Where to look for Originals in the cache?

Get Help
#1

When I look at the DEVICE SETTINGS of my Mac for CLEAR CACHE I get the following message:

MylioCacheOriginals
MylioCacheOriginals884×548 67.3 KB

I want to see which are the Originals mentioned but don’t know where to look or how to filter them. My total catalog is 100.000+ photos.

Thank you in advance for helping me.

#2

Hello Hak - any computer device you’re using with Mylio that gives you access to it’s file system (like a Mac or Windows computer) will have a Mylio Directory in your User Home Directory.

  • For Mac, look for ‘Computer Name’ -> Macintosh HD -> Users -> ‘Your User Name’ -> Mylio.
    • For Windows, look for This PC -> (C:) -> Users -> ‘Your User Name’ -> Mylio.

What you’ll see inside this Mylio folder is a full representation of your folder structure. All folders will contain a copy of your XMP files and some folders will have Originals in them if the have been ‘cache’.

Hope this helps.

J.C.

#3

Thank you for your fast answer.
This helps to find these photos on the drive, but is there a way to show them in one of Mylio’s views?

HAK

#4

I’m not sure I completely understand your question, but perhaps this will help. In the details Panel under Info you can see the file path for a particular photo if you scroll all the way down.

Screen Shot 2021-01-07 at 9.27.38 AM
Screen Shot 2021-01-07 at 9.27.38 AM1856×2208 292 KB

#5

All of my 100.000+ photos are in different folders on an external drive or on 2 mobile phones and 2 iPads. I have 2 external vault drives. There are NO originals on the ssd of my Mac mini.

The dialogue shown in my first question says, that there are 3209 Originals cached. I don’t know, why they have been cached and would like to know, which photos these are before clearing the cache.

Looking at the Info panel photo by photo is not possible because the total number of photos is way too big. And no Info field give a clue, if an image is/was cached or not.

#6

I made the jump, cleared the cache - but instead of 3209 originals I now have 5600+ jpg + raws + amp files in my waste bin.
I verified for a good dozen of images in the bin: the image files are still in their corresponding source folders and remain properly shown in Mylio’s views.

Conclusion: I have no idea, why these files were in the cache - but emptying the cache did not lead to any missing files and gave me back more than 60GB of diskspace.

The role of the cache remains quite a mystery for me.

HAK

#7

I understand now. What you did is the correct approach. You don’t have to worry about the cache deleting originals, as an image is only considered to be in cache if the same file is also saved to your vault(s).

THis article talks a bit more about it: Troubleshooting: What is Cache and How Do I Clear It? - Mylio Support

1 Like
#8

I can think of several ways that files get temporarily “cached” in Mylio -

  • Sync On Demand automatically downloaded a Preview size image when you clicked on a photo (for which your device would normally only store a Thumbnail).
  • You chose Download Original(s) for some selected photo(s) or a folder (for which your device would normally only store a Thumbnail or Preview)
  • You downgraded your computer’s Device Sync Policy - eg it was originally a Vault, but you changed it to Thumbnails-only, or Auto-Optimized. Any (now unwanted) Previews or Originals on your device will now be considered “cached”, and removed when space is needed.
  • You imported some photos on a device that normally doesn’t keep Originals (eg, Thumbnails-only or Auto-Optimized). The Originals will be temporarily imported to this device, until they can be synced with your Vault(s). Then they will be considered “cached” and subject to removal as space is needed.
3 Likes