Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

I'm using the Studio Edition.

I convert Canon RAW files to 16 but TIF files.

Is it my imagination or has the creation of thumbnails slowed down. I opened a new folder of about 85 images this morning and it must have taken about five minutes to build the thumbnails.

As I only wanted a print from one frame it was a long time to wait.

Is there a new setting that I am overlooking. I know the frame number I want. Do I really need to wait for all the other 84 to load?

Thanks for any help that you can give.

Tony

Tony,

I too am noticing a slower speed with my ORF files.  I will soon see if DNGs have the same problem a I am now converting my ORFs and will use the DNG as my workfile with the ORFs in archive.

David

David,

For the sake of clarity I should repeat that I am talking about TIF files that, to my mind anyway, are uncompressed jpg's.

I am not talking about the old Canon TIF(F) files which were in other people's language RAW files needing converting.

I'm sure you realised that - but simply wanted to avoid others going on a 'wild goose chase' about converting from one format to another.

EDIT. I've just seen that there is quite a lot about thumbnails that is/was new to me in Mike's help file here:-
http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/qimagehlp/function.htm#thumbbuilder

Maybe something for us both to have a fiddle around with!!


Tony

Thumbnail building is actually significantly faster in the latest versions, particularly when it comes to raw photos.  They do build differently though and not always in a top down order so it may give the illusion of being slower at times.  Until someone times an older version against a newer one and fined the newer one to actually be slower, I have to chalk this up to upgradeaphobia.  :)

Mike

Well, now I understand how to stop them building I am not going to be annoyed, as I was at the weekend, calling in a folder of TIF's just to make one print.

I need to look at that cache control. I've never bothered with it before and presumably if one never purges it the file can become enormous over the years.

Tony

I just upgraded from mid-2008 to today's version and I have HUNDREDS of pictures in MY PICTURES file. How long will it take for the thumbnails to build? And will they continue to build if I'm out of the program? And is there anythhing I can do to make the process move faster? It's no problem if the program just keeps building the thumbs while I work on other projects.
Thanks.....  Glovbug

Glovbug,

Read the help file that I put the link to several posts above.

I'm sure your answers are there.

Tony

Thanks Tony... I'm not sure what the Thumbs section says, but I have about 5 folders that loaded and none of the rest will load.... They say they are loading but when the last one loads there's still no thumbs, just a big Q in the middle of a square. I have about 60 folders to load and I can't wait around for each folder to finish...even if it was actually loading the thumbs. I've NEVER had this problem and I've been on this system for YEARS. I wish I would have stayed with the 2008 version... it worked just fine. This is the first time I've ever had a problem like this.

Bill

G.

" I'm not sure what the Thumbs section says"

Is it that you have not read it - or is there something you don't understand.

Maybe I can help whilst Mike takes a break,

Tony

I upgraded my Qimage Professional from one about a year ago to 265 today. Everything was fine until it came to thumbnails. It made thumbs of about 5 file folders and quit. There is nothing I can do to make it make any more. I have70 or 80 folders full of pictures...some with 100-200 images in them. Maybe it won't handle that many. It always has in the past. Until I upgraded today...all the thumbnails were in the last version that I had. Maybe I need to reset or restart something. I have no idea how to get the thumbs to appear... the line above the the empty squares shows that they are loading...but when it gets to the end it just says 151 but none of the squares has an image in it.... What can I do to get it to make the thumbs???????

Bill

The only thing that will stop thumbnails from building is a corrupted image file.  It's difficult to tell exactly what is happening at what time based on your description but if you get to a folder that isn't displaying thumbnails, there's likely a bad file in that folder.  Try restarting Qimage and skip over that folder to see if you can get other folders to build.  Also, if you can post a screen shot, that might help too.

Mike

Hi Mike....

When you say restart Qimage to you mean to start from scratch and start with the program file... i.e. start with the user-password or just turn it off and back on... which won't work because I've done that ten times already today.....

I was saying... it sounds like you were having trouble as soon as you got to a particular folder.  Select a different folder (one you aren't having trouble with), then exit Qimage.  Go back in and avoid the folder with the problem and try a different one.  The goal is to find out if you are only having a problem with that one folder because of a corrupted image.

Mike

Mike...

A little background. In My Pictures I have about 175 picture files. Some have 200-300 pictures in them and others have 10-30. I'd say they average 50-60 per file. As of tonight (7-08-09)... about 30-50% have been totally populated. Some files load up to the last 10 or 15 and then just go to the blank squares. Many more have loaded since last night and there is no rhyme or resason why one file loads and another doesn't. It's been two days and it's getting there.

I thought I saw a post that said that old thumbs build up over time. Well I've been with you for years and I've never cleaned any out. Is there a way that I might get rid of old ones? I have updated the system at least twice a year and have never ever had any problems with the thumbs not loading. Every year the whole thing slows down. and I expect that... It's getting like PhotoShop. I need to get a new laptop with 4 gigs of memory and a fast processor. Maybe I just have to wait another day or two. Do they continue to load when you turn off the program? Do they continue to load if you just minimize the program? Again... I've never had a problem with Qimage until now. I wish I would not have upgraded this time.... Bill

Click on Utilities in the menu bar; then Manage Thumbnail Cache; then Delete Orphaned Thumbs

This will get rid of all old thumbnails of photos that no longer exist.  May free up a lot of space.
You will see other options as well.

Thumbnail problem solved!!!

Thank you Mike and tbunkley. Went to "manage thumbnail cache" and removed "orphaned thumbs". That helped so I went back and dumped everything past 6 months. That got rid of 7147 old thumbs!!!!! Now they load in seconds!!!

Thanks again.....
 

Well I guess that would make sense if you had some thumbnails that were corrupted and Qimage was trying to load them.  I was thinking the images themselves were corrupted but it sounds like you had some old "hangnails".  :D

Mike