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WhitcombeRD
Known Participant
December 18, 2023
Question

Slow with a large catalogue?

  • December 18, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 471 views

Im using Classic 13.1 on Windows 11.

PC is a 13th gen i9, Nvidia 4070 with 32gb of ram and fitted with 2 x internal NVME SSDs (which the catalogue lives on.  There is 500GB free on the drive).

Full images live on a combination of a NAS, the internal SSD and various removable HDDs.  Not all are connected at the same time.

 

Ive previously used 14 different catalogues spanning back 12 years but decided today to combine into one for ease of searching for archive images when needed and so on.  The new catalogue is about 220,000 images and the catalogue file itself roughly 2.2GB in size.  By LR standards, this isnt huge.

Ive optimised the catalogue.

 

The issue i have is that doing this has made operations inside the catalogue *extremely* slow.

Removing a collection or folder seems to take 15-20 seconds.

Attempting to create a collection, collection set or similar nothing happens at all unless you perform an operation such as start an import from file, another catalogue or similar and only then does it bring up the dialog box.

Looking at resources, LR never uses more than 40% of available ram or 5% of the CPU despite this.

Editing and switching images themselves is fast enough.

 

Is such poor performance normal for a catalogue this size on a system like this (i believe not) ?

 

Basic steps that led to this:

- Create a new empty catalogue

- Import an older (but already v13) catalogue of a few thousand images

- Plug in the external drive and "update folder location" for the missing images

- ** Already the problem is evident creating collections **

- Repeat step adding more catalogues and updating image locations

 

Problems:

- Right click delete folder in library takes 20 secs to do anything

- Right click delete (or button) a collection in library takes 20 secs to do anything

- Attempting to create a new collection, set or similar does nothing at all until you perform another operation such as launch an import dialogue then it comes into life with a dialog popup box

 

Attempted troubleshooting:-

- Left it a good time to settle

- Optimised catalogue multiple times

- Tried with and without some external drives connected

- PC rebooted

- LR closed and reloaded multiple times

- Deleted edit history

 

Is this sort of behaviour normal for a catalogue of this size?  I have no issues with catalogues of 10 - 20,000 in size at all.

If its not normal, are there any workarounds here? Ive spent 6 hours merging and fixing catalogues so far so dont really want to start from scratch unless its a guaranteed solution.

 

 

 

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    2 replies

    GoldingD
    GoldingD
    Legend
    December 19, 2023

     

    Theres no real way i could connect 8 HDDs and the NAS at the same time (nor is it practical as most of my work is away from home).

     

    Ok, 8 external drives a bit much to connect (although, you might want to consider copying some of those old images to the NAS or current external drive)

     

    But that "and the NAS" bit has me wondering. What make/model of NAS, and connected to your LAN how? And computer to LAN how? I assume Ethernet for the NAS, but what speed, 1Gbos, 2.5 Gbps, 10 Gbps. And computer, Ethernet or WiFi, and if Ethernet, what speed, 1, 2.5, 10 Gbps? And quality/speed of various switches between NAS and computer.

     

     

     

      W
      WhitcombeRDAuthor
      Known Participant
      December 19, 2023

      Actually should explain workflow to explain my odd-ish setup.

       

      The computer is a laptop and when in use spend extended periods of time away from home (months, maybe a year).
      So whilst away all the new photos are imported onto an SSD in the laptop (it has 3TB storage).  Editing is carried out on the images stored locally.

      They're manually packed up to an external drive(s) which are also carried.

       

      When i get back to the house OR when i find better internet the images that ive edited and finished are backed up to the NAS.

      Due to space issues on the NAS, older images are routinely moved to external drives for longer term storage.

      So ultimately almost all editing is done using local SSD images/previews.  Its extremely rare i need to edit or pull an image off the NAS or externals and typically only if someone requests it etc.
      LR is working off SSD stored local images and previews 99% of the time - not smart previews or over a network link.

      LAN is GigE (and getting that throughput as measured) and the same images on the same NAS/HDDs work without the large delays on smaller catalogues prior to me merging all into one.



      GoldingD
      GoldingD
      Legend
      December 19, 2023
      with 2 x internal NVME SSDs (which the catalogue lives on.  There is 500GB free on the drive).

      So, the SSD with the catalog, the library previews, etc, on it. How much free space is that in % , looking for 20, some say 25% free. And remember, it is not just the catalog, but space for the preview as well.

       

      Full images live on a combination of a NAS, the internal SSD and various removable HDDs.  Not all are connected at the same time.

      Do you have Face Detection and Address Lookup paused (I would assume yes, but..) And does any form of Sync running? And not sure if Smart Previews would help as apparently the photos might sometimes not be available.

       

      Speaking of that, the photos not available. Why are those drives not connected, and if they are, does this problem go away?

       

       

       

      W
      WhitcombeRDAuthor
      Known Participant
      December 19, 2023

      Catalogue drive has roughly 50% free (Its a 1TB with 500gb free).

       

      Face and address detection is off (i never use those), theres no form of cloud sync running at all.

      The drives arent connected as the NAS has enough space for the last few years images.  For older than those they're on external HDDs (8 of them) plugged in when i need an image off that drive for whatever reason..  For older stuff that might be once or twice a year.
      Theres no real way i could connect 8 HDDs and the NAS at the same time (nor is it practical as most of my work is away from home).

        KR Seals
        Community Expert
        KR SealsCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        December 19, 2023

        Are you using smart previews? That might help speed things up.

        I have a similar setup, 190,000 images referenced in the single catalog that I use. That catalog does take a while to load on startup, but I have no slowness until I have been editing for several hours when LrC does slow down noticibly. I just restart and keep working at that point. 

        My disk setup is two NVME SSD, one for OS (Win 11) and one for the LrC catalog and preview folders. See you system description in my signature. All my images are on internal hard drives of the appropriate size. LrC does not typically access the original raws except to create new 1:1 previews when you zoom in, or to export, or to print. It's working from previews at that point so smart previews might be helpful to you.

         

        Ken Seals - Nikon Z 9, Z 8, 14mm-800mm. Computer Win 11 Pro, I7-14700K, 64GB, RTX3070TI. Travel machine: 2021 MacBook Pro M1 MAX 64GB. All Adobe apps.
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