Rebuilding thumbnails

[bayanne]

From time to time my new iMac keeps deciding to rebuild the thumbnails on my family tree. This is a tree with thousands of thumbnails, so the rebuilding process takes many, many hours. Is there a reason why Reunion 13 should decide that it needs to rebuild the thumbnails?

Thanks

[Gregg]

Hi,

A couple of questions...

Is you family file sitting in a Dropbox folder?

Do you open this family file on more than one Mac?

[bayanne]

No, it is too large to sit in a Dropbox folder, and this has been the case since Reunion version 3. I only use the one Mac to open the file. This rebuilding thumbnails has only happened in the last few months. Oh, and I realise that Reunion has only been working with Dropbox for a little while.

[thomprod]

No, it is too large to sit in a Dropbox folder...

According to the Dropbox Help Center, "Files uploaded to dropbox.com must be 50 GB or smaller. Files uploaded through the desktop app or mobile apps must be 2 TB or smaller." My family file is only 710 MB and it contains almost 4000 names, so I doubt that yours is too large to "sit in a Dropbox folder".

[SGilbert]

According to the Dropbox Help Center, "Files uploaded to dropbox.com must be 50 GB or smaller. Files uploaded through the desktop app or mobile apps must be 2 TB or smaller." My family file is only 710 MB and it contains almost 4000 names, so I doubt that yours is too large to "sit in a Dropbox folder".

I have 1 of 3 family files that has 18,421 and is 904MB. all three fit very cozily in Dropbox.

[bayanne]

My file contains over 500,000 people with many thousands of pictures, and thus thumbnails, totalling over 16gb in size.

[SGilbert]

My file contains over 500,000 people with many thousands of pictures, and thus thumbnails, totalling over 16gb in size.

Holy crap Batman! How can you possibly have that many? I think it's time to split your family.

[Bob White]

No, it is too large to sit in a Dropbox folder, and this has been the case since Reunion version 3. I only use the one Mac to open the file. This rebuilding thumbnails has only happened in the last few months. Oh, and I realise that Reunion has only been working with Dropbox for a little while.

I don't see anything in your responses that tells me whether or not you are synching with ReunionTouch. If you are not (e.g., just using Reunion only locally on your Mac), Dropbox doesn't need to be part of this discussion. If this is the case, this thread should get back to the problem you are having with thumbnails.

Other than that, you apparently have a file that can really test the limits of the Reunion app.

[bayanne]

This is not a family file, it is a location file, i.e. the Isles of Shetland and the diaspora. There are still larger files out there ...

I agree Bob, time to address the issue which seems to have come about in the last few months.

[James Milne]

I think you need to clarify Gregg’s initial response to your problem then perhaps he can suggest a way forward:
Is you family file sitting in a Dropbox folder? Yes/No
Do you open this family file on more than one Mac? Yes/No

[bayanne]

To repeat my posting on 7 Nov:
No, it is too large to sit in a Dropbox folder, and this has been the case since Reunion version 3. I only use the one Mac to open the file. This rebuilding thumbnails has only happened in the last few months. Oh, and I realise that Reunion has only been working with Dropbox for a little while.

[Gregg]

Are thumbnails getting rebuilt every time you open your family file or just once in a while?

Do you leave your family file open overnight or do you close it when you are done?

> ...and this has been the case since Reunion version 3.

I'm not sure what you mean by the above line. Reunion 3 came out in 1990.

What version of macOS and what build of Reunion 13 are you running?

[bayanne]

Are thumbnails getting rebuilt every time you open your family file or just once in a while?

Do you leave your family file open overnight or do you close it when you are done?

> ...and this has been the case since Reunion version 3.

I'm not sure what you mean by the above line. Reunion 3 came out in 1990.

What version of macOS and what build of Reunion 13 are you running?

It only happens once in awhile, say every 3 to 4 weeks
I always close the family file whenever I am done for the day
I have been using Reunion since 1990, but this rebuilding thumbnails has only been happening since Reunion 13
Using Ventura 13.0.1, Reunion Build 221018, although the rebuilding did occur when I was using OS 12

[David Walton]

From time to time my new iMac keeps deciding to rebuild the thumbnails on my family tree. This is a tree with thousands of thumbnails, so the rebuilding process takes many, many hours. Is there a reason why Reunion 13 should decide that it needs to rebuild the thumbnails?

Thanks

Back to basics!
My familyfile is relatively small - 4790 pictures in 591 groups and rebuilding of thumbnails has always been a user choice.

If you have a large number of pictures/media then try Reunion Preferences - Multimedia and set Multimedia Search Folders as appropriate (to minimise searching). Check that the 'Always search iPhoto Library' tickbox is set correctly. Run 'Repair Multimedia Links...' and if a 'Multimedia Usage Report' is generated then repair failed links followed by 'Rebuild Thumbnails'. These actions should ensure that all is well with attached media.

I infrequently export to ged for global editing of tags/data etc (where regular expressions need to be used) and the subsequent import then requires rebuilding of thumbnails. Rebuilding of thumbnails is slow, even with the above file, and you may want to try changing large thumbnail size/quality - if you use that option, otherwise set the radio button to Remove/Omit for small thumbnails only. The Remove/Omit for large thumbnails decreases filesize of the above familyfile from about 1GB to 74.9MB. Your choice.

Dave

[bayanne]

OK, I rebult the large thumbnails to size 800, Quality OK, and did the same with the sources, and this cut the size of the tumbnails in half to about 2gb. I will see how this goes.
Thanks for the suggestions Dave