Consuming large amounts of memory

[ichibod_com]

With the latest update, running on a M3 Max Macbook with 64gb ram running Sonoma 14.6.1, I open Lightroom classic and immediately ram starts being consumed until my computer runs out of disk space due to memory swap. I left it open for an hour and 20 minutes and was at 127gb of ram consumed. I don't even have to do anything before it runs away with the ram consumption.

Please fix this so I don't have to quit every 30 minutes.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

There are sporadic reports of high memory consumption, but nothing has been identified as the root cause or is repeatable. 

Typically, this type of problem is due to a bad install. 

Recommended: 

Clean Lightroom Install Procedure

1. Close Lightroom
2. Restart the computer
3. Use the Adobe Creative Cloud App to uninstall Lightroom.
4. Restart the computer
5. Install Lightroom via the Creative Cloud App without launching any other programs.
6. Restart the computer
7. Launch Lightroom
8. Wait 5 minutes
   
   Preference File reset (because it survives an uninstall/reinstall. 
   This procedure works for both Lightroom Classic and Lightroom Desktop.

If you are using Lightroom Desktop, your local storage location can be changed. Please review this setting after resetting preferences. 

Reset Procedure:

1. Close Lightroom.

2. Hold down [Alt/Opt]+[Shift] while restarting Lightroom.

3. Overwrite the Preferences when prompted by the dialog.

4. Close Lightroom.

5. Restart Lightroom.

Try both of these steps in the order provided and report back if you are still seeing the same idle memory consumption. 

[Freddie Lindsey]

I'm in a similar boat here!

[Ian Lyons]

@ichibod_com , @Freddie Lindsey 

Try the steps suggested by @Rikk Flohr: Photography 

Did it help? If not not, is Lightroom Classic configured to sync files with the Adobe Cloud? If yes, then check whether temporarily pausing cloud sync helps.

[Freddie Lindsey]

Hey @Ian Lyons,

I have reset preferences, uninstalled / reinstalled, and cleared caches.

If I disable sync, and then restart Lightroom Classic, I see very minimal memory usage when not doing anything in the app.

However, the moment I enable syncing, the memory usage starts creeping up, until the app eventually crashes. Meanwhile, the count of things syncing goes down a little and then appears to totally stop moving. I would imagine that you have a memory leak when retrying / erroring out or you're leaving files open or such things.

Disabling sync, once enabled, does not stop memory usage from increasing. To recover, you have to disable sync, and restart LrC.

This is a huge blocker to my workflow at the moment (I use LrCC to import on the go, and then I have LrC at home where I keep my archive, go through large albums, etc.).

[Ian Lyons]

@Freddie Lindsey 

Are you using an Apple Silicon or Intel based Mac?

Actually, better that you provide your System Info as found in LrC Help menu. You can use the Copy button within the System Info dialog to capture the info, then paste into your next post.

[Freddie Lindsey]

Hey @Ian Lyons, 
I've just booted up an ancient (2015) MacBook Pro to test to see if this is an Intel vs Apple Silicon issue. I had to create a new catalog on my M2 machine as I've plugged the drives into the Intel for testing.

System Info: M2 Max 14 inch MacBook Pro

Lightroom Classic version: 13.5.1 [ 202408271704-d15d09cd ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en-GB
Operating system: Mac OS 14
Version: 14.5.0 [23F79]
Application architecture: arm64
Logical processor count: 12
Processor speed: NA
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Power Source: Plugged In, 100%
Built-in memory: 32,768.0 MB
Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 190.0MB / 21,845.3MB (0%)
Real memory available to Lightroom: 32,768.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 464.7 MB (1.4%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 404,333.9 MB
Memory cache size: 0.0MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 16.5 [ 1954 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 0MB / 16383MB (0%)
Camera Raw real memory: 2MB / 32768MB (0%)

Cache1: 
NT- RAM:0.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, Combined:0.0MB

Cache2: 
m:0.0MB, n:0.0MB

U-main: 75.0MB

Standard Preview Size: 5120 pixels
Displays: 1) 5120x2880, 2) 2160x3840, 3) 2160x3840

Graphics Processor Info: 
Metal: Apple M2 Max
Init State: GPU for Export supported by default
User Preference: Auto
Enable HDR in Library: OFF

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

Installed Plugins: 
1) AdobeStock
2) Aperture/iPhoto Importer Plug-in
3) Flickr
4) Nikon Tether Plugin

Config.lua flags: 

System Info: Intel Core i5 13 MacBook Pro (2015)

Lightroom Classic version: 13.5.1 [ 202408271704-d15d09cd ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en-GB
Operating system: Mac OS 12
Version: 12.7.6 [21H1320]
Application architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 4
Processor speed: 2.7GHz
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Power Source: Plugged In, 44%, Charging
Built-in memory: 8,192.0 MB
Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 5.1MB / 1,536.0MB (0%)
Real memory available to Lightroom: 8,192.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 1,248.6 MB (15.2%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 45,650.0 MB
Memory cache size: 55.3MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 16.5 [ 1954 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 3
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 25MB / 4095MB (0%)
Camera Raw real memory: 27MB / 8192MB (0%)

Cache1: 
NT- RAM:0.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, Combined:0.0MB

Cache2: 
m:55.3MB, n:0.0MB

U-main: 97.0MB

Standard Preview Size: 2048 pixels
Displays: 1) 3360x2100

Graphics Processor Info: 
Metal: Intel(R) Iris(TM) Graphics 6100
Init State: GPU for Display supported by default
User Preference: Auto
Enable HDR in Library: OFF

Application folder: /Applications/Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: /Volumes/[4TB] Samsung 990 Pro/Lightroom Catalog/Lightroom-v13-3.lrcat
Settings Folder: /Users/freddie/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom

Installed Plugins: 
1) AdobeStock
2) Aperture/iPhoto Importer Plug-in
3) Flickr
4) Nikon Tether Plugin

Config.lua flags: 

[Freddie Lindsey]

@Ian Lyons this doesn't seem to be just an Apple Silicon issue, memory usage on my Intel machine is now at 18GB (8GB physical installed) and there is no sync progress since an hour ago when I left it running.

[Ian Lyons]

Apparently, the issue has been observed quite some users with Intel machines, but much less so on Apple Silicon. I'll pass the info to QE.

[Freddie Lindsey]

Thanks @Ian Lyons, happy to be of any help I can to get this resolved. It's a huge pain to not be able to use the software right now.

[Freddie Lindsey]

I've downgraded to LrC 13.3 and this now has reasonable memory usage and sync is working again. I will attempt 13.3.1 once the sync is complete.

[esrauscht]

I am using Lightroom Classic 13.5.1 on a Macbook Pro 14 M2 Pro. My system shows exactly the same problems. As soon as sync is enabled the memory consumption is rising without any limit. The sync however gets stuck. When I pause the sync and restart Lightroom, memory usage is normal. Please fix this. I really rely on the sync function. 

[matthewn36417493]

I have the same problem on a MC Mini M2 Lightroom goes up to abut 42gb and then I get the application memory is full warning and I cant do anything else. This is really disrupting my work flow. I've tried all sorts to fix it including reinstalling from creative cloud and updating my OS. If anyone comes up with a difinitive answer I would really like to hear it.

[chip_nc]

I was having the problem of memory growing (once I saw it at over 200GB) and it had something to do with a problem syncing. Even though I had turned syncing off on all collections there were 92 images that it was trying to sync. After I paused syncing the memory stopped growing and the max I saw when working in LR was about 12GB and when doing nothing it was below 5GB.

[mdboulogne]

I experience exactly the same problem on my Macbook Pro M1 Ultra. Sync is so slow that it's practically unusable in any professional workflow (if it works at all) and Memory usage has often jumped to more than 200Gb after which it crashes due to lack of system memory. I really hope this problem will be fixe quickly with a next update. 

[esrauscht]

After chatting with the Adobe Support, I found a solution that at least works for me.

I logged into https://lightroom.adobe.com/. In the left menu under "All photos" there was an album which is called 'Sync Errors' or similar (I currently don't have it anymore). Photos that did not sync correctly are shown there. I deleted all of them (from the cloud). That I tried before but it did not help. 

The hint that helped me was also emptying everything in the "Deleted" folder.

After that I started to sync another album from LR Classic and the sync went through normally while the memory usage stayed normal. I can see all photos withing this album now online.

Maybe this can also help you. I hope the faulty behavior will not return.

[sarah_8665]

Hi, this is very helpful for me!, but one question, before I delete images in Sync Issues folder on Light room cloud  do  I need to  Stop Synching all collections in Lightroom Classic on desk top  to avoid images being deleted from Light room classic ? 

[jcsnyc]

This worked for me around memory consumption....was heading to 65 GB memory used++ but after deleting these unsyncable files, I am hovering around 3 GB.  THANKS!

[Bo Foto]

Same problem here, LR Classic using up to 90+ Gb of memory space. Causing very slow proces and overloading my Mac mini M2. I have to stop LR edvery 30 minutes or so. I can'f run a business on this!!! 

[Ian Lyons]

If you have cloud sync enabled, then it's very likely that the issue is related to files being stuck in the sync queue. See post above by @esrauscht that explains how to check and fix. Pausing sync will also stop the excess memory use, but does not resolve the stuck file syncing.

[sarah_8665]

Hi, this is very helpful for me!, but one question, before I delete images in Sync Issues folder on Light room cloud  do  I need to  Stop Synching all collections in Lightroom Classic on desk top  to avoid images being deleted from Light room classic ? 

[JBPhotos44]

There seem to be several threads about very high memory useage in LR Classic slowing down processing but I hope my experience helps and hope this is in the right place. For a few months LR Classic on my iMac has been slowing down when performing multiple operations (exporting, importing, processing etc) and after searching forums I started to monitor the memory useage in Activity Monitor. Even with 32GB this showed memory going into the red quite quickly, and doing so even if LR was doing nothing. I don't sync images. 

After two online chats with Adobe (available 24/7 amazingly) I was asked to set up a new catolog and reimport my photos. This has worked and memory useage has so far never risen above green.

The huge pain is of course reimporting 46,000 images and sorting them into Collections again. But worth it if it stops the grinding to a halt.

[sarah_8665]

I solved it by STOpping to use Lightroom synch- we switched to other back up. 

[steinwaywhw]

It's the same issue for me and it is clearly LR sync related. I'm using LrC 14.0.1 on Mac Mini with M1 chip. When LR sync is turned on, MacOS Activity Monitor shows the application virtual memory keeps going up linearly all the way to something like 90 GB which kills it. I closed paused syncing, closed LrC and reopened it. Now the Acitivit Monitor shows that it's memory stays stable around 2GB, which is much more reasonable. 

Please help investigate and fix this issue. Very frustrating.

[China Murphy]

I'm in the same boat and basically my work around is to monitor memory demand and when it climbs too high I switch off syncing and restart Lightroom Classic. I then tend to run it as much as possible with sync off. It's a pain!