Suddenly find is not working

Question

I have been using bridge CS3 (w/ PSE 6) on a mac for a year without a problem.  But all of a suddenly the find is not looking in subfolders when the checkbox look in all subfolders is checked.  I have over 20,000 items in the database without a find I am lost.  Please help.  I have tried deleting the cache directory did not help.

Answer 1

Why use PSE6 if you have PSCS3? but that is pure curiosity
Whenever in trouble with Bridge first thing to try is purge cache for folder using tools menu and then refresh preferences, restart Bridge holding down option key and reset preferences to default.
After this you can try to quit Bridge and manual delete the Bridge plist file from the preferences folder user library.
Not sure what you mean with cache directory but if you trash the Cache from the user library you will have to cache all the files again. It gives you a fresh start but also you will loose all prior cache unless you have exported to folders. But also then Bridge takes time to read this files for the first time.
Apart from the above solution my personal opinion is that it is not wise to use Bridge as DAM (Digital Asset Management). CS3 is very unstable and when using it heavy you will have to refresh prefs and cache on a regular base. Bridge CS4 is much better in stability but also certainly not a preferred DAM application.
If you have to find files from that amount (20K and more) using keywords and description data you better switch to a DAM application like Media Expression, Portfolio or maybe Fotostation. Those apps are not for free (although they have trial versions) but are more suitable for this job.
Bridge is the perfect application for ingesting files, add metadata, batch rename, sorting labeling and start developing to ACR etc but not for DAM I'm afraid