Today’s Question: In Bridge, if a stack of images is collapsed and dragged to another folder, only the top image moves, and the others are left behind. If the stack is not collapsed both images get moved, but in both cases, the stacking information is lost. What am I missing?
Tim’s Quick Answer: If the stack is collapsed in Adobe Bridge, you need to be sure to select the full stack and not just the top image. If the stack is expanded, you need to make sure to select all photos in the stack in order to retain the stack.
More Detail: Admittedly, I consider Adobe Bridge to be a little finicky when it comes to the behavior of stacks. This can be especially challenging when it comes to a stack that is expanded rather than collapsed.
If a stack is expanded and you select some (but not all) the photos in the stack, if you drag-and-drop the images to a different folder only the selected photos will be moved, and they will no longer be in a stack. To retain the stack, you need to select exactly the images in the stack, not just a portion of them.
For a stack that is collapsed the behavior is a little easier to manage, but there is a “trick”. When you collapse a stack the frame around the thumbnail will have two frames that overlap, resembling two images stacked atop one another. If you click on the thumbnail, only the upper frame will be selected, which actually means only the top image in the stack is selected. If you drag-and-drop the image, only that top image will be moved, leaving the other images behind.
If you instead click the lower frame, which only appears on the right and bottom sides of the thumbnail, you’ll select the entire stack. This will be indicated by both frames having a colored highlight to indicate both frames are selected, meaning all images in the stack are selected. If you drag-and-drop with the full stack selected in this way, all images in the stack will be moved and the stack will be retained.
