Speed up your indexing in Bridge

If you find yourself having to reindex/recache an extremely large image library (like ours), here's a handy tip to get you back in search mode fast.

1. Launch Bridge
2. Make sure Path Bar is visible (if not, go to Window>Path Bar).
3. On the right side of the Path Bar, just to the left of the Star rating drop-down menu are two square icons. These allow you to modify the thumbnail quality and preview generation in Bridge. 
4. Select "Prefer Embedded (Faster)".
5. Voila!

It might take a few moments when you select an image to generate a preview and if you find this too annoying you can change it back to "Always High Quality" or even  add "Generate 100% Previews" although this will consume lots more disk space and of course take more time in caching/indexing)

Previewing problems in Bridge CS4?

If you're having problems previewing images in folders you've previously indexed in Adobe Bridge CS4 try this:


1. In Bridge go to Edit>Find (Command+F)
2. Select the folder where the problem seems to occur most often (alternatively select all your image folders)
3. In the search criteria drop-downs select "keywords" and then type in the broadest keyword in your library, one that might cover all your images (such as your name, if you tag all your images that way  for example)
4. Make sure to check BOTH Include all subfolders and Include Non-indexed files
4. Click find and then walk away. Depending on how large your image library is, this might take a while (or overnight).


We've have found that using this method is one way to "clean up" any re-indexing issues that might arise in Bridge's caching process after months of re-indexing folders.


There are, of course, no guarantees so be sure to keep any eye on your caching numbers in the Library.