Bridge cache keeps rebuilding

[ralphpaonessa]

I would like Bridge CS3 to build a cache once for each folder (usually containing Canon raw or DNG), and I only want to go through this time-consuming process ONCE. Is that possible? I'm on Windows Vista and XP, with images on hard drives.

I have Bridge preferences set to:
- Automatically export cache where possible
- Build high-quality thumbnails

This seems to work for awhile, but then something happens and (at least for some folders where I know I previously built the cache) Bridge go through the cache building again (I assume that's what's happening, because the little wheel starts spinning, the percentage quickly goes from 0-100% and then the percentage very slowly goes from 0-100% as the thumbnails change in appearance one by one and my face turns increasingly red).

Maybe I'm confused about how this should work. I assumed that exporting the cache to the folders meant that, once built, the cache was "instantly there" the next time I went to that folder. Is that how it's supposed to work?

In another post http://thedambook.com/smf/index.php?topic=2755.0, Peter said that Bridge *always* uses a central cache, even if you export the cache. How does that work vis-a-vis the exported cache files? I would hope that Bridge doesn't go to the central cache without relying on the exported cache. Because if it does, what happens when the cache gets "too big?" I had hoped that one advantage of exporting the cache was that the size of the central cache became a non-issue.

This constant rebuilding of the cache is DAM annoying!! How can I fix this?

Ralph Paonessa

[peterkrogh]

Ralph,
Are these files on a network (or a NAS server), by any chance, rather than being directly connected to the computer?
Bridge will only distribute the cache automatically for locally connected images (on internal, or external , eSATA, Firewire, or USB drives).
Peter

[ralphpaonessa]

Peter,

The drive in question is one of four SATA drives in an external box (PC Pitstop) connected with an external SATA cable (a single "Multilane" or "Infiniband" cable that carrieds the data for all four drives) to a RocketRaid 2224 RAID card. I'm not running RAID per se, but using "passthrough" so it looks to the system like four separate drives.

Windows Disk Management console sees them as 4 more drives on my system, in addition to the boot and other internal drives. So I'd think this qualifies as being "directly connected to the computer" (although I don't know if CS3 has a different opinion on that).

Can you explain what Bridge CS3 is doing when it exports an external cache? I'd thought this removed the data entirely from the central cache and that, for instance, any size limits on the central cache no longer applied. But now I'm starting to get the impression that it continues to cache everything centrally as well as externally. In which case, why export the cache? I was doing it to get around any size limits on the central cache. (Plus, it seemed better to spread out the cache to where the images were, rather than centralize it where some glitch might wipe it all out.)

BTW, I "love" the numberless "smaller/larger" slider in Bridge Preferences for cache size. It blends well with the general air of mystery that seems to surround The Cache (at least for me

Ralph Paonessa

[peterkrogh]

Ralph,
Bridge does indeed maintain a central cache.  It is the first place Bridge looks when it displays a folder.  Bridge then looks immediately to the distributed cache, and checks to see what's freshest.  If there has been no change to the distributed cache, it will continue to use the central one to display the images. Bridge then looks to the documents themselves to see if there are any files that have been more recently modified.  If anything has been modified, it will rebuild the cache for that item.

Central cache needs to be cleared from time to time (whenever Bridge gets unstable or extra slow). By using the distributed cache, Bridge can rebuild for that folder quickly.  Distributed cache also makes the cache available to other machines.

I know it sounds a little convoluted, but there are some good reasons to design it this way, if you are going to build a browser.  All of this implementation needs to be tightened up for CS4.

Yes the slider sizes are too fuzzy.
Peter

[danaltick]

Ralph,

I'm really not sure how Adobe handles the cache in CS3 to tell you the truth; however, I have the same problem.  It's existed ever since the new Bridge CS3 update.  The later cache patch from them did not fix this problem.  I think it only happens under Windows.  I have been able to fix it though by deleting the "data" subfolder under the Bridge Cache folder, but the problem does come back again.  I'm really hoping Adobe will clear up these cache problems on the next release.  Peter, have you experienced anything like this under Vista?

Dan

[peterkrogh]

In addition to what I wrote earlier, there are some times when Bridge rebuilds cache when it should not. 

You can make a case that it might want to rebuild cache after a Bridge-initiated rename, but it would be a weak case.  I think it's particularly frustrating that cache gets rebuilt simply because the folder gets renamed.

If anything other than Bridge touches the files, that will trigger a rebuild.

Clearing the central cache, which should be done whenever Bridge act really slow or locks up, should not trigger a full rebuild, but does appear to sometimes.
Peter

[ralphpaonessa]

Bridge does indeed maintain a central cache.  It is the first place Bridge looks when it displays a folder.  Bridge then looks immediately to the distributed cache, and checks to see what's freshest.  If there has been no change to the distributed cache, it will continue to use the central one to display the images. Bridge then looks to the documents themselves to see if there are any files that have been more recently modified.  If anything has been modified, it will rebuild the cache for that item.

I'm confused. How would the distributed cache have changed (be fresher) except by Bridge browsing that folder? And from your answers, it sounds like Bridge always writes to the central cache (and then copies to the external??), so the central cache will always be "fresh."

I don't understand what purpose is served by the exported cache. I thought it was a way to bypass the central cache (and any size limitations it might have), and always keep the cache with the images (e.g. when transferring from laptop to desktop). Is that how it worked in CS2, and has it fundamentally changed in CS3?

From what has been said so far, I'm wondering if the exported cache just serves as some sort of backup for the central cache.

Thanks for your insights.

[ianw]

How would the distributed cache have changed (be fresher) except by Bridge browsing that folder?

Ralph,

If you have images offline on DVD backups with a distributed cache then that may be 'fresher' than the central cache.  Indeed the central cache may not know anything about these images as they are either new to Bridge or the cache has been purged at some point.

If you work with two computers e.g. laptop on road and desktop back home then when copied from laptop to desktop the distributed cache is 'fresher' than the central one on the desktop.

I'm sure there are more scenarios!

Like you I sometimes despair of Bridge.  It's the runt of the CS litter, but Adobe position it as central to Photoshop and other prime CS applications.  I expect that when it was tested they only been asked to handle 'laboratory scenarios' and not the thousands of images that us in the real world throw at it!

Maybe CS4 will fix this, although that's at least a year away.

Ian

[danaltick]

Once I go into a folder and allow Bridge to build the cache, I don't have any more problems with it.  The problem I have is in building the cache outside the folder immediately after an ingestion with IIP.  Even though I build the cache and wait for it to complete, Bridge still builds the cache again when I go into the folder for the first time.

Dan

[edward_brogan]

Hello All,

As I haven't been able to do anything with respect to my photos since purchasing Photoshop CS3 in November and then upgrading to Leopard after 10.5.2 was released I finally have have gotten to the point of being able to do some photo work. Imagine my shock to discover my once very stable Adobe Bridge has become utterly unusable. Besides the constant re-caching of folders already cached(even when it just finished before my very eyes!), just trying to scroll down a folder of images is impossible!

After visiting the Adobe forums, I trashed my bridge plist and used command, option, shift to start bridge and selected all 3 options to revert bridge to it's original and hopefully pristine and stable self, I have found that it quickly goes back to it's unstable, and unusable erratically slow behavior.

I noticed this thread and I was hoping that someone has had success in getting bridge to work properly or even close to usable. At this point I am out of ideas and I have no idea what application I may turn to to use instead of bridge. I was considering  Lightroom (although I'm not to trusting of Adobe right now) or even Aperture, but I do really like Adobe raw not to mention that I own it and would not like to think I just threw away all that money!

My system consists of  mac G5, 4gb ram running 10.5.2 photoshop, bridge CS3 with latest updates, iview media pro, I'm using local hard drives in the machine as well as in a sonnett sata box.
 
Any ideas on this matter would be greatly appreciated…
Thanks  Ed

[peterkrogh]

Ed,
Any chance you have the ACR 4.4 installed?

Ralph,
You could have fresher cache in a folder if you use more than one computer.
Peter

[edward_brogan]

Yes Peter I do have 4.4 but this was happening before I installed 4.4  I think. Should I try going back to 4.3? For now I have convert to high quality when previewed selected so that I can use bridge.
Thanks Ed

[peterkrogh]

Yes, you should retrograde to 4.3 .

Are you telling it to cache lots of files after a purge?
Peter

[edward_brogan]

I don't think so. I generally have a couple hundred files per folder. I haven't done anything different then I was doing before I switched to CS3.  It was doing strange stuff like, I see it finish caching a folder and I change the thumbnail size and it starts caching like it had never cached the folder before.
Ed