Month: December 2022

Today’s Question: For some time, I’ve had trouble viewing several thumbnails in the Bridge Preview. I get just the TIFF icon in the preview panel as shown in the attachment. I have tried purging the cache without any improvement. I would be most grateful for your help.

Tim’s Quick Answer: In this case the issue is that Adobe Bridge is not processing images above one gigabyte in size, so you aren’t seeing previews for those large images. You can correct this by increasing the threshold for processing large files in Preferences.

More Detail: By default, Adobe Bridge will not process image files larger than one gigabyte. The idea here is that those very large files will take considerable processing time, and they are likely to be the exception for most photographers. The files can still be opened in Photoshop, for example, by double-clicking on the icon for the image.

You can also increase the threshold for processing large images, so that Adobe Bridge will show you thumbnails and previews even for very large images. This is found in the Preferences dialog, which can be found by choosing Edit > Preferences from the menu on Windows or Adobe Bridge > Preferences on Macintosh. In the Preferences dialog go to the Thumbnails tab from the list on the left side of the dialog.

On the Thumbnails tab of the Preferences dialog, you’ll find the “Do Not Process Files Larger Than” field in the “Performance and File Handling” section. The default value is 1000 MB (1 GB), but you can update this value as needed to ensure thumbnails and previews will be generated even for your larger image files.

I should point out that this little issue isn’t necessarily all that obvious, but fortunately the photographer who asked today’s question included a screenshot showing the issue. While the pixel dimensions for the images would suggest the files would have only been under about 100 MB, clearly there had been some layers added to the image that caused the file size to grow significantly. The screenshot showed that one problem image, for example, was 1.35 GB in size.

Simply setting the threshold to a higher value, such as around 1500 MB in this particular example, will cause even those larger image files to be processed so you’ll see thumbnails and previews for them.

Today’s Question: One of my backup drives would not connect to the computer. I tried to run first aid on the drive, and it said the drive could not be mounted. When I disconnected the drive and reconnected it, it worked fine. Is it OK to trust this drive for backing up my computer?

Tim’s Quick Answer: Whenever a hard drive misbehaves, I tend to assume the drive could fail at any moment. Therefore, I might continue using the drive as an “extra” backup drive, but I would not trust it for primary storage or as the only backup for a primary drive.

More Detail: There are a variety of things that could cause a hard drive to fail to mount, meaning that it fails to properly connect to the computer so it can be used. This could be caused by something as simple as a bad data cable, a power source that isn’t working properly, a problem with the hard drive, or even an issue with the computer.

One of the problems with this type of situation is that it can be very difficult to determine exactly what is causing the problem. You might try swapping data cables, for example, and even testing to see if using the same data cable with different drives causes the failure to mount. That would suggest that the data cable is to blame.

However, I prefer to take a rather conservative approach when it comes to the storage and backup of my photos and other important data. If a primary hard drive gives me an indication of any problems that suggest there may be a problem with the drive, I will replace that drive.

If a backup drive gives an indication of a problem, I might continue to use that drive as a backup, but I would never use it as my only backup for a primary hard drive. I personally maintain two local backups for each primary drive, so if one of those showed symptoms of a problem I would replace it with another backup drive, but might continue using it as a third backup drive to provide some small additional degree of redundancy in my overall backup workflow.

Just because a hard drive fails to mount properly once doesn’t automatically mean the drive is on the verge of failure. However, when it comes to my photos and other important data, I’m not keen to trust a drive that has shown any signs of a problem. I therefore recommend doing some testing to see if you can isolate the source of the problem, such as by trying different data cables, different ports on the computer, and different hard drives with the same connections, to see if you can determine which component seems to be problematic. But when in doubt, I would not hesitate to replace a hard drive that you don’t have confidence in.

Today’s Question: Your answer to the question about canceling a subscription to Lightroom Classic was reassuring. But are there additional steps you recommend ensuring I’ll always have access to the metadata for my images even if Lightroom Classic were no longer available?

Tim’s Quick Answer: The main thing I recommend doing to help ensure you aren’t completely dependent on the Lightroom Classic catalog in the long term is to enable the option to automatically save standard metadata to the source images. It can also be helpful to minimize your use of features that can only be saved within the catalog.

More Detail: By default, if you lost your Lightroom Classic catalog without any backup to recover from, you would lose all the updates you had applied to your source images. That is because all updates are only saved to the catalog by default. But you can change this option.

I recommend turning on the “Automatically write changes into XMP” checkbox found on the Metadata tab of the Catalog Settings dialog. You can bring up the Catalog Settings dialog by going to the menu and choosing Edit > Catalog Settings on Windows or Lightroom Classic > Catalog Settings on Macintosh.

It is important to keep in mind, however, that enabling this option will only preserve metadata included in existing metadata standards, such as star ratings, keywords, color labels, and more. Interestingly, the adjustment settings from the Develop module will also be included. Features that are specific to Lightroom Classic, such as collections, virtual copies, pick and reject flags, and more, will not be included.

Because some features are only preserved within the catalog, I recommend first and foremost that you maintain a good backup workflow to provide a recovery option if your catalog becomes corrupted or otherwise lost. In addition, you may want to minimize your use of some of the features that are only preserved in the catalog.

For example, I only use the reject flag as a temporary way to mark photos for deletion during my image-review workflow, and I don’t use pick flags. Part of my reasoning for taking this approach is that if I ever lost my Lightroom Classic catalog I would lose those metadata values, and so I don’t want to be overly dependent on them.

Today’s Question: I’m still using Lightroom 6 and Photoshop CS6 standalone applications since I didn’t want to go to the subscription model. My biggest fear with going to the subscription model is what happens to my photos in Lightroom Classic if I stop?

Tim’s Quick Answer: You’ll be relieved to know that if you discontinue your Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan subscription, you’ll still have full control over your photos, and you’ll still be able to use the key image-management features of Lightroom Classic.

More Detail: First and foremost, it is important to keep in mind that with Lightroom Classic your photos are stored and managed locally by you. That means that even if you somehow couldn’t use Lightroom Classic anymore you would still have full access to your photos. Obviously, there are certain metadata and other features that are tied specifically to Lightroom Classic, but your photos would remain on your hard drives right where you have them currently.

What I find many photographers are surprised by is that if you discontinue your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, you’ll still have access to Lightroom Classic, just with a limited set of features. You would still be able to import photos, update metadata, and share your images in a variety of ways.

Ending your subscription would mean that you lose access to the Develop module (though Quick Develop would still be available), you would not be able to access the Map module, and you could no longer synchronize photos to the cloud.

Of course, you could also reactivate your subscription at a later time and regain the full functionality of Lightroom Classic.

Note, by the way, that when you cancel your subscription, you would lose access to the other applications that were included in your plan, such as Photoshop in the case of the Creative Cloud Photography Plan.

Considering the significant new features and updates since the non-subscription versions of Lightroom, I strongly recommend making the upgrade even though it involves a subscription plan. That’s especially true since there’s really nothing to worry about should you later choose to cancel or suspend your subscription.