that everything was acting up. Given that this external drive is a demanding 2TB beast, it turns out the issues weren't just some random glitch, but were actually due to all the factors you mentioned.

Jerry Robinson56 said:Try saving the exact same file onto both your computer and an external drive, then check under the settings to see if the file sizes match up perfectly. Also, I’d strongly suggest avoiding the whole cut/paste routine; if any little hiccup happens during the transfer, you might end up with a corrupted, incomplete file.

That is actually what I've been doing. The thing is, the icon—that blue and white one—shows up just fine, and it displays the correct file size (matching what's on my computer), and I can even open the Properties window without any trouble. However, the image itself simply won't open or display; it's completely inaccessible. I even went as far as downloading Geek Squad, but it didn't help me at all.

Geek Squad ran an analysis on my data and flagged it with "Windows Damage Severity - high". Does anyone know what that actually implies in plain English?

And one more thing—does anyone know of a truly reliable program that can bring unopenable files back to life without interfering with my antivirus software? Ideally, I'm looking for something that doesn't try to act like its own security suite and just focuses on repairing images. It would be wonderful if it were actually free, rather than those programs that claim to be free only to trap you with a measly 14-day trial at the end.

Jerry Robinson56 said:One hundred thousand terabytes. Just let that number sink in for a moment. 🤔 I mean, am I being a little excessive with all these zeros?

I might have gone a little overboard. 😁I have to be honest, there are times during a single photo shoot when I’ll end up with upwards of three hundred shots, yet I can barely pull five truly representative images from that pile to actually put on display. It reminds me of something a famous photographer once mentioned—forgive me, the name escapes me at the moment—who remarked that his first 10,000 frames were nothing more than total garbage. He insisted that it takes years of constant refining to actually master the craft, because, let's face it, raw talent alone just isn't enough.

Jerry Robinson56 said:I have a nagging suspicion that we might be looking at a hardware issue with one of the USB ports on the computer itself. If I were in your shoes, I’d try saving that same file both locally on your computer and onto an external drive, just so you can double-check the settings and confirm that the file sizes match up perfectly. It’s always better to be safe than sorry when dealing with data integrity. Also, if I can offer a little piece of advice, I’d really suggest avoiding the "cut and paste" method. If any kind of hiccup or error occurs during the transfer process, you run the risk of ending up with a corrupted or incomplete file, which is a headache nobody needs.

Looking back on it, I’ve started to suspect that the real culprit might actually be the USB port itself. I usually plug my external drives into a four-port USB hub, and while I make a point of cleaning it regularly, there's a fair chance it's just choked with dust or simply reached the end of its lifespan. It's one of those things that eventually just gives up on you. However, if the issue lies deeper—specifically within the port where the hub connects to the computer—I'm looking at a much bigger headache. I might have to haul the entire tower back to the Geek Squad for repairs, which would be quite frustrating considering I just had the whole thing serviced only two months ago.

Jerry Robinson56 said:If you find yourself constantly tethered to your desk, I honestly think you should consider investing in a decent USB hub. It’s one of those small upgrades that really pays off in terms of convenience; instead of fumbling around trying to plug everything directly into your computer, you can just tuck the hub away and save yourself all that repetitive plugging and unplugging. As for storage, if you're looking for reliability, I'd personally recommend picking up some Verbatim drives—or, if you happen to stumble upon some Toshiba ones while you're out shopping, they tend to be a solid choice as well. I'm afraid I don't quite follow what you mean by "taiyo juden." If you could provide a bit more context or clarify your thought, I would be more than happy to engage with you on the topic.I honestly can't say for sure if they've actually phased out production yet, but man, those guys were truly top-tier. I went back to check on my old unit from thirteen years ago, and I have to say, it still runs like a dream... everything is working perfectly.
It’s probably worth mentioning that you should really try to keep this away from any direct heat or intense light sources if you can help it.

I’ve been working like a total maniac lately. 😁 I occasionally find myself sketching at 600 DPI, which usually prompts a few eye-rolls from the rest of the group; they tend to label it as pure megalomania, claiming I’m just putting unnecessary strain on my computer's hardware. However, that specific resolution is absolutely essential for the large-scale prints I sell. If I don't go that route, I end up working at 300 DPI, but then I have to double the physical dimensions just to compensate.
I’ve gone through quite a few different brands over the years—some Verbatim, some Maxtor, and some Toshiba—but I have to say, my Maxtor drives have consistently been the most reliable workhorses in my collection. They don't suffer from those annoying power cycles where they randomly shut down right after you turn them on; they just stay steady and present when you need them. However, I'm currently having a bit of a headache because my most recent Maxtor is actually letting me down. I suspect part of the issue might be that my internal drives are getting a little too crowded. I've only got about 25 GB of free space left out of roughly 370 GB on both my E: and F: drives. They've been sitting in the "red zone" for quite some time now, and I have a nagging feeling that this lack of breathing room is slowing down my entire system and making my external drives struggle to perform properly.
Everything is tucked away safely in a cool, dark spot, so my conscience is relatively clear on that front. My only real headache is that the power strip cord is incredibly short and it’s plugged into one of the rear outlets—the two front ones are actually broken since the prongs got bent—so I end up keeping my external drives on the floor. I'm a little worried that might be a complicating factor, though I do try to rotate them and let each one sit on the floor for about three days at a time.

Jerry Robinson56 said:Still, those 5400 RPM hard drives really are the most budget-friendly route you can take. Since they run a bit slower, they should theoretically last longer, and personally, Seagate has always been quite reliable for me over the years.
The real trick is to make two separate copies of anything important. When you're burning CDs, try to do it no more than ten times, or maybe four for DVDs, and regardless of whether you run a verification, just make sure to manually open a few files after the burn is finished to ensure everything is intact.

Does it count as redundancy if I save one massive folder of documents onto the same external drive, just split into two distinct folders? I'm assuming that if one specific file gets corrupted, the damage won't spread to the identical file stored elsewhere.

Also, is it possible that forcefully closing Photoshop while I was working on an illustration saved to an external drive—specifically by hitting Ctrl + Alt + Delete and selecting "End Task" from the Task Manager—could have caused the file itself to become corrupted?

Hello,

Lately, I’ve been running into a real headache with every single new external hard drive I buy.
This is already my second recent purchase—bringing my total collection up to six now—and I feel like I’m just throwing money down the drain when these devices fail after only two days of use.

My computer has solid security software installed, and as far as I can tell, I haven't been hit by any viruses (I did run some checks to be sure).

My older external drives eventually gave out simply due to old age, though I managed to limp them along and fix them somehow.

However, these two most recent ones—which were also by far the most expensive!—are constantly acting up.
And I can promise you, none of them have been dropped, nor have I been tossing them around.

Essentially, shortly after I save a file (usually a drawing or a photo I've been retouching in Photoshop), I find that the external drive—or the computer trying to read from it—simply refuses to open that file. Either it says it can't open it at all, or it claims the file might be corrupted or in an unsupported format (even though they are standard .jpg or .psd files).

On top of that, the moment I attempt to save a file directly to the external drive rather than my local machine, Photoshop hangs, freezes up entirely, and forces me to kill the program manually. Consequently, I’ve started losing incredibly valuable, highly detailed illustrations that represent over eight hours of intense work.

I am truly at my wit's end here; I'm wasting both precious money and the time I should be spending on my projects, all while frantically trying to troubleshoot these failures. To make matters worse, I've completely run out of storage space on my actual computer, so I have nowhere left to stash new files. It feels like I might actually have to revert to using DVDs, which are supposedly less reliable than externals, proving that all this "advanced" technology doesn't mean a thing under the holy spirit. It turns out that these massive, high-tech 2TB external drives can be nothing more than a complete waste of time.

Does anyone have a solution for what I'm going through?

Thank you,

Edit: I have heard about the idea of moving all my data to the cloud as a permanent and secure way to store everything, but of course, that comes with a subscription fee. Honestly, the thought of putting things that are private, intimate, or the direct fruit of my own creativity and intellect (which is quite sensitive regarding copyright) onto the web doesn't inspire much confidence in me. Has anyone actually tried this? What is the name of the service or program people usually use? Is it truly as secure as they claim, and is it worth shelling out dollars for? (I estimate that everything I've ever created totals somewhere around 100,000 Terabytes, if not significantly more).

Larry Ortiz5 said:Maybe give it a shot using WhatsApp Web

https://web.whatsapp.com/

Thanks so much, you really saved my skin! 👍

So, does anyone know the best way to move my WhatsApp chat history over to my computer?

I’ve already got iTunes installed and I tried downloading iExplorer, but it turns out they want me to pay just to use it. To make matters worse, my computer isn't even recognizing my phone when I plug it in via USB.

I did a little digging on Google and saw there might be a way to handle this through Apple, but when I went to set up an Apple ID, it started asking for credit card info and payment details. Is there seriously no way to do any of this for free?

Thanks so much!

quietpilot87 said:It’s all about that sugar-to-insulin ratio—like, if your blood sugar is sitting at 4 but your insulin is hitting 15, you've got way too much insulin for that amount of sugar. You probably already feel that happening.
Doesn't look too bad on my end, though honestly, I wouldn't mind if it were worse—it might mean getting slapped with a small dose of meds. Combined with how I live my life, that little nudge is exactly what I'd need. 🎉
Haven't hit up the endocrinologist for the final word yet, so we'll see what they have to say.

Glad you're feeling better 👍
About the diabetic diet—just remember, you want that blood sugar low, which means keeping the insulin low, too.
Pretty sure no sweets are allowed, even the "diabetic-friendly" kind.
Just throwing out some hints here—maybe a low-carb approach could help speed things up for you. 🙂

Jacob Sullivan91 and quietpilot87, if someone is dealing with irregular insulin or blood sugar levels, or perhaps metabolic syndrome, is it strictly forbidden to eat any kind of sweets if the goal is to avoid weight gain?

Ever since I started taking Seroquel, I’ve developed this intense craving for chocolate, which is quite strange because I never used to care for sweets at all before this.
However, I did read somewhere that dark chocolate—specifically varieties with more than 75% cocoa, since it's high in antioxidants, lower in sugar, and feels much more natural—is actually acceptable. Apparently, it should only be eaten in the morning, which happens to be when I usually indulge. And, naturally, in very modest amounts. I've seen quite a few places online suggesting that dark chocolate can even assist with weight loss. This might be due to its nutritional profile, but I also suspect it's because completely depriving oneself of treats can be counterproductive; sometimes, allowing yourself a small, controlled indulgence prevents the mental strain that leads to a total relapse or falling into a binge eating cycle.

Do you happen to know if that's true, or should I be avoiding dark chocolate as well? I attempted to go a full week without it, but I found it nearly impossible to stick to. I'm willing to try again, of course, primarily for the sake of my health.

Jacob Sullivan91 said:So, have they actually confirmed insulin resistance? If they haven't, why do you feel entitled to that med? And what makes you think it’ll actually help you? 🤔

Also, what kind of symptoms are we talking about for prediabetes? I’m stuck in that phase right now and honestly, I don't feel anything at all... except for the insulin resistance.

I haven't checked my levels just yet, though I’m planning to get that blood sugar reading done very soon. Lately, I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading on how metformin can be incredibly effective at helping women manage excess weight when dealing with PCOS—even for those of us who aren't showing clear signs of prediabetes. It seems there is a significant consensus that pairing the medication with genuine lifestyle adjustments, like refining my diet and staying active, yields much more substantial results than simply trying to overhaul my habits on my own. To add another layer to this, I am also taking Seroquel to manage my bipolar disorder, which unfortunately tends to trigger intense hunger, weight gain, and a general sense of lethargy. It actually looks like there is some promising research suggesting that metformin can be used specifically to help counteract those exact side effects caused by antipsychotics, which feels like a small silver lining in all of this.

On top of everything else, the Seroquel has caused this relentless, unstoppable growth in my chest—thanks to elevated prolactin levels and the resulting galactorrhea—which has completely transformed my silhouette. I went from having what I’d call a somewhat disproportionate figure about five or six years ago—back when I was a slender 128 pounds at 5'8"—to a heavy-set shape that makes me feel like I’m constantly looking several months pregnant in almost any outfit I try on. My weight has climbed from that baseline to at least 160 pounds, and frankly, it's becoming a bit of a financial drain; I find myself constantly outgrowing my blouses right down the middle seam, forcing me to buy larger sizes every few months just to stay covered. To make matters worse, the weight seems to have settled heavily around my upper arms, shoulders, and neck, giving me that classic apple-shaped physique.

Jacob Sullivan91 said:So, have they actually confirmed insulin resistance? If they haven't, why do you feel entitled to that med? And what makes you think it’ll actually help you? 🤔

Also, what kind of symptoms are we talking about for prediabetes? I’m stuck in that phase right now and honestly, I don't feel anything at all... except for the insulin resistance.

It seems I’ve been dealing with some rather frustrating symptoms lately: an intense, persistent thirst. To be fair, I tend to get so caught up in things during the day that I completely forget to stay hydrated, but once evening rolls around, the thirst becomes much more pronounced. Even worse, before I can even settle in for the night, I find myself having to get up to use the bathroom three or four times—sometimes every fifteen minutes or so. It feels quite abnormal, especially since this happens every single night without fail.

It feels like I’m being haunted by this absolutely monstrous hunger. It’s relentless, almost overwhelming, and honestly, it’s a bit exhausting to deal with on a daily basis.

On top of everything else, I’ve been battling this relentless, soul-crushing fatigue for years now. It feels like my body is constantly heavy, as if I’m moving through molasses, especially since my metabolism used to be incredibly fast—honestly, back when I was actually healthy, it practically ran like a high-performance sports car. Now, I’m also dealing with sensitive gums and these incredibly frustrating cracks at the corners of my mouth. They go through this endless cycle where they dry out, split open, bleed, and sting, only to scab over and crack again even worse than before. To make matters worse, I seem to be caught in a perpetual loop of fungal and bacterial infections; I'm constantly fighting off vaginal and urinary tract issues, and I’ve been unsuccessfully trying to treat a stubborn fungal infection on my toe for two whole years. My skin hasn't been much better either. Even as I approach forty, I'm still struggling with acne, and over the last few days, a thick, bumpy patch of redness has flared up on my right cheek. It’s itchy, it stings, and it’s even started developing these tiny, flaky scales that peel away. Then there’s the blurred vision. Ever since I started taking Seroquel—which I know can potentially lead to diabetes—my prescription has shot up so rapidly that I’ve had to start wearing glasses. I’ve also been experiencing occasional tingling sensations, most notably all over my face.

Whenever I start feeling hungry, things take a turn for the worse. It isn't just a simple stomach growl; I begin to feel this overwhelming sense of weakness and dizziness that settles in deep. It’s accompanied by this strange, unsettling restlessness—almost like I'm floating or losing my grip on reality, that disorienting sensation of depersonalization. Usually, it spirals into a full-blown panic attack. I have a strong suspicion that this is tied directly to my blood sugar levels dropping, though honestly, it seems to happen whenever I go too long without eating, regardless of what's going on with my glucose.

I also experience these bouts of intense, stabbing migraines, though I suspect they might not actually be a symptom related to my current situation.

There are moments when I’m struck by this sensation of unbearable heat, almost as if I’m running a fever, even though I know my temperature is perfectly normal.

And, of course, my lovely little uterine fibroids decided to chime in and say hello too.

I’ve been living with PCOS since I was diagnosed about 18 years ago back when I was just 20. About five or six years ago, things really started to spiral because I was prescribed two psychiatric medications, and unfortunately, significant weight gain, bloating, and water retention are major side effects of them. I struggle specifically with stubborn fat accumulation around my midsection, and on top of that, I’m showing symptoms of prediabetes. Despite all this, I’ve hit a wall with my doctors—my gynecologist refused to write me a prescription for metformin, and my endocrinologist, psychiatrist, and even my primary care physician have all turned me down. It feels incredibly frustrating because, given my PCOS diagnosis, I feel I have a legitimate medical need for the medication, yet they just won't budge. Is there any recourse here? Should I consider filing a complaint with the medical board? I'm feeling a bit lost on what to do next, especially since buying it out-of-pocket is prohibitically expensive and nearly impossible to manage.

I was wondering if someone might be able to help me out with a quick question. I still have about five days left on my Adobe After Effects free trial. 😠🙄☕🙂

For quite some time now, I’ve been feeling this persistent urge to dive into the world of glitch art—specifically, I really want to wrap my head around pixel sorting.

Since I don't happen to have Adobe After Effects installed on my machine (for reasons I can't quite fathom), I went ahead and downloaded a free trial from the web. I also grabbed the pixel Sorter tool.

According to the installation instructions provided in the PDF:

"Installation
Registration
Windows:

Place the file AEPixelSorter.aex in the Plugins folder of After Effects. For example:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files\Plug-ins"

The snag I'm running into is that I actually have Adobe After Effects CC 2017 installed. I followed the directions and copied and pasted the aforementioned Plug-in into the suggested folder, but when I launch Adobe After Effects, it simply doesn't show up anywhere. I can't help but wonder if this is a version compatibility issue? Does Adobe really require the 2015 version specifically to recognize this particular pixel sorting plugin? I suspect not, since they used that path merely as an example, but I'm stumped.

Beyond placing AEPixelSorter.aex into C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2015\Support Files\Plug-ins, is there anything else I need to do to ensure it appears within the software so I can finally start playing around with it? That seems to be the extent of the instructions provided.

Oh, and I noticed the guide mentions that once the Plug-in shows up under Effects, I'll need to go through the registration process, though I haven't even reached that stage yet.

Also, would anyone be so kind as to suggest some reliable links where I can download both of these programs safely?

Thank you so much.

---------------

Edit: I did try attempting to import AEPixelSorter.aex directly into Adobe After Effects, but unfortunately, that didn't work either.

I did a little digging online and I think I finally stumbled upon a better way to upload directly to Instagram from my PC using their new desktop app. However, there's a bit of a snag—the photos I’ve uploaded just aren't showing up on my actual profile. Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening?

(After I hit upload, it seems to tell me that I need to send the image to someone, so I ended up just sending it to myself, but even then, the photos are nowhere to be found).

Correction: Gramblr 😁

I’m just starting to dive into using Instagram for some business ventures, and I’m actually sitting here about to upload my very first photo. Ideally, I’d love to pull everything directly from my PC, but the way they advertise it, you supposedly need to use that notorious Gramblr—which, if the rumors are true, will go ahead and wipe out your account if they catch you using it.

When I try to sign in through Gramblr, it asks me for an email address (which I've checked off as correct), but as soon as I type in my password—well, I assume it's asking for the email password—it tells me the password is far too long.

Then, right underneath that, there’s a field for my Instagram username and password, but even that seems to be hitting a snag.

I’m a bit lost—what kind of password are they looking for under the email section? I think I might have originally linked my Instagram to my Facebook account, but when I try entering my Facebook password, it rejects that too, claiming it's incorrect.

Does anyone have any advice on how to navigate this?

And more importantly, is it even worth the risk to mess around with Gramblr at all?

Almost all of my high-quality shots are stored on my computer; I really only use my phone for calls and texting. Most of them are shot in a vertical portrait orientation.

Jacob Fisher said:You mentioned downloading some video conversion software; there's a possibility that if you used those tools, one of your movies might have been saved in an unnecessarily massive format.

I suppose that could be it, though the original movie on my E: drive is only about 1.68 GB, and I only have a single backup copy sitting on my F: drive.
To make matters worse, none of those conversion programs actually worked anyway; it turns out they were designed specifically for Mac, so I never even managed to convert the film into ProRes.
I went poking around through my Apps and ended up deleting all three Data Recovery programs, which freed up a decent amount of space on my C Drive, though I suspect there's still some hidden mischief lurking somewhere. I downloaded that utility mentioned earlier (WinDirStat), and it pointed me toward the MSoCache folder. It's always tucked away and invisible, so you can't find it in the standard settings menu. From what I've read online, it's either nearly impossible to delete, or if you actually manage to pull it off (which I couldn't quite do, despite following the instructions since I couldn't locate the specific directory), it just crawls back in every time Windows runs an update or something along those lines.

So, here’s the situation: just a couple of days ago, my C Drive had about two-thirds of its space sitting there completely empty. But somehow, overnight, the bar turned bright red, and now it’s telling me that out of 244 GB, I’ve only got 13 GB left. I’m honestly baffled. Over the last few days, the only thing I’ve actually done is download three little movie conversion programs, and those shouldn't be taking up nearly this much room.

To make matters worse, when I tried to open Photoshop—which is basically where I spend my entire life working—it wouldn't even let me start a new document. It just gave me that dreaded "scratch disks are full" error message. Now, I'm effectively paralyzed; I can't get anything meaningful done on my computer at all. It’s a total standstill.

I’ve already gone through the motions of cleaning things up—deleting most of my movies, emptying the Recycle Bin, getting rid of some massive .psd files from old projects, and clearing out a few downloads and random programs I don't need anymore. But despite all that effort, the available space hasn't budged even a tiny bit.

Does anyone have any advice on what I should do next?

darkowl72 said:Maybe try a different browser. But honestly, if you're planning on reinstalling a trial version of something that’s already been sitting on that computer before, I wouldn't hold my breath. 😬 Adobe has some pretty clever little "traps" set up to prevent exactly that kind of thing...

Thanks, 🙂 (Though I'm still scratching my head over why, with one single Creative Cloud subscription, I ended up with this bizarre mix—some programs work perfectly fine, like Adobe Illustrator; others constantly nag me for registration every single time I launch them, forcing me to just click "later" and essentially stall the inevitable for years now, such as Adobe Photoshop; and then there are the ones that seem to have expired almost instantly, which brings us to my current headache, Premiere Pro.) In the meantime, I had a bit of a revelation—or rather, a sudden reminder—that my supposedly broken wireless mouse (which won't even budge with a fresh battery) actually has a tiny USB dongle tucked inside. Using that to connect to my laptop instead of my desktop, I actually managed to get through all my Premiere Pro tasks after all. 🤦 😁