P: Large catalogs: Filter folders + import = huge slowdown or freeze

[Vit Kovalcik]

Summary

If you have a large catalog and use Filter folders, then next time you use Import (or Synchronize or Drag&Drop, ...) it will take a lot more time than usual or essentially freeze Lightroom. Catalogs with 10.000s of photos -> LR freezing for seconds or tens of seconds. Catalogs with 100.000s of photos -> LR freezing for minutes or hours.


Windows 10, Intel i7 6700K. No plugins were active, not even the standard ones like Flickr or Adobe Stock. I have made a lot of tests and this is what happens:


Step by step reproduction

1) Open LR
2) Just for comparison: Import 10 or more files files - this takes seconds
3) Remove those files from the catalog
4) Use Filter folders in the left panel: Write "aaa" there, Enter, then clear the text by clicking on the cross. Filter folders should therefore be no longer be active
5) Import those same files again - if you have large catalog, this now takes much more with LR possibly freezing after about 6-8 photos imported.

How much time it takes depends on the size of the catalog:

• With an empty catalog, there is no slowdown.
• With a small test catalog containing around 20 000 photos it took around 10 seconds instead of the original 2 seconds without using the Filter folder (LR became unresponsive during the process, that didn't happen without Filter folder)
• With my main catalog containing 270 000 photos, the import of 10 new photos causes LR to completely freeze for 63 minutes. (But of course, normally I just kill it after a minute and avoid Filter folders like plague.)

Same freeze happens when using the filtering by color labels.

It is sad as it would be a useful feature 😞

[remov_b4_flight]

Hi All
Commonly UI speed depends on catalog database file (*.lrcat), access speed. 
If you put catalog on HDD, move them to SSD.

[Vit Kovalcik]

This is very obviously a bug. It should do exactly _nothing_.My catalog is already on SSD, but it shouldn't matter at all.

[Vit Kovalcik]

Maybe I should wrote this as a first line:
Import 10 photos: 2 seconds
Import 10 photos after using Filter folder function: 63 minutes.

[Jerry Syder]

Without even testing, I do believe you. LR Classic's Library module has loads of hanging bugs. It would take me an entire week to track them all. A lot of basic tasks in the Library module causes LrC to hang/ stutter. Adobe really needs to put some resources into increasing performance here as it's one of the main reasons its customer base exist. 

[milos.toni@gmail.com]

I repeated the procedure. I had the same behaviour. My import was a consequence of folder synchronisation. My catalog (360.000 JPGs and RAWs) has usualy acceptable response times. In this case I can't wait for completition of import - probably some hours or never. It is obvious I never use function  Filter folders.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I can replicate this and will log a bug with the team. Thank you for the report. 

[Rick Spaulding -]

Greetings,

Updates for the Adobe Photography Products were released on 10.20.2020 that include fixes for these issues. Please install the most recent update and confirm that your issue is now fixed. Please let us know if you encounter any issues.

Thank you for your patience.

[Vit Kovalcik]

@Rick Thank you for the info. I just re-tested it and indeed it seems to be working fine now. Thank you!

[Vit Kovalcik]

@Rick After a few days it seems that it introduced another issue. I am still investigating, but it is something like:

After using the Filter folders, then clearing the filter and then Importing photos. Some/All folders get collapsed in the tree view.

Often everything in the view is collapsed into a drive name and after expanding, it is back. But sometimes each and every folder is collapsed, except the one which is currently open. One has to manually expand all of them. Surprisingly, this is a view-issue, because after qutting the LR and restarting it, the folders are again displayed back in the expanded form as if nothing happened.