P: hangs When Importing

[defaulthd7i9za0t8ju]

I've been subscribed for over 2 years now and have never been able to make use of Lightroom Classic. Every time I try to import more than a handful of folders worth of photos it just freezes up. I have tens of thousands of images from over the years but the most I've ever been able to import has been perhaps a thousand before it just freezes, and even then it takes up to an hour just to import a couple hundred. I'm using the add option so I don't know if that makes a difference. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling - more than once - before anyone asks.

This has happened on 2 different laptops by the way - I expected it with my old one as it didn't have enough RAM, but I kept lightroom in mind while buying my new laptop. Despite that it's still unusable for my needs...or anything to be perfectly honest. It also freezes every time I try to use to stitch panoramas. I'm doing them in photoshop now, but from the few times Lightroom hasn't crashed I know it's better for this than Photoshop. Please help.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I was having the exact problem for several months.  I don't know I you have photoshop or any of the other creative apps installed, but I finally got rid of all creative apps, then reinstalled LR, and it ran fine. Then I reinstalled PS and bridge, and they all seem to like each other again, and my LR is importing things fine again.  Serendipity?  I don't know, but it worked for me.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

We've reviewed the email address you use with this forum and find no crash reports in our system.

Did you see a crash dialog?

Do you use a different email address when filling out the crash report?

Was the crash dialog Adobe, Microsoft or Apple?

[tmickow]

1) Some system info would help.  Click Help --> System Info in the LrC menu bar, then copy the contents and paste the first 30 or so lines back in a response here.

2) What type of images are you trying to import?

3) Are there any video files in the folders you're trying to import?  If so, try deselecting them on the Import screen or move them out of the folders temporarily before starting the import.  I have had issues in the past where problem video files would hang an import.

4) Your computer may be appear to be "freezing" because LrC is busy building previews for the images you're adding.  What preview level are you picking in the Import dialog?   You may want to try "Minimal" or "Embedded & Sidecar" to see if they make a difference on the import.  Here's a link to an article explaining the different preview types, if you're not familiar with them - https://www.creative-photographer.com/complete-guide-lightroom-previews/

[defaulthd7i9za0t8ju]

*gary_yarrow_7990346

This helped a little in that it's no longer completely freezing my computer, but it just took 5 hours to import 6,000 jpgs (most of them small files from years ago). Oh well...it's a little better at least!

[defaulthd7i9za0t8ju]

@Rikk 

No I haven't seen a crash dialogue and I've never filled in a crash report. When Lightroom stops working it freezes my entire system and I have no choice but to shut my whole laptop down using the power button.

[defaulthd7i9za0t8ju]

@TomM 

1)

Lightroom Classic version: 10.4 [ 202108071231-af9219b9 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en
Operating system: Windows 10 - Home Premium Edition
Version: 10.0.19042
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 8
Processor speed: 1.1GHz
SqLite Version: 3.34.0
Built-in memory: 7959.4 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 7959.4 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 905.1 MB (11.3%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 6329.5 MB
GDI objects count: 854
USER objects count: 2427
Process handles count: 2954
Memory cache size: 0.0MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 13.4 [ 872 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 25MB / 3979MB (0%)
Camera Raw real memory: 31MB / 7959MB (0%)
System DPI setting: 120 DPI
Desktop composition enabled: Yes
Displays: 1) 1920x1080
Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: No, External touch: No, External pen: Yes, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info: 
DirectX: Intel(R) UHD Graphics (26.20.100.7870)

2) Primarily jpegs of varying resolutions, and some raw files (Pentax, Nikon and Fuji)

3) There are a few video files but they are few and far between

4) The previews do seem to be the thing causing the problem, but I didn't even know you could pick different preview levels, thanks for the link!

I am definitely not technically minded and I don't know much about computers truth be told.

[tmickow]

*Susan Dailey 

1) Based on your system info, it doesn't look like you're sailing the fastest ship in the fleet.  If you're trying to import tons of images, patience is probably the key.  You may also want to try importing in smaller chunks.

2) Probably fine there.

3) All it takes is one.  If you continue to have problems, my suggestion still holds. Eliminate the video files from the big import and do them separately.

4) Yep, your preview choice can have a big impact on import performance, especially on a slower computer.  The preview files get created in a folder alongside the catalog, so making sure your catalog is stored on a fast drive that has plenty of free space on it helps too.

[defaulthd7i9za0t8ju]

@TomM 

Yes I was on a fairly tight budget when I had to upgrade my laptop. This was the best I could get at the time (I'll be upgrading again as soon as I can though that's for certain)

I think the preview choice might have solved my problem though - just imported a few thousands images in just a few minutes after changing preview to minimal. A few minutes is definitely an improvement over a few hours, thank you!

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

That would be an application hang - not a crash and wouldn't generate a useful log. 

The behavior you describe sounds like a similar issue where an Android device is connected during the Import. Is that the case with you?

[defaulthd7i9za0t8ju]

@Rikk I've never heard the term application hang. Would that affect the whole laptop though? I've never had an android device connected when importing to Lightroom.

TomM's suggestion of changing the build previews seems to have done the trick though - I was able to import all my files yesterday without issue.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Thanks for letting us know.