CTRL-G Ingest Clocking & Delayed Window Opening

[Robert Edwards Media]

Issue: What might cause PM to clock for 15-30 seconds before opening the Ingest window when CTRL-G is pressed?

Technical Details:
Photo Mechanic 2025.1 build 7955 (966971f)
Windows 10 Pro build 10.0.19045
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen6
Applications Open Concurrently: Capture One Pro 16.5.4.2682; Slack Production 4.41.105 64-bit; Google Chrome 132.0.6834.110

Key Notes:
1) Multiple presses of CTRL-G during clocking cause PM to gray out and add "Not Responding" to the application window.
2) The issue is intermittent, but it's impactful on deadline. 
3) Has happened with two card readers from different manufacturers, different USB cables, and connected to different USB ports.  However, the issue seems to occur before PM tries to connect to them.
4) Windows 10 "Allow the computer to turn off (these USB ports) to save power" = No
5) Windows 10 OS & Bitdefender AV automatic updates are suspended when I'm doing assignments.
6) Bitdefender AV is configured to exclude the PM application executable file, and the following file types: .NEF, .JPG, .XMP, .COSESSIONDB

[Kirk Baker]

Robert,

What is "clocking"?

-Kirk

[Robert Edwards Media]

“Clocking” is the blue spinning circle in Windows 10 meaning an operation is running and the user must wait for it to be completed.  In this case, it’s when CTRL-G is pressed in PM to open the Ingest window.  The app is non-responsive for 15-30 seconds while whatever is happening after the key sequence is pressed until the Ingest window opens.

[Kirk Baker]

“Clocking” is the blue spinning circle in Windows 10 meaning an operation is running and the user must wait for it to be completed.  In this case, it’s when CTRL-G is pressed in PM to open the Ingest window.  The app is non-responsive for 15-30 seconds while whatever is happening after the key sequence is pressed until the Ingest window opens.

OK.  Ingest will be scanning each and every disk on your system to see if they're suitable for showing in the Ingest dialog.  If you have drives that you never want to be shown in the Ingest dialog, add a folder at the root of the disk named either "PMIngestIgnore" or ".PMIngestIgnore".  That folder is checked for first before checking for other system directories and can make this process faster.

HTH,

-Kirk

[Robert Edwards Media]

OK, I’ll try that, thanks Kirk.  Two questions:

1) Is there a way to see what drives PM is trying to connect to?

2) Is there a way to tell PM only to ingest from a list of drives, rather than excluding them individually?  When I’m connecting to media networks I don’t know what network-accessible drives they may have “out there” and I aren’t in control of them, so I can’t put the ignore folders on them.  Having an ingest only from drives I control list would be better from my perspective.

[Kirk Baker]

OK, I’ll try that, thanks Kirk.  Two questions:

1) Is there a way to see what drives PM is trying to connect to?

No, but it basically on Windows it will be every drive that has a drive letter.

2) Is there a way to tell PM only to ingest from a list of drives, rather than excluding them individually?  When I’m connecting to media networks I don’t know what network-accessible drives they may have “out there” and I aren’t in control of them, so I can’t put the ignore folders on them.  Having an ingest only from drives I control list would be better from my perspective.

No, but feel free to make a feature request for it.  Does your card reader always get assigned the same drive letter?

-Kirk

[Robert Edwards Media]

Thanks Kirk, this is helpful information.  It sounds like the issue is the three drive mappings I have in my build for local & NAS drives that are only accessible on my home LAN.  When I'm covering assignments & connected to the venue's media LAN, those drives are inaccessible, so I guess it takes Windows a while to make that determination, and that's influencing how quickly the Ingest window opens.  It's helpful to know that PM isn't searching the connected LAN for drives, it's just looking at ones that have an existing drive mapping.

Question: Does PM need to verify the PMIngestIgnore drive folder each time, or does it remember those for next time?

Thus far I'm unable to determine how to easily un-map/remap those drives in Windows 10 whenever I leave the house without having to re-authenticate each time.

My card readers always get D: and E: drive mappings, so the ability to specify which drives to ingest from would be a welcome feature.  I'll submit it in that forum.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated!

[Kirk Baker]

Robert,

Thanks Kirk, this is helpful information.  It sounds like the issue is the three drive mappings I have in my build for local & NAS drives that are only accessible on my home LAN.  When I'm covering assignments & connected to the venue's media LAN, those drives are inaccessible, so I guess it takes Windows a while to make that determination, and that's influencing how quickly the Ingest window opens.  It's helpful to know that PM isn't searching the connected LAN for drives, it's just looking at ones that have an existing drive mapping.

Question: Does PM need to verify the PMIngestIgnore drive folder each time, or does it remember those for next time?

Each time you open the Ingest dialog for ingesting disks.

My card readers always get D: and E: drive mappings, so the ability to specify which drives to ingest from would be a welcome feature.  I'll submit it in that forum.

Great, thanks!

-Kirk