Bridge for macOS stops search/indexing on a certain folder

[SCosburn]

Hi all

I've just downloaded Bridge on my home computer as we use it to search at work, which is better than spotlight.

It obvioulsy needs to index on the first run search and I've whacked the cache size up nice and high for quicker future searches.

My problem is that it will search/index up to a certain point and just stop/hang on a single hidden folder ~/usr/sbin/authserver

I've searched for this folder by showing hidden files. I found it, it's empty with zero bytes and has the red locked icon on the folder icon. I can do nothing with it at all. Can't change permissions, move it, delete it, unlock it or anything.

Anyone any ideas on how to unlock it or to stop Bridge from getting to that folder and pausing/stopping its search???

Thanks in advance.

Symeon

{Thread renamed by moderator}

[Sahil.Chawla]

Hi Symeon,

That shouldn't be happening, could you please check this conversation thread and let us know if it helps? https://community.adobe.com/t5/bridge/bridge-search-broken/td-p/9979739

You may also try resetting hte preferences of Bridge and let us know if it helps: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/bridge/kb/troubleshoot-errors-freezes-bridge.html

Regards,
Sahil

[Lumigraphics]

Why are you indexing hidden UNIX folders? There is almost no possiblity you'll have anything there that you need to find.

[SCosburn]

Hi - thanks for your reply.

I'm not trying to index hidden files. Adobe Bridge is doing that all by itself! All I'm trying to do is locate an old peice of work that I can't find and Bridge on it's first run after downloading, seems to be indexing absolutely everything including hidden files and stopping on this one folder - giving me no results.

[SCosburn]

Hi - no none of these help as they are not related to my issue.

It seems that Bridge is indexing hidden files/folders - and obviously some of those folders are locked for system access only, so the search stops/hangs.

Should Bridge be indexing hidden files at all? And if not, why would it be indexing mine?

Thanks.

[Lumigraphics]

If you try to search your entire drive, then yes. Only search and index userland space.

[gary_sc · Accepted solution]

Hi SCosburn,

Let me start by saying that I do not know what or why you are getting the search results you are getting. And I admit that that is very weird.

But I must point out a few other things though: The search capabilities that Bridge has is based on Spotlight. So the problem may not be with Bridge but rather there is something "off" with your copy of Spotlight.

Spotlight is a feature within the Mac OS that does searching and Apple provides the APIs so that 3rd parties can access the results to fine-tune those results for individual apps as Bridge has done. 

FWIW, if searching is critical to you, I'd go one step further and check out Houdahspot. (https://www.houdah.com/houdahSpot/). It is by far the best searching tool I've seen for the Mac and provides not only boolian searches but also targeted searches to specific folders and/or hard drives. (Thus, there's no need to search an entire hard drive(s) if you know the item(s) you are looking for are in one folder.) There is a free download for trial and worth checking out. 

Meanwhile, see if you can find out why Spotlight is searching hidden UNIX items and Lumigraphics pointed out. 

[SCosburn]

Hi Gary_sc - thanks for your kind advice.

This does make much more sense being linked to Spotlight as in actual fact, to prevent spotlight indexing my drive (because I don't use it), I placed the drive into the 'privacy section' of the Spotlight prefs so that it didn't search it and slow my machine speeds down.

Now you tell me Bridge is linked to Spotlight and am kinda back to square one, as I don't think spotlight is thorough enough - and therefore neither will Bridge be. But thanks for the alternative app.

On a side note, what the other person says about only searching the user folders instead of the whole HD, as I then searched my user folder and went far furter, however, it still similaraly got stuck on ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync for some reason.

I removed the HD out from the spotlight 'Privacy Section' and reserted the machine, just in case this had a bearing. Performed the search again, and it still happened.

Now MobileSync isn't a locked system folder and it's 9Gb on my machine and I can open and see what's in it. I've opened up all folders and there are absolutely no locked files or folders in this. So this is perplexing.

The only thing that might have had an effect is if Spotlight hadn't finished indexing my mac, but it has as there is no flashing spot within the spyglass icon.

So I am at a loss as to why it hangs both on searching the main HD and and individual iser folder. grrrr

Any further thought?

Thanks in advance.

[Lumigraphics]

You do use Spotlight, trying to do an end run around how the system works isn't going to get you far. Let it do its job as designed.

[SCosburn]

Thanks - but read up. I don't use spotlight because I think it's worthless and does not reveal things I am looking for when I know they are there. It has fully indexed and done it's job within the boundaries that Apple has set it, but I am wanting to look further into my HD like system preference files etc, rather than just looking for photos and emails that the average person would want to find. It's my HD, I should have the right to view its entire contents, not what Apple tell me I can see.

I thought Bridge delved deeper - or it did in the past, but if it uses Spotlight only, then from a searching perspective, it's also worthless.

I downloaded the app that Gary_sc recommeended and it is perfect - just what I'm looking for - Thanks Gary_sc.

This thread can now be closed as Bridge clearly still has bugs that have not been fixed.

Thanks all for your input.

[Lumigraphics]

It doesn't matter if you use Spotlight, the system uses it internally. You are trying to outsmart the developers at Apple and its going to lead to problems.

[SCosburn]

Not trying to outsmart anyone - they are far smarter than me when it comes to software development, but that's not what I'm trying to do either.

Let's not make this thread accusational like so much online aggression and rudeness that goes on. You can have the last word if you want, but I won't be replying to this thread anymore.

Thanks again for your replies friend.