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P: Video Cache is out of control

Forum|Forum|10 years ago
October 19, 2015
148 replies
3139 views

I recently upgraded to Lightroom 6.2.1 So far there has been a lot of fuss over the import dialog... ok, well sure, it has a few issues, but they can be either worked around or just revert back to 6.1.1

I would like to report and ACTUAL bug in 6.2.1

My D drive recently ran out of space... I tried deleting some stuff I didn't need, but still it kept running out of space... So I finally ran windirstat and had a look at it.. Nearly HALF of my drive was FULL of D:/temp/Adobe Local/Lightroom/caches/video/media Cache Files. Now here's the kicker... NONE of these video files are even on the hard drive that has my catalog on it. My lightroom database is on drive L:\ all my lightroom photos and very few lightroom videos are all on L:\ I have a few scans on drive K:\ that I import to lightroom... but these videos are ALL on Drives E:\ and F:\

here's another thing.. I knew Adobe wasted space caching videos, and I do have a GOPRO and I record a little video,.. .VERY LITTLE, maybe 1 video a year... so I don't really want ANY of the video cached.. I will wait for it to load... SO a long time ago, I set my video cache in Preferences>File Handling to the minimum of 1GB (It's was always a BUG to not allow 0GB) I don't want to cache any videos!!!!!!!!!! but here it is.. NEW BUG It's STILL SET TO 1GB!!!!!!!!!!! How is it gobbling up almost 1TB of space when I have it set to 1GB??????????????? So.... here's another problem... I have Cache files that are 4GB for a movie that only takes up 2GB on my hard drive.. what's up with THAT??????????????? I randomly checked a few, and the worst one was a 5GB cache file for a movie that only takes up 750MB on my hard drive... two things, first of all... you NEVER EVER EVER need to cache an entire movie... caching more than 1 minute of a video is useless... if you're going to watch the video in lightroom, it can just play the video on the hard drive fast enough that it doesn't need further caching.. second... DON'T CACHE THE VIDEO AT ALL!!!! just capture the thumbnail of it so you don't have a blank square on the catalog and call it a day... if someone wants to play the video, it will load and play plenty fast enough, Lightroom Can't work with video files, only play them, so WHY BOTHER TO CACHE THE WHOLE THING?? come on Adobe, some COMMON SENSE please!!!!

so now ANOTHER BUG, it's already set to limit video cache to 1GB, so I figure, the new import thing must have built this RIDICULOUS Cache, so I will just Purge it, that will bring it down to 1GB right??/ WRONG!!! It pops up a message saying "Video cache is being purged, this message will be dismissed when the purge is finished... I wait 5 Seconds, and the message disappears, I have NO hard drive activity, and well... I STILL have 1GB of Video Cache files!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, maybe it didn't take.. let me set it to 2GB, then purge.. NOPE! let me set it back to 1GB then purge, NOPE..

ok, so I suspect how to fix it will be, (I Hope) click import, and select the movies folder and then select Ignore source... by the way, how do I add my E:\scans folder as a legitimate source.. I just removed a source, how do I add a nice shortcut button for a new one? ok, now that source is removed, I hope it won't scan it again... now that it will HOPEFULLY not scan that hard drive again, I'll manually delete the offending Video cache.. ok manual delete complete, Ahh my drive can breathe again.. Lets open light room and see what happens.... ok.. open.. lets open the Import dialog because eventually I'll need to import something... oh-o..... What's this??? Scanning Common Locations... OH-NO!!!!!!!!!! first of all E:\Moves and F:\TV are NOT COMMON LOCATIONS FOR PHOTOS Second, I REMOVED THOSE LOCATIONS.. It has a valid location listed, WHY IS IS LOOKING FOR SOMEWHERE ELSE????? Yes it's now scanning VIDEOS and the only reason for it to be taking so long is it went back to my E and F drive... lets look at the cache folder... oh yes, MediaCache already has 3,876 files in it.... not looking very good. Why is it caching files that are not even imported into lightroom??? and why is the cache for each file taking up more space than the entire video??? If you want to make a video cache.. just cache the THUMBNAIL ONLY!!!!! we don't need or want anything else cached.. a thumbnail is all we need cached for our few relevant videos so we don't have a black square in our catalog.

Crap, I'm going to be FORCED to revert to 6.1.1 even though I had every intention of working around the other 6.2.1 issues. TEST TEST TEST Test your software!!! the monkeys you have testing it are not doing a good enough job! send it to me, I'll test it for you, It needs to be tested on a real computer, one that is used for other things.. that way you would KNOW it's finding stupid things like CD cover art and every movie and tv show on my hard drive. I seem to find glaringly obvious issues within one day of using the product. I've been developing software for the last 28 years, I know how it should be done, and how things should be tested, and this is NOT being done AT ALL. Your programmers are sub-standard and are missing the mark, and your non-existent SQA department is NOT testing even the simplest of functions.

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jamesr33423836Author

Participating Frequently

Dynamic Link Server is not even working correctly, when it runs out of control like this, it's not just ignoring limits, it's doing it WRONG.. the files it's generating are HUGE even larger than the original videos.. how is a file that is larger and will need to take longer to load in any way a cache of the original file?

The problem is, sometimes Dynamic Link Server DOES work correctly, which leads me to believe the problem is something like this:

If Dynamic Link Server is executed with all the correct parameters and variables. then it will work correctly.. but something in the import module is launching it with some incorrect parameter causing it to do what it is doing.... there is some parameter or variable un-initialized or un-defined, or defined incorrectly and THAT is causing the problem.

Go to the import module and analyze how Dynamic Link Server is being called when you select a source drive something in that procedure is launching it differently than when it is run correctly.
**EDIT Correction.. Go to import module and find where Dynamic Link Server is being launched and REMOVE IT. it does not need to cache anything that has not been imported yet, and that's been part of the problem all along. These files are just on a drive I was looking at, Caching is being attempted prematurely. Import first, then worry about caching things***

Yes this is a huge Dynamic Link Server bug because it should NEVER do what it is doing under ANY condition, and if it is launched with a missing or bad parameter or variable, it should spit out an error instead of going out of control, and it should have it's own checks to make it's doing something reasonable...

but my point here is that there is also something wrong with the way it is being launched that is different than other times when the video cache is built correctly.. with very small files representing actual videos in lightroom. That error in the way it is launched is within lightroom and still exists and WILL still exist even after Dynamic Link Server is fixed

I hope the root of this problem will be solved soon.

S

simonsaith

Adobe Employee

In Lr 6.5, it is doing periodic cleaning up when needed. To fix the root cause, it will need a new version of the Dynamic Link Server that enforce its own limit across all its clients. Lr 6.5 does not have that. It is scheduled for a future update.

T

TomFidd

Known Participant

Thanks for conducting a detailed test.

T

TomFidd

Known Participant

I think 6.4 already implemented a cleanup at startup. So it sounds like there has been no further improvement.

Presumably the dynamiclinkmediaserver just runs amok whenever it gets launched, so it continues to fill the cache even after LR closes.

Ugh. This is still a pain in the rear. I find I have to cycle LR daily (or more) to keep it from blowing up my ssd.

Victoria Bampton LR Queen

Community Expert

Thanks for the update. I'll leave the bug open!

Victoria - The Lightroom Queen

jamesr33423836Author

Participating Frequently

After playing with this new version a while, it's quite apparent that Adobe has been able to implement a system to delete these useless video cache when you open lightroom 6.5 and this is a good thing.. many users will suddenly have hundreds of GB suddenly free on their C: drives after they open lightroom 6.5 as these useless files are mostly removed, however after testing this over and over, I have found that it does not remove ALL the files, it always leaves between 1 and 4 files, but at least it's not thousands of files.

There is STILL no option to disable the video cache.. why not let me set it to zero? and in fact until this is completely resolved, why not make zero video cache the default?

While cleaning up things is helpful, nothing has been done about the actual problem which starts filling up your hard drive very very fast and for no reason. The root bug has not been addressed at all and is still a very big problem. Do I need to make a video to demonstrate this bug? It is very easy to replicate and I have done so on more than one computer.

jamesr33423836Author

Participating Frequently

up to 34.6GB and I have to terminate Adobe Dynamic Link Manager. I opened lightroom again and did not do an import and again it did reduce the files in the video cache, this time down to 2.4GB

I tried a 3rd test, I opened the import dialog, switched to drive E: closed the import, as expected my cache began to grow out of control.. I closed lightroom, waited for it to get to 7GB, then did NOT terminate Adobe Dynamic Link Manager, but I just re-opened lightroom instead.. lightroom did knock back the cache to 1.5GB but it immediately continued to grow.. because Adobe Dynamic Link Manager was still running.. even after closing Lightroom again.. it was still running and still filling up my drive. If I do not terminate Adobe Dynamic Link Manager, my C drive will become completely FULL and my computer will no longer function correctly.

Non-tehcnical lightroom users will not know how to terminate Adobe Dynamic Link Manager and this presents a very big problem for them.

jamesr33423836Author

Participating Frequently

I just repeated my test above.. and this time it did NOT clean up after I closed lightroom and in fact with lightroom closed it is STILL filling up my hard drive with videos from my E: drive. It's up to 19GB and growing rapidly...

it does not always terminate the process

jamesr33423836Author

Participating Frequently

Unfortunately this bug still exists in version 6.5, however they have made an improvement. The cache STILL gets completely out of control, but when you exit lightroom, it deletes a lot, but not all of the erroneous files.

It's very easy to test and the problem shows up immediately.

Here are the precise steps I took to test it:
1. Upgrade to lightroom 6.5
2. Open Lightroom 6.5
3. Edit > Preferences Verify Video Cache size... Verified 1.0GB
4. Purge Video Cache
5. Verify Purge... Verified Video cache located at C:\Users\James\AppData\Local\Adobe\Lightroom\Caches is now 3Kb
6. click Import
7. select Drive E: (a drive which happens to have existing video on it
8. DO NOT SELECT ANYTHING FOR IMPORT
9. DO NOT CLICK THE IMPORT BUTTON.. just looking at the import screen here....
10.Check video cache... in the amount of time it took to switch to the folder, it is now 850+GB
11. CANCEL import dialog...
12. continue to monitor Video cache.... keeps growing..
13. in the time it took me to type this, it has grown to 8GB
14. check contents of C:\Users\James\AppData\Local\Adobe\Lightroom\Caches\Video\Media Cache Files
15. it's filling up with HUGE copies of the videos that are on my E Drive, not just the folder I was looking at... but EVERY folder on the entire drive.. these files are HUGE even larger than the original video files.
16. in the time it took for me to type #14 and # 15 it has increased to 8.5GB
17. Close lightroom
18. Surprisingly.. this is NEW for 6.5... moments after closing lightroom 6.5, my video cache has suddenly reduced to 1.85GB. The contents are still incorrect huge duplicates from videos on my E Drive, but there are now only 8 files.
19. Re-open lightroom
20 re-check video cache size.. still verified at 1.0GB
21 Purge Cache again
22 do not import
23 everything seems fine

jamesr33423836Author

Participating Frequently

I will download it right now and try it!

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