Bridge CC 2017/2018 - copying cache to multiple computers

[leej55723941]

Hi there,

There has been a few discussions on this but still not sure if it is possible to copy the Bridge cache from one computer to another and have it work automatically on that second computer?

Some background on the problem:

We have a central image library on our file server on a network. We have several users that access this image library using Adobe Bridge from their local machines (Server is Windows, local computers are MacOS 10.12).

Each user has a local Bridge Cache on their computer which is updated as they visit folders in the central Image Library. Searching and filtering the Image Library is very important so its critical that each users cache is up-to-date (new images are constantly being added) but this is where we hit a problem.

When the user visits the top level 'Image Library' folder the cache gets updated with new items in that top level folder - this is good as this is our main collection. However the cache only gets updated with the items in this top level folder not items in subfolders. Users can visit individual sub folders to get them cached or we can get users to go to View > Show Items from Subfolders, and then items in sub folders are indexed/cached as well. However, the main problem with this is we have lots of sub folders and images - there is over 31000 items in total (the sub folders are required to manage originals, masters, renditions and other unsorted collections). This means that its a big load on each computer and the network to be constantly working thru indexing the full Image Library and all the sub folders.

Proposed solution:

(1) The main images that need to be searched/filtered are at the top level 'Image Library' folder so as soon as the user visits this folder their cache is updated for that folder - so that is covered.

(2) To update the cache for sub folders I'd like to setup a dedicated computer that runs a full Bridge reindex of the whole Image Library once a week (ie. creates a new cache). This new cache is then automatically copied to each users cache (overwriting the Bridge cache on their local computers). This way the cache on each users computer is fully updated once a week. Obviously the key to this working is whether it is possible to copy the cache from one computer to another and have it still work? Or are there settings in the cache file that are specific to an individual computer and so cause the cache files not to work correctly on another computer??

Any help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks.

[Abhishek.Seth]

Dear Users,

Please share all feature requests and bugs with Bridge on Adobe Bridge Feedback

Regards,

Abhishek Seth

[HFL-JerRob]

Hi, newbie here. We're just trying to setup a workflow to share and tag assets (mainly photos and video footage) among our small in-office team. I see Bridge just received an update last month to share and centrally manage the cache. I've read the support article, but I'm still a little confused as to how to set it up properly or exactly what features this update offers. I'll be storing the footage on a NAS, with multiple users accessing it and pulling the footage off to their local machines. Each user has Bridge installed, and ideally, we'd each be able to tag/keyword the assets so we can sort through them easily. With this new update, I'm able to add keywords and have a colleague see them, but it's not working for him to add keywords back and for me to see them. Can anyone walk me through the proper setup process for sharing the cache? Also, should the cache in my preferences be set to my local machine or our NAS or ??

TIA

[Lumigraphics]

This may not work as there is no version control and no multiuser features. You would need to copy the files back to the server after each change and replace what is there.

If you are going to make changes, make them on the server BEFORE anyone takes any files off it.

As for the shared cache, in my testing it doesn't help much. But you just export cache and anyone else who opens that folder will see it be imported. However, cache will be outdated everytime you make changes, add files, etc.

[leej55723941]

Hi there,

I have not had a chance to test out the new cache management features yet but as Lumigraphics said it seems the problem you are having might be due to the files being copied off the server, having tagging them with keywords, then copying them back to the server. Perhaps check the following:

* Is your colleague copying the footage/file back to the server after he adds the keywords? If not, then you will obviously be seeing a copy of the footage without the keyword added.

* If your colleague has copied the footage back to the server after he added the keywords and you still can't see the keywords applied to it then try this: select the footage/file in Bridge and right click on it > Purge Cache for Selection. Can you now see the keywords on the image? This process updates your cache for the selected file

As for your wider question about how to setup your system to centrally manage the cache etc. he's a couple o things to be aware of:

(1) Each time you visit/revisit a folder on your NAS from within Bridge, then Bridge should automatically recheck the content of that folder (but not sub folders) and update the cache if anything has changed in that folder, including if keywords or other metadata has been added to file/footage. So your computer/Bridge should show you any updates.

(2) If someone makes a change to footage in a sub folder or another folder and you don't visit that folder then your cache will not get updated with that change. This means if you search for that change it won't come up in your search results.

(3) To overcome the above limitation we fully update the cache on 1 computer once a week and then push this updated cache file out to all users once a week. So worse case your searching might be a week out of date for less important sub folders. However we also make sure that everyone visits our main image folder once a day so that their Bridge cache stays completely up-to-date for our main image set.

(4) Adobe have added a new feature in latest version of Bridge to make it easier to export the cache from one computer out to other computers, but I'm hoping they will add the ability to automate this export/import process so we can:

4.1. Configure 1 computer to automatically fully update its cache each night

4.2. Once above process complete that computer should export its cache to a central location

4.3. Set all other users/computers to automatically import cache from central location each morning when they start Bridge

So that would mean cache is never more than a day old (rather than a week). The reality is Bridge does not have a central database and so is not a proper multi user digital asset management system but there are so many other positives about it - so if you can workaround the caching issue you can take it a long way.

Hope that is of some help.

Lee