Why oh why is Lightroom so slow?

Tobers

Tobers

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Andy
Edit My Images
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I'm on the last standalone version of Lightroom (6.1) and it's frustratingly slow. I definitely don't want to get sucked into the Adobe subscription model as I've already paid for the software and just want to use it.

It seems to take much longer to switch to developer mode, render images, switch back to grid mode, and generally do anything. For example, it takes 8-10 seconds to go from Grid mode to Develop mode for an image (by pressing "D" key. I've done all the usual tricks (I've been using Lightroom since v1.0) including optimising the catalog, slimming the live catalog down (I religiously export old pics to annual catalogs every year) etc. My currently open catalog is about 5000 images.

My PC spec is pretty good - I'm running Windows 10 64 bit, processor is i7 920 at 2.67GHz, with 20GB RAM. The OS drive is a Samsung SSD and the main storage drive is a hybrid 2gb SSD/HDD, and twin Dell Ultrasync 4K monitors with a Geforce GTX660 graphics card, so pretty much everything flies including 4k gaming, except Lightroom.

Any clues? What else can I try?
 
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There is a cynical part of me that says that Adobe have built in a sub-routine that starts to slow down the program after a while to encourage updating. My Lightroom 6.14 is very slow the last few weeks (I am on an iMac).

Apple have admitted to doing this on their phones.
 
FWIW

When I upgraded my GPU card I also 'switched on' GPU Acceleration on the LR preferences but using LR a couple of nights ago it was running slower than usual with a few odd GUI refreshes and glitches.

I turned off the GPU acceleration and so far so good.
 
Box Brownie said:
FWIW

When I upgraded my GPU card I also 'switched on' GPU Acceleration on the LR preferences but using LR a couple of nights ago it was running slower than usual with a few odd GUI refreshes and glitches.

I turned off the GPU acceleration and so far so good.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this!!! I've just turned off that setting (I also turned it on when I put a new graphics card in a while back). It seems to be rather snappier now. How weird - you'd think it would be the other way around.
 
john.margetts said:
There is a cynical part of me that says that Adobe have built in a sub-routine that starts to slow down the program after a while to encourage updating. My Lightroom 6.14 is very slow the last few weeks (I am on an iMac).

Apple have admitted to doing this on their phones.
Click to expand...

I would be completely unsurprised if that was the case. I've gone off Adobe a lot since they enforced a subscription model.
 
Tobers said:
Thanks for this!!! I've just turned off that setting (I also turned it on when I put a new graphics card in a while back). It seems to be rather snappier now. How weird - you'd think it would be the other way around.
Click to expand...

Snap :D
I think some programs "play nice"/better with regard to the use of the GPU processing power and others don't!!! And LR is definitely one that does not play nice (for the average user???)

Again FWIW, I also use Topaz AI Gigapixel and that was one reason I upgraded my GPU.................the difference in processing speed was dramatic :)
 
john.margetts said:
There is a cynical part of me that says that Adobe have built in a sub-routine that starts to slow down the program after a while to encourage updating. My Lightroom 6.14 is very slow the last few weeks (I am on an iMac).

Apple have admitted to doing this on their phones.
Click to expand...
Tobers said:
I would be completely unsurprised if that was the case. I've gone off Adobe a lot since they enforced a subscription model.
Click to expand...

If this is or becomes that case then IMO it will have to be 'hasta la vista baby' to LR but for now I hope my LR 6.12 (never bothered to update to 6.14) keeps going.
 
I don’t find Lightroom a particularly optimised piece of software and despite having an RTX 2070 gpu, Lightroom works far better with gpu acceleration turned off.

Problem is having learnt and experienced LR for over 8 years now I just don’t fancy switching.
 
Lightroom 6 is known to run more slowly using graphics 'acceleration' - just a feature.

I'm still using 5.7, and I don't want to change because it works just so well for me.
 
As above turn off gpu acceleration.

Also lr loves fast cpu and disk, I hate to say it but the old 9xx i7 arent as spritely as they once used to be. Even a used 4770k system benches at twice the score.
 
john.margetts said:
There is a cynical part of me that says that Adobe have built in a sub-routine that starts to slow down the program after a while to encourage updating.
Click to expand...
Tobers said:
I would be completely unsurprised if that was the case. I've gone off Adobe a lot since they enforced a subscription model.
Click to expand...
jerry12953 said:
It never occurred to me that Adobe might be behind it but it makes sense (for them).
Click to expand...

I have tin foil hats. Just £10/month
 
Tobers said:
I'm on the last standalone version of Lightroom (6.1) and it's frustratingly slow. I definitely don't want to get sucked into the Adobe subscription model as I've already paid for the software and just want to use it.

It seems to take much longer to switch to developer mode, render images, switch back to grid mode, and generally do anything. For example, it takes 8-10 seconds to go from Grid mode to Develop mode for an image (by pressing "D" key. I've done all the usual tricks (I've been using Lightroom since v1.0) including optimising the catalog, slimming the live catalog down (I religiously export old pics to annual catalogs every year) etc. My currently open catalog is about 5000 images.

My PC spec is pretty good - I'm running Windows 10 64 bit, processor is i7 920 at 2.67GHz, with 20GB RAM. The OS drive is a Samsung SSD and the main storage drive is a hybrid 2gb SSD/HDD, and twin Dell Ultrasync 4K monitors with a Geforce GTX660 graphics card, so pretty much everything flies including 4k gaming, except Lightroom.

Any clues? What else can I try?
Click to expand...

Hard drive full of junk files and too many programs running in the background are most common problems.

Second likely option is maybe your image previews in Lightroom are all at 1:1 setting, when importing, it would be helpful to use Standard or Embedded & Sidecar setting. And as for having 5000 images, I can't remember clearly, but I think I read somewhere, that Lightroom could manage as much as 5000, but once it reaches that much, and goes higher, it do start to struggle. But then again, I figure you're likely to know that?
 
I'm still using 3.2 and can't say i've noticed any slow down (and you'd think they'd *really* want me to stop using it). i'm hoping to be installing standalone v.6 this week so we'll see how that works out. but the info in the thread will be useful if i do start having issues. in my desperation to get hold of a copy of the standalone, now its hard to find, i might end up with two...
 
john.margetts said:
There is a cynical part of me that says that Adobe have built in a sub-routine that starts to slow down the program after a while to encourage updating. My Lightroom 6.14 is very slow the last few weeks (I am on an iMac).

Apple have admitted to doing this on their phones.
Click to expand...

Off topic, but Apple admitted to slowing the hardware performance of older phones due to ageing batteries not being able to provide peak power demand leading to unexpected shut offs. By limiting the CPU of the phone they could stop that from happening. They then bought in a battery replacement scheme for £25..Yes a little shady to not be open about it, but they haven't written their software to work rubbish on old hardware, quite the opposite actually...
 
I found that performance dropped off after using Lightroom 6.14 for about 30 minutes, as though it had the old memory leak problems. As there was nothing specifically in 6.14 that I needed over 6.13, I re-installed 6.0 and upgraded to 6.13 which seemed a bit faster for longer editing sessions.

A few months later, I bit the bullet on an annual subscription during the black Friday sale, as I had £30 of Amazon vouchers to use which brought down the price to an acceptable level.

I can't say that the current 7.x version is much faster, but it does do some things slightly better, and I'm liking the de-haze tool as long as I don't overdo it. I still have 6.13 installed on my machine as well, though haven't opened it since getting the subscription version.
 
For those having GPU related issues, any chance their respective manufacturers have issued driver updates recently that’s broken something?
 
Just been using LR 6.14, seemed same as usual, fast enough for regular editing and exporting.
My PC is nothing special, i5-7400 with 16gb ram and integrated graphics card.
Wonder if Adobe are up to something, asked about Loupe Deck on their stand at the Photo Show and they said it works with LR6 for now?
 
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Just checked and I have GPU acceleration off.
Recall I did that because I couldn't relaunch LR if I closed it down and went back to it before restarting the PC
 
I will just stick with LR 5.7, about 230,000 in one catalog with no slowdown and an old i7 like Neils'.
 
Generating Smart Previews on import and then selecting the preference to use those in the Develop module speeds things up massively for me.
 
SteveRob said:
For those having GPU related issues, any chance their respective manufacturers have issued driver updates recently that’s broken something?
Click to expand...

I’ve always been pretty diligent updating my graphics card drivers, and I haven’t noticed any impact on LR. Turning off GPU acceleration has made a very significant improvement to LR performance.
 
Tobers said:
I’ve always been pretty diligent updating my graphics card drivers, and I haven’t noticed any impact on LR. Turning off GPU acceleration has made a very significant improvement to LR performance.
Click to expand...

That's because it's nothing to do with the graphics card and all about Lightroom.
 
ecoleman said:
I have tin foil hats. Just £10/month
Click to expand...

I hate to tell you but studies have shown than wearing a tin foil had actually AMPLIFIES the signals being fed to your unprotected brain from THEM!:

https://www.howtogeek.com/114037/re...hats-boost-receptivity-to-government-signals/

It is possible that wearing a FARADAY CAGE on your head (properly earthed) may block these signals:

The only problem is that to be really effective you would have to cut your head off then isolate it completely inside the cage!

https://www.quora.com/How-could-one...pecifically-block-out-WiFi-and-mobile-signals

Let me know how that turns out for you!:LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
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Lightroom just doesn't use the resources available to it. Try Capture One. It flies in comparison
 
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