Face Recognition Bloated Catalog from 2 GB to 50+ GB

After using Face Recognition in LrC ONE time, without any LrC prompts about needing to turn it on/off, my catalog grew from around 2 GB to 50+ GB.  I have been working for MONTHS to try to figure out what was going on and why LrC was so PAINFULLY slow.  After learning how Face Recognition creates indexes and/or caches that cannot be controlled by the user, I had to rebuild a clean catalog.  Completing the clean catalog and updating the AI masks for over 20,000 images has taken me at least 3 full work days.  This has caused such a loss to my workflow and productivity over the past few months.  

This is a long‑standing and extremely disruptive problem with Lightroom Classic’s Face Recognition / People View system. This issue has caused severe catalog bloat, corrupted previews, broken masks, and forced me to rebuild my catalog from scratch — something no user should have to do.

Lightroom Classic’s People View generates massive amounts of hidden face‑recognition data that cannot be purged, disabled, or removed once created. Even after turning off People View, disabling face detection in Catalog Settings, pausing face detection in the Activity Center, and disabling People features in Lightroom Sync, Lightroom continues to carry the old face‑recognition data indefinitely.

This leftover data causes several serious problems:

1. Catalog bloat that grows uncontrollably. My catalog ballooned in size and became extremely slow, unstable, and prone to corruption. This happened even though People View was turned off.

2. AI masks break or disappear. When the catalog becomes bloated with face‑recognition junk, Lightroom loses track of AI masks and forces a full rebuild of masks across the entire catalog.

3. Lightroom reprocesses tens of thousands of photos unnecessarily. I had to wait through a massive “Updating AI Settings” process for over 22,000 photos — something that should never be required simply because People View was used at some point in the past.

4. There is NO built‑in way to purge old face‑recognition data. Even after optimizing the catalog, rebuilding previews, rebuilding the catalog, and disabling every People‑related setting, the face‑recognition data remains permanently embedded.

5. The ONLY fix is to create a brand‑new catalog and re‑import all folders manually. This is the only method that actually removes the hidden face‑recognition data. It is time‑consuming, risky, and completely unacceptable for professional workflows.

Lightroom Classic needs immediate improvements in this area:

• A “Purge Face Recognition Data” button that removes all People View indexing from the catalog.

• A way to fully disable People View so Lightroom never generates face‑recognition data again.

• A warning when People View will create large amounts of background data.

• Documentation explaining how People View affects catalog size and performance.

• A fix for the AI mask corruption that occurs when face‑recognition data bloats the catalog.

This issue has existed for years and continues to cause major problems and disruptions for users with large catalogs. Please prioritize a real solution. No user should have to rebuild their entire catalog just to remove hidden face‑recognition data that Lightroom refuses to purge.

Thank you for your kind consideration regarding making this improvement to Adobe Lightroom Classic.