Photoshop CS File Browser Cache

[BoySpot]

I have a single primary folder in which I keep all of my images. At the moment, this is about 3,000 RAW files. Every once in a while, CS loses the cache of the File Browser and starts to build it again from scratch. This is a really time consuming process and slows the machine down dramatically. I have exported the cache in order to have it available to recover. However, I am not clear how to get CS to re-use the exported cache. Also, I would like to find a way to stop it going through this process in the first place.

I am running CS on Windows XP SP2. There is an 80Gb primary drive and a 200Gb secondary drive, an Athlon 2600+ and 1Gb of RAM if any of that is relevant to this problem.

Thanks

[Jesper]

Why do you keep all your RAW files in a single folder? As you have noticed, Photoshop can't deal with this very well, and also Windows itself gets slow if you have thousands of files in one folder. So I suggest you think of a way to organize your RAW files differently.

I have my RAW files sorted by date. I make a directory for every month, and in each of those directories I have subdirectories for the days. For example:

C:\Photos\200411 - directory for photos of November 2004
C:\Photos\200412 - directory for photos of December 2004
C:\Photos\200501 - directory for photos of January 2005

Inside of these (for example):
C:\Photos\200412\23 - photos of December 23, 2004
C:\Photos\200412\24 - photos of December 24, 2004
C:\Photos\200412\25 - photos of December 25, 2004
...etc.

This makes browsing the photos much faster.

[BoySpot]

Does it matter why? What I am trying to find out is whether there is a fundemental reason why this happens periodically. If Photoshop cannot handle this, I will change my structure but I like it that way for a reason. It will normally work fine - it adds the information for each new shoot to the already saved cache. Problem is, every once in a while, it appears to reset the cache, even though there are large cache files in Application Data/Adobe/Photshop CS. If I can just reimport rather than wait for it to go through the whole thing, I would like to do so.

If the way Photoshop works makes this an inevitable recurring problem, I will use multiple folders. This will make the browser a little less useful for me though. Just my personal quirks, I'm afraid.

[Steven M. Anthony]

Does it matter why? What I am trying to find out is whether there is a fundemental reason why this happens periodically. If Photoshop cannot handle this, I will change my structure but I like it that way for a reason. It will normally work fine - it adds the information for each new shoot to the already saved cache. Problem is, every once in a while, it appears to reset the cache, even though there are large cache files in Application Data/Adobe/Photshop CS. If I can just reimport rather than wait for it to go through the whole thing, I would like to do so.

If the way Photoshop works makes this an inevitable recurring problem, I will use multiple folders. This will make the browser a little less useful for me though. Just my personal quirks, I'm afraid.

I've noticed PS CS retrieving cache info from time to time as well--but it does NOT need to rebuild preview images which really sucks up resources! For me, I access the same external HD with two different computers off of a home network. I've always assumed that PS CS on Computer A is updating what I did with the images via PS CS on Computer B, and vice versa. Do you have a similar setup or are you just using 1 computer?

[toddb]

Once I'm done with the folder and ready for archive, I'll "export the cache" which will write three files containing all the preview, ranking, flagging, and other info the cache has. So when you burn your file on say a DVD, you won't have to wait for the cache to rebuild (great for view on another PS system as well). Also, it's a good idea to set the raw setting NOT in the database but in the "side car" files so that each image that you modify will generate a seperate file explaining the changes you made (for the same reasons as exporting the cache).

[BoySpot]

It's just a single computer set up that I have. It seems keeping it simple is not always going to avoid a problem.

As for exporting the data, I actually did that. The three files are sitting in the directory without any problem. Unfortunately, CS isn't seeing them or I don't understand how to get it to look. Any suggestions as to how I can make it look at these files?

Thanks for all of the thoughts so far.

[toddb]

You might want to post this to the adobe forum who might have a better idea what's going on here. http://www.adobe.com/support/forums/main.html

I seperating photos on a per month bases and they go above 1000 photos with no problems so far. Could it be a lack of memory or some other restriction due to hardware I don't know. I bet you'd get a better anser on the adobe forum though.

[BoySpot]

Good idea. I tried to register on there the other day. Awaiting my activation email from them. Then we shall see if anyone comes up with anything.

Thanks again to anyone who suggested things.