In many ways, the Bridge behaves like your operating system’s
desktop-level file manager (called Windows Explorer on the
PC and the Finder on the Mac). For example, if you click a
thumbnail’s filename, the Bridge invites you to enter a new
name. Choose File→New Folder to create a new folder. Press
the Delete key to toss a selected image in the trash. Through
it all, the Bridge magically tracks your changes, never once
asking you to save your work.
This may lead you to believe that every change you make is
permanent and will be recognized not only by Adobe appli-
cations but also by the operating system and other programs.
But some actions are recorded in ways that only Adobe’s pro-
grams can recognize, and sometimes even they ignore them.
For the record, here are some permanent changes you can
make in the Bridge that all applications will recognize:
- Renaming or deleting a file
- Creating or renaming a folder
- Dragging a file from one folder to another
Other changes are permanent, but they are written in such
a way that only Photoshop and other applications that sup-
port Adobe’s XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) protocol
recognize. If an application does not recognize a particular
XMP tag, the change is ignored. Such changes include:
- Rotating an image
- Assigning a rating or label
- Custom Camera Raw settings
The final variety of changes are temporary. The Bridge saves
these to proprietary files called caches:
- The sort order of files in a folder
- Any and all image stacks
- Stunning high-quality thumbnails
Although permanent and XMP changes are 100 percent safe,
sort order and thumbnails are maintained only if you move
and rename files and folders inside the Bridge. This is because
the Bridge tracks temporary changes based on the path, or
specific location, of a file. If that path changes even slightly
without the Bridge knowing about it—say, if you rename files
or move them from the desktop—the program loses track of
the files and the information is lost.
It might seem a tad fastidious to worry about such quick
and invisible changes. It takes only a moment for the Bridge
to draw a single thumbnail. But transfer a folder containing
hundreds or even thousands of images to a DVD or external
hard drive and those moments can add up to a massive delay.
What’s a savvy user to do? Tell the Bridge to stop hoarding
centralized cache files deep in the system level of your com-
puter and instead save them in the same folder as the images
themselves. This way, the cache files stay with their images
no matter what you name a folder or where you move it:- Choose Edit→Preferences (Adobe Bridge CS5→Preferences
on the Mac) or press Ctrl+K (�-K). - Click the word Cache on the left side of the dialog box
and select the Automatically Export Caches to Folders
When Possible option (circled below). Then click OK.
From now on, the Bridge will add invisible cache files to every
folder that you view in the program.
The Bridge and Its Slippery Cache
If you used a previous version of the Bridge, I recommend that
you search your computer’s main hard drive for a folder called
Bridge CS3 or CS4 (as appropriate) residing in an Adobe folder.
Inside that, you should find a subfolder called Cache. Check its
size. In the case of my MacBook Pro—a notebook with limited
hard drive space—this folder weighed in at 4GB. If you’re no
longer using Bridge CS3 or CS4, you’re no longer using that
folder. Throw it away and regain a lot of space.The Bridge and Its Slippery Cache 13