# Lightroom slow and unresponsive



## MelissaA (Dec 20, 2019)

I started a conservation around this subject a couple of months ago.  But there was a serious illness and death in my family, and so never finished the conservation or got any resolution.  I'm having many performance problems with LR.  I have, what I believe is,  the latest version of classic - 9.1.  Some of the problems that I am encountering, and I've struggled with LR performance for a very long time, are I have to click on the taskbar icon 3-4 times before the program will even open.  When it does open, it is extremely slow to populate. Whenever I open a different folder - especially one that hasn't been opened for awhile (maybe from a few years back), I need to scroll very slowly through the folder one image at a time in order for the thumbnails to populate.  Than there's that anoying "LR not responding" message which happens multiple times each time I try to work in the program.  Almost everytime I start to work in the program, I end up closing it and restarting my computer, which sometimes helps for awhile.  This doesn't happen with Photoshop - I only need to click on that icon once to open the program, and it opens quickly with no problems and never gives me the message that it is not responding.  It also doesn't happen with other programs. I have attached a copy of my computer configuration as it was a custom build - should anyone find that helpful in helping me to troubleshoot this issue.


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## clee01l (Dec 20, 2019)

Some things to look at:
Make sure that you have the latest Win 10 update release. Can you verify?
Also make certain that the lashes GPU driver is installed for your Radeon Video card

Disable any anti malware apps that are running and check LR its responsiveness. Report if there are improvements. 

Take a look at TaskManager to note any bloatware or helper apps that are running resident that may be in competition with LR for CPU cycles.

Describe your monitor (brand model, size)

In Lightroom under the {Help} menu click on {System Info...} Copy and phase the contents of that dialog into your reply. 


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## MelissaA (Dec 20, 2019)

My monitor is a View Sonic, 32"

I don't know how to go about doing any of the other things you've asked for.  Sorry.

Lightroom Classic version: 9.1 [ 201911291132-64cf80b4 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en
Operating system: Windows 10 - Business Edition
Version: 10.0.17763
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 16
Processor speed: 3.6 GHz
Built-in memory: 65455.6 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 65455.6 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 1913.4 MB (2.9%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 2176.8 MB
GDI objects count: 748
USER objects count: 2586
Process handles count: 3073
Memory cache size: 0.0MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 12.1 [ 351 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 335MB / 32727MB (1%)
Camera Raw real memory: 335MB / 65455MB (0%)
System DPI setting: 144 DPI (high DPI mode)
Desktop composition enabled: Yes
Displays: 1) 3840x2160
Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: No, External touch: No, External pen: No, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info: 
DirectX: Radeon RX 580 Series (26.20.13031.10003)



Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: A:\Lightroom Catalog\Lightroom 6-2-2.lrcat
Settings Folder: C:\Users\Melissa\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Installed Plugins: 
1) AdobeStock
2) Export to Photomatix Pro
3) Facebook
4) Flickr
5) Nikon Tether Plugin

Config.lua flags: None

Adapter #1: Vendor : 1002
    Device : 67df
    Subsystem : 2378148c
    Revision : e7
    Video Memory : 8172
Adapter #2: Vendor : 1414
    Device : 8c
    Subsystem : 0
    Revision : 0
    Video Memory : 0
AudioDeviceIOBlockSize: 1024
AudioDeviceName: 3 - VP3268-4K (AMD High Definition Audio Device)
AudioDeviceNumberOfChannels: 2
AudioDeviceSampleRate: 48000
Build: 12.1x4
Direct2DEnabled: false
GL_ACCUM_ALPHA_BITS: 0
GL_ACCUM_BLUE_BITS: 0
GL_ACCUM_GREEN_BITS: 0
GL_ACCUM_RED_BITS: 0
GL_ALPHA_BITS: 8
GL_BLUE_BITS: 8
GL_DEPTH_BITS: 24
GL_GREEN_BITS: 8
GL_MAX_3D_TEXTURE_SIZE: 2048
GL_MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE: 16384
GL_MAX_TEXTURE_UNITS: 8
GL_MAX_VIEWPORT_DIMS: 16384,16384
GL_RED_BITS: 8
GL_RENDERER: Radeon RX 580 Series
GL_SHADING_LANGUAGE_VERSION: 4.60
GL_STENCIL_BITS: 8
GL_VENDOR: ATI Technologies Inc.
GL_VERSION: 4.6.13572 Compatibility Profile Context 19.11.1 26.20.13031.10003
GPUDeviceEnabled: false
OGLEnabled: true
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## clee01l (Dec 20, 2019)

You are somewhat behind on Windows updates. The latest is build 18363.535. You are on 17763. 
I can’t tell about your Radeon card whether the driver is current or whether it is suitable for the really large hiRes monitor. (In terms of pixels it exceeds 5K. (3840X2160px) Perhaps a Windows user can evaluate the card spec and see it is is adequate for the 32” monitor. 

You need to disable or simply exit your Anti-Malware app. It could be getting in between LR and the files that LR needs and slowing things down. What ain’t-Malware app are you running? Are you also running Windows defender?

When you are running LR and it is sluggish, open Task Manager and sort the list on CPU utilization. Take a screen shot and post that back here. 


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## MelissaA (Dec 20, 2019)

I don't know what anti-malware app I have??? I think I only have what came with Windows 10? I don't know what Windows defender is and don't know how to look for that.  I don't know how to find and open Task Manager or what the CPU utilization list is so can't even begin to take a screen shot of it. I would need a detailed explanation of how to do those things.


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## clee01l (Dec 20, 2019)

MelissaA said:


> I don't know what anti-malware app I have??? I think I only have what came with Windows 10? I don't know what Windows defender is and don't know how to look for that. I don't know how to find and open Task Manager or what the CPU utilization list is so can't even begin to take a screen shot of it. I would need a detailed explanation of how to do those things.



I would need a Windows computer to detail the steps necessary to walk you through. I don’t run Windows any more because it is too complex to keep running at peak performance. Perhaps some Windows Guru can step in and provide the detail explanations. These are pretty elementary building blocks for using a computer. It is quite possibility’s that you do not now have the necessary basic computer skills to keep a Windows machine tuned to not be sluggish and unresponsive. The problem that you face is not related to Lightroom but to all of the hardware and software components that have to run in harmony and in harmony with Lightroom. 

There are other Windows gurus there that can probably step you through the things that you need to do to analyze what is causing your system to be slow and sluggish With the specs that your machine has (with the possible exception of the video card), LR should hum right along.

The things that you need to do to analyze the problem were outlined in my initial response. Perhaps you have some one knowledgeable in Windows locally that can walk you through these tasks. Eventually, I think you need some basic classes to educate your self. Like learning to drive a car and knowing how to check the oil, gas gauge and the tire pressure, you need to know the basics of how Windows OS works and how applications interact with each other. 

Your car is going to be slow and unresponsive when you get behind the wheel and put the pedal to the flow BUT you have 4 flat tires. Lightroom is the same. You need to find the flat tires and see where all of the gas is leaking out.


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## CloudedGenie7 (Dec 26, 2019)

Hi @MelissaA,

I have been away from Lightroom for a few months, and found it almost impossible to use my laptop when I finally had some time this week. My SurfaceBook had been straining with a  large catalog and editing the huge raw files from my Nikon D850, but it took me the entire day to edit four files today... waiting for the screen to update... (and a blue screen crash).

My SurfaceBook has an i7 processor with 16GB RAM and 1TB hard drive, so it's a significantly less powerful machine than yours. That said, until recently, I've been using it without much problem. I keep the catalog on the internal SSD of the laptop and the media on a portable USB drive and/or NAS (and sometimes in a temporary directory on the hard drive). I didn't have time to use Lightroom since the November update, so don't know if the speed/stability change happened when Lightroom updated. It was working without problem in the beginning of October (latest Windows and Lightroom versions at the time).

Looking at your hardware, it should have no problem running Lightroom. The Radeon RX580 graphics card (although a bit older) would be more that capable of diving the 5K screen for editing and video purposes (it would be a bit too slow for gaming at full resolution). The laterst driver version is 19.12.3 (Adrenalin 2020 Edition, released 18 December), yours is version 19.11.1. Updating the graphics driver may definitely help to improve stability, there were some known issues that have been addressed.

You can download the newest driver from 
https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/radeon-500-series/radeon-rx-500-series/radeon-rx-580
I hope this helps (even if that means I have to look further for my problem's solution).

Christelle


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## Zenon (Dec 26, 2019)

I always post this as well. Others using Windows found it helpful. If you using brushes turn lens correction off.  

*Spot Removal tool, local corrections, and History panel*

The Spot Removal Tool and Local Corrections Brush are not designed for hundreds to thousands of corrections. If your image contains many (hundreds) of localized adjustments, consider using a pixel-based editing application such as Photoshop for that level of correction.
If you have many corrections, check your History panel. The History panel has no limits, and it isn't deleted unless specified. If you've been creating many local or spot corrections, your history could be long, which can slow Lightroom's performance as a whole.
Clear the History panel by clicking the X on the right of the History panel header.

*Order of Develop operations*

The best order of Develop operations to increase performance is as follows:

Spot healing.
Geometry corrections, such as Lens Correction profiles and Manual corrections, including keystone corrections using the Vertical slider.
Global non-detail corrections, such as Exposure and White Balance. These corrections can also be done first if desired.
Local corrections, such as Gradient Filter and Adjustment Brush strokes.
Detail corrections, such as Noise Reduction and Sharpening.
Note: Performing spot healing first improves the accuracy of the spot healing, and ensures the boundaries of the healed areas match the spot location.

You can find the rest here. I follow all of it carefully.    

Optimize Lightroom performance


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## SaraLH (Dec 27, 2019)

One thing I do to speed up things in Lightroom is to exclude my "Pictures" harddrive from my virus scan. Check your virus scan program - they all have an "exceptions" setting where you can enter specific folders or drives to be excluded from on-access scans. Now I can do this because nothing ever comes into my computer that is not first scanned and my "Pictures" drive has only pictures and no other data.

The other thing is to NOT put my Lightroom pictures in the Windows "Pictures" library. Indeed I don't let Windows anywhere near the photos in my LR library. Windows only gets to see the files I've exported for family viewing on TVs and computers. This is important because everytime I change a file in Lightroom, Windows gets all irritated and wants to keep track of the changes, then Lightroom gets all irritated and says "this file has been edited/had metadata changed in another program" and everything slows way down. Here's an article about how to manage folders in Windows 10 libraries: How to Add or Remove folders in a Library in Windows 10

Hope this helps!


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## PhilBurton (Dec 28, 2019)

SaraLH said:


> The other thing is to NOT put my Lightroom pictures in the Windows "Pictures" library. Indeed I don't let Windows anywhere near the photos in my LR library.
> 
> Hope this helps!


There is another important reason to keep Lightroom and all your other data, photos, etc., away from Windows.  WHEN, not IF, Windows crashes, you could lose all your data, unless you have been very OCD about doing backups.  

A very good "data hygeine" practice is to create a separate "DATA" or "Photos" partition or partitions on your hard disk.  MOVE all your data out of those Windows folders under \users\(yourUserID) to that separate partition.    That data includes your Lightroom catalog.  

If you have a large photo collection, chances are that you already need a separate disk to hold those photos, because the SSD that came with your system just isn't big enough.  It's Ok to keep the Lightroom catalog, which isn't that big on the SSD, but again, in a separate partition.


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## Philippe Coudé du Foresto (Dec 28, 2019)

> One thing I do to speed up things in Lightroom is to exclude my "Pictures" harddrive from my virus scan


Yes, good advice but more efficient is to exclude the catalog folder (hence excluding the catalog itself end the previews) as well as exclude the LR cache.


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## SaraLH (Dec 28, 2019)

Philippe Coudé du Foresto said:


> Yes, good advice but more efficient is to exclude the catalog folder (hence excluding the catalog itself end the previews) as well as exclude the LR cache.



Yes, I forgot to mention that also excluded from virus scan is the separate harddrive where the Lightroom installation, catalog and cache live.


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## kevin_7 (Jan 22, 2020)

MelissaA said:


> I started a conservation around this subject a couple of months ago.  But there was a serious illness and death in my family, and so never finished the conservation or got any resolution.  I'm having many performance problems with LR.  I have, what I believe is,  the latest version of classic - 9.1.  Some of the problems that I am encountering, and I've struggled with LR performance for a very long time, are I have to click on the taskbar icon 3-4 times before the program will even open.  When it does open, it is extremely slow to populate. Whenever I open a different folder - especially one that hasn't been opened for awhile (maybe from a few years back), I need to scroll very slowly through the folder one image at a time in order for the thumbnails to populate.  Than there's that anoying "LR not responding" message which happens multiple times each time I try to work in the program.  Almost everytime I start to work in the program, I end up closing it and restarting my computer, which sometimes helps for awhile.  This doesn't happen with Photoshop - I only need to click on that icon once to open the program, and it opens quickly with no problems and never gives me the message that it is not responding.  It also doesn't happen with other programs. I have attached a copy of my computer configuration as it was a custom build - should anyone find that helpful in helping me to troubleshoot this issue.


I have also struggled for years with LR CC Classic taking forever to launch- usually about 20 minutes before I can do anything. Hoping for an improvement, I just got a brand new MacBook Pro with 32GB Ram, 1 TB hard drive and a graphics card one bump up from the base model and it still takes 10-15 minutes for LR to open! I spent 20 hours with Adobe tech help on the phone last week,  giving them remote access to my computer and they still can't solve the problem. The finder pane shows "Lightroom not responding", but it does eventually open up.  Any geniuses out there that can shed some light on this? I have a sense that it is something buried deep in file paths or permissions- broken by various upgrades starting from Lightroom 3 and migrating from a Mac G5 to an iBook to a MacBook. It first arose with the v3.xx to 4.xx- at the time I consulted unsuccessfully with Adobe tech support for a whole day.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 22, 2020)

20 hours Kevin? Honestly, I'd back everything up and do a fresh OS install. It'd take less time than trying to hunt it down.


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## kevin_7 (Jan 22, 2020)

The new computer-one week old- has a fresh OS. It shipped with Catalina 10.15.2 The LR was upgraded in Nov 2019 to v9.0 on my old computer. Some of that time with Adobe tech was recovering things that the upgrade lost- collections, lots of keywords, develop history on every image and custom settings like import naming, brushes, keyword sets and camera profiles.  We recovered all the data and I'm now at LR v9.1. But the catalog itself reaches back about 10 years and takes 10-15 minutes to load. Less than 100,000 images but most of them on external drives, the oldest on CD's and DVD's. I was wondering if a CD created on computers retired years ago would cause file path issues.
FYI- The new computer has plenty of gusto- 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD and the middle of 3 options for graphics card.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 22, 2020)

That’s not normal. I’d be quite happy to look at the catalog and see if it takes that long on my machine


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## SaraLH (Jan 22, 2020)

I would bet lots of money that it's the images on CDs & DVDs that are slowing you down. I would either copy those images to one of those external drives or take them out of the catalog. If LR has to search for those images every time it starts (and doesn't find them?) that could certainly slow things down. Are the CDs and DVDs always loaded in the machine or is LR going on a fruitless search?


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## kevin_7 (Jan 22, 2020)

SaraLH said:


> I would bet lots of money that it's the images on CDs & DVDs that are slowing you down. I would either copy those images to one of those external drives or take them out of the catalog. If LR has to search for those images every time it starts (and doesn't find them?) that could certainly slow things down. Are the CDs and DVDs always loaded in the machine or is LR going on a fruitless search?


 No, none of those cd/dvd's are connected. Can only ever have one online at anytime, though. When I do mount one I can work with those images just fine. I was thinking the same thing. I was also thinking they could cause the problem and I am working on some test catalogs. I created a catalog that only has the cd/dvd's and that catalog is still slow to start. Next I will create a catalog with all the cd/dvd's removed to see if it helps.


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## kevin_7 (Jan 22, 2020)

SaraLH said:


> I would bet lots of money that it's the images on CDs & DVDs that are slowing you down. I would either copy those images to one of those external drives or take them out of the catalog. If LR has to search for those images every time it starts (and doesn't find them?) that could certainly slow things down. Are the CDs and DVDs always loaded in the machine or is LR going on a fruitless search?


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## kevin_7 (Jan 22, 2020)

Victoria Bampton said:


> That’s not normal. I’d be quite happy to look at the catalog and see if it takes that long on my machine


I'm game to give it a try- how do we do it? Do you need just the lrcat file or all the file extensions in LR folder? I suppose just giving you the LR-created backup file would have all of it.


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## clee01l (Jan 23, 2020)

kevin_7 said:


> Less than 100,000 images but most of them on external drives, the oldest on CD's and DVD's. I was wondering if a CD created on computers retired years ago would cause file path issues.
> FYI- The new computer has plenty of gusto- 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD and the middle of 3 options for graphics card.


When the LR catalog opens, LR will simply note the missing CD/DVD volumes and proceed to open just the catalog file.  What size is your catalog file?  It would be unusual for it to exceed 4GB.  And 4GB is a special break over point for file size in the file system. 

Over the course of 10 years there could be orphaned database records in the catalog.  It is this detritus that could be causing LR problems.   If you have a lot of develop history attached to many images, this can cause the catalog to swell and might impact opening 

There is no  reason to run resident anti-malware on the catalog files and previews.  Make sure this is excluded from any anti-malware app that you are running in background. 

The file that you need to send to Victoria is a copy of the current backup catalog.  This will be a ZIP file which is what Victoria needs to see.  Use www.wetransfer.com to send it to [email protected]


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## kevin_7 (Jan 23, 2020)

Victoria Bampton said:


> That’s not normal. I’d be quite happy to look at the catalog and see if it takes that long on my machine


I am uploading my LR Backup file to Dropbox now to your "[email protected]" address. Apparently it is large enough that it will take close to an hour to upload ( I don't have fast upload connection). Anxious to hear the results!


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## kevin_7 (Jan 23, 2020)

clee01l said:


> When the LR catalog opens, LR will simply note the missing CD/DVD volumes and proceed to open just the catalog file.  What size is your catalog file?  It would be unusual for it to exceed 4GB.  And 4GB is a special break over point for file size in the file system.
> 
> Over the course of 10 years there could be orphaned database records in the catalog.  It is this detritus that could be causing LR problems.   If you have a lot of develop history attached to many images, this can cause the catalog to swell and might impact opening
> 
> ...


Thanks, Cletus! I am uploading it now, but using Dropbox, which I am more familiar with. The Backup zip is 2.3 GB, about 3.7 once expanded so, yes, a large catalog for the number of images. In an attempt to de-bloat the size I have thought about going back and exporting large amounts of images in their current state, include them in the catalog and then delete the originals with their histories. I wouldn't know what had previously been done to those exported replacements, but could at least still modify them (retaining the non-destructed root image data). If I understand correctly, the new LR Classic 9.1 has automatically applied a new process version to all images, which used to be a manual process.


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## clee01l (Jan 24, 2020)

kevin_7 said:


> I am uploading it now, but using Dropbox, which I am more familiar with


You need to let Victoria know  because it might not work smoothly unless Dropbox notifies to that email address.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 25, 2020)

I got it, and we narrowed it down. It does indeed appear to be all those volumes. When launching with the Folders panel collapsed, it opens in seconds. I had a hunch, because I saw a bug a few years ago where opening an enormous (13 million photo) catalog was fast with the panels collapsed, but slow with them open.


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## MelissaA (Dec 20, 2019)

I started a conservation around this subject a couple of months ago.  But there was a serious illness and death in my family, and so never finished the conservation or got any resolution.  I'm having many performance problems with LR.  I have, what I believe is,  the latest version of classic - 9.1.  Some of the problems that I am encountering, and I've struggled with LR performance for a very long time, are I have to click on the taskbar icon 3-4 times before the program will even open.  When it does open, it is extremely slow to populate. Whenever I open a different folder - especially one that hasn't been opened for awhile (maybe from a few years back), I need to scroll very slowly through the folder one image at a time in order for the thumbnails to populate.  Than there's that anoying "LR not responding" message which happens multiple times each time I try to work in the program.  Almost everytime I start to work in the program, I end up closing it and restarting my computer, which sometimes helps for awhile.  This doesn't happen with Photoshop - I only need to click on that icon once to open the program, and it opens quickly with no problems and never gives me the message that it is not responding.  It also doesn't happen with other programs. I have attached a copy of my computer configuration as it was a custom build - should anyone find that helpful in helping me to troubleshoot this issue.


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## kevin_7 (Jan 25, 2020)

kevin_7 said:


> I am uploading my LR Backup file to Dropbox now to your "[email protected]" address. Apparently it is large enough that it will take close to an hour to upload ( I don't have fast upload connection). Anxious to hear the results!


Thanks, Victoria, for checking out my catalog. For the benefit of anyone else who reads this and is dealing with the same problem, I am pasting in here the emails we exchanged:
"Hi Kevin
Taking ages {to open} here too. Test a theory for me? Close the Folders and Collections panels and then restart LR and see if it's quicker? My suspicion is it's the number of volumes that are causing the slowness. I saw something similar a while back with the Collections panel, so I would call it a bug, but it might have an easy workaround if that works.  - Victoria"
OH MY GOSH- YOU ARE BRILLIANT!
I did what you suggested, closing the collections and folders panels (all the panels, to be thorough). Quit and restarted the program three times with less than a minute for it to be responsive, even opening the folders or collections panel shortly after I first see any image populate. AWESOME!
This also explains what I experienced last night. In an attempt to isolate problems and/or reduced my catalog size I created two new catalogs, intending to remove those folders from my main catalog. One had only one source volume but the other was for all the CD/DVD’s (maybe 50 volumes). However, before I got them removed from the main, I closed and opened the two smaller new ones with a quick launch and then the main catalog, without actually being stripped down yet, also launched quickly. I was ecstatic until I closed and reopened it one more time- which took 20 minutes to be responsive. Tried again and got the same result. So so apparently I had arbitrarily had those side panels closed when I did a few of the re-launches.
I have suffered with this problem for literally years and it has been a severe impediment to my productivity and morale. May God bless you for your willingness to look into this for me!


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## jrisum (Apr 20, 2020)

THANK YOU  - this solved my problem, which has been on for years!!
Jorgen


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