Photoshop and Illustrator commands missing (eg batch and Live Trace) in Bridge CS6 tools, but they are there in CS5.

Check Bridge preferences / start up scripts and see if the scripts for PSCS6 and Illustrator CS6 are there and have a checkmark in front of them.

Lib-Apps Support-Adobe-Srart up scripts. This is where the CS5 preferences linked to.

 

 

After the copy they show up as ticked in the prefs but do not load in the Bridge tool...

 

The library at root level is the correct one and the one with Start Up scripts is the correct place. But I'm not sure copying is the correct way to achieve a good result.

Can you clarify on the updates for CS6. Did you have updated only PS or the whole suite. CS6 tools menu seems not being able to match with CS5 editions etc.

And maybe the dedicated Adobe Bridge scripting forum has a bit more knowledge about that:

http://forums.adobe.com/community/bridge/bridge_scripting

Tim Clark ih wrote:

 

…Photoshop CS5, so no update…

Ouch! 

Photoshop CS5 received several updates.  You should be running 12.0.4, or 12.1 or 12.1.1, depending on what flavor of CS5 you started out with (CS5, CS5.1 or CS 5.5). 

Illustrator is CS5.     15.0.0

Latest CS5 Illustrator should be 15.0.2

I would suggest a back up of your important files and settings including custom brushes, tools, actions etc and also be sure to back up keyword list for Bridge and custom Output settings etc.

Also have the CS5 serial number by hand. Then use the official CS5 uninstaller (you will find one in the application folder in almost each CS5 app but certainly one in PS and illustrator.

be sure to first deactivate the CS5 suite (menu help in PS or Illustrator) and on uninstall include removing preferences and deactivate permanently ( you need the serial number on reinstall)

After uninstall first check and repair permissions for your start up disks (Apple Disk Utility or third party) and then install from scratch.

Run the auto updater to get the latest updates and try again.

So I deleted/uninstalled all versions of bridge then photoshop, but Bridge would not even install with PS cs5 (maybe it never did, there was no option on install).

In the CS4 suite there was a separate option to install or uninstall Bridge, for CS5 they changed this as combined install with PS.

There are many options for buying separate applications or combinations (Suite) of Adobe Products but according to the Adobe Site Bridge is delivered also with the separate applications Indesign, Illustrator, Flash, Premiere Pro, After Effects and Incopy.

Usually when having a complete Suite it is delivered with one of those applications.

Bridge should be able to communicate with all applications from the same CS version, but uses start up scripts for that applications.

When doing normal installation those scripts should be placed in the correct location automatically.

Having different suite versions on your system it will not be easy to make them communicate with each other through one version of Bridge (sadly enough you can also have only one version of Bridge active at the time and different versions of Bridge use different cache folders).

Don't have experience with scripting but maybe the dedicated Bridge scripting forum (link in previous post) can help you out for the answer of customized start up scripts or if it is possible at all.