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vBKD
Participant
May 10, 2023
Question

Read (XMP) Metadata from Files Slow

  • May 10, 2023
  • 5 replies
  • 503 views

I know this has been reported before, but it seems to have had no attention and it is still a serioius issue.

 

Selecting a number of images in the library and running Metadata > Read Metadata from Files results in obscene wait times.

 

Attempting to read metadata from XMP files for around 10k images with the catalogue, images and XMP files all on the local SSD of a Macbook Pro has taken over 48 hours so far and shows no sign of finishing any time soon.

 

This is (or was) a common operation for me once upon a time, and it used to take just a few minutes for a big import of this kind a few years ago. What happened??

 

  • Lightroom 12.3
  • macOS 13.3
  • M1 Max
  • 64GB RAM
  • 2TB SSD witih 1TB free

 

This topic has been closed for replies.

5 replies

S
SDgyae5
Participant
October 7, 2023

Lightroom Classic 12.4

MacOS 13.6

My catalogue size is 2.5GB on local SSD. Images are on external HDD. Approx 340K images in my catalogue and 1700 keywords. 

Same performance problems experienced with Read Metadata from Files. 
I use jbCaptureTime to EXIF to update creation datae of scanned negatives .JPG

I am not using XMP and XMP is disabled.

The first time I try updating files after opening LR, reading metadata for a 10-20 files will take seconds.

Second and subsequent metadata reads of 10-20 files will take minutes and progressively longer.

If I close LR and re-open, the first read is quick and subsequent are slower and slower.

No other performance problems with LR - this is a 3 year old Mac with oodles of Ghz, cores and RAM.

 

Would like to see some attention to this bug from Adobe.

 

    N
    NightArcher
    Participant
    October 1, 2023

    Same problem here. Unsuable feature

     

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    July 5, 2023

    I do not find reading XMP to be painfully slow (LrC 12.4, Windows 11). I may (on a typical shoot) return home with 200 NEF files. I import the photos into LrC, then I close LrC. I use GeoSetter to assign GPS locations to each photo, which creates .xmp files; and then I launch LrC again and read the XMP files for all 200 photos. This takes (I'm guessing, I didn't time it) less than 5 minutes. Of course, doing this for 10K files should take a huge amount longer, but probably not 48 hours.

     

    Now, this particular reading of the XMP files is done when the XMP files are smallest. If, on the other hand, you have done some editing that includes a lot of masking, it may be that the XMP files are much much much larger, and at that point, reading and writing them should take a lot longer.

     

    Adding to the above, another possible factor is that your anti-virus is scanning each and every photo file and each and every XMP file, and that would cause tremendous slowness.

    Ian Lyons
    Community Expert
    Ian LyonsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 9, 2023

    Deselecting the images after the read xmp file process has started often reduces the time. That being said, both 'read metadata from' and 'write metadata to' file are painfully slow.

    S
    spf22
    Participant
    July 5, 2023

    Thanks, Ian. That helps marginally, but it remains frustratingly slow. I am one of those who uses Photo Mechanic to add IPTC metadata. In the past, I could import with LRClassic and then add or tweak metadata later in PM and use "read metadata from" in LR to keep any changes in sync. Something changed in the last few years and now it is ridiculously slow on my Mac Pro.  I now have to ingest images using PM and add all my metadata before I import into LR. Perhaps I would not be as frustrated if it had always been this way. I don't see any urgency to fix it -- perhaps because it only effects those using a third party program for metadata? I hope that is not the case but I can only wonder.

    S
    spf22
    Participant
    June 9, 2023

    I have the same frustration as the problem popped up in the last year or so and yet Adobe has offered no improvements. 

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