Bug? Exporting stills and broken renders...

Hello All
Just noticed this because it trashed a long render and made me cross, but am starting to think that I have actually seen it before in v5 & v6:
Fully rendered sequence. Originated as HDV 1080i50 plus loads of stills but rendered as ProRes.
Just nip in to grab some stills for DVD print. When the Export with Quicktime Conversion dialogue finishes and hands back to FCP there's a long Preparing for Video Display and all the renders for the sequence are gone.
Only seems to happen direct from the sequence, not from freeze frames of the sequence.
Any offers of how / why or whether I should bug it?
Thank you
Jim

Unfortunalty I work for an organization that only supports the IE9 internet explorer. Would like to know if this is bug that will be patched for IE9 or is there any known workarounds.

Similar Messages

BUG: Export DDL and Data fails for mixed case table/column names

Hi there,
I have found a bug in SQL Developer. See details below.
Description:
When "Export DDL and Data) function is used on a table/columns not named in UPPERCASE, sql generated by SQL Developer is invalid.
Steps to reproduce:
- open SQL Developer, connect to DB
- make a table named "lowerCase" (in double quotes, so it won't be automatically changed to capital letters)
- you may also add some columns, for example "lowerCol1", "UpCol2", ALLUPCOL3
- add some data rows to the table
- choose Tools -> Export DDL and Data
- check exporting of tables and data, on "filter" tabs choose your "lowerCase" table
- press "Apply"
Error:
Generated SQL contains invalid INSERTs: mixed-case table and columns are referenced without obligatory double quotes, which yields an error when generated script is executed (see below, relevant line is underlined)
-- DDL for Table lowerCase
CREATE TABLE "DBO_HT"."lowerCase"
(     "lowerCol1" VARCHAR2(100),
     "UpCol2" VARCHAR2(100),
     "ALLUPCOL3" VARCHAR2(100)
-- DATA FOR TABLE lowerCase
-- FILTER = none used
-- INSERTING into lowerCase
Insert into lowerCase (lowerCol1,UpCol2,ALLUPCOL3) values ('lc','uc','auc');
-- END DATA FOR TABLE lowerCase
Remarks
SQL Developer: version 1.2.1, build MAIN-32.13
Oracle DBs: 9.2 & Express
OS: Windows 2000 Professional
If you need any more details/testing, let me know. I'd really appreciate a quick patch for this issue...
Alternatively, do you know of any other simple way of copying a single database (it's called a schema in Oracle, right?) from one computer to another? Possibly something so simple like detaching->copying->reattaching mdf (data) files in SQL Server... I thought that this "Export DDL&Data" function will do, but as you can see I couldn't use it.
I just need a simple solution that works - one operation on source to stuff, get the resulting files to other computer and one operation to have it running there... I think that such scenario is very basic, yet I just can't achieve it and I am simply not allowed to spend more time on it (read: our test project fails, my company rejects my "lobbying" and stays with MSSQL :/ )
Thanks a lot & bye

Thanks for your reply.
ad. 1)
You're right. I just wanted to give some very short feedback on my experiences with SQL Developer, so I didn't think starting new threads would be necessary, but as I was writing it became much bigger than I initially planned - sorry about that. I will make proper threads as soon as possible. Having "Edit post" button on this forum would also be useful.
ad. 2)
Generally, you're right - in most cases it's true that "switching DBMS is a major commitment" and "you will produce terrible code" if you don't learn the new one.
However, I think that you miss one part of market here - the market that I think Express is also targeted on. I'd call it a "fire&forget databases" market; MySQL comes to mind as possibly most common solution here. It's the rather small systems, possibly web-accessed, whose data-throughput requirements are rather modest; the point is to store data at all, and not necesarily in fastest way, because given the amount of data that is used, even on low-end hardware it will work well enough. What's important here is its general ease of use - how easy is to set up such system, connect and access data, develop a software using it, how much maintenance is needed, how easy this maintenance is, how easy are the most common development tasks as creating a DB, moving a DB from test to production server etc. There, "how easy" directly translates to "how much time we need to set it up", which translates to "how much will the development will cost".
Considering the current technology, switching the DBMS in such systems is not necesarily a major commitment and believe me that you will not produce terrible code. In many cases it's as simple as changing a switch in your ORM toolkit: hibernate.dialect = Hibernate.Dialect.OracleDialect vs MySQLDialect vs MsSql2005Dialect
Therefore, in some part of market it's easy to switch DBMS, even on project-by-project basis. The reason to switch will appear when other DBMS makes life easier => development faster. From that point of view, I can understand my colleagues giving me an embarassing look and saying "come on, I won't read all these docs just to have db copied to test server". And it doesn't mean "they are not willing to learn anything new", it's just that they feel such basic task should have self-explaining solution that doesn't require mastering any special knowledge. And if they get such simple solutions somewhere else, it costs them nothing to change the hibernate dialect.
I think Oracle did the great job with introducing the Express to this "fire&forget" market. The installation is a snap, it just works out of the box, nothing serious to configure, opposite to what I remember from installing and working on Oracle 9 a few years ago. In some places it's still "you need to start SQL*Plus and enter this script", but it's definitely less than before. I also find the SQL Developer a great tool, it can do most of what we need to do with the DB, it's also much better and pleasant to use over Oracle 9 tools. Still, a few basic things still require too much hassle, and I'd say taking your schema to another machine is one of them. So I think that, if you do it well, the "schema copy wizard" you mentioned might be very helpful. If I was to give any general advice for Express line of DB/tools, I'd say "make things simple" - make it "a DB you can't see".
That's, IMHO, the way to attract more Express users.

Persistent bugs on Import and Export in LR 2.5

I have been having two distinct problems with LR 2.5 (ever since 2.5 became available).
IMPORT
(This has been consistently happening for imports from both my Canon 20D, my Canon 50D. and my Powershot D10.) When I import a group of files, usually about 2 to 5 of the images loses all their metadata, including image size, ratings, etc. The image returns as a grayed box with an alert in the corner. If I select the gray boxes, the image will appear after a few seconds, but the metadata is still lost. The first attached file here is from a screenshot showing that 2 images lost their data -- and you can see the pop-up tip showing the image size as "nil x nil". These problem images can not be processed in the Develop Module.
EXPORT
When I export a group of images to a new folder on my disc (creating JPEG copies from processed TIFFs), not all of the images will show up in the catalog view. The second attached file here shows a screen shot of my situation (which happens almost every time). In the folder view, you can see that I exported 33 images from the folder "Pass1" to the new folder "Pass3". As you can see, the folder panel indicates that there are 33 images in folder "Pass3", but if you look to the right to the image numbering, there are only 31 present. When I look at the folder in Windows Explorer, there are actually 33 files there, and when I isolate which 2 files are not showing, I have tried to re-import them, but end up inthe same place. I can assure you that there are no filters blocking any images.
I suspect that these two bugs are related. It really puts a monkey-wrench into my workflow. Can anyone from Adobe please suggest a work-around? Or does anyone know what might be happening here?
Thanks,
Nick

I really would like to be able to have all my images in one catalog only.
I keep all of my 75k or so images in a single catalog. The originals are both on an internal drive and an external drive that I only hook up when needed. So this is certainly doable. I simply move older files over to the external when they are not needed every day anymore and reconnect the folders they are in in Lightroom. I have Lightroom set to automatically generate folders per day and month on import so this is very simple. Even without the external drive present, I can still tag and make collections with the offline images. I suggested you generate a new catalog simply as a test. If they import there, your problem is in the original catalog. If they don't, the problem is either with the files themselves, or you are dealing with corrupt Lightroom preferences. The latter you can deal with by deleting the preference files (google for it, there is FAQ on Adobe's website that contains instructions for your OS).
I import only RAW (CR2) files with Adobe RGB as the color space
Just FYI. RAW does not have a colorspace. The setting that you do in the camera only applies to jpegs and the jpeg preview embedded in the RAW file. Lightroom ignores it and always renders to its own internal space that is based on prophotoRGB. The camera should not expose this setting when you are shooting RAW, but unfortunately it does, confusing lots of photographers.
It is during the import that a small handful of files get corrupted.
That's a very bad sign. I have never seen files get corrupted during import. If they do, I would seriously look into hardware problems with your card reader, USB cable or USB interface.
I then export/convert the files (including the corrupt ones) to TIFF format for processing in Photoshop (noise reduction and pre-sharpening).
Are you using special external plugins? The capture (or pre) sharpening in Lightroom is far better than what you can find by default in Lightroom, so you might be far better off simply staying in Lightroom altogether. The noise reduction is also pretty basic but OK. You really need third-party software to get better than what you can find in Lightroom. I now only go to Photoshop for Layering images (multiple exposures for example). Not going to Photoshop will save you enormous amounts of disk space as TIFFs created from RAW are generally many times larger than the original RAW due to the demosaic and the need to use 16 bits.
I do a final export/conversion to JPEG into a new LR folder, and this is where the two unique images disappear (but not from the count in the left panel).
Do you have the preference (import section) to "treat JPEG files next to RAW files as separate photos" enabled?

Batch Export Stills Broken in FCP5?

In FCPHD you used to be able to batch export stills by setting markers in your clip
1) Choose a clip, put in markers where you want to export
2) open the export queue window (window -> export queue)
3) drag the markers into the queue window
4) select the batch folder in the queue window, and change the settings to your specs.
5) export
I can't seem to get this to work now - it just makes the markers subclips in the queue even when I set it to export stills it just gives me a white still.
Does this no longer work in FCP5 or am I forgetting something?
Dual 1Ghz G4 Quicksilver Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Thought I'd give this another try now that everybody's back from holiday.
Can anybody confirm that you can't export stills this way from FCP5 or that you can from FCP4.5?

TS1574 My apple macbook pro retina 15'' ME664 has problems with sound.Either there will be no sound at all or at startup there il be very scary and broken sound and afterwards still there would be no sound.Secondly , it does not start in one shot.

My apple macbook pro retina 15'' ME664 has problems with sound.Either there will be no sound at all or at startup there il be very scary and broken sound and afterwards still there would be no sound.Secondly , it does not start in one shot.atleast 2 to 3 times pressing power button for longer time starts it up and afterwards still there will be no sound. Please help

This morning i was not able to hear sound on my recently purchased macbookpro retina 15 inch model.My attempts to resolve this issue by going to system preferences and removing the mute box that was ticked as active. i had downloaded much earlier a mac version of logmein app and noticed that in the sound box noted above that there was a bar indicating that the default was now to logmein. i had never used this app. Why it started today, i have no idea. I moved the logmein application to trash and deleted the app , however it did not remove the default option which still blocked the sound.
Going to a macforum gave the tha anser that to remove the logmein app, it first had to be reinstalled a nd them use the uninstaller option ftrom the dropdown menu. for now that has resolved the failure to allow sound oputput.

I made a imovie project and it has many transitions and stills and music soundtrack and rolling comments and text embedded in it. . I try and export it and it wont prepare the project beyond 16 minutes and shuts down every time. I have tried exporting it

i made a imovie project and it has many transitions and stills and music soundtrack and rolling comments and text embedded in it. . I try and export it and it wont prepare the project beyond 16 minutes and shuts down every time. I have tried exporting it to movies idvd itunes,and quicktime in a variety of sizes although not the smallest as I want to watch it on my computer and tv. All videos were recorded on an iphone. Apple store couldn't help me and suggested I redo part of the project. It is a really good project and would take hours to redo it . I just want to export it. Can any one please help???

Hi
Trying to get a picture of it.
• Free Space on Your Start-Up (Mac OS) Hard Disk. How Much ?
• Any other hard disks connected ?
• If so - Formatted as ?
Yours Bengt W

[BUG] Exporting to xls and xlsx produces empty file

When I'm viewing a table with data, and in Actions choose "Export...", turn off "Export DDL", choose "xls" for format, everything else is on default, and either leave empty or enter same name for both Query and Data worksheet names, and specify filter query - export produces empty xls/xlsx file. Only when one explicitly enters different worksheet names does valid non-empty excel workbook get generated with two differently named worksheets.
Either validation should be added for worksheet names, or generating them automatically on export should be supported.
I'm using Oracle SQL Developer 3.1.07.
Kind regards,
Stevo.

Hi Stevo,
Really appreciate you reporting this. There was an earlier, somewhat similar thread on this issue that we blamed on export file size:
Sql Developer 3.1 - Exporting a result set in xls generates and empty file
But you have discovered an important variation that explains it for small export file sizes also. Here is what I verified on 3.1.07.42:
1. Normally if the worksheet names are left untouched (empty), then the names default to Export Worksheet and SQL
2. If the name settings in Tools|Preferences|Database|Utilities|Export|Excel Format are null (empty), there is no problem
3. If the name settings are intentionally changed to a single blank character, then the problem you describe occurs.
So, you may wish to go to the preference settings and intentionally Backspace over each to null it out, then click OK.
In the case of intentionally setting both worksheet names, data and query, to the same non-null value, that is also a problem.
Regards,
Gary
SQL Developer Team
Edited by: Gary Graham on Apr 17, 2012 11:55 AM
Logged a bug for this:
Bug 13971991 - FORUM: EXCEL FILE EMPTY IF DATA AND QUERY WORKSHEETS ARE THE SAME AND NON-NULL
Edited by: Gary Graham on May 25, 2012 2:00 PM
Notification received: fixed for 3.2

Bug: Export to QT with a looping video inside

Hi,
I posted on this exact same problem about a year ago for Keynote 2.x (or was it 1.x ?). The problem (feature, bug?) was and still is:
I have a self running Keynote presentation (3.0.1). Inside this presentation are in some places looping QT movies. When I export the entire presentation to QT, the looping videos inside only run once (i.e. do not loop).
As this did not get fixed in 3.0, either:
a) this is a feature, not a bug
b) no one from apple reads this list
Regards,
Gert

Welcome back to the discussions, Gert.
a) it's not a feature or a bug.
When you export to QuickTime, you are taking all of the media and laying it out linearly. Since a loop isn't linear (start, play, end, back to beginning, play, end, etc), it gets removed.
COULD Apple do this? Yes, but it would also mean that the exported movie would now be in an extra number of files and past experience indicates that this might be more confusing to the consumer (export a presentation with a background movie track and you'll see a "soundtrack" file).
b) well someone has to read and moderate it to make sure we're not getting out of line, but this is a user to user discussion board first and foremost.

AVI files and re-rendering

When my source files are .avi files, they are require a lot of time to render in the timeline, and when they are layered against each other, or any other video overlaps them in the timeline, they require re-rendering.
Just curious if there is any way to "convert" them so they behave more like the DV captures which rarely need re-rendering.

Okay, thanks for the tip. As far as using the settings that match my sequence settings, I'm not sure I can do that with the export to DV with QuickTime Player.
The frame size, vid rate, and compressor all match (720 x 480, 29.97 fps, DV/DVPRO-NTSC). However the Data Rate on these new exported DVs is 6.9 MB/sec compared with 3.6 MB/sec on the captures from tape, and the Aud Rate is 32.0 KHz compared to 48.0 KHz.
In the export window of QuickTime Player, I don't have control over too many things, just DV Format, Video Format (NTSC/PAL), Scan Mode, Aspect Ratio, and Audio Format.
The resulting DV files after the export still require rendering on the timeline.

After Effects CC - Export Still Frame

Hi,
I have recently upgraded to CC. I am trying to export still frames as a jpg from After Effects CC
CS 5.5 (and previous versions) allowed me to use the shortcut ctrl+alt+s to add the current frame to the render queue as a still frame. I would then change the format via the output module.
The same shortcut in CC opens a dialogue box with psd as the only available output format. Composition> Save Frame As > File... also results in psd format with no other options.
Is there a simillar simple process for exporting a still frame jpg via the render queue?
Thanks in adavance

scott_travers wrote:
There does seem to be some unnecessary changes.
However i have resolved this myself, if you click ok on the dialogue box and except the psd format, it adds it to the render quene where you can then change the format. No idea why there aren't any other options in the 'Save as File...' option, only PSD.
This is the expected behavior when you have never rendered a comp from a newly installed version of AE. It's worked this way since at least AE 6.5 (the oldest version I have installed on a nearby computer to compare). The output module needs to have a destination for the file, so when you invoke the Save Frame As File command for the first time it brings up the Save As dialog. For the same reason, if you were to add a comp to the Render Queue directly it won't allow you to render until you set a destination.
After the first time you create a output module with a destination, AE will remember the last-used location and use that by default without asking you. The only time you should it would ask you again is if you destroy AE's preferences or if the last-used location is no longer valid (deleted folder, disconnected drive, etc.).
The reason the only selectable format here is PSD is because that is what the default OM for Save Frame As File uses. You can, and should, change this if you always use a different format. Go to Edit > Templates > Output Module . Create a new template with your desired settings and assign it to Frame Default.

Several crazy bugs LP7/MBPro and apogee rosetta800

several wierd things:
all the following happens randomly in mid session after stuff "worked fine just a second ago"... so its not a problems with my settings...
- after working fine, punch on the fly do not record any signal although the input shows signal coming in. normal record(not by punching on the fly) still works fine.
(this issue happens only with certain tracks- not all, which makes it even more strange...).
- inputs 5-8 gives a message "invalid input setting". again, it worked just fine a second ago...
- inputs mixed up.for example, input 4 suddenly records signal that is actually coming from input 3.
- in a middle of a session suddenly a serious latency is introduced if monitoring through software. again, has nothing to do with buffer. it happens all of a sudden after it worked just fine a second ago...
im using macbook pro 2g. are these machines usable yet...? never had that problem on my G4.
thanks,
Rea.
macbook pro 2G Mac OS X (10.4.3)

are you sure you're working with at least logic 7.2 or later? earlier versions are not intel compatible and will behave very strangely, if they work at all.
otherwise, in general - yes, these machines are doing just fine with logic. apart from one or two intel specific bugs (export audio to movie doesn't work, for example), it's all working fantastically well here.

Bug #18104 still exists

Hello,
I am quite disappointed about BDB 5. One of the most nasty bugs (#18104) still
exists. As soon as you want to use the set_thread_count() feature, BDB will not
free the thread-control-block. If you connect/disconnect, BDB will stop working
quite early. You can re-produce this issue with any `db_*` tool.
The testcase:
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <db.h>
#define DIRECTORY "/tmp/db"
int main()
    /* open environment */
    DB_ENV *handle;
    int status = db_env_create( &handle, 0 );
    status = handle->set_cachesize( handle, 0, 32*1024*1024, 0 );
    status = handle->set_thread_count( handle, 0x100 );
    status = handle->open( handle, DIRECTORY, DB_CREATE, 0644 );
    if( status != 0 )
        return 1;
    /* raise error "Unable to allocate thread control block" */
    for( ;; )
        system( "db_stat -e -h " DIRECTORY " | grep process/thread | wc" );
    return 0;
}

Hi Sandra,
Hi Greg,
Our architecture is quite simple: a cron-job runs ENV->failchk() and ENV->txn_checkpoint()
once a minute (which should be fine, shouldn't it?)
The problem, neither ENV->close() nor ENV->failchk() removes outdated items from the
thread-control-block. One would expect, that the PID is added to the block as soon as the
process connects and removed when the process disconnects. But it is not.
If the block runs out of memory, BDB requires a recovery (see the down below testcase).
Usually ENV->failchk() cleans the thread-control-block, as soon as there are more items in
the block than "thread_count". Today three times it did not even remove them, if there were
more than "thread_count" items in the block - but this happend sporadic so it was difficult
to create a testcase.
Once ENV->failchk() cleans the thread-control-block, BDB works as expected. If a process
connects, the PID is added to the block, and as soon as the process disconnects, the PID is
removed from the thread-control-block. You can test this by looping the first loop 1090 times.
The testcase:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <db.h>
#include <errno.h>
#define DIRECTORY "/tmp/db"
static int bdb_is_alive( DB_ENV *dbenv, pid_t pid, db_threadid_t tid, u_int32_t flags )
    int status;
    status = kill( pid, 0 );
    if( status != -1 )
        return 1;
    if( errno == ESRCH )
        return 0;
    exit( 1 ); /* should never happen */
int main()
    system( "mkdir -p " DIRECTORY );
    system( "db_recover -h " DIRECTORY );
    system( "rm -rfv " DIRECTORY "/*" );
    /* open environment */
    int status, i;
    DB_ENV *handle;
    status = db_env_create( &handle, 0 );
    status = handle->set_cachesize( handle, 0, 32*1024*1024, 0 );
    status = handle->set_thread_count( handle, 1091 );
    status = handle->set_isalive( handle, bdb_is_alive );
    status = handle->open( handle, DIRECTORY, DB_CREATE, 0644 );
    if( status != 0 )
        return 1;   /* should never happen */
    status = handle->failchk( handle, 0 );
    status = handle->close( handle, 0 );
    /* Now start workers (`db_stat`) + failchks() */
    for( i=0; i < 1089; ++i )       /* thread_count - 2 */
        fprintf(stderr,"Number of items in the thread-control-block: "); fflush(stdout);
        system( "db_stat -e -h " DIRECTORY " | grep process/thread | wc -l" );
        status = db_env_create( &handle, 0 );
        status = handle->set_isalive( handle, bdb_is_alive );
        status = handle->open( handle, DIRECTORY, DB_CREATE, 0644 );
        if( status != 0 )
            return 1;   /* should never happen */
        status = handle->failchk( handle, 0 );      /* strange - does not remove the process-entries created by `db_stat` */
        if( status != 0 )
            return 1;   /* should never happen */
        status = handle->close( handle, 0 );
    /* raise error: "Unable to allocate thread control block" */
    for( i=1; i < 422; ++i )
        fprintf(stderr,"Number of items in the thread-control-block: "); fflush(stdout);
        system( "db_stat -e -h " DIRECTORY " | grep process/thread | wc -l" );
    /* You should see on stderr:
            db_stat: Unable to allocate thread control block
            db_stat: Unable to allocate thread control block
            db_stat: DB_ENV->open: /tmp/db: Cannot allocate memory
    fprintf(stderr,"BDB is dead now. Only `db_recover` helps...\n%s\n",db_version(NULL,NULL,NULL));
    return 0;
}

What is the difference between"export audio and "bounce"?

What is the difference between the "export audio" and "bounce" functions?
Do plug ins get saved with the created BWF(broadcast wave files)in the "export" function?
Or is the "bounce" method the required function to enable plugins embedded in BWF files?
Also I noticed that the "convert to SDII file" produces files not readable by ProTools.
It was my understanding that using the convert to SD II files via the audio bin is used, it would produce BWF files for use in Protools.And if you use symbols like / in your track names the files won't get converted or bounced!
Also would it not be cool if LE8 had a feature that could render BWF files small enough to send via internet file sharing and transfer apps, in other words a built in file transfer feature. Am I asking for too much.

Export audio is good to move the tracks to another application or computer for further editing.
Bounce renders the mix into a stereo track in 2 basic ways: PCM, i.e. uncompressed, or compressed (like AAC, mp3 etc.).
PCM can be AIFF, Broadcast WAV (even if it's written only WAV those are BWF), and SDII that's the standard file type of ProTools.
Note that PT doesn't use interleaved stereo files but two separate files for left and right channels, i.e. filename.l and filename.r and if you save in this way PT will accept those files for sure.
Uncompressed audio files cannot be compacted (in fact, that's why they're called uncompressed).
These days there are a lot of Internet services that permit to transfer several Gb (up to 5) for free.
If you are thinking of something like Digidelivery then you should put your attention towards Digi's products, not Apple's ones.
cheers
rob

HT1688 I updated my iPhone 5C to the iOS 7.0.1 "bug fixes" update and it has made my phone glitch constantly and has just made it a complete nightmare. How can I go back down to iOS 7?

basically yeah, I updated my software because it said that iOS 7.0.1 was out as a bug fixes update and now my phone constantly glitches the **** out, its super slow, and it pretty much created more bugs than it did fix them. So how can I go back to iOS 7? because 7.0.1 is an absolute nightmare.

Try updating to iOS 7.0.2.
Does your iPhone still have performance issues? Have you tried the basics?

Can't believe the caching bug is STILL there

Hi,
I MUST be missing something. It can't be true that this has not been fixed after so many years.
So well, the problem is, every time you load an external asset or file, say for example using a Loader object or a URLLoader object (the same happened in AS2 with MovieClipLoader, LoadVars, XML.load() etc etc, and even before with loadMovie, etc) - every time you load a file, the Flash Player caches that file, and this is independent from your browser: it is Flash Player's own (and primitive) caching mechanism.
Whenever you load a file with the same URL again, no matter whether the file has been changed or not, Flash Player will use the cached copy, and there's NO WAY to prevent that - there are a few workaround that I will discuss later but they don't solve the problem completely, besides being terribly combersome.
Now, the HTTP protocol has a wonderful mechanism to manage the caching of files in an intelligent way, which has been working for years and, I think, was invented even before flash existed, however at least 10 years ago, and it works fine.
If an HTML page has an IMG tag with an image, for example, and if the browser has already a cached version of the image with that URL, the browser will first ask the server for that file and declare it has a cached version with date xxx; if the server's file is not newer than xxx, then the server replies that the file has not changed and the browser can use its cached version (or insist to redownload it if he wishes). But if the file on the server is newer, the server will reply with the new file, and the browser will NEVER show an obsolete cached version of the image (or whatever file).
Now, I don't know why, Flash Player was designed in a very primitive way that ignores this whole mechanism provided and standardised by the HTTP protocol. Flash Player will ALWAYS use a cached version of the file if he has one, it won't worry about veryfying whether it is obsolete or not.
So, unless the user clears its cache, whenever you update an xml, txt, jpg or whatever file that is loaded within your flash application, users that have previously visited the page may still see the old version.
Now, there's an easy workaround for ensuring that a cached version of the file is NEVER used, which is appending a "?somerandomname="+n to the filename, where n is obtained for example as n=(new Date()).value(); in order to ensure that it is always different.
This way, the complete url of the file is always different and the cached version will never be used.
However, this is not a solution either. For small text files it is ok, but for images and swf's for example, you DO want the cached file to be used IF it is not obsolete. Otherwise, returning visitors will always have to wait for the complete download time of everything, including files that have been downloaded yesterday and have not been modified.
So, this problem has been solved ages ago by the HTTP protocol, but the Flash Player is naive and ignores it.
I used to use 2 workarounds: the one I have mentioned for small files (texts, xml's), and the following one for files that can be updated every once in a while:
In the main html page, I append "?lastupdate=dddddd" to the swf name, where dddddd is a manually edited date of the last time something relevant has been updated. So for example:
<object ....... etc etc> <param name="movie" value="mainswffile.swf?lastupdate=20090625"/>... <embed etc etc etc src="mainswffile.swf?lastupdate=20090625"/></object>
Or something like that.
When I update some of the files that are to be loaded, I manually edit the "lastupdate" thing in the html.
Then in the ActionScript programming I use the _root.lastupdate variable to append to the filenames of images or assets I load.
All this is horribly cumbersome and error-prone. Image you deploy a website to a client that will be able to update his own texts and images: you have either to explain him how to edit the html file also, or create some complicated server-side or client-side script to manage the cache-avoiding system. That is, reinventing the wheel, in this case the cache.
Every time a new version of the player was released, I expected it to fix the stupid caching problem and to make my cumbersome tricks obsolete and unnecessary.
I expected to see that the new version would make proper use of HTTP caching protocol specifications, and use cached files ONLY when they are not outdated, after verifying it with the server according to the HTTP protocol.
Every new version of the player was a disappointment.
Then I hope the new version of the language, Action Script 3.0, would fix this.
No, it seems it doesn't.
I've done some tests with AS3 and with my great and sad surprise, the caching "bug" is still there.
Well, the bug, not the "bug": this is a bug proper, because there's no reason why it should work this way.
So, my question is.
Maybe am I missing something? Is there a way, by using some method or property of URLLoader, Loader and/or URLRequest, to tell Flash Player to use the cache in an intelligent way? I mean, in a not-astonishingly-stupid way?
Note that I'm not talking about forcing it to NOT USE cache at all: I mean using a cached version when it is appropriate, and redownloading the file when needed, as all decent http application have done for years.
Perhaps there IS a way to solve this.... It should be the default behaviour and should be transparent, but however, if there is a SERIOUS fix (not a hackaround), that would at least solve the problem.
Do anybody know of a method that really works?
(I have read of people trying by using http headers with caching directives but without success; or in the best case maybe they were able to force never-caching, which is NOT a solution as I explained)
Thanks in advance.
And if there is any Adobe developer listening, please fix this bug since it is really a shame that an application written in 2008 or 2009 suffers from a problem that was elegantly and definitely solved in the XX century.
Regards,
m.

I wrote a long reply and when I posted it it vanished.
I had even control+c'opied it before submitting but it didn't even get into my clipboard.
Shame on this forum (sorry to say that, but that's what I have to say).
So, I'll try to write it again but it won't be the same: the amount of rage is augmented.
Thank you BWolfe for letting me know that Flash now (since last year) has a bug management system. It was also such an enormous shame that it didn't have one.
Adobe used to confuse bug reports with feature requests; now this kind of confusion is still partially there and it is reflected by the voting thing, which is an absolute aberration. In a decent bug management system, the developers take the responsibility to give the bugs the priority they deserve; and no matter how low the priority, even the smallest bug ALWAYS get into the queue.
Now this bug we are discussing has been well known for AT LEAST EIGHT YEARS and I am not exaggerating at all, as I started using flash in 2001 and the issue was already mentioned here and there in forums etc; probably some blind people didn't see it as a bug (rather as a situation you have to face or work around), but it was known. And the very solution, as I already pointed out, was there even before Flash was conceived (well, for the sake of scientifical rigour, I should say, before Flash was commercialized): the HTTP protocol has the capability to perfectly manage file caching in a manner transparent to the higher layer.
So, since I don't believe that nobody at Adobe (formerly Macromedia) has heard about a bug that every intermediate-level actionscript developer in the world knows of, it is already kind of a shame that we have to report it in 2009, but that's ok. But that we have to get votes, no, that's an insult.
Jesus, ActionScript is a programming language, man, A PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE... it is not like Photoshop or Premiere; and it seems like in so many years, people who manage it haven't yet realised it completely.
Big Brother contestants should be voted. Feature requests may be voted. Bugs cannot be voted should just be fixed one by one as soon as possible.
Well, sorry for the rant and thank you for the answers.
Hope this gets through this time.

Bug? Exporting stills and broken renders...

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