# Lightroom 4 import is VERY slow



## Neo (Jul 15, 2012)

Hi everyone,

I have a problem with my Lightroom 4.1 and I hope you can help me. Suddenly my imports have become very slow. When I import, it first imports 2 or three photos, then it stops for around 2 minutes, then it takes 2-3 more. That makes it take very long to import many hundreds of photos.

I had the same problem in Lightroom 3.6, but when i upgraded it dissapeared, but then, unfortunately, it came back. My card reader is not the problem, it's USB 3.0 and when I copy the photos with Windows Explorer it takes only 2 minutes or so.

Any ideas?


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## Hal P Anderson (Jul 15, 2012)

Neo,

Welcome!

When you use Windows Explorer to copy the images to a hard drive, can you then import from the disk into LR at a reasonable speed?

Hal


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## Neo (Jul 15, 2012)

No, that is just the same


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## Neo (Jul 15, 2012)

I can add that 18 photos have been added since i made my post.


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## Jim Wilde (Jul 15, 2012)

Are you using the "Make Second Copy" import option?


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## Neo (Jul 15, 2012)

Nope, just a normal "Copy and import"


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## Victoria Bampton (Jul 16, 2012)

What happens if you import from your hard drive using the 'ADD' option instead?  It would be useful to narrow down whether it's an issue getting them into the catalog or copying them around.  Have you optimized your catalog recently?


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## Neo (Jul 16, 2012)

The problem dissapears when using "Add". Then it added 80 photos in just 3 seconds, and the copy from CF-card took around a half minute. But it would be great if I could make it work properly in LR. My catalog was optimized last night when I closed the program.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jul 16, 2012)

Ok, that at least means it's not a problem importing into the catalog.  And if you use the COPY option to copy files that are already on the hard drive to another location on the hard drive (taking the memory card/reader out of the equation), how fast is that?


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## Neo (Jul 16, 2012)

It works as it should - it doesn't take one or two at a time, but is constantly transferring


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## Victoria Bampton (Jul 18, 2012)

Ok, so that points back to the card or card reader again.  Can you borrow one from someone else, just to try?  And maybe try a different memory card?


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## Neo (Jul 18, 2012)

But it works just fine when transferring via Explorer. And I've tried with both a Sandisk SDHC card and a Transcend CF card. Both acts the same.


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## Neo (Jul 18, 2012)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Ok, that at least means it's not a problem importing into the catalog.  And if you use the COPY option to copy files that are already on the hard drive to another location on the hard drive (taking the memory card/reader out of the equation), how fast is that?


 It just came to my mind that you means the Lightroom COPY on import action you mean? I just tried to copy the files via Explorer. Lol. I'll just try trough Lightroom too.


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## Neo (Jul 18, 2012)

Well, now my problem is gone...

But it comes back and dissappears, i just don't now what the problem is. Any suggestions?


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## ukbrown (Jul 18, 2012)

Connect your camera direct to the PC and import from there, is there any difference


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