5-7 seconds to load the next photo.

[besler]

Running Lightroom Classic 14.4 on a Mac Studio M1 Ultra machine. Up until the 14.4 update, it was running very smoothly. Now, when making adjustments, it takes 5-7 seconds to load the next photo. Other times, it refuses to change a flag or color label. Even more times, I quit the app and it says it's still writing to XMP metadata, when it's clearly not.

Not sure how these major issues weren't caught before release. Pretty frustrating as a pro that my editing time has almost doubled because of this.

Tried optimizing the catalog, increasing cache size, to no avail.

[Ian Lyons]

You may have tripped over a bug introduced in 14.4. If you have 'Automatically write changes into XMP' enabled, then this would explain the slow down. Try disabling Automatically write...' to see if it helps.

[besler]

That setting is a major part of my workflow. Why hasn't this been fixed yet?!?

[dj_paige]

You will have to ask Adobe why it hasn't been fixed yet.

[dj_paige]

You may have tripped over a bug introduced in 14.4. If you have 'Automatically write changes into XMP' enabled, then this would explain the slow down. Try disabling Automatically write...' to see if it helps.

By @Ian Lyons

This has not solved the problem for me. Still takes 5-7 seconds to advance to the next photo in the Develop Module.

[besler]

And in 14.5, the issue is still not fixed. Sigh.

[nikunj.m]

Hi, we're sorry if you're still experiencing the same behavior. 

Please go to the Help menu in Lightroom Classic, then System Info, and copy the text. You can share the info with us by either pasting it as a reply here or in a text file and sharing the file with us. 

Thanks,
Nikunj

[besler]

Lightroom Classic version: 14.5.1 [ 202508231203-c2638d01 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en-US
Operating system: Mac OS 15
Version: 15.6.0 [24G84]
Application architecture: arm64
Logical processor count: 20
Processor speed: NA
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Built-in memory: 65,536.0 MB
Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 6,068.8MB / 49,152.0MB (12%)
Real memory available to Lightroom: 65,536.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 11,637.8 MB (17.7%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 433,438.5 MB
Memory cache size: 3,533.4MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 17.5 [ 2318 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 1469MB / 32767MB (4%)
Camera Raw real memory: 1468MB / 65536MB (2%)

Cache1:
Final1- RAM:647.0MB, VRAM:3,576.0MB, MSUCHM-WhiteCoatCeremony-082325-1019.ARW
NT- RAM:647.0MB, VRAM:3,576.0MB, Combined:4,223.0MB

Cache2:
m:3,533.4MB, n:397.8MB

U-main: 197.0MB

Standard Preview Size: 2880 pixels
Displays: 1) 6720x3780

Graphics Processor Info:
Metal: Apple M1 Ultra
Init State: GPU for Export supported by default
User Preference: GPU for Export enabled
Enable HDR in Library: ON
GPU for Preview Generation: Off (S5_48)

Application folder: /Applications/Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: /Users/bryan/Pictures/2025 Catalog/2025 Catalog.lrcat
Settings Folder: /Users/bryan/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) AdobeStock
2) Aperture/iPhoto Importer Plug-in
3) Aperty
4) DxO PureRAW 4
5) Flickr
6) Pristine RAW Importer
7) Radiant Photo
8) Radiant Photo 2
9) Topaz Photo AI

Config.lua flags:

[besler]

This bug NEEDS TO BE FIXED. I don't know how something this large, impacting multiple users, has not been addressed. As a former journalist that used to cover this exact product for a number of years, and talk to your team in-depth at each MAX conference, I've seriously lost confidence in your ability to create a program that's reliable for photo pros. Will definitely looking at other solutions. This is now happening on two machines, and the XMP preference fix does not do the job.

[gifted_problem4937]

@besler  I'm experiencing the same issue and it's completely ruined my workflow. 

[johnrellis]

One cause of these symptoms is a bug acknowledged by Adobe: Enabling Catalog Settings > Metadata > Automatically Write Changes Into XMP and using Denoise on many photos:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-automatically-write-changes-to-xmp-can-t-be-...

The only practical workaround is to disable Automatically Write Changes Into XMP.

[besler]

Yeah, I've done that. It helps. But ... this was not an issue before 14.4. It need to be fixed.

[besler]

Also, what's odd in my case, is I very, very rarely use Denoise, instead opting for DxO PureRAW to handle my noise reduction workflow. I've maybe used Denoise once or twice in the past six months. So for me, it's not related to that. It IS related to that Automatically Write Changes into XMP setting, though.