# Very slow Lightroom in iMac 5K late 2015



## Henk

Hi, I have read a lot about the performance of especialy Lightroom in the above mentioned iMac.
I planned to buy this iMac, which is BTW advised by the Macperformance guide, but a lot of people complained about the slowiness of Lightroom. Probably due to Adobe.

Is someone out there who wants to share his experience on this big problem?


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## rob211

What big problem? A lot of people complain about lots of things, doesn't mean a problem is widespread. Some 5k iMac users had problems, but the vast majority of us haven't. When the 2014's first came out, some Apple glitches (remedied in a system update) caused some tiling and scrolling problems. Those are gone. Since many do run Lr just fine on 2014 and 2015 iMacs, it can't be a problem inherent to those models or the current version of Lr.

So, no "big" problem exists, unless of course you are one of the unlucky few with a problem, which could be down to all sorts of things besides the iMac itself or Lr. Like defective RAM, other utilities or extensions, a faulty installation, stray cosmic rays, a lemon iMac, whatever.


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## Henk

I have no big problem but I am serious in doubt for buying the new iMac, because a lot of people have problems with the combination Lightroom and the late 2015 iMac.

I ask in this forum "Are there any people who recognize these problems". If you experienced Lightroom with the late iMac please inform me.

See also Running Adobe software in iMac 5K:
iMac 5k for Photographers (In-Depth Review)
or other fora.


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## rob211

That's a *year old* review. And a sample of one. And Lightroom 5. If that makes you fearful to buy and gives you "serious doubt" then I'd recommend you not upgrade. Stick to old equipment instead; anything you buy or upgrade is likely to induce anxiety.


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## Victoria Bampton

I have a 5K iMac and I'm very happy with it.  In fact, it's the happiest I've been with a computer (and I've had numerous machines, including a couple of Mac Pro's).

Older versions of Lightroom do struggle on the retina screen, simply because there are so many pixels to push around.  Lightroom CC/6 benefits from the new GPU feature, which definitely helps with that.


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## Henk

Hi Victoria, I like good and constructive news. Thanks. I plan to invest in a iMac late 2015, advised by theMac Performance Guide.
MPG recommends this iMac 5K: 27" Retina 5K Display, 4.0 GHz Intel Core i7 (Skylake), 1TB Flash, 8GB memory, AMD Radeon R9 M395X GPU (4GB GDDR5) *+ 64GB OWC memory.*
This is a big investment, though before I decide 3 more questions: 
1. Do you have the late 2015 iMac? 2. Which configuration? 3. Are you sure that all the performance issues within the combination of iMac 5K and Lightroom have been solved?


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## tspear

I have 16GB of memory. And I never use more then 12GB when working in Lr.
Therefore, I would focus on getting 16GB, maybe 24GB and get faster memory rather then more.

Tim


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## spock999

I have just bought a 27" 5K iMac. My research indicated that upgrading to the M395X was a good move for video but not so relevant for photo editing. So there is a possible saving there.

I went for a total of 24Gb RAM on the version you are looking at but without the GPU upgrade and with 512Gb flash. I am still setting up LR on my machine so can't be sure how it will perform but I will go for the Photography CC subscription (which I am just starting to trial) to get a version of LR that is proven on the 5K iMac. I also want Photoshop available and moving from PC can't xfer my copy across.


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## Victoria Bampton

I think they've done a minor update since mine, which was purchased in August 2015.  Almost identical spec, except I put in 32GB rather than 64GB (also from a third party, except mine was from Crucial instead of OWC, simply because the exchange rates and VAT don't make OWC such a good deal in the UK these days).  I would definitely buy it with 8GB from Apple and put the extra RAM in yourself.

I did get the M395X graphics, for the simple fact that software is moving towards the GPU and I want this machine to last at least 3 years.


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## Henk

Hi Victoria, as I can see you don't have the late 2015 iMac which came out november 2015.
Here you can compare the major differences between the "old" and new one:MPG - Apple 2015 iMac 5K - iMac 5K (Late 2015): Flash Drive (SSD)
Also a sad drive is used. No Lightroom has been tested.


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## Victoria Bampton

Oooooh, don't make me want to upgrade already!  LOL  You'll be very happy with the latest then!


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## rob211

That's a nice speed bump. We're reaching read/write speeds that mean that other factors may be the bottlenecks.

For example, it may now be more attractive to get the bigger SSD because the difference between its speed and even RAID may be more pronounced. And it makes the pure SSD more attractive than the Fusion by another order of magnitude. I would expect this would help with some Lr processes, but unless you're doing big batch stuff it isn't gonna be as huge a bump as mere benchmarks indicate...it never does. But ANY speed increase is desirable; it all adds up over time. Wait another year and the next iMac will be correspondingly faster, etc etc.

The Mac Pro, OTOH, not so much.... The iMac is clearly Apple's flagship now.


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## Henk

Hi everyone. I have just bought my iMac 27" late 2015 with 1TB SSD and let put in 64GB memory. I made a fresh install of the latest Lightroom with an update to 6.5. But in the last week I have experienced many crashes especially when I zoom in. My Mac went on black and I must restart my Mac again. With my old Mac I never had such problems I never expected this. In general the plugins work much faster with the new iMac, but again zooming is a problem. Who can advise.


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## Victoria Bampton

Was this Apple that added the 64GB of RAM Henk, or third party?


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## Henk

By a certificated reseller. As you know Apple has provided 4 slots for this memory in this iMac.


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## Victoria Bampton

If the reseller's using third party RAM, it could explain why you're having problems.  I have no idea why, but one of the LR engineers said the other day that the issues they're seeing on the iMac all seem to have third party ram.


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## Henk

Dear Queen. I have contacted Apple Care, but the advisor could not read read the Lightroom crash reports in the Diagnostic Reports of my Mac. That is a pity, because there were a lot of those reports.
The advisor also say that Adobe is a Third Product though the could not help me further. That is a shame I just bought the most expensive iMac with Apple Care and they would not help me because it is an Adobe Product!

Apple resellers put always third party ram afterwards into the Mac, even Apple does use third party ram. My ram was advised by: 
MPG - Apple 2015 iMac 5K - iMac 5K (Late 2015): Flash Drive (SSD)

Though everything seems to be third party, where do I stand? This is a big problem and I hope that you or your Network is able to solve these crash problems.

Could it be that my Mac is too fast for the usb connection to my external drive, where I have stored all my images. (The Library is on the HD SD drive)


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## Victoria Bampton

Henk, are you putting your email address in when the Adobe Crash Reporter comes up?  That would allow Adobe to search for the crash logs to take a look.

And can I get you to post the contents of one of the crash logs at Official Feature Request/Bug Report Forum and then post the link here, so I can flag it up for an engineer please?


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## Henk

Victoria, I did put my email address in the /Adobe Crash Reporter, do they reply?

When I follow the link Official Feature Request/Bug Report Forum, I am directed to a Photoshop Community. I don't know what to do wiht it. Could I send my crashreport with an attachment directly to you? Please inform me how to go on further. Thanks.


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## Victoria Bampton

They don't usually reply, but if you post the issue on the Photoshop Community (just sign in with your Adobe ID and post a "problem"), I can forward it to an engineer and they can search the crash logs for any clues.


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## Henk

I post the issue today. I hope you read it and take action. thanks.


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## Victoria Bampton

Thanks Henk, I found it and I've forwarded it on to an engineer.


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## Henk

Hi Victoria, I have send a few diagnostic reports of Apple today to the Photoshop Family. I hope you read them.
Also all the proposals of the others don't work. Hope your engineer find the solution.


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## mcasan

Seriously reconsider getting an 2015 iMac.   Wait for Apple to announce the latest Skylake based machines.   Those should deliver more bang for the buck, less power consumption, likely DDR4 memory bus, and USB C ports that do TB3 and USB 3.1 gen2 super fast USB speeds.    Once the new machines are announced, then decide if you want one of them or a close out deal on a late 2015 machine.   I hope the new 2016 machines are announced at WWDC in June.


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## tspear

mcasan said:


> Seriously reconsider getting an 2015 iMac.   Wait for Apple to announce the Skylake based machines.   Those should deliver more bang for the buck, less power consumption, likely DDR4 memory bus, and USB C ports that do TB3 and USB 3.1 gen2 super fast USB speeds.    Once the new machines are announced, then decide if you want one of them or a close out deal on a 2015 machine.   I hope the new machines are announced at WWDC in June.



The problem with that mentality is that always in six months, or within the next three months there is going to be the latest and greats XXXX. It will be so much faster, that it can prepare your coffee before you even know you want coffee....

Tim (could on resist)


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## Henk

Hi, I have read a lot about the performance of especialy Lightroom in the above mentioned iMac.
I planned to buy this iMac, which is BTW advised by the Macperformance guide, but a lot of people complained about the slowiness of Lightroom. Probably due to Adobe.

Is someone out there who wants to share his experience on this big problem?


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## mcasan

Few things make folks madder than buying a new model X of a product only to see X Mark II announced the next week with new features for less money.   As I suggested, wait for the announcements and then make an informed decision based only what is coming in the next 12 months and if it makes sense to go with the latest or maybe a close out for lower cost.


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## rob211

I'm not sure it will solve the "slowness" problem, although given the rarity of these issues I suspect it's hardware related, or software conflicts, although I'm hard pressed to suggest what those might be other than what's already been discussed (like RAM).

Some poor sod has probably bought BOTH a digital camera AND a computer only to discover the new versions of both are arriving the next day...sheesh.

Maybe one day Apple will do with desktops what is being done with iPhones, the ability to trade in and up after one year.


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## Henk

Hello Simon and Victoria,

I still experience very many crashes and hangs in one day  in Lightroom.

I have found out LR is the cause. Not the memory. Mr. Loyd Chamber from Diglloyd found it out too.

I operated also as a root user, this did not help either.I have followed up all kind of advices. Nothing works. If you read on the Internet about Lightroom 6.5 crashes you will find hundreds of them. I am not the only one.

Again. I have the best, fastest most expensive configuration an iMac ever had and Lightroom does not work.

Simon see my recent crash reports in my mail I have send you yesterday . I cannot read them, I know you do.

I have send my crash reports to Apple and Adobe.

*Adobe, Victoria help me please to solve this problem. *

I can send you all what I have done till now. I can send you diagnostic reports. I have contacted every  organization. Nothing works.


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## rob211

You haven't given us much to work on. You could post a crash log here as a file (don't just paste it into the reply box). And details about what you are doing when it crashes would be helpful. Other than crashing, we have no idea what your problem is. If you want to correspond just with Ms Brampton, a PM would be a better way to do that.


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## Henk

Rob, if you have read the whole history you could see that when I zoom in the Develop module using the F-key OR make many adjustments for instance deleting spots (I do a lot of work with scanning middle format film, so  a lot of dust I have to remove) then in the middle of this proces LR crashes. OS restart then. If you have no idea what the problem is. *THIS IS THE PROBLEM.

I* have some crash reports  but It is not possible to upload this files using your "Upload a File" key. It is not accepted! It says "The following file does not have an allowed extension".
This is the file: Adobe Lightroom_2016-05-16-110003_iMac-van-Henk.crash. I have send these by mail to Simon Chen of Photoshop Family.

I am a Dutchmen, I don't understand the word PM. And I wrote MsBrampton, because she was the first who communicated with me as well as  Mr. Chen.
You also could read that I can send you everything what I have done this far. I have a Word document about the whole story.

I hope more people read this. I am not the only with constant crashes of Lightroom, you can find hundreds of them on the Internet.


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## tspear

Henk,

PM = Private Message. Click on the "Inbox" link on the top right of the page near your name.


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## rob211

PM is personal message.

The crash logs can be saved as text files and uploaded.

And that's still not a lot of detail. What kind of files? where are the files located? does it happen with all image files? have you reinstalled Lr? Do any of your other image programs have problems zooming? have you turned off the graphics card  use in Lr? have you deleted prefs, caches and previews and forced Lr to remake them? 

And did you post the "whole history" somewhere else besides this thread? I can't recall if I saw it anywhere else.


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## Henk

Because Simon take over you can read the process in Photoshop Family, that's what Victoria suggested.

I repeat the following:
1. When I zoom using the F-key in the Develop Module.
2. When I delete  spots in the Develop Module, this happens the most. I do this very much because I *scan* thousands of slides by Nikon D810 with a zoom lens and must get rid of dust spots.
    Lightroom 6.5.1. crashes during work, after approximately deleting 30/50 spots.. Black screen and El Capitan restarts.
3. I reinstalled LR 3 times!
4. I did turn off the GPU.
5. I deleted prefs.
6. I deleted every plug-in, outside the ones of LR.
7. I did not deleted caches (of previews?) because I have much room on my HD. I don't know how to force LR to remake them.
8. I did not post the whole history to anyone else and also to Lightroom Queen as you could read. I asked for it. I have a Word document. Are you interested?
9. The files of which I'm talking about are crash reports and located in Library/Logs.
10.I worked as a root user.

I tried to send you 3 recent crash reports via "Upload a File" but again you don't accept .rtf format

Where is Simon Chen? He is involved and got my reports bij email.


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## rob211

Henk, this is not an official Adobe website. I believe Simon Chen works at Adobe; you'd have to contact him there.

And use txt (text) as a file type to upload to this board, not rtf (BTW I have no control over what this forum allows or doesn't allow, I'm just a guest like you).

You can delete previews this way: How to Force Photoshop Lightroom to Rebuild Standard Previews - Tip and Trick This should still work in Lr 6. Make sure you have a backup.


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## Victoria Bampton

rob211 said:


> Henk, this is not an official Adobe website. I believe Simon Chen works at Adobe; you'd have to contact him there.



He does - he's one of the longest standing Lightroom engineers.  He doesn't follow this forum, which is why I directed you to the bug report forum.


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## Henk

Victoria, thanks. I communicate further with Simon from now on. He picked it up very seriously.

I am also on speaking terms now with a senior advisor of AppleCare.

Hope this giants Apple and Adobe are willing to cooperate. The willing is there. First steps have been made.


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## Henk

Dear Victoria,
I am glad to say that the problems with LR on my super fast 64GB 5K iMac are solved.
Like everybody suspected, also Simon Chen, it was due to the RAM.

My reseller did very intensive stress tests for a week on everything from hardware to software and when it appeared that the OCW modules were the cause they were replaced for no costs by new ones from OCW. After that my reseller did some very tough tests on Lightroom. Everything worked. No crashes.

Still, I think LR stays on some points too slow, compared to other programs. I have send these problems to Simon.

Thank you and the other people.


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## Victoria Bampton

Wonderful news, thanks for confirming that Henk!


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