Problem with star ratings in Bridge

[Brea]

I'm in Bridge and I can't get it apply a rating with either the keyboard or the Label menu). I'm in the Essentials pane and I press the spacebar to see the photo full screen. I press Command+5 (or whatever number) and nothing happens. The star ratings don't respond.

 

I used bridge a few months ago and it all worked just fine. All Adobe apps are up to date (I have Adobe cloud subscription). The computer is up to date. There's plenty of free space. I've tried purging the cache and resetting the preferences in Bridge.

 

Also, possibly related (?), I can open a file from Bridge to ACR, but when I hit Close I get the message "unable to save the RAW conversion settings. The file could not be created."

 

Damien helped me pinpoint that I am able to use star ratings with files that have always been on my internal hard drive, so I think the external hd is the issue.  I did recently replace it and am wondering if the formatting of the drive could be the issue?  Thanks for any help you can offer!

 

 

[Brian]

Why are you on Mac OS Extended Case Sensitive, Journaled for the Partition Type?!?!!!

>>> YOU NEVER-EVER-EVER-EVER WANT TO USE THAT MODE. <<<

You are 1/2 right, for a spinning traditional HD, you want to be on Mac OS Extended, Journaled...but no "case-sensitive" BS whatsoever. 

The good news? It can be fixed. The bad news? You are gonna need another HD, preferably blank drive, so you can copy all of the files off that drive, then Delete the Partition, (aka Nuke it,) and then re-partition it correctly. Then copy all of your files back. I would not recommend converting anything with files on it. You want to be working with a drive that can be erased.  

I can give you instructions if you wish. 

This is what you should have selected when creating the Partition: 

No Case-sensitive, Journaled...just plain 'ol Mac OS Extended (Journaled) that has been around forever. 

 

[Brea]

ah, ok, thank you.  I think the reason I did that had something to do with a message that popped up with time machine.  I have all my files backed up to time machine but i wonder if i have the wrong format on that one too.

[Brian]

You are also using this drive for Time Machine? If so that’s also VERY BAD.

You want your Time Machine Drive all by itself. No other files. You are asking for problems if you do. In addition, you only need about double the capacity of your internal HD, so if you have a 1TB HD, a 2TB-4TB drive is fine. 

I am curious about using case sensitive for Time Machine, that doesn’t seem right; I’ve never used it on my Macs. I’d love to see the error message. 

Personally, I have two external HDs hooked up to my machine. A Time Machine Drive hooked up to a USB Port, and a much larger External HD hooked up to a Thunderbolt Port. Thunderbolt is extremely fast, MUCH faster than using a USB 3.0 Port. Seriously, it’s like using the internal HD. 

So you might want to invest in a larger Thunderbolt Drive, partition it properly and copy over the files on that 4TB. Then nuke the 4TB drive and use it for Time Machine only. 

[Brea]

the time machine is a separate drive.  I had to reformat it last week and it looks like for some reason i used the case sensitive format.  So I've got to figure out how to move the data and reformat them both.  And/or as you said, look into a thunderbolt drive.  thanks for your guidance.

[Brea]

should I be able to reformat the 4 tb drive, then copy the lastest backup from the time machine drive to the freshly reformatted drive if the time machine is also case sensitive format?

also, I have a thunderbolt adapter.  If I used that with the usb drive would that make things any faster?

Edited November 18 by Brea

[Brian]

9 hours ago, Brea said:

should I be able to reformat the 4 tb drive, then copy the lastest backup from the time machine drive to the freshly reformatted drive if the time machine is also case sensitive format?

I'm already confused.  This is where things can go horribly wrong if you use the Time Machine Drive as a Data / Images Drive. It sounds like you have backups on a backup that's backing up your backups. Clear as mud? 

If you have a separate backup of your images and other data files, the Time Machine Drive isn't as "Critical" as one might think; sure, it's a pretty good back up of your Internal HD, which includes the Operating System, but the truth is, you can recover the OS and re-install your programs. What I would do, is Nuke the Time Machine Drive, re-partition it with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) [no Case-Sensitive thingys whatsoever,] then go into Time Machine and choose that drive to backup on. Then do a fresh FULL Time Machine Backup. My main concern is the case-sensitive stuff. I'm not sure what it's doing to any files that might be on that drive. That said, I think it's MUCH more important to purchase another external drive.

The safe bet is for you to purchase a true Thunderbolt Drive, such as this one: SanDisk Professional 4TB PRO-G40 SSD or better yet, this one: SanDisk Professional 12TB G-Drive Project - External HDD, Thunderbolt 3. Just having a Thunderbolt Adapter does not make it a true Thunderbolt Drive. You need the actual technology. Thunderbolt drives are NOT CHEAP. They are expensive, so if this EHD was $129 or less, it's NOT a TB Drive.  

Now, as soon as you get either drive, I want you to stop and take a breath. Chances are, they are in the exFAT Format, which makes them compatible with both Mac & Windows computer systems. Sounds ideal, right? Wrong.  exFAT is unpredictable as hell, and it's VERY difficult to recover from if things go sideways. I will never-ever-ever-ever, like EVER...recommend a member here using exFAT. In fact, some folks are determined to, and that's fine, but they will not get ANY help from me and they are on their own if something goes wrong. 

So pick a format, Mac >>OR<< Windows. 

Whichever drive you choose, as soon as you get it, run it by me first. Spinning Hard Drives you use mac OS Extended (Journaled). SSD Drives, like that Sandisk 4TB that are flash based, get APFS. For example, here is my 12TB G-Drive that is a traditional spinning EHD, with a Sandisk 1TB SSD Drive attached to it: 

 

 

So what I want you to do, is purchase a true Thunderbolt External HD. Get back to me. Then we will format/partition it correctly, depending on the type of drive, THEN we will mess with your data / images. All very logical and linear, one-step-at-a-time. After we get your images settled and other important data, we will then mess with the Time Machine stuff.

Oh, to answer your question, YES!! THUNDERBOLT IS WAAAAAAAAAAAAY FASTER THAN USB 3.0!! If you notice, that 12TB Sandisk has 10Gbps Throughput when using Thunderbolt, if you use USB 3.0...that's only 5Gbps. If you go higher and get a TB4 or TB5 drive, the speed is even faster. Especially if you skip the spinning HD and go with a flash-based EHD, then you get speeds of 40Gbps vs 10/5. (There is a bottleneck when it comes to mechanical HDs. The spinning disks can only read/write only so fast. Flash based media doesn't have this problem, but you don't get large capacity drives with flash-based media. Make sense? If you want storage capacity, it's a traditional spinning EHD. You want read/write speed? Then a Flash Based Drive is what you want, but it caps out around 4TB.)  

[Brea]

Ok, I’ll have the new drive you recommended on Friday.

[Brea]

I have the new drive and I'm ready to format it.  It's this one: SanDisk Professional 4TB PRO-G40 SSD.  How do I proceed with formatting it?  Thanks for your help!

[Brian]

Cool. Since it's a SSD Drive, we will skip the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Partition Type and head straight to Apple's newest Partition Type, call APFS. 

The first step we need to do is to check how it's setup and the easiest way it to turn on the HDs to be visible on the desktop: 

• Open the Finder. The easiest way is to click the Smiley Face on your DockBar:

 

• Then head to the Finder Menu (Next to the Apple Menu) and select Preferences:

• Once there put check-marks next to these items and change the bottom to "Macintosh HD" if you want:

• Finally, Click the Red Circle in the Upper Left Corner to save the new changes and close the Preferences box. Now when you insert an External HD or Camera Memory Card into a Card Reader, they will appear on the Mac Desktop. For example:
   

 

From there, hook up your new HD on your Mac and right-click and select "Get Info." Post a screenshot. Then we will head to step two.  

[Brea]

Ok, all of this is done and I can see the new drive in the disk utility.  Here's what I see:

 

[Brian]

Alright, you are 99% there since you already know about Disk Utility. Just click the "Erase" Button at the top and you should see something like this pop-up: 

Your name might be different, and that's fine, but the important choice you need to make is for the Format. Simply choose APFS in the choices menu. 

• NO (Encrypted)
• NO (Case-sensitive)
• NO (Case-sensitive, Encrypted)
• None of that. JUST APFS all by itself. 

 

Give it a name that is obvious to you, like Thunderbolt 4TB or something along those lines. Then click Erase. After a few seconds you should see your new drive appear on the Mac Desktop. 

I'd copy over a simple file to your new drive as a read/write test, and when that works, copy over all the images / data files on your existing EHD, the one that has all of the issues. Do not copy the Time Machine Files. Leave them alone. 

Also, DO NOT MOVE / CLICK AND DRAG!!! I want you to do a "Select All" on that 4TB EHD and then choose "Copy." Open the new 4TB and select "Paste." Do nothing else on your computer. Just let it do it's thing. Bonus Points: Use the new Thunderbolt Drive in the Thunderbolt Port.  

The difference between the two is if you move / cut / drag files over, you are deleting the source material as it attempts the copy. If something were to go wrong, and you had to cancel the data transfer, you are fucked, to put it bluntly. By doing a Copy / Paste, the original source files stay intact. This way if something were to screw up, you hit cancel and try again. 

After you are 110% sure that all of your images / data files are on the new drive, we are going to Nuke that existing EHD, and then set it up for Time Machine only. So get your new drive squared away and report back.  

 

 

[Brea]

Ok - it asks for a scheme and gives these 3 choices, below.  Should I leave as is?

[Brian]

Yes, leave it at the default! Select GUID Partition Map!!!

The Master Boot Record is for Windows Partitions, which we aren't doing, and the Apple Partition Map is for really old Macs from the 1990's. 

[Brea]

ok, I've successfully reformatted the thunderbolt drive and it appears on my desktop with the new name.  I copied over a couple of .CR2 images successfully - however, I still can't apply a star rating to them in bridge when viewing them on the thunderbolt drive. I can open them in ACR and manually apply a rating there but not in bridge.  😞  I also copied over a .DNG.  Same result with star ratings.  I'm not sure why some of my files are .CR2 and some .DNG, or if it matters.