Image capture notification .501 / cache.db - can't clear?

[JeremyGSU]

Hi,

I had a question about cache in a mac. I hadn't cleared my cache in awhile and wanted to do so to speed things up and in trying to clear the cache by dragging it to the trash it says "Imagecapturenotificaton.devicediscoverydatabase.501 in use" and won't let me clear it.

I've seen other threads where people had similar problems getting rid of it and they changed user names to remove it?

What is this exactly? Is it a virus?

How does one get this message in the first place? I've had my Imovie09 program crash a number of times. Could this be a cause?

Thanks.

 

[maflynn]

Not quite off topic, but I'm curious. Why do you think that clearing your cache will speed up the computer, when the application (or the OS) needs to rebuild the cache as you interact with it.

That is, in my experience as a administrator for servers, when ever I clear an application's cache that application's performance is degraded until such time the cache is rebuilt.

My point is, that I'd not worry about clearing the cache and so the issue you're experiencing is moot.

 

[JeremyGSU]

Interesting. To be frank I'm not that computer savvy and I was always under the impression that clearing cache, defragging (Windows), etc. sped up the computer by freeing up space.

If this is untrue then I will stop messing with it.

I assume the message I am receiving is a standard cache program for running the operating system?

In trying to research what it was I just saw other people trying to get rid of this so I assumed it was something I needed to deal with.

 

[maflynn]

The only time I worry about cache, is on windows and I'm having problems with IE.

I clear application server cache on servers when working with the application, i.e., migrating components from a development environment to production. when I do that it negatively impacts the performance as I stated.

I've not really ever cleared cache on OSX, I think I may have toyed with clearing safari's cache once or twice but that was more out of comparison on how it works vs. IE

I'm not saying you should or shouldn't but rather I'm curious to know why users do this (I find OSX works best when we let it work, whether its cache, memory or avoiding the app onyx)

 

[JeremyGSU]

Gotcha. Like I said I was just doing it because I thought it was "better" for the performance. In doing some more research is appears Image Capture is just an Imac program and others have had issues with it. I will check the program itself out later to see if it's running correctly.