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garywc
garywc
Participant
June 4, 2018
Question

Lightroom Classic CC import very slow

  • June 4, 2018
  • 11 replies
  • 9921 views

This didn't used to be the case but for a while now imports into Lightroom Classic CC has been very slow when importing from a card reader.  I'm using a MacBook Pro with 16gig and up to date OS and latest Lightroom Classic CC.  I've tried all the optimize tips that I can find.   I'm using an external Thunderbolt drive for storage and has plenty of storage space.   The internal drive on the MacBook also has plenty of space.   The lightroom catalog resides on the external drive.    The card reader is a USB 3.0 and reading from a CF card downloading RAW files created on a Canon camera.   I have hundreds of photos at a time that I am importing and it takes an incredible amount of time to import them.

Alternately if I copy all the RAW files from the CF card onto the local hard drive and then import them into light room from there it is very fast.   If I use the internal SD card reader slot on the Mac to import from a SD card it is fast. 

I have tried two different USB 3.0 card readers.  As I said copying manually from the CF card on the card reader onto the local hard drive is very fast and importing from the local hard drive into light room is very fast.

Using the card reader to import into light room from the card reader is very slow.   It's not the card reader as a manual copy of the files from the CF card is fast, it is just slow importing into lightroom from the CF card using the card reader. 

This has only been a problem in recent updates.   I would like to take the CF card, inserted in the USB 3.0 card reader and import directly into light room but it is unbelievably slow.  

Any ideas?  

Thanks... Gary

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      11 replies

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      JP Hess
      JP Hess
      Inspiring
      June 4, 2018

      My only suggestion would be to try having your catalog on the internal hard drive rather than the external hard drive.

        garywc
        garywcAuthor
        Participant
        June 4, 2018

        I found plenty of others also complaining about it.  Appears to be a bug in light room.    Having the catalog local doesn't seem to make a difference.   Bottom line if I manually copy the files somewhere and then import them from anything but a card reader it is normal speed.   It's making it difficult in event photography with a 1,000+ photos in a day and needing to quick edit and publish quickly. 

        So it appears the work around is to manually copy the files to a location and then import to light room.   Not a good workflow and more time consuming than when it once worked (importing from the CF card) without this huge slow down but at least workable at the moment.  Wish it would be fixed, especially given the $$$ I pay each month for the software. 

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