Workaround for slow Bridge when network drive is inaccessible?

Question

Hello all,
Hoping someone has some information regarding an issue I'm having with my workflow and Bridge. I have CS6 installed and am using the 64bit version of Bridge for file management. I work from 2 locations at the moment and have a portable drive that I take with me from place to place with my work files on it. In one location I can plug the drive directly into my system via USB, but in the other location (for various reasons) I have to plug it in elsewhere and access the drive through a network. This all works fine and I have no issues with getting to my files in general. Where I do get an issue however is when I start trying to add shorcuts to the drive within the "Favorites" menu in bridge.
The short of it is that as long as I have a shortcut to the networked drive in the Favorites menu, Bridge will run EXTREMELY slow when I am at the work location where I am accessing the drive directly. It appears that Bridge is trying to look for the networked drive on all the networked computers at that workplace every time I try to access a file or even use the menu system within Bridge (to right click a file for properties for example). I can alleviate the issue by removing the networked drive from my favorites or disconnecting form the internet (that one is not a practical option however), at which time Bridge stops trying to constantly look for the drive eveywhere and returns to normal speed.
This isn't a horrible issue for me, it just creaates a lot of repeat work of having to navigate to the network every time I open bridge again at the location where I access the drive remotely, or having to constantly re-add the networked drive back into the favorites every time... then having to remove it again before use at the other location and so on. Is there a way to adjust or change Bridge's behavior to basically tell it that if the specific drive isn't available after the first attempt to ignore it from then on unless I specfically click on the favorites link? Or in lieu of that, is there a way to have alternate "profiles" within Bridge that have seperate favorites etc. so that I can switch back and forth depending on the location I am at?
Like I said, not a horrible issue, but I really like having the quick, easy access to the drive that the favorite menu provides and would love to have a work around if one is possible. I realize that this setup is not common and so I might just have to deal, but if there is a super user solution or something I can tweak in a config file somewhere I would love to know! Thanks for the input and advice in advance!

Answer 1

Thanks for taking the time to respond guys! Yeah, I didn't think there would be any easy answer to this one. I actually have never had any issues running Bridge with any network I've been on with the exception of the lag when the network drive isn't present. Or to be more specific, severe lag when the networked drive is stored in favorites and then is absent in a situation where there is another different network of computers present. Don't know if it will help anyone who is trying to connet to a network drive etc. but all I do to get Bridge to "see" the network drive is navigate to the desired network drive or folder in Windows Explorer and then drag the drive or folder icon over from the Windows Explorer browser into my favorites area in Bridge. It drops the network link right into the favorites menu complete with a special network icon for the link. That has proven to be the fastest way for me to get a correct and functional connection to a network drive stored in Bridge. I was doing this with Bridge CS5 as well and it has always worked great for me.
For my network drive situation specifcally, I actually link to the entire drive as It's used solely for my design work. It's uniquely named with a title specific to me and my business so it definitely wouldn't be sharing a common name with any other drives or folders on another system on the network. I save the link to the network drive in my favorites and then I only ever have to click that to get to the root directory of the drive and navigate to whatever I need. Works great and super fast at the location where I need to use the network drive. Maybe I don't have hiccups like some because my computer has a reserved IP for that network tied to the MAC address of my computer so it is always the same IP every time.
The functionality I would like is actually very close in Bridge, with the only issue being that it insists on searching other computers on the network after every process it does if the network drive isn't present. The location I work at that doesn't use the network drive setup has 5 computers linked up to their network and so I guess it's scouring each of those every time I do any single thing in Bridge, looking for the long lost network drive lol! I have to confess this is strange behavior and really seems like a bug (albeit maybe a minor one due to the unusual workflow method) to me and Bridge is the only software I have that does this type of behavior. I can't really think of a good reason why you would need Bridge to look for a drive or folder in a location other than the one you have specified in the favorite path for it. I mean what if you have 2 copies of the same folder in different locations for backup purposes? You wouldn't want Bridge taking the initiative on it's own and accessing your backup folder without telling you,  especially if there are legacy versions of a file you wish to retain in the backup location.
If anyone ends up having a solution for this I would love to hear it! Otherwise I'll just have to hope that Adobe eventually buffs up the network functionality of Bridge down the road and in the meantime add and remove the favorites path all the time. I would think smooth network functionality would be increasingly needful and important however. I mean Adobe even offers a cloud service version of their software... That implies to me that they are aware that more and more work will be done "in the cloud" and over networked scenarios. I have my fingers crossed! Thanks again for the info guys!