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AroraTheExplorer
Participating Frequently
August 15, 2025
Question

Switching between pictures is slow

  • August 15, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 524 views

I had LrCC open all day while I was working my other job so everything was all synced and backed up. No importing, no migrating, etc. I re-opened it right before I started editing. Switching between pictures is painfully slow. Editing, I constantly have the spinning wheel of death when trying to adjust any slider. It will say, "Synced and backed up," but then I can't even paste anything without it taking 2 minutes to paste my edits on another photo. It doesn't matter what I do - wait for everything to sync and back up, close and reopen LR, or just edit as things are syncing - it's taking the longest time to edit my photos these days. I've written this entire post and my paste still hasn't posted to my photo. It's now taking me 4x as long to edit a wedding as it normally does and I'm dying over here. I'm noticing that because the syncing is so slow, it will show that an edit has pasted, but then when I go back to the photo later, no edits were pasted and I'm having to start from scratch. 

 

And before anyone asks... I work for software company so my internet is fast. I'm on a 2023 MacBook Air M2, Sequoia 15.5. Lightroom Cloud 8.3.1 I'm going on 5+ minutes without it being able to paste copied edits from one picture to another. Screw the AI adds, give me basic functionality 😞 

1 reply

Anshul_Saini
Community Manager
Anshul_SainiCommunity Manager
Community Manager
August 20, 2025

Hi @AroraTheExplorer,


Thanks for reaching out and sharing those details. Let’s work together to try to narrow down what’s going on.

Here are a few checks and suggestions:
1. The latest available version of Lightroom Desktop is 8.5. Please update the app via the Creative Cloud Desktop app to ensure you have the latest performance and bug fixes.

2. Click the cloud icon in the upper-right corner to check if any files are still syncing or stuck.

3. Try pausing syncing temporarily from the cloud icon menu. Close and reopen Lightroom, then resume editing. This can help isolate whether syncing is affecting performance.

4. Check if Lightroom is using internal storage or external/slow drives to cache originals, preferably a fast local MacBook SSD. Ensure “Store a copy of all originals locally” is not enabled unless needed.

5. If performance degradation builds up over time, you may want to try clearing the Lightroom cache: Preferences > Local Storage > Click “Clear Cache”. Then quit and relaunch Lightroom.

6. Ensure no other heavy apps or disk-intensive processes are running alongside Lightroom, especially those that may compete with memory or SSD I/O.


If none of this helps:
 • Please help us investigate further by sharing your full system info. In Lightroom, go to Help > System Info. Copy and paste the full output in your reply.

 • If possible, share a short screen recording showing the delay you’re seeing when trying to paste edits. This will help us better understand the symptoms.


Let us know what you observe after going through the above. We’re here to help you get back to a smooth editing workflow.

 

Best,

Anshul Saini

A
AroraTheExplorerAuthor
Participating Frequently
August 26, 2025
Hi Anshul,

If I close out LR then reopen it, it works for about an hour before getting slow again. I often have to pause syncing while I’m editing no matter what, otherwise it takes even longer to load and edit a photo. I’ll try updating to see if that helps at all.

Thank you!
S
Anshul_Saini
Community Manager
Anshul_SainiCommunity Manager
Community Manager
August 29, 2025

Thanks for confirming those details, @AroraTheExplorer. A couple more checks so we can narrow this down further:

  • Were you able to update to Lightroom v8.5.1 (the most recent release)? Please let us know if that helped with the slowdown.

  • If the issue continues, can you confirm whether you’re working with files stored locally on your MacBook SSD, or if Lightroom is set to work directly with cloud-only originals?

  • As another step, try resetting Lightroom’s preferences to default settings: Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) + Shift while launching the application, then select Reset Preferences.

This will help us determine whether the slowdown is related to syncing, local storage, or preferences.

 

Let us know how it goes.

 

Best,

Anshul Saini

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