# Having lightroom performance issues



## tangled mentation (Sep 17, 2012)

Hi, First let me explain that my son tells me that I am an idiot when itcomes to technology (personally I think he is overstating the case). \I have LR 4.1 running on a I7 920 CPU running at 2.66 GHz with 10 GB Ram. I am using Windows Home Premism 7 64 bit running from a Samsung SSD drive. I have lots of disc space. So, I would expect LR to be blazingly fast. My GPU is a NVidia GTX 285 running a 30 inch Hazro monitor. 

The speed problem is particularly noticeable when I am going through photos that I have imported and discarding them. It all feels like a memory leak to me but what do I know. I appreciate advice hints and tips.

Steve


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 17, 2012)

Hi, welcome to the forum.

I have a very similar spec to you, and for me LR4 runs fine.....though that may just be that our expectations are different. So what problems are you encountering when reviewing and culling your imports? What camera are you using, i.e. what size files are you dealing with? What type of previews do you render during import?

Some users have reported performance problems with LR4 since its release, many with high-end systems, whilst others such as myself have been more fortunate. The LR4.2 Release Candidate was recently made available, and seems to have improved performance for some. Although it's a Release Candidate, and thus it still not technically a 'final' release, it seems to be very stable and may be worth considering.


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## tangled mentation (Sep 17, 2012)

Thanks Jim, for such a rapid response. I guess that my expectations are based on watching videos of inididuals using LR (admittedly generally on Macs. However, my system gets to slow I could almost go and have a coffee after a while! I am shooting raw files using a D7000, so they are about 40 - 50 MB a go.

Steve


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 17, 2012)

Steve, probably going to need a bit more info than that.....

What are you doing in Lightroom when it gets so slow? Which module are you in? And the question I asked earlier about the type of previews you are rendering on Import?

I thought the D7000 was only a 16mp sensor, which shouldn't create files of 40-50mb size, so are you sure about that? Do you convert to DNG?


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 17, 2012)

Hi Steve, welcome to the forum!  You can tell your son you're clearly not a technology idiot as you found the right people to ask!

My initial guess is that 30 inch monitor.  What happens if you make the LR window smaller so it's not taking up the full screen?  The amount of data it needs to process depends on the amount you can see - rendering 1:1 previews in advance should help Library module speed, but Develop module will see the biggest difference from a smaller window/preview size.


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## tangled mentation (Sep 18, 2012)

Hi Jim,

Sorry for the delay in getting back. In the mean time Victoria has suggested that the 30 screen may be a factor. To naswer your queries, yes, many of the files are smaller but some are big as they are slides (remember them?) scanned in using a coolscan at maximimum resolution for archival purposes. Secondly, the problem occurs mainly in the develop module. Images loads progressively more slowly until I lose interest. Victoria's comment about the monitor is interesting. I had put the problem to my tech guy (middle son who thinks I am a technological numpty), suggesting that I needed to upgrade my graphics card - he was the one who suggested that I go on this forum - better than his usual mantra of 'Google is your friend'. However, I do wonder if I was correct in the first instance? I am going to try running LR in a smaller window to see what happens - oh deep joy!


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## Kiwigeoff (Sep 18, 2012)

It's because you're a Buckethead!!!

Welcome neighbour!!:bluegrin:


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## tangled mentation (Sep 18, 2012)

I think there may be something in the size of screen theory, as the images are loading much faster in a window. Victoria - you talk about rendering 1:1 previews in advance - point me in the right direction Yoda!  Would a better graphics card help and if so, which one?????


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 18, 2012)

Ok, for Library module, select all of the photos in Grid view and go to Library menu > Previews > Render 1:1 Previews.  And then go to bed, it could take a while!!  But once you wake up, hopefully Library module will be a bit quicker.

Your graphics card already looks like a decent spec, so I wouldn't rush to change it, although it's always worth checking for updated drivers direct from Nvidia.  There are some known issues around such big screens - you're not the only one.  It's having to process a lot more data to push to the screen when the preview is so large.  I'd consider using a smaller window in Develop for the time being, just to help with that, and hopefully they'll find a solution.


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## ukbrown (Sep 18, 2012)

Quick suggestion, did your guru actually look at task manager and see waht is using the processor etc when you are working in LR.  You system specs suggest that it should be really fast.  I have less RAM, CPU, graphics and it takes about 1.5-3s for an image to completely render in the develop module.  What times are you looking at? (one mans slow is another mans fast)


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## tangled mentation (Sep 19, 2012)

Hi UKBrown,

My guru is in Wellington trying to find gainful employment before going to uni. But your point is a good one as I have probably too many processes going on and have wondered if I am asking my PC to be a jack of all trades and master of none. As far as loading images goes it seems to be very variable, ranging from almost instantaneous to 5 or six seconds (within a smaller window) and much the same with the program maximised (on a quick test). So, probably much the same as you - perhaps I am asking for too much!

Steve


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## tangled mentation (Sep 19, 2012)

Hi Geoff! 

You're not a JAFA are you??


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## ukbrown (Sep 19, 2012)

I would expect your times to be sub second in all honesty, ssd fast i7 loads of RAM


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## tangled mentation (Sep 21, 2012)

Hi ll.

My tech guy has (again) dissuaded me from upgrading my graphics card (not understanding the rallying cry of the middle-aged man 'he who dies with the most toys, wins". I am still toying with this one because the loading times with LR full screen seem longer. I have tried Victoria's wheeze of re-rendering my images but may have forgotten to mention that I have over 18,000 images at present. Attempts to render them in toto took two days before I gave up. Re-rendering a sub-section (about 3000 images is on-going! Slowly. And my H disc, where I have the main catalogue is now full!!! (the Law of Unintended Consequences), - maybe I need another new hard drive rather than a graphics card!

My tech guy says that I am not disclosing enough information so I must add that I have five and a half internal drives and a big RAID drive for backup as well as an estat drive attached. I do other things than photography and am paranoid about redundancy.

Incidentally, the LRFAQ is a gem - every time I browse (11 hour day today so not a lot - I pick up something useful.

Yours - still confused - Steve


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 22, 2012)

LOL Only 11 hours a day, eh?!


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## AmyL (Sep 23, 2012)

Hello All,

I am brand new to Lightroom - LR4 is my first time out so I have little to compare to. However I agree with "unusably slow" as a good description. Have about 800 photos in library. Takes at least 5-7 seconds for the preview to snap to sharp in Library but worse, takes 25 seconds+ to switch to loupe view on photo.  I am also not a techie but checked with both my photo teacher and computer guy about specs on this computer before purchasing - should be plenty of space, memory, etc.  Is there one place to look for "Settings - Tips for Efficiency" so I can make sure I've at least got things set up in a beneficial way?

I did change settings from 2012 to 2010 Process as I read in another thread that might help - doesn't seem to have made a big difference.

Appreciate people's willingness to help with the basics!


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## tangled mentation (Sep 24, 2012)

Aha! So I'm not alone! Nice to hear from you, Amyl. 

I'm still going through and rendering all my photos as 1:1: a loooooong and laborious process - wish I had loaded them in as 1:1 previews from the start. Will report how this works but it is already clear that the pictures now load very fast in the library mode.


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## Tony Jay (Sep 24, 2012)

tangled mentation said:


> Aha! So I'm not alone! Nice to hear from you, Amyl.
> 
> ...wish I had loaded them in as 1:1 previews from the start... Will report how this works but it is already clear that the pictures now load very fast in the library mode...



One of the strengths of Lightroom is also a potential weakness: There are so many ways to do a particular task.
Excellent if one really understands the pro's and con's of each set of choices, potentially problematic if you don't.

Previews are an excellent case in point. 1:1 previews are worth the time investment but many users just want to get the import process out of the way and so opt for the 'minimal' option. After all many people have bought Lightroom as a RAW converter, the Digital Asset Management capabilities are often ignored as a result.
A useful advantage of 1:1 previews is that should you travel you could load your catalog into your laptop, (needs a copy of Lightroom of course) and leave your image collection at home. Because the previews actually live in the database (catalog) and not with your image collection (wherever that may be) you can still see 1:1 previews in Library mode as well as use those previews for a 'full-size' slideshow in the Slideshow module. This way your high-resolution image collection can remain at home out of harms way.

Right, enough editorializing from me!
BTW us Antipodean types need to watch our vocabulary with our less educated Northern hemisphere friends. Numpty may be in the MacQuarie dictionary but I think the Oxford and Collins dictionaries may have opted to pass on this one!! 
'Buckethead' definitely belongs on the other side of the Tasman Sea.
Anyhow it does get other thinking about other things beside Lightroom.

Regards

Tony Jay


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 24, 2012)

Hi Amy, welcome to the forum!  Can you tell us what your system specs are please?  And have you updated to 4.1 or 4.2RC yet?  That would be worth doing, if not.


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## tangled mentation (Sep 26, 2012)

Hi Guys,
I can report that rendering all the images as 1:1 speeds up loading significantly. But it still takes some seconds to load images for editing......


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## Tony Jay (Sep 26, 2012)

Have a look at this link to the Adobe Community Forum: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4366593 

Don't download and install the file until others on the forum have read and digested the information and recommend doing so.
Nonetheless it may help.

Regards

Tony Jay


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 26, 2012)

I only skimmed quickly, but which file were you referring to?  The instructions that Julie gave?  If so, that should be fine to try.


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## Katherine Mann (Sep 26, 2012)

Just to add my two cents. Lightroom 4.2. Loading problems in Library similar to the above. It is slower than it's ever been.


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## Tony Jay (Sep 26, 2012)

Yes, Victoria that's the ticket.

Regards

Tony Jay


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## AmyL (Sep 26, 2012)

Hi - thanks for the quick replies.  Here are the computer specs that I know.  I am pretty good at hunting down more info if necessary:

Intel Core i5-2520M CPU @ 2.50 GHz 2.50 GHz
Installed memory 4.0 GB Ram, 3.89 available
448 GB total capacity, 369 GB available
64 Bit Operating System

I have not upgraded yet - I downloaded 4.1 on Monday last week under the impression it was the newest... I will give that a try.  Does it matter 4.2RC or 4.1?  I would think the former, just because it's later?  Also will try the 1:1 trick. Fortunately I've done no editing yet thanks to good advice from photo teacher to spend a lot of up front time organizing files, hold off for the fun stuff in a bit.

Please let me know if there is advice that comes from looking at these computer specs.

Thank you very much!

Amy


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## tangled mentation (Sep 17, 2012)

Hi, First let me explain that my son tells me that I am an idiot when itcomes to technology (personally I think he is overstating the case). \I have LR 4.1 running on a I7 920 CPU running at 2.66 GHz with 10 GB Ram. I am using Windows Home Premism 7 64 bit running from a Samsung SSD drive. I have lots of disc space. So, I would expect LR to be blazingly fast. My GPU is a NVidia GTX 285 running a 30 inch Hazro monitor. 

The speed problem is particularly noticeable when I am going through photos that I have imported and discarding them. It all feels like a memory leak to me but what do I know. I appreciate advice hints and tips.

Steve


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 27, 2012)

AmyL said:


> Hi - thanks for the quick replies.  Here are the computer specs that I know.  I am pretty good at hunting down more info if necessary:
> 
> Intel Core i5-2520M CPU @ 2.50 GHz 2.50 GHz
> Installed memory 4.0 GB Ram, 3.89 available
> ...



I would certainly be doing the upgrade asap, and my advice would be to try the 4.2RC....it's been pretty stable and helped quite a few people with the performance issues.

In terms of your system specs, are you running a laptop or desktop?  4gb of RAM should be OK, but a bit more would be better....do you have the scope to expand it maybe up to 8gb?


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 27, 2012)

Katherine, have you tried trashing and rebuilding your preview cache since upgrading to LR4?  It often helps, particularly with preview issues.  Other than that, tell us more...


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## tangled mentation (Sep 28, 2012)

"Have a look at this link to the Adobe Community Forum: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4366593 

Don't download and install the file until others on the forum have read and digested the information and recommend doing so.
Nonetheless it may help.

Regards

Tony Jay"

Very interesting. Don't understand much of it but it confirms my long-standing impression that LR is a poor user of memory (I think I called it leaking memory). Presumably this is something that the Adobe team is looking at? Where is the LR4 RC (release candidate?) and should someone like me be looking at it?


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 28, 2012)

Steve, you can find the LR4.2RC here. 



> ....and should someone like me be looking at it?



Not sure what "someone like me" means? If you're a pro with deadlines to meet then possibly not, but if you're a mere hobbyist (like me) then I would definitely say yes.....it seems to be very stable and has certainly helped some folks with their performance problems.


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## ukbrown (Sep 28, 2012)

I love the way LR uses memory, it makes it a lot faster.  Why buy a machine with 8GB RAM and not use it


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## ukbrown (Sep 28, 2012)

What the fix does, is stop LR caching a recently edited photo, if you go back it has to reload from scratch, if it's cached it displays very quickly.  These are your choices.

Page faults are not a problem, hard page faults are.

None of this explains why an i7 machine is significanlty slower than my q6600 4 year old machine with only 6gb ram no multiple drives and no SSD.  I suspect that the system that has been built is not quite right, but as no real wolrd data has been provided, it is quite hard to trace. as no other program will stress your PC as much as LR or PS (except maybe for some games but that is mainly GPU performance), so any issues might only show up under stress.


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## Katherine Mann (Sep 29, 2012)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Katherine, have you tried trashing and rebuilding your preview cache since upgrading to LR4?  It often helps, particularly with preview issues.  Other than that, tell us more...



Thanks for the reply Victoria. I have not trashed my preview cache (and don't know how). My catalogue is at 35.5K at this point. Wouldn't it take hours and hours to rebuild it? 

What I did do is this: 
Rename Preference folder 
Please close all windows 
Click the Start button. 
Type %appdata% in the search box and press Enter. 
Double click on Adobe folder. 
Rename the "Lightroom" folder to "OldLightroom". 

Clear Temp files 
Click on Start button. 
Type %temp% and press Enter. 
It will open Temp folder. 
Empty the files and folders inside it. 

This seems to have speeded things up, though reading through a number of posts I see that many people see an initial speed boost only to have it slow down again.

I lost my presets but simply installed them as well as a couple of modules from Tim Ames that I own. 

We'll see how it goes.


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## AmyL (Oct 1, 2012)

I am running a laptop, and may be able to expand RAM. Will check into that and try upgrading to 4.2 - thanks - I really appreciate the help,

Amy


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## AmyL (Oct 3, 2012)

Hi all - just want to report great success using the tips you gave me.  I updated to 4.2rc, then deleted all my images from Lightroom (I hadn't done any editing yet), then re-imported using the 1:1 setting. Now it's really working completely normally - quickly hopping between views with no noticable time lag. Can't thank you enough!  I'm sure there will be some other question soon....


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## Jim Wilde (Oct 3, 2012)

Excellent news, thanks for letting us know.


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## tangled mentation (Oct 4, 2012)

Hi Guys,
Have uploaded 4.2 (to cowardly to go for release versions) and have rendered all of my files at 1:1. All seems to be working much faster now - certainly the library now loads virtually instantaneously.  Thanks for all the advice and help. :crazy: ike Amyl, I'm sure I will be back! Steve


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## Tony Jay (Oct 4, 2012)

tangled mentation said:


> Hi Guys,
> Have uploaded 4.2 (to cowardly to go for release versions) and have rendered all of my files at 1:1. All seems to be working much faster now - certainly the library now loads virtually instantaneously.  Thanks for all the advice and help. :crazy: ike Amyl, I'm sure I will be back! Steve



Well done Steve!!


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## LouieSherwin (Oct 4, 2012)

Amy and Steve,

Just a note to let you know that as you start applying develop settings the 1:1 previews become obsolete but are not automatically rebuilt. So when you go back to an edited image and zoom into 1:1 or greater you will see a pause while the new preview is being built based on the new develop settings. So don't be surprised when this happens.

-louie


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## AmyL (Oct 4, 2012)

Thanks Louie.

One other super-basic tip for others who might be having this problem: I finally noticed that LR has two stages of work it does for Import.  First it imports (progress bar in upper left). But then, it renders previews as a separate step, which is a much longer process than the import step (at least on my computer).  During that time, the progress bar is visible in the upper left but you can also access your just-imported pictures as if they were all ready.  If you do access them during this stage it's very slow both to preview and show in loupe view or Develop. So I figured out - get up and walk away from Lightroom while rendering is occurring.  It looks normal but it's not yet (at least on my computer with its memory level, etc.).  Then come back when done, and it's all normal speed again.

Amy


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## Tony Jay (Oct 4, 2012)

AmyL said:


> Thanks Louie.
> 
> One other super-basic tip for others who might be having this problem: I finally noticed that LR has two stages of work it does for Import.  First it imports (progress bar in upper left). But then, it renders previews as a separate step, which is a much longer process than the import step (at least on my computer).  During that time, the progress bar is visible in the upper left but you can also access your just-imported pictures as if they were all ready.  If you do access them during this stage it's very slow both to preview and show in loupe view or Develop. So I figured out - get up and walk away from Lightroom while rendering is occurring.  It looks normal but it's not yet (at least on my computer with its memory level, etc.).  Then come back when done, and it's all normal speed again.
> 
> Amy



Congratulations Amy your learning curve is ramping up real quick - look for warp speed soon!
Well done.

Tony Jay


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## Kiwigeoff (Oct 4, 2012)

I'm certainly not a JAFA, from the sunny Wairarapa!!


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