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Ann7
Ann7
Participating Frequently
September 7, 2022
Question

Creation of new Catalogue takes weeks, how speed up ?

  • September 7, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 597 views

Hi

I have more than a million of photos. My old catalogue got corrupted and now I have to create a new Catalogue. To do this, I syncronize my files on Harddisk (NAS) with the catalogue.

Even when I have a very fast computer with a lot of RAM and a very fast NAS Drive, it takes days and days and after a while there is no progress anymore and I have to restart.

Probably the problem is related to build previews, but my settings are to build the minimum previews as possble. 

Can someone advice how to solve this problem ?

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3 replies

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 8, 2022

Wow, a catalog with more than a million images and no backup. I do hope you used to automatically write metadata to files, because if you didn't, then you have just lost over a million image edits too...

 

You could try to use 'Embedded & sidecar' for previews. With that setting, Lightroom does not create its own previews but uses the embedded camera-generated ones.

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga
    Ann7
    Ann7Author
    Participating Frequently
    September 8, 2022

    Yes, I always worked with XMP files instead of settings in the catalogue, thanks for the hint. I had tried this with the sidecars before, but it didn't speed up the import. Thanks for the idea.

    DdeGannes
    Community Expert
    DdeGannesCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 8, 2022

    You stated "Yes, I always worked with XMP files instead of settings in the catalogue, thanks for the hint."

    You need to be aware LrC primary function is to write to the Catalog file, while you work in Lightroom it reads and writes to the Catalog file. As far as Lightroom is concerned the info is in the Catalog.

    Writing metadata to xmp manually or automatically is a secondary function. Lightroom will read info from xmp at initial import thereafter that has to be prompted manually via the menu > Metadata > Read metadata from the file.
    Saving metadata to the file allows sharing info with other applications, mainly Adobe applications Bridge / Camera Raw.

     

    Regards, Denis: iMac 27” mid-2015, macOS 11.7.10 Big Sur; 2TB SSD, 24 GB Ram, GPU 2 GB; LrC 12.5,; Lr 6.5, PS 24.7,; ACR 15.5,; (also Laptop Win 11, ver 24H2, LrC 15.0.1, PS 27.0; ) Camera Oly OM-D E-M1.
    GoldingD
    GoldingD
    Legend
    September 8, 2022
    I syncronize my files on Harddisk (NAS)

    By that, you are referring to the file location for your images, correct?

     

    and a very fast NAS Drive

    The absolute best NAS is only as fast as your Ethernet, your LAN, Might be a super fast NAS, but it is still a dog compared to a local hard drive. Oh, while a lot better than storing them in the cloud, but..If you temporary copy the images to a local hard drive, does it perform better?

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    September 8, 2022

    Disk speed is only a small portion of the time needed to create a catalog. The larger bulk of time is creating the previews, which is done by the CPU.

     

    One thing you can do to speed up the creation of the catalog is to select Minimal previews (as shown here, scroll down a bit). Of course, later after the photos are imported, you will see slowness as LrC generates larger previews when needed — its a tradeoff.

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 8, 2022
    @dj_paige wrote:

    Disk speed is only a small portion of the time needed to create a catalog. The larger bulk of time is creating the previews, which is done by the CPU.

     

    One thing you can do to speed up the creation of the catalog is to select Minimal previews (as shown here, scroll down a bit). Of course, later after the photos are imported, you will see slowness as LrC generates larger previews when needed — its a tradeoff.


    See my suggestion above. I believe that 'Embedded & sidecar' should even be faster than minimal previews, and it gives you previews that you can actually use for something more than just a grid view. That is why that option was introduced fairly recently.

     

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
      DdeGannes
      Community Expert
      DdeGannesCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      September 8, 2022

      You stated "My old catalogue got corrupted and now I have to create a new Catalogue."

      You have no recent backup of of your Catalog?

      My estimate for what you are trying to do is 30 to 35 days.

       

       

       

      Regards, Denis: iMac 27” mid-2015, macOS 11.7.10 Big Sur; 2TB SSD, 24 GB Ram, GPU 2 GB; LrC 12.5,; Lr 6.5, PS 24.7,; ACR 15.5,; (also Laptop Win 11, ver 24H2, LrC 15.0.1, PS 27.0; ) Camera Oly OM-D E-M1.
        Ann7
        Ann7Author
        Participating Frequently
        September 8, 2022
        No, I do not have a backup, It was too bog and backup failed.

        It takes time with 'fetching initial previews'
        dj_paige
        dj_paige
        Legend
        September 8, 2022

        You could make manual backups, just copy the catalog file to another disk, using your operating system. Not quite as good as backups made by LrC (no integrity testing) but better than not having a backup.

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