Trouble switching folders with PM4.4.3.3 on OS X

[steveatcb]

I have been evaluating PM 4.4.3.3 for the last several days.  I like the application very much but I am experiencing unacceptable performance and some apparent hangs when opening / switching between folders.  I have been trying to characterize this issues I am seeing.  For this example, I have 2 folders with 3000-4000 photos in each.  A mixture JPG, RAW, RAW+JPG. 

Case 1: I double click on one folder (sorted by filename) and the contact sheet appears in less than 1 second.  If I then double-click on another folder, say within, 5 or 10 seconds, PM appears to hang (I just did this sequence and now have had the spinning ball for 12 minutes).  No response from menus...I force quit.  Launch again and quit to clear cache.

Case 2:  I set default sorting for contact sheet to Capture Time.  Quit PM.  Launch and double-click on one folder (~4000 photos). I see "Sort in progress..." but have the spinning ball... now for 7 minutes.  No response from menus...I force quit. Launch again and quit to clear cache.
I have had this case complete after about 5 minutes with no spinning ball but that is too long to wait.  Is 4000 too many for sort by date?

Well, I don't know what to expect but I see in this forum that Camera Bits regularly tests with folders with many more photos than I am trying so I am guessing something is not right with my PM setup.  Btw, I did have an earlier version (whatever was current about 6 months ago) trial of PM installed... I deleted that when I installed 4.4.3.3.  Any help appreciated.

Machine details:
OS X 10.4.8
Dual G5
2.5GB RAM

PM Settings:
512MB disk cache (default location)
100MB reserve
64MB memory cach
Empty cache on quit
Photos on 300 GB non-startup internal (non-startup) SATA drive
App and cache on different drive that photos

[Kirk Baker]

I have been evaluating PM 4.4.3.3 for the last several days.  I like the application very much but I am experiencing unacceptable performance and some apparent hangs when opening / switching between folders.  I have been trying to characterize this issues I am seeing.  For this example, I have 2 folders with 3000-4000 photos in each.  A mixture JPG, RAW, RAW+JPG. 

Case 1: I double click on one folder (sorted by filename) and the contact sheet appears in less than 1 second.  If I then double-click on another folder, say within, 5 or 10 seconds, PM appears to hang (I just did this sequence and now have had the spinning ball for 12 minutes).  No response from menus...I force quit.  Launch again and quit to clear cache.

Are you double-clicking on a folder in the Navigator or the Favorites?  Is this while you are sorting by Filename or Capture Time?

Case 2:  I set default sorting for contact sheet to Capture Time.  Quit PM.  Launch and double-click on one folder (~4000 photos). I see "Sort in progress..." but have the spinning ball... now for 7 minutes.  No response from menus...I force quit. Launch again and quit to clear cache.
I have had this case complete after about 5 minutes with no spinning ball but that is too long to wait.  Is 4000 too many for sort by date?

When sorting by any of the time-related items, Photo Mechanic must parse (look into each file by reading it) through the files which takes a short period of time for each photo, but when you have 4,000 photos in one folder I would expect that it could take a number of minutes.

Is there a reason you have 4,000 images in one folder?

Well, I don't know what to expect but I see in this forum that Camera Bits regularly tests with folders with many more photos than I am trying so I am guessing something is not right with my PM setup.  Btw, I did have an earlier version (whatever was current about 6 months ago) trial of PM installed... I deleted that when I installed 4.4.3.3.  Any help appreciated.

When we test with that many photos, we use Filename sorting which is the fastest sorting method by far.  I would suggest you use filename sorting by default, especially if you want to have so many files in a single folder.  It would be also good to try to come up with some sort of logical arrangement for your photos so that there aren't so many photos in a single folder.  So many things on your system will improve (Finder, Photo Mechanic and others.)

Machine details:
OS X 10.4.8
Dual G5
2.5GB RAM

PM Settings:
512MB disk cache (default location)
100MB reserve
64MB memory cach
Empty cache on quit
Photos on 300 GB non-startup internal (non-startup) SATA drive
App and cache on different drive that photos

Make sure that your cache folder is not being indexed by Spotlight.  You can have Photo Mechanic set the default path location that won't be indexed by Spotlight, or you can instruct Spotlight to not not index your current cache folder by opening up the System Prefrences application, then click on the Spotlight item, then click on the Privacy tab.  Then click on the '+' button to find and choose your current Photo Mechanic cache folder.

Also, since you have so much RAM on your system I would bump up your Photo Mechanic memory cache to 300MB.

HTH,

-Kirk

[steveatcb]

Thanks for the suggestions Kirk.  I believe I have found the cause of the hangs (spinning ball, app unresponsive).  I noticed one photo out of 4000 that wasn't showing a thumbnail.  When I tried to preview this photo or sort, by capture date, the contact sheet for the folder containing this photo, Photo Mechanic would hang.  I removed this problem photo from the folder and the hangs went away;  I isolated the problem photo in a separate folder and got the hang on the one-photo contact sheet.  Capture NX and Photoshop CS2 open and display the photo fine.  I can send you the photo (1.7 MB JPG) if you think it would be helpful.

Anyhow, now PM seems to be behaving normally and I can proceed.  Wrt having so many photos in one folder: If I take shots of an event or on a trip, I place them in a spearate folder.  Throughout the year, however, I take a lot of "misc" shots and put them in a yearly folder (2006, 2007, etc.) and these add up to several thousand shots.  I may upload just a handful of photos in one go and sometimes do that several times a day.  It seems redundant to create a fine-grained date based folder structure for these misc shots since the EXIF has this information.  I can't seem to generate category folders since many shots need to be in more than one category so keywords is better.  I guess I could have Misc1, Misc2, etc. just to keep a folder from having more than, say, a few hundred files.  Well, any suggestions here would be most welcome.

[Kirk Baker]

Thanks for the suggestions Kirk.  I believe I have found the cause of the hangs (spinning ball, app unresponsive).  I noticed one photo out of 4000 that wasn't showing a thumbnail.  When I tried to preview this photo or sort, by capture date, the contact sheet for the folder containing this photo, Photo Mechanic would hang.  I removed this problem photo from the folder and the hangs went away;  I isolated the problem photo in a separate folder and got the hang on the one-photo contact sheet.  Capture NX and Photoshop CS2 open and display the photo fine.  I can send you the photo (1.7 MB JPG) if you think it would be helpful.

Yes, please contact me with a personal message and I'll give you server upload information.

Anyhow, now PM seems to be behaving normally and I can proceed.  Wrt having so many photos in one folder: If I take shots of an event or on a trip, I place them in a spearate folder.  Throughout the year, however, I take a lot of "misc" shots and put them in a yearly folder (2006, 2007, etc.) and these add up to several thousand shots.  I may upload just a handful of photos in one go and sometimes do that several times a day.  It seems redundant to create a fine-grained date based folder structure for these misc shots since the EXIF has this information.  I can't seem to generate category folders since many shots need to be in more than one category so keywords is better.  I guess I could have Misc1, Misc2, etc. just to keep a folder from having more than, say, a few hundred files.  Well, any suggestions here would be most welcome.

The simplest thing I can think of is to have your yearly "misc" folder and inside it put monthly folders: 01 through 12 and disperse the photos in there.  You can even use Ingest to do that for you with your large folders.  If you're interested, I'll explain how.

-Kirk