P: (Win) Consumes RAM during import and fails to release afterwards

[perfect_goal1587]

I notice that LR eats all memory when you start importing images.

When opened, it takes about 1.5-3GB ram. Then import 100 images, and RAM shoots up to +17GB

Iv been doing some tests with smaller raw files, same thing, always goes up to 17GB ram usage. The folder i imported as test contains only 5GB of raws, and LR uses more then twice that amount to import those images? When you delete the images, 17GB ram is still in use. Then tested less images, like 30, and memory still goes up, but less, around 5GB ram extra, for images that on disk only take around 1GB. Importing more images, like +300 will not make memory to increase more then 17GB.

Solution? Import images, restart LR to clear memory, edit... and ram usage will stay "normal" around 6GB during edit after some testing. Thats 10GB less then just doing an import. Whats up with that?

Im on 13.5 btw

[Moved from ‘Bugs’ to ‘Discussions’ by moderator, according to forum rules.]

[steveisa054]

And maybe I have solved the problem with the Lightroom memory surges and associated PC freezing up? I am not 100% sure, but perhaps. I replied yesterday to one of the comments on this thread, that I decided to try turning off the option to have Lightroom use the GPU for various tasks. This is where I set the Edit->Preferences Performance tab setting "Use Graphics Processor" to "Off". I do not know for certain yet as I haven't worked enough with edits since yesterday, but it sure looks like it fixes things for me. I noticed yesterday that Lightroom was laying claim to most of my GPU memory, even when I was not actively editing in Lightroom. If I had the "Use Graphics Processor" set to "Auto" and just had an image opened in the Develop module, a lot of my GPU memory would be taken by Lightroom. Because of this, Topaz apps would fail if I tried to use them while Lightroom was opened. After setting the "Use Graphics Processor" to "Off", Lightroom would no longer lay claim to the GPU RAM, and I could again use Topaz apps without shutting down Lightroom, saving me a lot of work. But there also seems to be another benefit for me to have Lightroom not use the GPU: when working with the complex masks in Lightroom, the memory used by Lightroom seems to no longer climb over something like 8 GB. The sudden memory surge to over 15 GB doesn't seem to happen. I still think this mismanagement of memory comes from my older motherboard/chipset, an incompatibility somewhere. But it seems to make sense. My system is letting Lightroom use the GPU RAM and perhaps not releasing it again, and so running into a situation that it cannot handle. Anyway, if others are experiencing what I am, try turning off the use the graphics card setting and see it that helps. Of course the downside for me is that rendering previews has become noticeably slower, but it is better than having to deal with the freezes and having to shut Lightroom down again and again.

[Arrivest237]

This set up does not work, memory, lags, totally frustrating.
Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz 2.42 GHz
Installed RAM 12.0 GB (11.7 GB usable)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

[steveisa054]

All you have is 12 GB RAM on the motherboard? What do you have for a graphic card and how much RAM there? With all the RAM that the various Windows and other processes also use up, I am not sure 12 GB RAM is enough nowadays, for Lightroom, but perhaps it also depends on the size of your photos. I have 32 GB in my current PC plus 12 GB on the graphic card.

[steveisa054]

An update. Over the weekend I migrated to my new PC. I am using the same RTX 3060 graphic card with 12 GB RAM, but I have an MSI MAG B360 motherboard, Ryzen 7900 CPU and 64 GB DDR5 RAM. And a really pretty Corsair case. I have only had a few days experience with it using Lightroom, Photoshop and Topaz but what I observe so far is this. Lightroom, when I have it set up to use the graphic card for processing (Auto setting), still uses a lot of memory. I still see the memory usage in Task Manager creeping up to 15 GB when I am working with a few pixel-based masks (subject, background, brushes). And I still see that Lightroom is laying claim on most of my 12 GB GPU dedicated RAM (according to Task Manager). I had thought that this sudden high memory usage, and hogging the GPU RAM, was maybe due to my older chipset and BIOS, but apparently not. However, performance is amazingly better. So far I have not had Topaz apps fail on me despite Lightroom still being open and laying claim to so much GPU memory, and everything is working quite a bit faster. In fact, defining a subject or background mask is far quicker than I had gotten used to. I am guessing that it definitely could be a good idea to have more than 32 GB CPU RAM, and it looks like it was a good move to purchase 64 GB for the new PC. Installing Windows again was a pain of course, but I managed to transfer all my LR and PS settings, brushes, actions, presets, LUTs without too much effort.

[steveisa054]

This is an update to my post, as of 11th of March 2024. I now have my new PC up and running, with Windows 11, an MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk motherboard, 64 GB DDR5 ram, AMD Ryzen 7900 CPU, oodles of internal SSD storage, and the RTX 3060 graphic card from Gigabyte with 12 GB ram. My situation has improved remarkably, except for the one issue with Lightroom memory allocation surges. In fact, this has now gotten worse. Since I now have 64 GB instead of 32 GB on my older PC, Lightroom has now been seen to surge to over 20 GB ram usage looking at my Task Manager.

I had hopes that with the new PC, meaning new chipset, motherboard, BIOS, that memory allocation issues might subside. My new PC does perform much better than my old one due to the more modern and newer components. However, when working with Lightroom masks that are of the pixel based type (subject, people, background, brush), I find I need to restart Lightroom often. I do not run out of memory now, as 64 GB is a lot, but things start to get laggy, and then I know if I open up Task Manager I will see Lightroom's memory usage is up over 15 GB. At this point I restart Lightroom to bring that memory usage back down under 6 GB and let me work quickly again.

I am wondering if this is a memory leak problem within Lightroom. Memory being allocated to work on these complex masks is not being released. I am working with 45 MB RAW files which become 200 MB in size after denoise enhancement or upon converting to TIF after a tour through Photoshop or Topaz. One file that is 200 MB in size causes Lightroom to grab 15 GB to more than 20 GB of ram. This seems absurd.

By the way, I find myself now trying to avoid pixel based masking in Lightroom when possible. I am reverting back to the old ways of working, where I create several radial gradients to adjust exposures instead of creating a subject or people based mask.

[D Fosse]

One file that is 200 MB in size causes Lightroom to grab 15 GB to more than 20 GB of ram. This seems absurd.

By @steveisa054

Why is that absurd? 20 GB of 64 total? That sounds perfectly normal to me, and nothing to call "memory leak".

Memory is supposed to be used. Free memory is wasted memory! Ideally, all of it should be in use all the time. That's when you get real payoff.

The weakness in Lightroom Classic now is that it doesn't have a scratch disk like Photoshop has. If needed, it still has to resort to OS paging. Previously, the memory requirements have been modest and it hasn't been necessary, but with all the new advanced ai-based functions, memory usage is bound to go up.

If you use Photoshop, you'll se memory usage can go up to several hundred GB. That's perfectly normal, and that's why Photoshop has a scratch disk. I'm not sure about LrC, but in Photoshop, memory is by design not released when the file is closed. Instead, it is recycled and reused as long as the application is open. I would assume something similar for LrC.

[steveisa054]

Hello D Fosse,

you have answered several times with the same opinion that huge amounts of memory usage is normal and ok. Sorry to say, I do not agree with you. This, I consider poor programming or an error. I have a new PC and its performance degrades incredibly when Lightroom grabs 15 to 20 GB of memory for itself. On my older PC, it became impossible to continue as memory was used 100%. On my new PC, I have 64 GB memory so I am not running out of memory yet, but things run so much more slowly, that a very often restart of Lightroom becomes necessary.

Yes, this is absolutely absurd. Working on a 200 MB file and Lightroom requires 20,000 MB?

[D Fosse]

What you're missing is that this goes far beyond the static nominal starting file size. Every operation requires storing additional data somewhere.

Do you get crashes, stalls or freezes? If not, it's working as it should and there's nothing to worry about.

I have 32 GB system RAM and 16 GB VRAM. I normally work with LrC and Photoshop in parallel, both open and both very busy. I've never had any performance problems whatsoever - but yes, most of my memory is used. As it should.

[Mitkó]

@D Fosse , you're not understanding something buddy... Last year in March LR was working quite fine without any freezes and taking up memory 95% of your memory. However, at the end of 2023 they started inteoducing some AI nonse "technology" and then this "normal usage" began. Is it normal to use a software and by default to expect it to lag and slow down your enitre PC? Haha, I am not so sure about that. It's like buying a new car and the seller tells you "It may be slow and overheat and even sometimes freeze but there ain't any smoke coming from the engine, so all is fine." 😂

[steveisa054]

Do I get crashes? Yes, when attempting to use Topaz apps occasionally.

Do I get stalls? Yes, most definitely, causing me to have to restart Lightroom, and needing to wait patiently for my PC to respond so I can do this.

Do I get freezes? Yes, most definitely, same as with the stalls.

What I am experiencing is not normal. Nor is it a desireable situation.

You write as if it normal for a software to grab as much memory as it thinks it might need and then hold onto it for all time to come until the software is shut down and restarted. Hey, in the old days, this was called "memory leak" and today, if a software is doing just this, then it is also a "memory leak" because the memory taken up by Lightroom or Photoshop is no longer available for the many other tasks that my PC needs to perform as well. And having one software needing to page its huge memory allocation to disk for another software to have room to work means degradation of performance overall.

[Lumigraphics]

That's not a memory leak. And modern operating systems page to disk constantly. They also use files on disk sometimes instead of reading them all into memory.

Honestly, this whole thread is crazy. I have a US$800 Mac mini with 16GB RAM/256Gb internal drive (yeah, i know) that runs Photoshop and Lightroom Classic 24/7 and don't have memory problems. Now, there might be OS-specific issues but there is no core memory leak going on. I typically only reboot to install system updates.

[steveisa054]

I also agree the situation is crazy. Since there are not thousands of users complaining about the situation I am experiencing, this must be a software or hardware quirk which might only be affecting a few of us. But why would the Windows Task Manager report that Lightroom is using 15 to 20 GB of ram when I am editing a single raw file, and why is this climb from about 6 GB to over 15 GB happen quite suddenly when I create a pixel-based mask? And why does a restart of Lightroom in this situation result in an initial ram usage when editing the same image of only 2 to 3 GB? It is just strange and a bit frustrating.

[Lumigraphics]

Complaints about Lightroom performance have been floating around since it was introduced. Adobe keeps tweaking the operation, throwing RAM at the problem is certainly one way of doing so.

Have you tried running in Safe Mode to see if its a software conflict?

[JoeFish2]

Steve, 

i have the exact same problem you're having. 

I increased my memory from 32Gb to 64gb.  

While monitoring my memory usage in Task Mgr, I see LR Boots up with a base amount of 8gb used. 
As i begin to process photos memory usage climbs to about 30gb and my LR bogs down to a crawl. I have to reboot to reset memory so I can do a few more photos. i can then process a dozen or so more before it bogs down again. 

Even though I have 60gb memory available, it never uses it before stalling at around 30-32GB. 

i originally thought adding another 32 gb memory would solve my problem but it didn't. Strange that none of the memory above 32GB never shows usage before the system bogs down. Same issues like mouse movements, slow loading, slow Denoise processing, masking , etc. 

Can't get any work done. 

I'll work through your suggestions to see if I can improve performance. 
I have a similar high performance computer. 

[steveisa054]

Perhaps it is the same situation. I have not seen LR use more than around 22 GB ram but most likely because I restart LR when I notice LR begins to get laggy, which for me is when LR is using 14 or more GB (this is not exact, perhaps LR starts to be noticeably slower earlier). And for me, I can reach this >15 GB ram utilization working on only a single photo (35-45 MB raw from a Nikon D850). All I need do is create a mask or two which is pixel based (background, subject, brush etc) and adjust a few of the mask's sliders. I have just gotten used to having to restart LR often and, in fact, am thinking about seeing if I can create a key shortcut to do just that (access the "Restart Lightroom" button from the Preferences->Performance tab).

[vilmantasr]

for me problem is not ram usage, but vram usage, when it reatches 7,7 or similar from 8 (nvidia 4060) it just freezing.

[MattPointZero]

I am having similar issues - I have a fast system (i9 14900k, 64GB DDR5 ram, NVME 4tb) and even editing small photos (24mp from an A9iii) I am getting 5 or 6 photos into an edit session and my ram use goes up to 90-95% and the system slows to a halt.  No specific trigger I can see, and until that happens, the system is barely ticking over.  I assume it is a memory leak, as when I restart and reopen the same image, all is fine and my ram is at 20% usage.  I use LRC and Capture One, if I can't find a fix it will limit me to editing in C1 only which is frustrating.

[sheldong26810370]

Same issue with  13700K , 3070TI, 32 GB.  When it gets to about 70% memeory usage LrC crawls.  Restart LrC and memory is way down and the cycle begins again..   IMHO something is broken in LrC.

[Flapjack7]

Same issue here. I have 7800X3D, X670 chipset, 32GB RAM and RTX 3080. Lately it's a nightmare to work with Lr. It bogs down to a crawl after editing a few photos with RAM usage go sky high. Especialy when i use AI Masking. Restarting Lr helps for a while, but after another few photos edited the slowdown comes back.

[MattPointZero]

The masking looks more and more to be a specific part of the trigger.

[Ian Lyons]

Can you be more specific about which mask(s) and what you're doing with those masks?

[Flapjack7]

I can't pinpoint exact mask that triggers it because I think AI masking is not a sole culprit here but only speeds up the memory problem. Without using masks it also does hog the memory up but it takes longer.

I mainly use subject, sky and person masking. Then simple edits - exposure and contrast etc.

[Flapjack7]

Sometimes you don't even have to edit anything. Just browsing photos, marking them, adding color labels and... bam - 90% of memory occupied and Lr starts to crawl.

[JoeFish2]

My issue with memory doesn’t appear to be mask related.

Like others, I don’t have to be doing anything exotic. Just normal exposure, highlights, shadows, sharpening etc. will cause my memory to be depleted ar around 32gb.

Denoise will cause it occur quicker. Probably masking too, but neither are the sole culprit.

Joe

[steveisa054]

Hi Ian, from my experiences, the problem with the huge memory allocations arises when using any "pixel based" mask type. Here I mean any mask which needs to be described on a pixel basis as opposed to a few parameters. Radial and linear gradients are no problem, as the mask itself in this case can be stored as a few parameters (size, angle, location, feather, etc). But the "pixel based" masks need a full pixel mapping (which can be huge) to store the mask itself. Here I refer to "Subject", "Background", "Brush", any part of any person, etc. It is clear that Lightroom is not rebuilding these masks each time, so this information must be stored somewhere. In my experiences, I notice that creating a "pixel based" mask itself does not cause the memory allocation to explode. It is when I start adjusting various sliders affecting the "pixel based" mask. For example, if I have a RAW file of maybe 45 MB in size, and I create a "Subject" mask. Then, if I start to play with the sliders associated with this subject mask, such as Temp, Tint, or anything really, the memory allocation becomes huge.

Whether this is a bug or a memory leak is of course debatable. But since at least initially the memory allocation of Lightroom decreases substantially when restarting Lightroom and coming back to the very same image in the Development module, makes it look like Lightroom is using up a lot of memory (scratch, temporary objects, who knows?) during the editing and cannot figure out how to release this memory again, until Lightroom is restarted.