No thumbnails in Bridge.

This is all good stuff, PE, but it does not stress that people using Bridge versions older than CS5 might not be able to view thumbnails for more modern cameras, unless they are converted to DNG using DNG Converter.

This Adobe document states which minimum version of Camera Raw supports your camera, and this Adobe document states which versions of Camera Raw are supported by your Adobe product.

In addition to - Reset Bridge by holding Option(Mac) or Ctrl (Pc) as soon as you click on the icon to start it.

ADD -  If done properly you will get a reset window with 3 options.

Note:  Uninstalling are reinstalling Photoshop wll not affect the preferences file.  If there were errors there before they will still be there after a re-install.

Thumbnails don't show raw edits.

If you use embedded thumbnails they are the smallest file size and fastest to load.  But they wll not show edits to raw images.  Edits will show in preview.

The embedded jpeg thumbnail is generated by the camera no matter what format you shoot in. 

Using 100% previews can take a lot of disk space and take time to generate so evaluate your needs vs resources.

Cannot update Bridge - Message to close Bridge after you have exited Bridge - Most recent folder not retained

Check to see if Bridge has been set to start at with system start.  Uncheck Preferences > Advanced > Start Bridge at Login; then reboot computer.

OR open Task Manager, click on the Processes Tab and look for any instance of bridge.exe.  If found, close.

Pierre, since Bridge is a 32 bit program guess we should specify the location of ACR is C:\Program files (x86)\COMMON files\Adobe\Plug-ins\CS5 rather than Program files/common files

Permisson Problems with External Drive

In post #12 of this post the OP provides a step by step proceedure on how to solve the problem.  Don't know whether to include link http://forums.adobe.com/thread/957401?tstart=0, or have OP rewrite a condensed post to serve as "how to". 

Also, don't know how this relates to the Mac.  I know they have permission problems but probably not these steps.

Hudechrome wrote:

 

...

5) I notice that there are several folders in Cache, two prominent folders seem to indicate the bit size of the contents: 1024 and 256. 1024 is the biggie, but there is content in 256. So what is the determination here? The jpegs in folder 256 are 39KB or so, not the nearly 1 M, but looking at the files, I don't see any problems with the 256 folder files, at least visually.

I think the jpegs in 256 folder are thumbnail images that Bridge displays in Content (tab), and the 1024 folder jpegs are preview image files that Bridge displays in Preview (tab) and when viewing selected image(s) from content (such as by pressing space bar).

There can be another cache folder <full> that will contain folders of full-size jpeg image files if any have been produced and cached (such as by checking Bridge Cache Preferences: Keep 100% Previews In Cache).

If you do not want to keep full sized previews you can just erase the <full> folder or selectively erase folders in <full>.  Also you can selectively erase older large folders in <1024> folder.  Bridge will rebuild its cache folders if and when they are needed (albeit you'll have to wait for the preview extractions whilst Bridge is doing this).

'256' contains jpeg thumbnails 256 pixels, longest side

'1024' contains jpeg previews, either 1024 or display width, longest side, depending on your setting in preferences (use monitor-sized previews). If using monitor-sized previews, these get bigger for bigger displays (obv).

'full' contains 100% jpeg previews, generated on the fly, or every time, again depending on your set preferences. Obviously, these are going to be big for downloaded high MP camera images.

Any of these can be deleted at will, without causing application problems - they are just regenerated if they are missing.

You can Compact Cache from Bridge preferences, and this removes orphaned cache images (allegedly).

The purpose of exporting cache to folders is that folders can then be shared and previewed without the recipients having to generate their own caches. It does not replace the central cache.

Finally, if you decide to change the location of your Bridge cache, the old cache will be left untouched and should be deleted to save space.

Hudechrome wrote:

...

What is curious is that there are identical files in 256 and 1024. Bridge has been reset unchecking 100% and Checking Monitor sized in Advanced. I would have expected either/or between 256 and 1024, but not both. So I am not clear on that aspect. Why both?

Are the files in 256 and 1024 identical files (same file size) or identical file names?

Bridge uses both 256 and 1024: it will use the files in 256 for thumbnails in Content tab display, and use the (usually larger) files in 1024 to display images in Preview tab.

Even though I have embedded thumbnails checked I have files in 256 and 1024.  Assume like Robert this is to display images in preview.