Bridge: Please return the counter of remaining preview files

> "Generating thumbnails ... and Generating previews ..." without counter remaining files. >

I think they didn't want to discourage us by having us watch a countdown to completed. LOL Although I have to say, it's going a lot faster, apart from adding keywords to multi-layered PSD files.

Why exactly do you need to see the specific number of files that haven't had previews generated? How does that affect your workflow. We can now scroll and where we scroll to takes priority over "hidden" files, and we can click on one to start work right away. It feels to me like it's working with us better than it used to not all that long ago.

But I don't know what I'm missing by not seeing the countdown figure for files not yet fully processed.

I also started to miss that counter. I was loading a folder with 200 images and 120 movie clips, and saw just the spinner coming up. Granted, the creating of previews is already much faster, but still can be hindering a snappy workflow. Especially when you're viewing folders on a slow network, or when Bridge has problems reading certain files (and is on the verge of crashing...)

So in such a situation, I like to know how long it's going to take for me to keep calm and wait for Bridge to get ready doing its business. A countdown or progress bar isn't such a strange thing to ask for. Heck, it has been there before !

I can't agree that the generation of previews is improving in any way. The last 2 versions have slowed down, and if you work with lots of 5DsR files this slows down workflow. In my experience there is little point adjusting a folder full of raw images (other than deleting) until the 100% previews have been generated and cache generated.
So please bring back the counter (perhaps the units should be "time for x coffees") and please please try to improve the preview generation.
Mac Pro 10.10  3.7 GHz quad 32Gb Ram
Peter

Please Vote for this idea! 
I have old cameras like Canon 1Ds Mark II and Canon 5D, but Bridge still slowly processes this raw.  Adobe Bridge works SLOWLY with the Apple File system like HFS+. I have i7-3.5GHz/ 16GB ECC RAM and 480GB SSD drive. 

> I can't agree that the generation of previews is improving in any way. >

Goodness. I haven't heard anyone say that the version is actually slower than a couple of versions back. Have you purged your cache recently? I'm not talking about using that useless command in Preferences. You have to either purge on launch (and it often helps to remove Prefs at the same time if you haven't done that between versions), or even quicker, go to your cache folder and simply trash all the cached files within the folders and empty the trash.

It's very true that they've gained speed in part by having you start with a fresh cache and then keeping it compacted, so an old cache can become problematic. I have Compact on Exit disabled, since I don't always have patience for it, but it still will pop up a notice when I've done a lot with my files and offer to give me the opportunity to compact before shutting down. I also have Purge Cache Older than  xx days set back to 15 from the default 30. Your own workflow will determine if you can afford to do that.

Whenever Bridge starts to get flaky and slow down, and unfortunately it still does, I purge cache again and it speeds up once more. I don't think it was built for 5,000 large camera raw files in a single folder, though. It should handle that, but even On1 bogs down under that much weight (and is much slower than Bridge when it comes to caching layered PSD files).  And I hope Bridge is going to figure out how to handle very large folders in some way that works better. But if you can keep organized and have slightly smaller folders, it's better if you do so. I know many people really need the super large folders, so I'm not proposing smaller folders as a one size fits all solution.

But if you're finding the current version of Bridge is even slower than 2014, there's something going on. Even people with very large folders of raw files have said the current Bridge is faster.

And for the record, I'm not opposed to the counter so long as counting doesn't slow anything down. I simply don't care one way or the other and wanted to know why people want it. I use stacks heavily and watch the spinning wheel to see when that's stopped so I can safely open those stacks. That's as much as I need to know—no stacks, no problem for me.

Hi Cristen,

I believe I have tried everything in your text above.
Let me give my full workflow so that all avenues can be explored.

Images are downloaded to and stored on LaCie Thunderbolt RAID (0)
Folder of Raw images opened in bridge and I wait until al thumbnails, 100% Previews and cache generated. with this folder of (originally) 800 images this could take an hour!

Now I'm deleting and making some adjustments.
If I make a minor exposure adjustment to (see screen shot) 18 images, this takes 58 seconds while new previews are generated, and while this is happening the deleting or adjustment of further images is pointless as everything slows down while those few images are re-generating.

I


This is inconvenient with a (normal) job of about 100 images but with a job like this with 800 it's impossible!

I have tried....
Purging Cache
Not generating 100% previews.
Working off SSD drive on computer

All to no avail!

Mac Pro OS X 10.10 3.7Ghz Quad core
32 Gb Ram
ADM FirePro D300 Graphics

Any suggestions welcome!
Peter

Hi Cristen,
Thanks for your reply & comments!
First of all there is no network involved, the RAID (with images) is connected directly by thunderbolt2 to MacPro and the PS CC aps reside on the computers SSD.

I have just tried Vladimir's suggestion of creating a new user account (administrator level) and at first view this improves matters greatly!
BUT WHY????

Early next week I'll be dealing with another 600+ batch of images and will try the new user account an report on any speed improvements.
If this is a workaround (it's not a solution) then where does the problem lie?
Please Adobe a bit of technical feedback here!
As I have said on other Adobe forums, I am your "bread & butter" - a working professional photographer using PS CC all day every day.
Many Thanks,
Peter

This thread got off on a tangent about thumbnail generation speed, rather than adding the thumbnail counter back so we can tell how many (hundreds? thousands?) of files it still has to process previews for. Like someone said above, it gives me a "coffee counter" so I can see that I have 450 thumbs and previews to build, I can hit the restroom or check my email or something. I guess I am used to *almost every other application ever built* showing the *progress* of the process that is currently running. Don't just make us wait, wondering when it will finish. Let us see how many files remain to be processed -- this also helps the daily user judge whether or not his/her system is slowing down, and can help identify bottlenecks in processing. Please - Please - Please!!! :-)

Yes - Please put the counter back!
How hard can it be!
P

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Generating Previews... no longer shows number.

I just upgraded Adobe Bridge 6 to 8.01 and at the bottom bar the "Generating Previews..." status no longer shows the number of previews remaining to generate. This is useful information because if their are a lot remaining then I'll leave Bridge alone to process them and then return when the application is fully responsive and not sucking up CPU cycles. Please reinstate this useful information. 

I've asked the Bridge team to look into this.

Honest question here, not meant as rhetoric or as a challenge. Were there any legitimate reasons for removing this? Was it causing undesirable or hamful effects or did someone in UX just feel like changing something?

> Was it causing undesirable or hamful effects or did someone in UX just feel like changing something?

Not knowing the answer myself, I think there's a combination of factors in the removal of features from Bridge. One is attempting to pare it down to try to get a grip on performance issues (really, I'd like it rebuilt from the ground up, not repaired, if that were feasible), and the other is I don't think Adobe has ever understood how Bridge is used or why it's important to those who do use it. They have behaved like all they do is crunch the numbers of how many users there are, without asking why there aren't more when it comes to such a valuable resource.  Or perhaps some thought everyone who wanted file management would choose the easier-to-maintain Lightroom catalog, even with all its limitations, as if no one who uses a DAM (I do, but not willingly LR), would  want a browser-based file manager.

I could be completely wrong, but I think as far as this feature goes, it was one more to maintain that they didn't think would be, or should be, important to us. Perhaps wishful thinking that performance would make it redundant? But every extra feature gets in the way of pinning down problems with the app. So, they toss it. Same as eliminating the Web side of AOM. Maybe later, but for now, keeping it going for fewer users than their number counters would like has it off to one side while they do something else.