spammers_bite wrote:
> The supposed cache folder location for FF 2.0.0.3 never seems to
> receive any files to store in it. The only files that appear during a
> session are the four that always exist (_cache_001_, _cache_002_,
> _cache_003_ and _cache_map_). Absolutely nothing else is loaded within
> the cache folder under the active (and only) profile during a browser
> session. Since discovering this, I've had Windows Explorer open to the
> cache folder during FF sessions to watch the folder's habits. About
> the only thing that loads into the cache folder is streaming media,
> but even that is only temporary. Flash (FLV) content, for instance,
> will store downloads to the cache folder, but as soon as the download
> is done, the file is then automatically deleted. I assume that because
> the video still is completing itself after the delete, most of the
> content is either stored elsewhere on the HD, or it's in RAM.
>
> This trait started recently, though I don't know what could've spawned
> it.
>
> Anyone know how to fix this? Now that I know about it, it's become a
> bit disconcerting to see the folder vacant all of the time. It seems
> like FF is using someplace else to hold the temporary browsing
> content, but I don't know where to look to confirm this assumption.
> Any advice would be appreciated.
>

Works for me. FF 2.0.0.3, WinXP Home SP2, 512MB RAM.

Watching the cache folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\Dad\Local Settings\Application
Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\\Cache

and visiting www.abcnews.go.com I see a couple of files created, with
names like:
0F2E59ABd01

Clicking on an article doesn't necessarily create a cache entry for me,
but viewing a video does. I'm assuming that FF is probably keeping the
smaller files in memory, rather than on disk. I believe that is the
basis for the faster rendering when you click the Back button, because
most, if not all of the page is still in memory.

Try this:

Type 'about:cache', without the quotes, in the address bar. This will
show you a summary of both the memory cache and the disk cache.

Open a new tab and visit a site.

Switch back to the about:cache tab & refresh the page. You should see
the data change.

As another experiment, you could temporarily disable the memory cache:

1. Type 'about:config' in the address bar.

2. In the Filter: box, type 'cache'.

3. Double click on browser.cache.memory.enable to toggle the value from
'true' to 'false'.

Visit another site and watch about:cache and the cache folder to see if
changes occur.

To re-enable the memory cache, repeat the steps above.

One other thing to check is the value of browser.cache.disk.enable, make
sure it is set to 'true'. Also check that browser.cache.disk.capacity
is not set to '0'. I believe the default value is 50000, in kB, equal
to 50MB. This can also be set in Tools -> Options -> Advanced.

Note that I have 512MB of RAM installed. I suppose its entirely
possible that if you have substantially more RAM, that FF is taking
advantage of that & using the memory cache more aggressively than on my
machine. But thats just a guess.

--
Alex K.

You can find the descriptions of about:config entries
that Alex gave you some recommendations for in
http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries
for which I've bookmarked with a keyword shortcut of
"aboutconfig:" to resemble about:config


Don't know if it helps or not, but I'm not about to start
looking at naming of files within cache. The following
extension does a good job of finding things in cache.


CacheViewer 0.4.1.1, (14KB download) by benki
This extenion is GUI Front-end of "about:cache".
Allows searching and sorting memory and disk cache files.
Invokes from Tools Menu.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2489

--
David McRitchie, most questions have been asked before.
Firefox customizations/extensions notes, see
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/firefox.htm

I should've mentioned this in my original posting, but I toyed with
the browser.cache.disk.capacity when I was trying to debug the FF
cache earlier...I actually had it set to 2.5GB (from the earlier
experimentations), but I recall that it was set at the default size
before I started my initial fiddling.

I rechecked the FF cache before starting with any further changes: it
still was not using the default cache, regardless of what sites I
visited or how many tabs were opened and pointed to content-laden
websites.

I went ahead and change the browser.cache.memory.enable variable to
false, then surfed content-heavy sites that weren't depositing
anything into the cache before (Cnet, CNN, Newegg, ESPN)...no change
to cache use. about:cache still reported only 19KB of disk cache usage
after each refresh after a new site was visited. At this point I
switch the value back to true and decided to downsize the cache cap to
250MB and went out to the same content-heavy sites again...

Don't know which did it, but now the default cache is *working* again
as a repository; content is being loaded into it as was before this
whole episode and the sites visited are being reported when viewing
the contents in about:cache. Go figure. At any rate, thanks for the
advice.

Just when I begin to think that I might finally have some resemblance
of understanding computers...(sigh).

On 4/21/2007 11:28 AM, Tbird Leader spammers_bite radioed the tower to
announce :
> I should've mentioned this in my original posting, but I toyed with
> the browser.cache.disk.capacity when I was trying to debug the FF
> cache earlier...I actually had it set to 2.5GB (from the earlier
> experimentations), but I recall that it was set at the default size
> before I started my initial fiddling.
>
> I rechecked the FF cache before starting with any further changes: it
> still was not using the default cache, regardless of what sites I
> visited or how many tabs were opened and pointed to content-laden
> websites.
>
> I went ahead and change the browser.cache.memory.enable variable to
> false, then surfed content-heavy sites that weren't depositing
> anything into the cache before (Cnet, CNN, Newegg, ESPN)...no change
> to cache use. about:cache still reported only 19KB of disk cache usage
> after each refresh after a new site was visited. At this point I
> switch the value back to true and decided to downsize the cache cap to
> 250MB and went out to the same content-heavy sites again...
>
> Don't know which did it, but now the default cache is *working* again
> as a repository; content is being loaded into it as was before this
> whole episode and the sites visited are being reported when viewing
> the contents in about:cache. Go figure. At any rate, thanks for the
> advice.
>
> Just when I begin to think that I might finally have some resemblance
> of understanding computers...(sigh).
>
>

Once in awhile percussive maintenance is needed to get things working
again. Not the first case reported of late.

--
Ron K.
Don't be a fonted, it's just type casting