imagecache and imagefield not creating imagecache directory in files directory

imagecache don't creates the filedirectories under "files" ... any ideas?

If I may add my 2c, because I found some points in this discussion unclear, this is how it is supposed to work:

1. The .htaccess file in drupal is supposed to stay the way it is, except if there is a reason to change something.

2. The .htaccess file under your files directory must contain only those two lines:
SetHandler Drupal_Security_Do_Not_Remove_See_SA_2006_006
Options +FollowSymlinks

3. Your files directory (the one which you have specified in your general settings) must exist and must be writable by all (777).

Normally, the "#RewriteBase" line in drupal's .htaccess should stay disabled as it is, with the # in front.
(All settings are done with the settings.php and with its directory name under /sites.)
Only if for some reason clean URLs do not work with this setup, then you try to change it to "Rewritebase /mydir" and remove the #.

I've been pulling my hair out for days trying to figure out why my image cache "wasn't working". As is often the case, it wasn't the module - it was me. I only hope the information I am about to impart will save others from going insane!

My situation: I run Apache, MySQL(5) and PHP on my Windows XP machine for development - I find it quicker. I've only started doing this recently. I move the site to my webhost which is a LAMP setup when it's pretty much there.

I couldn't get imagecache to work (image files weren't appearing in the directory they were supposed to).

Problem - I hadn't altered my temporary files path in administer->site configuration->File system. It still read 'c:\temp' which should have been '/tmp' . I am a buffoon.

I was following one of the really great articles over on lullabot and ran into some grief with imagecache on 5.2 - my new images were not being created.

Basically my problem was that I had placed my "files" directory outside my webroot and called it drupal_files. i.e. I had drupal_files at the same level as mysite.com.

This caused me lots of grief and my new images were not being created. Solved my moving my file system back to using a files directory inside my webroot e.g. mysite.com/files.

I had read in some article somewhere or heard in some podcast that it was "more secure" to place your files directory outside your webroot directory. I duly followed this advise and all was well until I started trying to use imagecache and my new files were not being created.

As I can configure my files directory to be wherever I like (and called whatever I like) in the admin interface is it perhaps a bug in imagecache that it will only work with the files directory at the default location/name? I pose this as a question as there is a good chance that I was simply doing something basic incorrectly... perhaps I didn't form the URL to the new image correctly... although no imagecache directory was created in my drupal_files....

Anyway, with my file system at mysite.com/files it all works - imagecache has created a new directory in my mysite.com/files directory with all the required sub-directories and resized images required.

I must admit I have found finding good documentation on imagecache and it's setup hard to find...

Hope this info helps somebody else!

Windows XP
apatche 2.2.4
msql 5.0
php 5.2.3
drupal 5.2
phpbb module for phpbb3
imagecache 1.3

I had the same problem. And I am working now for 3 days on getting the imagecache to work on my site. I did every thing I found on the drupal site to get it working.
attrib -r \D \s ' drupal directory'
setting temp directory to 'tmp' ( this is now in my drupal directory )
checked all the .htaccess files
and nothing worked. To day I found that with the integration of phpbb I changed the .htaccess file of the forum, to

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine on
  # Modify the RewriteBase if you are using Drupal in a subdirectory and
  # the rewrite rules are not working properly.
  #RewriteBase /

  RewriteRule ^inbox$           ucp.php?i=pm&folder=inbox [L]
  
  RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^mode=login(.*)$
  RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !^bypass=true(.*)$
  RewriteRule ^ucp.php(.*)$ ../phpbb/login [L]
  
  RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^mode=register(.*)$
  RewriteRule ^ucp.php(.*)$ ../user/register [L]

  RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^mode=logout(.*)$
  RewriteRule ^ucp.php(.*)$ ../phpbb/logout [L]
  
  RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^mode=sendpassword(.*)$
  RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^mode=resend_act(.*)$ [OR]
  RewriteRule ^ucp.php(.*)$ ../user/password [L]
</IfModule>

As written in the phpbb module install description. I remove this and it works fine.
The problem here is that the files directory is placed in the forum directory so that it can share avatars and files with the forum. The directory is :
'forum/shares'

I don't know much about .htaccess files, so the question what do I need to change to get the phpbb stuff back and have my imagecache still working ?

AmigoB