Adobe Bridge creating unwanted duplicate files

[Preachor]

Hello Adobe Community!

I am attempting to assist a person who is troubleshooting an issue he is experiencing using Adobe Bridge. I have searched the community posts and did not find a solve for this.

Using CC Adobe Bridge on a iMac connecting to a Windows server via smb:// where the RAW camera files are stored. He selects the folder and the RAW files display in the filmstrip on the bottom of the Bridge window where they are listed smaller number to larger from left to right. He will then select the image from there to Preview it. If it is one he wants to keep, ha makes no changes. If it is one he wants to trash, he marks it with a single star. Then when he has completed the evaluation of the photos in this folder he will select the single star photos so they all show in Preview and trash them from there.

The issue he experiencing is that while he is going through this evaluation process in Bridge, duplicate files will start showing up in the filmstrip. It appears to be completely random as to when this happens and to which RAW file. Sometimes it is not just a duplicate but triplicate files that start showing up. The dupe files are named exactly the same as the original and have the same metadata file info and size.

So when he is going through the files in the filmstrip, if a smaller numbered file name duplicates, it moves all the files in the filmstrip to the right, causing him to lose his place for what file he was working on. So this act, randomly happening to a folder with a few hundred RAW images gets a bit frustrating with all the jumping around.

If we see the dupes, we are able to go to another iMac, use Adobe Bridge to navigate to the same folder location and can see the duplicate files listed there as well. Yet, when we are on this 2nd iMac and navigate to that folder using Finder, the dupes are not seen, yet on the 2nd screen with Bridge open we still can see the dupes.

When going to the folder location using a Windows 10 PC explorer, the dupes are not seen either.

This has happened once before about 3 months ago. We did a uninstall of Adobe Bridge and installed it again, but now it is happening again.

Any assistance or thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Brad

[jbm007]

Brad 

Bridge has long had issues with NAS configurations.

I have for a long time did work with Bridge using a local mounted drive and then copying the files to a online NAS.

I am not sure if it has to do with Bridge caching system, file indexing or memory allocations.

I would definetly not recommend using a online NAS with any version of Bridge.

[Preachor]

Hi jbm007,

Thanks for the response. Is there any recommended product to use as an alternative for this process?

Thanks,

Brad

[jbm007]

I use Directory OPUS Last file manager you will ever use.

https://www.gpsoft.com.au/

[SOFIYA5E95]

Hey did you guys ever end up figuring this out? I'm having THE EXACT same issue right now. Except instead one 1 or 2 copies, it's doing 15 or more!

[jbm007]

MAC OS?

Have you checked the permissions use of the folder?

Could these folders/files have links to icloud? google drive? or some cloud based storage?

[VUS Photography & Art]

Same issue here, it just trippled the number of files and data on our NAS.

We wanted to start Bridge more but I guess it's time to look at Capture One or so as no one from Adobe seems to bother addressing the matter seriously....

[gary_sc]

Hi Elena & Roland,

First off, I do NOT work for Adobe. I am just a guy who does enjoy to help folks in these forums, that's it. Few Adobe folks ever show up here (and I do not know why), but that's the way this is. 

Please do look at Capture 1, On1, and any other application that you think will help you, I do not care. I do not get paid by Adobe if you use Adobe products or any other product. If I thought that blue cheese would be just what you needed, I'd recommend that.

But the thing that brings me to write here at this moment is your statement "no one from Adobe seems to bother addressing the matter seriously...."

That is wrong from so many different angles as to be astonomical. Don't belive me? If you really really want a good reliable NAS-based application for your purposes, get ready to spend many hundreds if not thousands of dollars. 

And Bridge, which was originally designed and has been maintained for single uses on a computer with (perhaps) external hard drives, is free.

[VUS Photography & Art]

Wow, why so defensive...or aggressive? This is an Adobe Forum, so why assume anyone is having a go at you?!

But since you seem to have it all figured out where in the license agreement does it say what you state above:
"And Bridge, which was originally designed and has been maintained for single uses on a computer with (perhaps) external hard drives, is free."

[gary_sc]

Hi Elena & Roland,

Defensive or aggressive? I am sorry that I came off that way. But please, the way you came off was that Adobe doesn't give a "darn" about the fact that you are trying to use software in a way that it was not designed to do, and then you say that they do not take matters seriously. 

Seriously? 

[Preachor]

Elena &Roland,

This is still an ongoing issue and we did not find a solution for this.

Adobe will not support working with files from a server (NAS). They will support if the files are on the Mac (Apple) device. We have also attempted using a USB attached storage and still have the same issue. This is also impractical when several people are accessing many many Terabytes of images, that is why we use the Windows based server.

Even though we see duplicate and triplicate files in the Adobe Bridge filmstrip view, they are not truly created as duplicate, triplicate, etc on the server itself. Once we close the Bridge application, everything is back to normal.

The Windows PC users using the same Bridge application on the same server do not see this issue.

Previously we had 1 person affected, now we have 6 others on iMac's that have the same issue. All Mac's are current OS version and Adobe products are all updated. All users have Illustrator, Photoshop and Lightroom that all perform normally and without any issues with files on the Windows based File server. Only Bridge in using the Filmstrip view to preview and select multiple files to edit is affected.

Permissions on server for file\folders is not an issue and there is no cloud storage or other external sources we are working from. Windows server is physically onsite.

We already pay a lot of money per year for the Creative Cloud suite and are reluctant to pay for another product for a work-around for a product that should work.

Thanks,

Brad

[Michaela O.]

Hi Everyone, 

I am having the exact same issue - I thoguht I was going crazy!

Duplicates, no rhyme or reason. I thought maybe I was hitting a weird keystroke while labeling images too fast and then all of a sudden, I have to scroll though multiples of the same image. This is supposed to quicken the image edit worksflow, not slow it down. 

Soooo is there no answer to this issue?

I am also relectant to pay for Photo Mechanic, when we pay tons for Creative Cloud now. 

Thanks so much!

M.

[jbm007]

As far as anyone here knows the answer is no.

[VUS Photography & Art]

Brad, with Adobe Bridge 2022's new capabilities I hope the above is resolved? We'd love to use the solution and also look at possible Workflow optimization... 

[ankursingh10]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for sharing this issue.
Could you please share the following details about the issue:

• Bridge version
• System configuration
• Is the issue specific to particular files/formats?

Moreover, since the issue seems on a network drive, the network speed can become a bottleneck sometimes causing artifacts to show.

If it is with particular files/folders, please share the sample file/files on which you are observing the issue. at sharewithbr@adobe.com

[Preachor]

I have had no resolution for this issue. Repeated contact with adobe support has not yeilded any answers. I started looking at this now from a different angle and ask if this is possibly Mac/Apple related? This because when we test Bridge on a Windows OS device, it works perfectly... no dupes or trips, etc.

There are .DS_Store hidden files on the images. Is each Mac that touches a file updating information to this and when another Mac reads the file it iterprets all the other .DS_Store entries as multiple versions, therefore displaying multiples of the sasme image?

We attmepted to save some files to a new folder, remove the .DS_Store from all the files. Then we also turned off the Mac ability to create the .DS_Store by running from Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

Unfortunately this did not solve the issue either. Unless I ran the wrong command from Terminal or on the server files I am not sure what else to try.

Bridge does work correctly when working with the files on the local machine or attached external drive. Unfortuantely, when attempting to work with 100+ photos at a time, To download the file, edit and upload back to the shared location is not effective.

Anyone else with ideas for this?

Thanks,

Brad

[gary_sc]

The .DS_Store file has NOTHING to do with this issue and has been around since Mac OS X.1.

From Buildthis.com: "The A .DS_Store, short for Desktop Services Store, is an invisible file on the macOS operating system that gets automatically created anytime you look into a folder with ‘Finder.’ This file will then follow the folder everywhere it goes, including when archived, like in ‘ZIP.’"

Deleting it, or preventing its creation is only going to affect your Mac's performance to some degree.

Adobe is aware of the problem and it will get fixed but the only folks that could give a time on this is Adobe folks and they NEVER share data like that. Ever!

I agree that sooner will be better.

[Lumigraphics]

The problem is that working off a Windows SMB server can be problematic for Mac clients. Update everything (Winsows Server, firmware, network swithces, macOS, etc) for best results but you still may have problems.