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Stevord41
Stevord41
Inspiring
September 22, 2018
Question

LR running slowly on macbook pro

  • September 22, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 729 views

I've got about 30 GB of storage space left on my laptop and are constantly moving my finished work folders to an external drive to maintain the space.

But LR seems to be lagging, (spinning colored ball) and just not working smoothly as it normally does. The rest of my mac seems to be fine, (i know LR uses more resources than most of my other stuff).  Just curious if there are suggestions for fixing this.  I've rebooted, but i have not 'zapped my P-Ram' or anything like that yet.

Thoughts?

Stevo

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    September 22, 2018

    If it's not the storage space issue explained above, then you need to provide a lot more detail about what specific actions in Lightroom are slow, plus state your operating system version NUMBER, your Lightroom version NUMBER (don't tell us "latest" or "up-to-date"), your hardware configuration, and any other details that seem relevant.

    You don't want to put photos on the internal drive and then move them to an external HD later, there's no speed benefit or other benefit, it's just extra work. Just put them on the external drive straight out of the camera. (EXCEPTION: If you travel and don't bring the external drive with you, then of course you have to put the photos on the internal drive and move them later)

      Stevord41
      Stevord41Author
      Inspiring
      September 22, 2018

      Thanks for the feedback thus far.

      To clarify. I'm only moving my work folders for each show (i'm a concert photographer) off the laptop as i'm running out of space on my 1 TB SS drive. So i'm not working off the external drive, it's purely for storage after i'm done editing/exporting.

      I'm a paid subscriber to CC so i do have the latest :-) version of Classic, Photoshop, etc. (Release 7.5 and Camera Raw 10.5).

      I only have around 30gb of space left on my 1TB internal SS drive. As i only shoot in raw, that fills up quickly so i offload the folders once i'm done. (as mentioned above).

      My editing is pretty standard, with the basic tool adjustments, the adjustment brush, Crop tool, etc. But, for example this morning, I would click the adjustment brush, and then go to click on the picture and the mac beach ball would show up for a few seconds. Then if i move a slider or something, you would see a very noticable lag before you would see the shift.  Normally, it's instantaneously.

      I only have my mac mail, a Chrome Browser and messenger running in the background. Sometimes i'll have PS open too but that doesn't seem to matter whether it's open or not.


      Thanks for further guidance. I have not had a chance to try the suggestion the first poster made yet.

      Stevo

      dj_paige
      dj_paige
      Legend
      September 22, 2018

      Stevord41  wrote

      Thanks for the feedback thus far.

      To clarify. I'm only moving my work folders for each show (i'm a concert photographer) off the laptop as i'm running out of space on my 1 TB SS drive. So i'm not working off the external drive, it's purely for storage after i'm done editing/exporting.

      And I'm suggesting you don't do this. There is no benefit, just extra work. Put the photos on the external directly out of the camera.

      My editing is pretty standard, with the basic tool adjustments, the adjustment brush, Crop tool, etc. But, for example this morning, I would click the adjustment brush, and then go to click on the picture and the mac beach ball would show up for a few seconds. Then if i move a slider or something, you would see a very noticable lag before you would see the shift.  Normally, it's instantaneously.

      Yes, brushing is a known cause of slowness. Macbook Pro users complain about this a lot. You haven't stated the hardware configuration you are using (specifically what is the exact CPU? How large is the monitor in pixels? How large in pixels or megapixels are your original RAW images)

      kentdesign
      Community Expert
      kentdesignCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      September 22, 2018

      A few items to try:

      Try increasing the Camera Raw cache to 20 GB or more to speed up the Develop module.

      * Lightroom > Preferences (Mac OS) or Edit > Preferences (Windows). Click the File Handling tab.

      Make sure your Lightroom catalog and the  “Previews” folder (Previews.lrdata file on Mac), and. the Lightroom Cache  are on a fast drive, preferably SSD.

      I have found that with my Lightroom catalog and previews folders and Cache on the internal SSD of my computer, along with my operating system, I can put my image files on an external storage drive and LR works faster.

      Of course it is even faster if everything is together on that internal SSD!

      Hope that helps!

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