Index files in Adobe Bridge

[MissLiz]

Hi,
I'm finding that a keyword search in Bridge is not finding all my images.

I think this is because many of the files are not indexed (I have a lot of files, accumulated over the last 20 years or so)

Is there any way to force indexing of all images inside a folder (and subfolders) ?

I'm currently doing a keyword search of the root folder with the option "Include Non-Indexed Files" enabled which is taking a while,  but it appears to be finding everything eventually. I'm hoping that when this is finished all the files will be indexed correctly and future searches will be fast, irrespective of keyword.

But is there a better way to do this?

Thanks for any help

Liz

[LAMY2017]

Liz, before the advent of Lightroom, I used Bridge as my front end for importing and editing my photos but I never bothered using keywords. Lightroom, Photo Mechanic are probably better choices than Bridge imo.

 As far as your request, I searched adobe.com for "Bridge is not finding all my images" and found a helpful webpage created by AI. The search ended up here.

And in case we need Adobe's take on Bridge keywording, check out the article, Use keywords in Adobe Bridge.

[Stephen Marsh]

This is the Photoshop forum, not Bridge, however, there is a checkbox to search non-indexed files: 

[LAMY2017]

My bad, Liz and Stephen. My narrow vision focuses on Ps and LrC, my main tools.

[Stephen Marsh]

@LAMY2017 – all good, @MissLiz is already using this feature and might also wish to look into the Mac Finder search feature (Cmd + F) to see if this is any faster as it should already be indexed:

[MissLiz]

Thanks for your replies everyone.

My mistake for posting in the wrong forum, didn't realise that there was a specific Bridge forum. In my defence, this forum is called "Photoshop ecosystem"  (ecosystem = system of interconnected elements). I would say that would include Bridge 😀

@LAMY2017 – all good, @MissLiz is already using this feature and might also wish to look into the Mac Finder search feature (Cmd + F) to see if this is any faster as it should already be indexed:

By @Stephen Marsh

[JR Boulay]

[MOVED TO THE BRIDGE DISCUSSIONS]

[MissLiz · Accepted solution]

Once the search had completed with "include non-indexed files" enabled, subsequent searches with different keywords are now all working fine, finding everything, and super-fast. So all is now good.

I'm surprised there's no simple option "index all files" somewhere in the UI that does this, however.

Thanks

Liz

[Stephen Marsh]

I'm surprised there's no simple option "index all files" somewhere in the UI that does this, however.

Thanks

Liz

By @MissLiz

Bridge is a Browser, not a Catalogue/Database, so it only indexes/caches browsed folders/directories and possibly content from child-folders of the parent-folder if "show items from subfolders" is selected in the view menu.

[MissLiz]

I would say that Bridge is more than just a browser because:

• It stores thumbnails, previews, and metadata for faster access during subsequent use.
• It has features like keyword tagging, searching, and filtering that rely on this cached information.

It may not offer all the features of other cataloguing apps, but it still does enough.

But in any case, it doesn't matter now.... I've fixed my issue. Bridge does everything I need it to.

Thanks

Liz

Thanks

Liz

[Stephen Marsh]

@MissLiz 

I have marked your earlier reply as a correct answer.

It's still a file browser, which provides caching and many other features, as opposed to being a database/catalogue system.  :]

[marry_5326]

Hi,
I completely understand what you’re experiencing — I’ve faced similar issues with large folders of images.
One thing that helped me was using a Google Stacking method to get content indexed faster. While it doesn’t directly change Adobe Bridge indexing, it helped some files appear more quickly in searches related to keywords I was tracking online.
Here’s the method I used, in case it helps https://sites.google.com/view/letter-boxed-answers/home