Bridge CS4 - low on memory error

Finnan:
In my case Bridge was unable to write in cache folder due to permission limitation (the user, under which credentials the Bridge was running, had only read permission to that folder). As the result, Bridge was unable to save images on the disk, so it keeps them all in memory

Does this refer to Bridge Preferences, Edit, Preferences, Cache menu "Automatically Export Cache to folders when possible" ?

I've just recently upgraded to CS4 and never had low memory errors, with 4GB of RAM.

I have plenty of free space (600GB out of 1TB) on my RAID drive and full access to that space so in my case this is probably not the reason. However I tried to limit the thumbs generator to "prefer embedded" instead of "always high quality" - which was default with my installation. Not testing it exhaustively but so far so good - at least memory allocation does not go beyond 500MB.

That brings up a good point on the cache. If you have the cache on a disk partition with XX amount of space make sure you have significant free space. Some suggest you fill a disk to no more than 75% of capacity. If you are doing large batch processing you will need to make sure you have plenty of free space to accommodate the operations.

If you have the cache on the entire disk make sure you defrag frequently as it can really mess it up quickly with frequent write and erase operations. A fragmented disk will slow down all operations.

The problem has been solved.

In my case Bridge was unable to write in cache folder due to permission limitation (the user, under which credentials the Bridge was running, had only read permission to that folder). As the result, Bridge was unable to save images on the disk, so it keeps them all in memory - that's why it consumed so much memory. Also that problem had many bad consequences.

I grant full access permission for user, so Bridge and other applications can write to the cache folder. Everything works fine.

P.S. Bridge CS4 is extremely MUCH BETTER in handling RAWs comparing to slowly Lightroom 2.x! I'm so happy))

I have the same problem - XP pro SP3, Bridge CS4, 3GB of memory. Processing of 77 RAWs ("build cache" command) result in "low in memory warning". No ideas =(

Thanks Curt for suggestion - PC here is Core2Duo 3,2GB with 4 GB RAM - I would say plenty of processing power. However Pentax camera RAWs are more then 20MB uncompressed each. Multiplied by 50 it really is 1GB+. But batch process should IMO open the file/allocate the memory/adjust the file/and save the file - then release the memory. Bridge CS4 is just eating more and more memory (though slowly) with no option to purge it after the process is over. This does not hurt until the error "low memory" occurs - especially when there is still plenty of memory available. BTW 50 Raws is not that much - typical batch to process may be several hundreds.

Not a computer geek, but batch processing 50 RAW images would be 500 megs to 1+ gigs of data to handle in short period of time. Could be the computer is just not up to it, especially if you have other programs running in the background.

Look at average size of files and see it the total is reasonable for your processor/system.

Thanks for suggestion - I actually have set the cache to 10 Gigs, so the problem is somewhere else. What is quite strange that BR CS4 is increasing its memory allocation until... Never goes down, only up.

I don't have CS4, but you might want to check the cache in Camera RAW preferences. Default in CS3 was one gig and you might need 5-10 gig for smoother operation.

Sorry for my English - perhaps I will describe it clearly.
Some extra info - Processor Core2 Duo, Graphic c NVidia 8600GT, no program running in the background - so at least 2 GB is available. Saving 100 files from RAW to JPG - everything is OK (however RAM allocation for Bridge is huge - over 1 GB, but still plenty free). Consequent reviewing of created files works - but 100% file sizes are unavailable I've got the warning "Bridge is running low on memory - restart is recommended". Some commands do not work - e.g. RAW files are no more editable in ACR. Neglecting the need to restart the Bridge finally leads to Bridge crash and complete disappearing from the memory. This is probably all I can tell at this moment.
Anybody else with similar problem - or is this just mine PC?

thanks

Vlad