Bridge not working

[AAB2226]

Good morning,

I'm texting once again because Bridge still keeps giving me problems: apart from not being able to batch rename (it crashes), it now won't save my changes when editing with masks. 

I haven't been able to work in months: I've tried disinstalling and reinstalling more than once, I've tried using older versions, but it won't change a thing.

What should I do?

Thanks in advance

[gary_sc]

I will pass commenting on Bridge crashing, there's not enough information (what your OS is, where the files are located, to name a few potential issues), but I will take a crack on the your mask issues.

First off, the masks are part of Adobe Camera Raw and are only associated with Bridge because Bridge (and Photoshop) have ACR plugins for them to access ACR. Nonetheless, I'll see if I can help you with your disappearing masks.

If you are working on raw images, no one can change a raw image with any adjustments. Rather, all adjustments are placed in what is called a sidecar file: a separate file that sits in the same folder as the original camera file. Regular ACR adjustments are held in a file with an ".xmp" suffix, while any of the mask adjustments are held in a different sidecar file with the suffix ".acr." 

The trick with sidecar files is that you MUST keep them together. If you move a raw image out of a folder without bringing the sidecar file(s) with that image, when you open that image up again, any changes will not appear. If you move that file back to where the sidecar file(s) are (or them to the files current folder), the changes will appear. 

Now, let's say your working with DNG or TIF files: in this case, ALL sidecar files (both xmp and acr) are contained in the file as if the file were a folder. So you never see them, but they are there.

Lastly: JPG files: JPG files are also containers but not as robust as DNG or TIF files. They contain the xmp files but not the acr files. So, back to keeping tabs on where the sidecar file is from the image file. You need to keep these together.

BTW, one other issue with either TIF or JPG files: let's say you did a great job of enhacing a file and want to share it with anyone. So, you thake that JPG file and email it to a friend. If that friend does not have ACR, all they will see is the file BEFORE you made any changes. This is one of the "gotchas" with ACR. If you want your friend to see the final file, you need to do a Save as… for that file and send them the newly saved version of that file.

I hope this helps!

[AAB2226]

Thank you so much for taking your time to reply.

I'll try to answer briefly: I'm a photographer, so I'm quite used to working with Bridge and Camera Raw. Everything has always worked well until a few months ago. I'm now working with some RAW photos: I edited them in the "general panel" a few days ago and today I just wanted to do some adjustments using masks. I, of course, made adjustments after placing the mask, but it won't save it. It only works with general adjustments. I have both the latest versions of Bridge/Camera Raw and OS (Sonoma 14.5). Those files have never been moved (they're now stored on my NAS drive and I've never had problems with that).

Thank you so much once again

[gary_sc]

Hi, @AAB2226, hmm, you may not like this, but it may be your NAS drive. Bridge has never worked reliably with them. While they may have worked for you in the past, the important word again, is reliably.

Do you have a regular hard drive you use as a test. Move some of the problem images over to that drive and try that?

Let's try that first because it's an easy test. Then we can proceeed from there.

[AAB2226]

I tried, but it won't work anyways...

[Erik Bloodaxe]

When say, "...editing with masks" you are referring to Camera Raw I assume. This issue has been discussed in the Camera Raw Forum and has been acknowledged.

See here.