Caching Places on Startup

[Tony Knight]

I work on my file on both my iMac and MBP, the file living in the Dropbox folder.
This morning when I started on the iMac it started with caching the places a process which takes several minutes
After lunch when I switched to the MBP it did the same, and having exited and restarted it is currently doing it again.
Any thoughts?

[Gregg]

Re: Caching Places on Startup

...when I started on the iMac it started with caching the places...

If you have Reunion 11 set to launch automatically when the Macintosh is started up, this will cause problems. You should not open your family file before Dropbox has had enough time to download any changes to your family file.

You might also want to check to see if your Dropbox account is full. Given that you have 155K people and 10K images I am guessing your family file size very close to the 2 GB limit.

[Tony Knight]

Re: Caching Places on Startup

Gregg
No, I open R11 myself once I am certain Dropbox has finished.
My file is only 599 MB (625 on disk) and I have plenty of space in Dropbox
What files should be in the files package? I thought I used to have a places cache file, but the only current one is surnames even after rebuilding cache files

Tony

[Gregg]

Re: Caching Places on Startup

What files should be in the files package?

As far as places are concerned, you should see two files in your family file package (there are several other files too)...

"places.cache" and "placeUsage.cache"

You will only see these two files after the family file has been properly closed. These files may or may not disappear while the family file is open.

[Tony Knight]

Re: Caching Places on Startup

Closed program. Package now contains multiple files and restarted with no problems.
Thanks

[bayanne]

Re: Caching Places on Startup

I am finding that Reunion 11 is 'Caching places' every couple of days at the moment. As this takes over an hour to work through, is there a way to stop this happening on such a regular basis?

The family file is not loading to my Dropbox folder, probably due to it's large size.

[Tony Knight]

Re: Caching Places on Startup

I am finding that Reunion 11 is 'Caching places' every couple of days at the moment. As this takes over an hour to work through, is there a way to stop this happening on such a regular basis?

The family file is not loading to my Dropbox folder, probably due to it's large size.

I am finding the problem is still recurring on a regular, but random basis, even when restarting on the same machine.

My file package which is now running at 352MB is moving up and down via Dropbox seemingly without problems.
Rebuilding the cache files takes around 20 minutes for me.

[bayanne]

Re: Caching Places on Startup

Opened up fine twice this morning, but the third time, 'Caching places' ...

[Bob White]

Re: Caching Places on Startup

There is another solution. Stop quitting Reunion. In fact, stop shutting down your Mac.

All three of my Macs plus all of my iOS devices run 24/7/365. This practice will significantly lengthen the life of your device as you no longer subject the internals to very significant temperature changes once or more each day. On my iMac, Reunion is always running, so now you know why, while responding to many OS questions, I don't do startup questions.

[bayanne]

Re: Caching Places on Startup

My Mac is running 24/7/365.
However as I have moved recently from version 9 to 11, I have been quitting Reunion when I have finished using it.
In version 9 I had major issues with a gradual memory leakage until it would just crash.
I note that in Activity Monitor, memory usage is now circa 100 mb. I had not considered leaving it on though.

It would be happy to hear Gregg's view on that ...

[Tony Knight]

Re: Caching Places on Startup

My Mac is running 24/7/365.
However as I have moved recently from version 9 to 11, I have been quitting Reunion when I have finished using it.
In version 9 I had major issues with a gradual memory leakage until it would just crash.
I note that in Activity Monitor, memory usage is now circa 100 mb. I had not considered leaving it on though.

It would be to hear Gregg's view on that ...

I turn off my Macs when I am finished working. The iMac on which I am typing this is 5 years old, my others range from 6 months upward, the newest being a 5k iMac with two additional 27" monitors which is marvellous for genealogy work.

I am not sure that running Reunion continuously when you work across more than one machine is practicable. I seem to recall that you get a warning if you try to do this and the home for your file is the Dropbox folder. At present I cannot envisage how I could keep two machines in sync, which would not involve loading the most up to date file into the already Reunion program which is where the problem occurs.

[Bob White]

Re: Caching Places on Startup

......In version 9 I had major issues with a gradual memory leakage until it would just crash.........

That's why you should restart the Mac weekly when it runs 24/7. Memory leakage has always been a problem across all platforms from Day One in the computer world.

Tony: No problem with running all the time. When I bring up Reunion on my laptop, it presents a message saying it is running on another device and it will close the family file on that device. Okay it and it does just that; it does not quit Reunion on the other device; it just closes that family file. Also, this is only between Macs. Reunion Touch is a separate app and can have the file open at the same time as it syncs in real time via Dropbox.

[Tony Knight]

Re: Caching Places on Startup

That's why you should restart the Mac weekly when it runs 24/7. Memory leakage has always been a problem across all platforms from Day One in the computer world.

Tony: No problem with running all the time. When I bring up Reunion on my laptop, it presents a message saying it is running on another device and it will close the family file on that device. Okay it and it does just that; it does not quit Reunion on the other device; it just closes that family file. Also, this is only between Macs. Reunion Touch is a separate app and can have the file open at the same time as it syncs in real time via Dropbox.

Bob

Is it though the closing of Reunion or the Family file that triggers the caching?
It did not happen with R10.

[Tom Robinson]

Re: Caching Places on Startup

There is another solution. Stop quitting Reunion. In fact, stop shutting down your Mac.

All three of my Macs plus all of my iOS devices run 24/7/365. This practice will significantly lengthen the life of your device as you no longer subject the internals to very significant temperature changes once or more each day.

That's a very old meme, and not true now… if it ever was.

In addition to wasting power, components will wear more by being continuously on (particularly moving parts like disc drives and fans) than being switched on/off a couple of times a day.

Put your computers to sleep :]

[Bob White]

Re: Caching Places on Startup

That's a very old meme, and not true now… if it ever was.

In addition to wasting power, components will wear more by being continuously on (particularly moving parts like disc drives and fans) than being switched on/off a couple of times a day.

Put your computers to sleep :]

Please clarify, Tom, as it sounds like you are on both sides of the fence. You start off sounding like you favor shutting down and you end up saying to put them to sleep -- which is exactly what I do. (Meme? Not familiar with that word..)

Actually, regarding the power issue, when I was working (been retired 12 years now), we ran a test involving about 2500 desktops across three buildings. We obtained all of the power usage data for a 90 day period where users were doing whatever they pleased; most were shutting down overnight (some even during lunch). We then instructed all users to shut off monitors but leave the computer running in sleep mode. The result was that the total electrical bill for the three buildings went from a steady about $12,500 monthly to a steady about $9,600 monthly. Side benefit was a gain of productive time as users could immediately begin using their desktop. Needless to say, we stayed with the mode of leaving them on.