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Scott_Martin_
Known Participant
October 14, 2026
Question

Intermittent long pause when syncing Develop settings

When one is in the Develop module and selects 20+ images in the filmstrip and hits the Sync button Lightroom has historically brought up the Synchronize dialog box immediately. In the last year or so, including LR Classic version 15.6, Lightroom now intermittently has a long pause of around 6-12 seconds before this dialog box pops up.

Personally I’m using a MBP M1 Max with 64GB RAM and 3TB hard drive, and 100MP Fuji GFX100 files. This same machine and files did not experience this long delay in the past. 

This problem sounds small but for professionals doing post production 8+ hours a day this is surprisingly infuriating.

I hope we can eliminate this long pause and get us back to where we were for years! Thanks for listening. 

    5 replies

    jrsforums
    Inspiring
    October 14, 2026

    ​@Claire H. There are some downsides with processing on Smart Previews, aren’t there?

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      Scott_Martin_Author
      Known Participant
      October 14, 2026

      Yes, the quality and resolution are lower, which is unacceptable for my particular workflow. 

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      Claire H.
      Community Manager
      Claire H.Community Manager
      Community Manager
      October 14, 2026

      Hi ​@Scott_Martin_, Thanks for reaching out to the Lightroom Classic Community Forum. Sorry to hear you are experiencing delays in your editing process due to performance issues. Let's try a few things to see if we can improve the performance.

      1. Check Preferences:

        • Open Lightroom Classic.

        • Go to Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Lightroom Classic > Preferences (Mac OS).

        • Select the Performance tab.

        • In the Develop section, ensure that Use Smart Previews Instead Of Originals For Image Editing is selected. If it's already selected, consider unchecking it and testing the sync process again.

      2. Enable Auto Sync:

        • In the Develop module, ensure you have selected multiple images in the Filmstrip.

        • Click on the Enable Auto Sync switch located on the left side of the Sync button.

        • Make adjustments to the Active photo to see if this improves the sync speed.

      3. Optimize Performance Settings:

        • Go to Lightroom Classic > Preferences > Performance.

        • Ensure the Use Graphics Processor option is unchecked if you suspect GPU compatibility issues. This can help if the graphics processor is causing delays.

      4. Optimize Catalog: Regularly optimize your Lightroom catalog to improve performance. You can do this by going to:

        • File > Optimize Catalog.

      5. Test Syncing with Fewer Images:

        • If the delay persists, try syncing settings with a smaller number of images to see if the delay is related to the number of selected images.

      If none of these steps work for you, can you send your system info and a numbered list of the exact steps needed to replicate the issue? You can find your system info by going to Help > System Info, copying and pasting it into a text file, and attaching it here. Thanks! ^CH

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      Scott_Martin_Author
      Known Participant
      October 14, 2026

      Thanks for the response, although I suspect you are AI as your instructions include Windows although I said I am on MacOS. I don’t want to use Smart Previews because I am a professional using 100megapixel images where image quality is paramount. I don’t want auto sync either as that doesn’t fit my workflow. I will try turning off GPU again - thanks of this suggestion. I have Optimized catalog but will do so again. 

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