Links are taking ages to update

I’m experiencing the same issue. Clearing the preferences does fix it, which got me wondering why. It turns out the swatch panel is somehow causing the links to lag when updating. Adobe what have you done??? 

Since this began happening after an upgrade it would be a good idea to try resetting your Illustrator preferences. This will restore the program to its defaults. Hopefully, this will fix the issue.

To reset preferences on a Macintosh:

The User Library folder in which Illustrator’s preferences are stored is hidden by default on most Macintoshes. To access it make sure that Illustrator is closed and click on the desktop to launch a Finder Window (Command-N).With this window in column view follow the path User>Home folder (it’s the folder with an icon that looks like a house—it may have the user’s name rather than “Home”) and click on the Home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. “Library” will now appear within the Home folder. Within the Library folder find the folder called Preferences and within it find the folder called “Adobe Illustrator <Version #> Settings” (earlier versions of Illustrator might just say “Adobe Illustrator”) and the file called “com.adobe.Illustrator.plist” and delete both that folder and that file. When Illustrator is next launched it will create new preference files and the program will be restored to its defaults. 

The advantage of manually deleting preference files in this manner is that after you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, you can create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

Hello @eatonal80,

Could you share more details, like the version of the OS/Illustrator/Photoshop installed on your computer, and if this happens with all files, or files stored in a particular folder location (internal/external/network drive or a cloud synced-folder like Google Drive/Dropbox/etc.), so I can better assist you?

Also, try to run Illustrator under a different administrator account (Windows / macOS) and share your observations.

Looking forward to hearing from you.