iPod Photo users...how big is your iPod Photo Cache?

[holy_cow]

I refer you to this thread (http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@251.b7KGaLEiAfS.0@.689e5624) on the Apple Support discussions.

There appears to be this issue, where when syncing your photo library to your iPod Photo, iTunes will create a cache that considerably expands the real estate occupied by your photo library on your computer's hard disk drive. I was wondering if any current owners have experienced this, and if so, whether deleting the cache after the initial sync is actually an option, and if not then has anyone come up with any solution or is this Photo Syncing thing actually an incurable hard drive hog?

[zerock]

hmm i get my photo pod on monday, will try to see if this happens then/, do you use mac or pc?

[holy_cow]

Mac user meself, although this (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300225) implies that the cache is created in PCs, too...if you read the last sentence, it says 'Trash or Recycle Bin,' which means both systems, I'd wager.

I just realised you might be asking what system I use my iPod Photo with, which would be neither since I don't own one yet, but am very interested and hence checking out all possible issues before I plonk down my hard-earneds.

What I'm not clear about is whether the cache is something that has to stay there permanently in order to facilitate syncing, or whether it's just needed for the first sync. But if it's not permanently needed, why not just have iTunes delete it automatically? Curiouser and curiouser...

[zerock]

i use mac too, and according to this you can delete it.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300225

[holy_cow]

Yeah, I looked at that too, but it doesn't say whether syncing will be hindered iif you delete the cache.

For example, it's said that the first photo sync is laboriously slow, but subsequent ones are faster. What if deleting the cache each time you sync causes each sync to be as slow as the first, because the cache has to be rebuilt?

The doc you referred to makes it clear that we can delete it, but doesn't tell us exactly what effects that might have, or whether it'll have no effects at all.

[bluejacket]

If you delete it, it will have to be rebuilt and this will probably take approximately forever. But, new hard drives are cheap. I'm buying one for my "My Documents" folder.

[AHA]

I dumped my cache but have not yet done a re-sync so can't help much. Dumping it has not affected any other functionality (regular mp3 sync etc)