Can I delete the application support file?

[jink64542809]

The size of the file is 24gigabytes. I am trying to clean up my hard drive/trying to figure out why adobe bridge keeps on crashing whenever I try to preview presets (I've already deleted the cache file) and was wondering if this is a normal size.

I have a macbook air with 8 gigs of memory and 251  of flash storage.

Thank you!

[davidarbor · Accepted solution]

Do you mean the entire folder called Application Support in your Library? Absolutely not.

Do you instead mean the After Effects file inside of the Application Support file? The answer is still no.

You likely have a lot of cache files in there, possibly from a different version of Ae. If that's the case then clearing the cache in your current version of Ae wouldn't get rid of cache files from a previous version.

That being said, you haven't provided a ton of information. Can you post a screenshot with your finder tree expanded showing how large all the folders are?

[jink64542809]

Hi David,

Thank you for your reply!

I did a bit of digging after your reply and found out that media cache file was the culprit. Turns out you can delete that file, so I deleted. Bridge still freezes whenever I try to preview a preset animation from after effect, but I was able to free up a lot of space!

I cleared the cache file and everything and reset Bridge back to default factory mode, but still to no avail.

I guess I'll try redownloading Bridge.

Anyways, thank you so much!

[kirkeric]

You might want to consider some external storage as well because if you are doing any routine projects then you have a larger issue with space.  I'd imagine with your installed apps, etc you probably don't have much to work with to begin with.

Eric

[jink64542809]

External storage, huh? I thought you won't need any tech-knowledge when working with Adobe (for some reason), but oh boy was I wrong.

It helps A LOT to be a bit of a techie. Better start getting more used to. So much to learn!

Thank you for your reply, sir.

[davidarbor]

Go into the After Effects preferences and see where your cache files are being written to. If it's the Application Support folder then it's just going to fill up again. You should get an external drive, but only store cache files there if it's fast, like a USB 3 SSD or one of those small drives that fits in your SD card slot.

[jink64542809]

I have this. Would this work?

Sorry for the beginner-like question. I am doing fine in terms of learning how to use the Adobe application itself, but I am having a bit of a difficult time learning about the backends of it, such as preference and hardware components.

I really do appreciate your help!

Amazon.com : G-Technology G-DRIVE Mobile USB 3.0 7200RPM | Portable 7200RPM USB 3.0 1TB Hard Drive S...

[davidarbor]

No worries, that's why these forums are here. While that is a USB 3 drive, it still has a spinning hard drive in it, and will be significantly slower than your internal SSD. It depends on what you're animating or compositing, and at what resolution, but you would likely see a slowdown in the speed of your timeline caching if you used that drive.

I should also retract my previous statement about using the Transcend JetDrives (they fit in the SD card slots) because they're not fast enough either. A 256 GB external SSD would be more appropriate. I have one attached to my iMac and I allocate 150 GB as my cache limit for Ae.

[jink64542809]

Understood.

How much would attaching a 256 GB external SSD to my Macbook air help with rendering and general workflow?

I currently have a 13 inch Macbook air.....

Early 2015 model

Processor: 1.6 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory: 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Startup Disk: Macintosh HD

Graphics Intel HD Graphics 6000 1536 MG

Flash Storage: 251 GB

I want to create educational Youtube videos for my Japanese people. When I'm working on After Effect I always have the quality set to "quarter" otherwise it takes too much to preview it. I animate a lot vector Illustrator files with tiny details. 

Eventually, I really want to and am going to get a desktop, hopefully after 2 months from now. Since that's a significant investment for me as a college student, I want to see what I can do with my current macbook air.

Thank you!

[davidarbor]

In this case, it won't help much, so I wouldn't spend the money now if you're saving up for a more powerful desktop . Your cache drive isn't your only bottleneck, and the internal SSD is likely faster than an external USB SSD. The problem is that, for best performance, you shouldn't be running your media, application, and cache all on the same drive. You could move your media to your external drive you already have, leave your cache on your internal drive, and clear it regularly, or set it to be a smaller amount, and then just hold out until you get a desktop. Your processor isn't very fast, and 8GB of RAM is the minimum you want to be using After Effects with.

When you buy your desktop, depending on your budget, you should consider three drives inside. A small SSD for your OS and apps (256 GB at a minimum) a larger, spinning drive for your files and other data, and a third SSD for caching. This can be a cheaper 128 GB SSD since it would be dedicated to caching. That would balance budget and performance. CPU speed and RAM are also important though. I wouldn't get less than 16 GB to start, with the option to add more. So I wouldn't get 4x4GB sticks of RAM, I would get 2x8GB and leave your other two slots open (assuming your motherboard has four slots), and a Core i7 processor is going to give you the best performance. But I understand, budget is always a concern.

[jink64542809]

Understood. I will save the money for the desktop.

After reading this, I went to the computer hardware store and got a rough estimate. All and all, it would be roughly cost $1800, which I could afford with my summer job saving! I was very excited.

Thank you so much for your detailed answer!

I learnt so much.

[davidarbor]

You're welcome!

I didn't mention anything about a graphics card, which is going to become more important as After Effects adds more GPU-accelerated effects and features, so you will want to consider a decent dedicated card, as opposed to the on-board graphics on the CPU.

$1800 doesn't seem too crazy for a custom rig with the parts I mentioned, and if someone else is building it for you. I just built a brand new machine with high end consumer parts (I didn't shell out $1000 for a processor) and that rig cost about $1600, not including the 4K monitor I also bought.