P: Bring back the ability of Enhance to run in the background. (LrC)

Since updating to Lightroom CC 8.4, I've been encountering major performance issues and bugs related to the new AI Denoise implementation on my MacBook Pro (M1 Pro).

Key issues:

• Batch Denoising is significantly slower than before.

• Editing after AI Denoise has been applied causes constant slow-downs and frequent crashes, particularly when adjusting any sliders. This was not an issue with the older DNG-based method.

• Copying and pasting settings between images seems to trigger a full recalculation of Denoise—even when it's already been applied. Ideally, it should just update the amount slider without reprocessing.

• Copying Denoise to an image that hasn’t been calculated yet results in misleading UI feedback—the Denoise slider moves, but the image doesn't reflect the actual denoised state unless I manually flip to another image and back.

•  

I like the concept of non-destructive AI Denoise, but the current implementation feels unstable and inefficient. These bugs have added hours to my workflow this past week.

I’ll be rolling back to an earlier version for now, but happy to provide more detail, logs, or screen recordings if that helps.

Ryan

Hi John, I believe this was a seperate thread but has been merged with this one? Originally I remember replying to this thread in the Lightroom Desktop community...

@ryanc9115767: "Not only does the process of batch denoising take longer, but editing the photo after AI denoise has been applied results in consant slow-downs and crashes on my Macbook Pro (M1 Pro)."

@michelleg7073996: "I just had two crashes.  One was trying to apply a mask after AI Denoise.  The other was just running denoise.  What was just taking 8 seconds is now taking 55 just for a single photo.  My whole machine crapped out and restarted, and still LR is taking longer for single Denoise actions."

If this is occurring in LR Classic, disable the option Catalog Settings > Metadata > Automatically Write Changes To XMP, which has a known performance bug:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-automatically-write-changes-to-xmp-can-t-be-used-with-denoise-on-large-numbers-of-photos/idi-p/15393188

Regarding the crashes, since this thread is a feature request to allow background processing of Denoise, it isn't a good place to address these. Please start a new thread and describe in more detail what you're doing and observing. Full-resolution screenshots (not phone pics) of the entire LR window are always helpful. Also, do the LR menu command Help > System Info and copy/paste the entire contents here so we can see exactly which versions of hardware and software LR thinks you're running and important LR options that are set.

@Sierra301705326vj4: "the "easy" solution is to copy settings and paste them across an album. This is good in theory, but has frozen lightroom each time. I now have to go photo by photo to apply the denoise to each one individually."

If LR is freezing, with no dialog popping up showing the progress and not responding to any further commands, that's clearly a bug. Since this thread is a feature request to allow background processing of Denoise, it isn't a good place to address your problem. Please start a new thread and describe in more detail what you're doing and observing. Full-resolution screenshots (not phone pics) of the entire LR window are always helpful. Also, do the LR menu command Help > System Info and copy/paste the entire contents here so we can see exactly which versions of hardware and software LR thinks you're running and important LR options that are set.

@michelleg7073996 you can create a Reset with the Denoise Amount of your choice.

So if you prefer to start at non 50 then you can.

Agreed.  I just had two crashes.  One was trying to apply a mask after AI Denoise.  The other was just running denoise.  What was just taking 8 seconds is now taking 55 just for a single photo.  My whole machine crapped out and restarted, and still LR is taking longer for single Denoise actions.  And in what world should we have to accept a 50% denoise to start and then manually change it back.  At the very least, let us change it and remember, or let us set a default.  I rarely denoise over 35%, so this is such a waste of time and computer resources.  

I should mention that this is a performance issue for me. Not only does the process of batch denoising take longer, but editing the photo after AI denoise has been applied results in consant slow-downs and crashes on my Macbook Pro (M1 Pro). This wasn't the case with the old DNG method. Also copying and pasting settings from one photo to another seems to recaclulate the whole denoise from scratch, regardless of if denoise had already been applied (it should just change the amount slider of the AI denoise). 

I think the idea of non-destructive AI denoise is great, it just seems to be implemented poorly. 

I've recently switched to Lightroom Desktop from classic, and it looks like some of the issues mentioned are similar, but slightly different?

Will be rolling back my version for now! It's added hours to my work this past week...

LrC blocks the Ui when updating Ai settings.

It does so not only for Enhance but for anything connected to AI so when:  Syncing Ai, Auto Syncing AI, Pasting Ai,  applying Presets with Ai, applying AI profile, etc...

LrC blocks  UI to prevent accidents: with Ui blocked the user can't delte, move, edit a file that is currently under Ai analysis.

LrC could instead "block access" to the single files till AI computations on each are done or cancelled, then release these files after.
So we could still work on the images that are "not blocked" and not have the entire Ui blocked by the modal window.

E.g

We could apply Super Res to N images and still be able to work on all the other images that are unlocked OR evne start working on the iamges that will become unlocked when Ai is done.

Going back to baking Enhance edits to files IS NOT a good idea, IS NOT a good solution.

Is a step back, not a step forward.

I went back to the previous version until they can come up with a fix.

@Sierra301705326vj4 the easiest thing to do is likely to downgrade to the previous version of Lightroom. Instructions are provided here: https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/apps/download-install-apps/creative-cloud-apps/install-previous-versions-creative-cloud-apps.html