P: Adding to/Creation of a new Target collection takes minutes unless Sync is paused

[wroublin]

Hello everyone.

I've been using LR for a long time, previously on an intel based Windows 10 laptop. It was a bit slow, but usable.

Now I am using m1 macbookair, both MacOS and LR are up to date and the issue persists.

Since couple versions ago - LR is not usable for me. My collection is huge, has photos on several external hard drives, but i mostly use one, with most current shots. Since 3-6 months my LR is UNUSABLE. I push the B key to add image to target collection - nothing happens. I push it again - nothing happens. After couple minutes - some photos appear in the target collection, others don't, because i pushed the button more than once. It's very annoying. Sync activity goes back to some photos on random external hdd (not currently connected) form way back - i haven't done anything with those photos but there are sync errors for some reason, because why not?

Also - i create a collection - and it doesn't appear immediately.I create another one - after 20 minutes LR wakes up, that the collection I want to create has to have a unique name and boom, the firs one I created magically appears. Seriously - my impression is that this has something to do with syncing - as I sync some collections to cloud to be ableto do some additional culling on my mobile while on the go.

I cannot work like this and instead of having a pleasant experience with culling photos - I am very annoyed and I am unable to work like that. What can i do to make it work smooth again?

[DaMoroshka!]

I am 100% sure now it is just bad coding - when sync is enabled and your catalogue is pretty big (like 100K up) and there are pending uploads in queue - Lightroom is eating 100-101% CPU on Mac executing this background sync queue (on Mac the CPU % is messed up, 100% means full utilization of one core, so  just 1-2 cores loaded, I have 12 total, so in real terms it means CPU is virtually idle) and many operations are responsive and work fine - like e.g. sliders adjustments in Develop, etc. But some operations are DEFINITELY TIED IN with the same process that is syncing in background and have no priority over it, so if I choose EXPORT, or make new collection, or apply AI preset - it appears frozen while slowly executed TOGETHER or TIED IN with the sync process. What is worse - putting Sync on Pause IS NOT HELPING - the sync process still goes on doing something in the background eating CPU (even on pause!)  preventing some operations from executing in reasonable amount of time thus providing user experience of the app frozen or severely lagging. If all sync operations are complete and finished Lightroom is performing more or less OK (some lags can happen still). So they've obviously messed something up with coding of the BACKGROUND sync engine and tying it in with some other FOREGROUND operations which were supposed to have priority over background sync. We will all suffer untill you upvote my post and some of the QA team from Adobe actually see it. Thank you.

[arjunhaarith]

Hi @DaMoroshka! ,

Thanks for sharing the information about the slowness. Inorder for us to investigate more on this issue, can you kindly provide the following files :

1. Diagnostic Report : You can go to Lightroom Classic -> Preferences -> Lightroom Sync

Hold the Alt key, and click Generate Diagnostic Report.  

2. Lrc_Console : /Users/xxxx/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/lrc_console.log

Please share the files mentioned in Step 1 and Step 2 to my email haarithg@adobe.com

Thanks,

Arjun

[DaMoroshka!]

Hi Arjun, 

thank you for taking time to look into the issue. I've sent you the email as you requested, but the diag report was over 300Mb so Gmail wouln't send it, I used apple mail drop - I hope you got it OK, but if not please get back to me, I will send again via different mail. 

To sum up:

I see a clear pattern in this issue - the lags are most pronounced when background sync has queued images (regardless if sync is on or on pause). With all images synced and done things are much better, we can say normal. 

However the sync process is obviously tied in with some UI, library and edit operations, so when the sync process is active (easily observable by checking on current CPU usage - on my M2Max Macbook Pro it typically consumes a bit above 100% CPU (103-107%) - many operations (including quitting LR application) lag - e.g. I have to wait a minute for LR to quit, same with creating collections, applying “auto” tone in the Develop, applying “Portrait” AI presets, etc. Not all operations lag - e.g. navigating through pics, making adjustments by moving sliders in the Develop - all normal. 

Here are the operations I’ve observed as lagging severely with sync active:

1/ Export 

2/ Create new collections

3/ add pics to collections

4/ applying AI masked presents like “portrait”

5/ quitting LR app

6/ updating of saved preview after some edits in Develop module, e.g. you make adjustments then switch to Loop mode and the preview is not updated to reflect the changes made in Develop.

So the main issue seems to be that sync process thread seems to be artificially limited to 100% CPU (one core on Mac) - and it is not flexibly adjusting in real time based on user activity (ideally it should slow down when user is actively engaging with Lightroom and rev up when LR is sitting idle), and - FATALLY - some high priority critical operations seem to be TIED IN with the same executing thread that is almost 100% used by sync engine - resulting in HUGE lags in execution of those operations. 

This all has been a huge issue and a deal breaker for me (and some others from Adobe forums) - It slows the work down to the point of almost unusable. Please escalate and prioritize this bug. It was introduced with the latest big overhaul of the sync engine (I think in 13.3) and persists (and got worse) up till 13.5 - current release. 

Thank you for reading

Kat

[Hao Z.]

Hi DaMoroshka!,

I'm experiencing almost exactly what you've described. There're near 20k photos in my catalogue. Would you share if anything improved in the past few days since you've shared your diagnostic report?

Thanks!

[Hao Z.]

Deleting the Helper and Sync file helps!...photos start being downloaded. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

By the way, I've been using your plugins for several years. They are great!

[DaMoroshka!]

No - Adobe stopped talking to me after I sent them my diag reports. But it is clear as day without any diagnostics that they screwed up this release (starting 13.3) by poor coding and no testing. When sync is active (there are images in queue), even paused - LR is virtually unusable since many common operations lag horrendously. When sync is "all done" with green tick - you can work fine. But this is not what we expect of a highly expensive premium software! And this is by far not the last bug with sync- for example now I am getting "sync error" in status but if I go to online browser page with "sync issues" (why we even need to go online to check what's wrong, why can't we get that info withing the app??!) - the page list ZERO ISSUES. Also the ages old bug with custom camera profiles not syncing to mobile devices is still there GLARING and STRONG - I've just recently WIPED all my cloud images, started sync anew, and I am getting the "some settings are missing and need to be downloaded" on my iphone for many pics with custom camera profiles, just as it was going on FOR YEARS now. 

[DaMoroshka!]

What are you even talking about? Nobody syncs more than one catalogue since it is not allowed by Lightroom! The issue here is that current release is SERIOUSLY BROKEN - anyone can verify that for himself: if you got a reasonably large catalogue with a lot of edits stored in it, cloud sync enabled, and sync has some images in queue - you literally cannot work with LR - many operations lag FOR MINUTES before they are finally executed (or not). You cannot even put sync on pause - it won't help. The only workaround is to wait untill the sync is all done or stop using sync altogether. 

[DaMoroshka!]

It is amazing how this bug has been there ALIVE and KICKING since 13.3, and Adobe released 13.4 and 13.5 with the bug still there! I have filed it several times in  the "ussues" category of this forum - but every time the mods keep moving it to "discussions" here! I am shocked that this is not made top priority and fixed immediately. But what can you expect from a company that literally NOW suggest me to read a discussion on this forum about LR Classic CC 7 version!!!! If Adobe discussion forums work that way one can only imagine how their software engineering is faring!

[DaMoroshka!]

eager mods, please stop editing the title of the original post. The thread is NOT ABOUT lag in creating new collections only. 13.5 lags in a dozen MAJOR operations if cloud sync is working. Put your energy to fixing the issue and not to suppressing the voices of disgruntled users!

[walvero]

Hey DaMoroshka,

The same thing is happening with me. Before the 13.5 update, my lightroom was actually functioning fine (about 69k catalog). However after the update, everything is slow! Trying to change a slider and/or edit is frustratingly slow, it takes awhile for the edit to go through.

It is very hard to edit like this and takes away time from work. I do believe it has something to do with the new sync engine cause when I tried to make a new collection from a folder with pics in it already, it would take mins to appear, when before it was almost instantaneous. Now I have force quit the app, make a new blank collection and then name it, and then copy the pics over I want in it. Before I was able to just right click on a folder and then click "Create Collection..."

Adobe needs to fix this cause this is frustrating to work in, I'm tempted to use regular lightroom and not Classic.

[DaMoroshka!]

Hi Arjun!

Is there any news on our issue? We are suffering here, you know.

[Cannwyll]

The same problem (nothing to add). I am patiently waiting for a fix. Now Lightroom Classic is useless.

[r_9398]

I tried regualr cloud based LR and get the same lag on everything  heck I dont think I even have 20k in my catalog  LR clasisc is un-usable for me today just hangs can't even switch from one photo to the other in develop with only 150 shots  imported! 

[dabour]

Da - what appears to be working for me so far is to pause sync. Yes it should be working and hopefully they will fix this in next update...

[Lulupit]

My Lightroom is also not usable anymore.  I have over 78,000 images coming in at 1.3 TB of 3.1 TB.  I am not syching.  Photos don't load.  Mouse locks up.  It crashes my whole computer.  This all happened over the course of the summer so most definitely related to the new releases.  I curse myself every time I try and use it again.  So we're paying big dollars monthly for something that is unusable.  Unbelievable.

[cobalt35446299]

I upgraded to 13.5 on Mac OS 13.6.9 and also finding the new Lightroom classic unusable. Crashes on importing photos, and hangs with pinwheel of doom when I try to close the program.

[DaMoroshka!]

yours is a different issue. Without sync enabled 13.5 is usable. You need a mac, a large catalogue and cloud sync working to 100% see the issue being discussed here. When sync is not working mine is kind of alright - a bit glitchy but usable. Once sync is running - it is immediately hell. 

[Lulupit]

I am running on an iMac!

[Lulupit]

I'm running 13.6.1.

[GoemonX]

Same here with Lightroom Classic 13.5 on Mac with around 200k images. Unusable laggy and sync to/from cloud is not working at all. I tried the suggested fixes, but nothing seems to change much.

Please fix this fast Adobe!

[DaMoroshka!]

13.6.1 - what? current LR release is 13.5, current Mac OS is 14.6.1 If you are not at current builds first thing you should do is update.

[DaMoroshka!]

Adobe representative who used to be active in this thread stopped responding. Very sad.

[_oh_yeah]

Same for me, since 13.5, uses all the available memory (64 Go !) and the the computer is unusable. Same issue on 2 computers. Have you tried to come back to an older version ?

[DdeGannes]

Post deleted by DdeGannes

[Lulupit]

Sorry, I looked at my Mac version.  My LR is 13.5.