Lightroom Classic takes 20 minutes to start

Hi ​@lollus,

Thanks for reaching out. A 20-minute wait before the application window appears is definitely not expected behavior, and I'd like to help narrow down the cause. A few things I'd like to dig into with you:

• Approximately how many images are in your catalog? And which folder/source is selected (active) when Lightroom starts?

• Is your catalog (.lrcat) file stored on your internal SSD/NVMe drive, or is it on an external or network drive?

• Do you have Lightroom Sync (syncing with Lightroom cloud) enabled in Preferences > Lightroom Sync? Try pausing it and restarting.

• Do you have any third-party plugins installed (e.g., Topaz, Luminar, DxO, etc.)? Plugins are loaded during startup, and a misbehaving one can cause significant delays. You can test by temporarily disabling them via File > Plug-in Manager and relaunching.

• Is "Automatically write changes into XMP" enabled in Catalog Settings > Metadata?

Some targeted troubleshooting to test & try:

• Create a brand-new test catalog (File > New Catalog) and launch Lightroom Classic, opening that catalog. If the new catalog opens quickly, the issue is specific to your existing catalog

• Go to Edit > Preferences > Performance and set "Use Graphics Processor" to Off. Restart Lightroom.

• If you haven't recently, go to File > Optimize Catalog. For large catalogs, this can meaningfully improve startup and responsiveness.

• Some security suites (including aggressive Windows Defender configurations) perform real-time scanning of every file Lightroom touches during startup. Try adding your catalog folder and your Lightroom Classic installation folder to your security software's exclusion list.

Looking forward to your follow-up.

Best,

Anshul Saini