# LR CC 2015.10 so slow it's unusable



## pwp (May 11, 2017)

I'm running a high performance Win 10 64 PC that doesn't blink at high demand Premiere Pro projects or when working with massive PS multi layered images.

In LR CC 2015.9 I had random periods of insanely slow performance in the Develop module. If I use "paste from previous" the new image doesn't show the changes for up to 10 seconds. Changes made on the sliders don't show for several seconds. Try working through a project of 200 image files with a tight deadline. You either move into nervous breakdown territory or switch across to the blazing fast though less functional Adobe Camera Raw in PS CC. 

Shutdown/restart does nothing. Clearing cache does nothing. Switching "Use Graphics Processor" does nothing. Cache size is set at 50Gb. "Use Smart Previews" is checked. Most used file type is Canon 5D MkIV DNG.

When LR 2015.10 shipped I had my fingers crossed. At the start my prayers were answered. LR was dazzlingly fast again. But little by little the slowdown has crept back and is now as bad as it was under 2015.9. Any useful advice on this matter will be very gratefully received.


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## clee01l (May 11, 2017)

Usually, if these kinds of slow downs are unique to a user, then the issue lies somewhere else in the system besides LR. And with Windows systems this is most often attributed to an over zealous anti-malware scanning app.  You should exclude the folders containing your catalog file, Previews and Smart Previews as well as the folders that contain your master image file copies.  Anything that sits between your app(LR)M and the file it needs to read will slow down the performance of that app.  Also note that Win 10 comes with its own anti-malware app.  It is good enough that you don't need a commercial product and it you do use a third party anti-malware app you should make sure that Windows defender is also disabled.

Another area to check is free space.  LR uses a lot of working storage for temporary files so 10-15% of your primary disk drive should be free space to accommodate these another TEMP files created by other apps.

To search for LR related causes, Do you have Face Recognition turned on?  Do you really need it?  The same question about Smart Previews  do you need Smart previews generated?  Smart previews are used in LR Mobile collections, at times when the master original is on a disconnected drive and to speed up develop processes for large files.   If any of this are important, you might want to keep Smart Previews. LR Mobile collections will build a different Smart Preview. So, you can turn off Smart Previews and still have Smart previews for those sync'd collections.

Lastly, when  LR begins to slow down, take a look at Task Manager.  See what processes are sucking up all of your CPU cycles and RAM


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## Victoria Bampton (May 11, 2017)

I'd also be looking at graphics drivers - they can cause all sorts of performance problems.

And just for the fun of it, see if running in a new user account helps at all. I've seen some reports of performance issues due to a corrupted user account, although figuring out what the corruption is may be a lost cause.

Oh, and have you actually rendered smart previews? The use smart previews checkbox usually helps a bit - but it only uses smart previews that already exist.


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## pwp (May 12, 2017)

Thank you Victoria and Cletus. I may be reading it wrong but you appear to have differing opinions regarding Smart Previews.  On or off?

I've updated the Nvidia GTX770 drivers. Face Recognition has always been off. I have 600Gb free space. Windows Defender now excludes anything that LR references.

Victoria, if I create a fresh User Account, do I lose all my custom settings and preferences?

I have a large project to process in a couple of days so that will be the test!


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## clee01l (May 12, 2017)

I don't think we differ in the use of Smart previews.  I have Smart previews on too and I now build them import.   Building Smart Previews on import as a background task does slow the computer initially,  However since LRCC2015.8 the presence of Smart Previews actually speeds up the develop module.
Smart Previews were initially a feature that permitted the user to unplug their laptop from an EHD containing the master image.  If you didn't do that, you really did not need to build Smart Previews and take the performance hit at import.   So knowing what you are going to be using Smart previews for may determine whether you check the box or not.


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## Victoria Bampton (May 12, 2017)

pwp said:


> Thank you Victoria and Cletus. I may be reading it wrong but you appear to have differing opinions regarding Smart Previews.  On or off?


I have them on too. Just some people don't realize the performance checkbox doesn't automatically render them, so they turn it on and expect an improvement... and there's no change because there are no smart previews to use. Does that make more sense?




pwp said:


> Victoria, if I create a fresh User Account, do I lose all my custom settings and preferences?



You can transfer them, but I'm only suggesting it as a performance test anyway, so it wouldn't necessarily be a permanent move unless it massively speeds things up for you.


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## oleleclos (May 14, 2017)

clee01l said:


> ...Smart Previews were initially a feature that permitted the user to unplug their laptop from an EHD containing the master image.  If you didn't do that, you really did not need to build Smart Previews and take the performance hit at import...


I'm not using smart previews, precisely because I didn't think I needed them as I don't have images on external disks. What has changed, and when?


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## clee01l (May 14, 2017)

oleleclos said:


> I'm not using smart previews, precisely because I didn't think I needed them as I don't have images on external disks. What has changed, and when?


In September, Lightroom CC 2015.7 was  released that allowed faster Develop processing with Smart Previews.  I was like you until LR 6.7/LRCC2015.7.


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## oleleclos (May 14, 2017)

clee01l said:


> In September, Lightroom CC 2015.7 was  released that allowed faster Develop processing with Smart Previews.  I was like you until LR 6.7/LRCC2015.7.


Many thanks, I had missed that when installing 6.7.

I’ve now created Smart Previews for all my DNGs, but I don’t see much of a speed benefit. Especially not when zooming 1:1. As I understand it, SPs are scaled to 2540 px on the long edge, so when zooming, I initially get a pixellated version of the 1:1 view, then after a delay the full resolution appears (presumably because my originals are still online - otherwise I could only zoom to the size of the SP). The total time to achieve this is actually 10-15% longer than when not using SPs.

I’ll give it some time and see how it feels when doing some real editing. In what areas would you say I should expect a speed inprovement? The cost in disk space of about 1.2 MB per SP would have to deliver tangible benefits to be worth it.


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## Jim Wilde (May 14, 2017)

I don't think there is any specific area where you should expect a speed improvement. When SPs were first introduced, many users reported that it was "faster" when using them in Develop compared to editing the originals. As a result, some users were deliberately taking the originals offline to force the use of the SPs. Adobe took note of that (unintended?) usage and have simply responded by giving the user the option to use SPs even when the originals are still online. 

"Faster" could mean anything or nothing, it depends on the way your system performs when using the originals. If editing is smooth, no slider lag or jerkiness, no lag when using the adjustment brush, no delays rendering the updated preview, etc., then in all probability using SPs won't be of much discernible benefit. That's the way it is on my system, so although I do build SPs I don't have the preference option enabled.

And yes, if the originals are online and you have selected to use SPs, zooming to 1:1 will switch to the original.


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## oleleclos (May 14, 2017)

Jim Wilde said:


> ...If editing is smooth, no slider lag or jerkiness, no lag when using the adjustment brush, no delays rendering the updated preview, etc., then in all probability using SPs won't be of much discernible benefit. That's the way it is on my system...


Thanks again. That's the way it is for me too most of the time, at least since I upgraded to a 4-core i7. The only time I'm now aware of waiting for Lr is when zooming 1:1 in big images, and if anything, SPs seems to make that worse. So I may end up deleting them again; no need to carry an overhead (in terms of disk space and import speed) that doesn't deliver a clear benefit. I'll keep them for a while and report back if I discover something new.


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## pwp (Jun 3, 2017)

Sigh...I'm on the brink of giving up and making a start with Capture One Pro.

Victoria, you mentioned the possibility of a corrupted user account, and to test using a fresh user account. I'm unclear how to do this. Do I have to create a whole new fresh Adobe ID? If it's a simple matter, can you spell this out?

Thank you!

Later:  Victoria....got it. You meant a fresh Win 10 User Account. I was stuck in the Adobe Universe. That's a simple matter.


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## Headleyj17 (Jun 29, 2017)

Has anyone solved the riddle yet?  I'm sitting here literally cursing at Lightroom!  I have CC 2015.10 on Windows 10, AMD 4131 Quad-core 3.80ghz with 16GB RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 with (i think) 1GB video memory.  The Lightroom itself is installed on SSD, and currently my catalogs + images are on the internal non-SSD 1TB HD.  I've tried switching GPU acceleration on and off, it doesnt seem to make a difference.  I bumped the Lightroom cache up to 50GB from 5GB, and the cache location is on the SSD.  

I build 1:1 previews during import and have the Smart Previews thing checked on.  Before someone suggests that my PC is "slow" or my settings are "bad" - - I've used Lightroom for a hair over 5 years now and right now, it's basically un-usable in Develop mode. This only started when i switched from the regular Desktop version of Lightroom to the CC yearly license.  It's WAY slower than the previous version of LR.  It's mainly in Develop mode.  Pictures that don't even have a single edit made to them take several seconds to load up.  When i make edits, some sliders are quick, some I sit there for several seconds wondering if the change was even made at all - - then all the sudden WHAM the setting is applied.

Yes, I realize going forward that my catalogs should be on the SSD (even if the images remain on my larger non-SSD drive).  But, again, I've been using this PC with Lightroom with the same hardware for several years with zero issue.

PLEASE HELP !!!!  Thanks !


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## Jim Wilde (Jun 29, 2017)

Headleyj17 said:


> Has anyone solved the riddle yet?  I'm sitting here literally cursing at Lightroom!  I have CC 2015.10 on Windows 10, AMD 4131 Quad-core 3.80ghz with 16GB RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 with (i think) 1GB video memory.  The Lightroom itself is installed on SSD, and currently my catalogs + images are on the internal non-SSD 1TB HD.  I've tried switching GPU acceleration on and off, it doesnt seem to make a difference.  I bumped the Lightroom cache up to 50GB from 5GB, and the cache location is on the SSD.



How much free space is there on that internal non-SSS drive? And how much is free on the SSD? And have you tried enabling the preference to use the Smart Preview in Develop, and if so to what effect?


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## Headleyj17 (Jul 4, 2017)

Jim Wilde said:


> How much free space is there on that internal non-SSS drive? And how much is free on the SSD? And have you tried enabling the preference to use the Smart Preview in Develop, and if so to what effect?


Hi there Jim, I have about 155GB free on SSD, and 168 free on the non-SSD internal drive.  I do have the preference set to use Smart Preview in develop mode.  Thing is, I've always built smart previews during Import but never used them in Develop mode because I've never had any speed issues until I got LR CC.  If i use smart previews in develop mode, it's slow but workable;  if i don't use smart previews in Develop mode, it's REAL REAL slow, like 5-6 seconds for an image to fully appear on the screen after clicking it in Develop.

It seems like all the sudden, using smart previews is required?  Does anyone else NOT use smart previews and NOT have any Develop mode performance issues?

Sigh!  I still love LR but man i just don't understand this one !


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## davidedric (Jul 5, 2017)

I don't know what it signifies, I don't use smart previews (or gpu acceleration) and I don't have performance problems. OTOH they are only 16mp images.

Dave


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## johnbeardy (Jul 5, 2017)

What type of files?


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