Participating Frequently

Answered

Does a large catalog slow down Lightroom Classic?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
November 23, 2022
8 replies
7827 views

I've seen commentary by people who appear to be expert Lightroom users, giving contradictory information about large catalogs in Lightroom Classic. Some say 100,000 images in a catgalog is totally fine, and others say that Lightroom starts slowing down when you hit 10,000.

I have LR 6.14 on a desktop PC with about 46,000 images in the catalog. The PC is running Windows 10 and has 24 GB of ram and a quad core CPU. The catalog is on an internal SSD drive. It sometimes get pathologically slow, for example taking 10 seconds to click on an image when selecting it in the Grid view. Sometimes it seems to just go out to lunch for minutes with the program winking out and reappearing, unresponsive until it settles down.

On the other hand, scrolling in Grid view is usually responsive.

I have the graphics accelerator suppor turned off becuse LR crashes more often with it on (yes, I have the latest drivers).

Windows

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer GoldingD

Video card is an AMD Radeon R9 270. Driver version 22.19.172.769 (Windows says it's the latest)

Windows updates is the wrong way to insure hardware is up to date. Windows used to try and do that, but now days that does not occur. You would need to get the driver from AMD. And your AMD supporting app is also old.

However, that GPU is what, nine years old? Turning use GPU on will probably cause more harm than good. You need to experiment with that to find out. And back on v6.14, if you do it have 4K and beyond, turning that on will accomplish nothing.

The internal SSD that the Catalog is on is abouit 87% full.

So, less than 20% free. LrC needs that drive to be 20% free, some say 25% free. Performance degrades at that point. Just the type of poor performance you are seeing.

Make sure that you have a trust worthy backup of your catalog. This should be on a different hard drive. Then return to your current drive. Any jink on it? Perhaps older catalogs, perhaps from Lr 5, 4, 3?

By the way, we're is your backup? Should never be on the same drive as the working catalog, and it is often recommended to have at least two on separate drives (of which one gets locked up in case of theft), external drives are great for this (in a proffesonal office, a third backup on a external drive might be rotated off site in case of natural disaster). A backup on the same drive as the working catalog just begs for that drive to go kaput (karma), thereby destroying both the working catalog and the backup, have you bribed your house gremlin lately? And eats up free space where you need it.

The photos are on an internal 7200 RPM hard drive that ie less than half full

So plenty of room for the photos, and the drive would not be turned off (an issue during exports, publishing, etc). Note that the photos can be on any physical hard drive, no performance hit on slow vs fast drive for them.

The camera raw cache is on the same SSD as the Catalog. It's maximum size is 1 GB

Location good, on a Windows PC competition with the Windows paging file (by default on drive C) causes performance hits. And both the catalog and the Camera RAW CACHE can take advantage of a SSD drive.

Size very bad, trying to remember back to v6.14, that was probably the default. Current default is 5 GB, also way too small. The larger your catalog is, and especially the more humorous the number of photos you are currently working on, the larger that CACHE needs to be, think more like 20 GB as a starting point.

I don't see the "power mode" setting that I have on my tablet PC.

Much like a laptop, a tablet PC lacks the power supply, and lacks the cooling, to support that, hence not at all surprised that it is not offered.

JBedfordPhoto

Inspiring

In December of 2024 I'm still noticing this.

As a photographer who shoots about 250K images yearly, my current 2024 Catalog has about 200K in it. Even with previews, smart-previews generated, radio boxed ticked to "use smart-previews instead", I still find that LR Classic, even after all these years, gets slower with the more photos I add. I clear the cache every few weeks (50GB on the same M2 drive the catalog resides) and delete 1:1 previews and smart previews when I no longer need them. Despite all these steps, the Develop module is sluggish. Mostly with my files of choice: Fujifilm RAW (maybe there's something about the unique sensor that LR doesn't like as some of my other cameras seem to perform better).

kevind47146453Author

Participating Frequently

Status update:

I got a new compute. It has an M.2 1T SSD (about 15% full) with the LR catalog there. I put the images on an external USB 3.1 7200 RPM 5T drive. Windows Security is set to ignore the LR catalog and photos directory on OneDrive. GPS and face recognition are turned off (because they no longer work in LR 6). I increased the Camera Raw Cache to 50 GB.

Overall, performance is better; catalog optimization is really fast! Exports are quicker.

However, I am still experiencing the same sporadic instances of slowdown. It happens when I'm editing the whole photo collection and applying keywords. It works well and then it hangs up. Lightroom becomes unresponsive, but it is doing something becaue the second monitor winks on and off. Eventually (after a few minutes), it returns to normal. I THINK that it's generating previews. It's not as bad as it was, and I can live with it now.

Updated System Info:

Lightroom version: 6.14 [ 1149743 ]

License: Perpetual

Language setting: en

Operating system: Windows 10 - Home Premium Edition [It's really Windows 11]

Version: 10.0.22621

Application architecture: x64

System architecture: x64

Logical processor count: 24

Processor speed: 2.1 GHz

Built-in memory: 16108.6 MB

Real memory available to Lightroom: 16108.6 MB

Real memory used by Lightroom: 760.6 MB (4.7%)

Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 865.8 MB

GDI objects count: 390

USER objects count: 1370

Process handles count: 1231

Memory cache size: 761.7MB / 3797.2MB (20.1%)

Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 13

Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2

Camera Raw virtual memory: 149MB / 8054MB (1%)

System DPI setting: 96 DPI

Desktop composition enabled: Yes

Displays: 1) 1920x1080, 2) 1920x1080

Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: No, External touch: No, External pen: No, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070/PCIe/SSE2

Check OpenGL support: Passed

Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation

Version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 531.61

Renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070/PCIe/SSE2

LanguageVersion: 3.30 NVIDIA via Cg compiler

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom

Library Path: C:\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog\Lightroom Catalog.lrcat

Settings Folder: C:\Users\kevin\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Installed Plugins:

1) Canon Tether Plugin

2) Facebook

3) Flickr

4) Luminar Neo

5) Nikon Tether Plugin

6) Topaz Photo AI

Config.lua flags: None

Adapter #1: Vendor : 10de

Device : 2786

Subsystem : 513b17aa

Revision : a1

Video Memory : 12026

Adapter #2: Vendor : 1414

Device : 8c

Subsystem : 0

Revision : 0

Video Memory : 0

AudioDeviceIOBlockSize: 1024

AudioDeviceName: Headphones (Logi Z407)

AudioDeviceNumberOfChannels: 2

AudioDeviceSampleRate: 44100

Build: LR5x8

Direct2DEnabled: false

GL_ACCUM_ALPHA_BITS: 16

GL_ACCUM_BLUE_BITS: 16

GL_ACCUM_GREEN_BITS: 16

GL_ACCUM_RED_BITS: 16

GL_ALPHA_BITS: 0

GL_BLUE_BITS: 8

GL_DEPTH_BITS: 24

GL_GREEN_BITS: 8

GL_MAX_3D_TEXTURE_SIZE: 16384

GL_MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE: 32768

GL_MAX_TEXTURE_UNITS: 4

GL_MAX_VIEWPORT_DIMS: 32768,32768

GL_RED_BITS: 8

GL_RENDERER: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070/PCIe/SSE2

GL_SHADING_LANGUAGE_VERSION: 4.60 NVIDIA

GL_STENCIL_BITS: 8

GL_VENDOR: NVIDIA Corporation

GL_VERSION: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 531.61

GPUDeviceEnabled: false

OGLEnabled: true

GL_EXTENSIONS: GL_AMD_multi_draw_indirect GL_AMD_seamless_cubemap_per_texture GL_AMD_vertex_shader_viewport_index GL_AMD_vertex_shader_layer GL_ARB_arrays_of_arrays GL_ARB_base_instance GL_ARB_bindless_texture GL_ARB_blend_func_extended GL_ARB_buffer_storage GL_ARB_clear_buffer_object GL_ARB_clear_texture GL_ARB_clip_control GL_ARB_color_buffer_float GL_ARB_compatibility GL_ARB_compressed_texture_pixel_storage GL_ARB_conservative_depth GL_ARB_compute_shader GL_ARB_compute_variable_group_size GL_ARB_conditional_render_inverted GL_ARB_copy_buffer GL_ARB_copy_image GL_ARB_cull_distance GL_ARB_debug_output GL_ARB_depth_buffer_float GL_ARB_depth_clamp GL_ARB_depth_texture GL_ARB_derivative_control GL_ARB_direct_state_access GL_ARB_draw_buffers GL_ARB_draw_buffers_blend GL_ARB_draw_indirect GL_ARB_draw_elements_base_vertex GL_ARB_draw_instanced GL_ARB_enhanced_layouts GL_ARB_ES2_compatibility GL_ARB_ES3_compatibility GL_ARB_ES3_1_compatibility GL_ARB_ES3_2_compatibility GL_ARB_explicit_attrib_location GL_ARB_explicit_uniform_location GL_ARB_fragment_coord_conventions GL_ARB_fragment_layer_viewport GL_ARB_fragment_program GL_ARB_fragment_program_shadow GL_ARB_fragment_shader GL_ARB_fragment_shader_interlock GL_ARB_framebuffer_no_attachments GL_ARB_framebuffer_object GL_ARB_framebuffer_sRGB GL_ARB_geometry_shader4 GL_ARB_get_program_binary GL_ARB_get_texture_sub_image GL_ARB_gl_spirv GL_ARB_gpu_shader5 GL_ARB_gpu_shader_fp64 GL_ARB_gpu_shader_int64 GL_ARB_half_float_pixel GL_ARB_half_float_vertex GL_ARB_imaging GL_ARB_indirect_parameters GL_ARB_instanced_arrays GL_ARB_internalformat_query GL_ARB_internalformat_query2 GL_ARB_invalidate_subdata GL_ARB_map_buffer_alignment GL_ARB_map_buffer_range GL_ARB_multi_bind GL_ARB_multi_draw_indirect GL_ARB_multisample GL_ARB_multitexture GL_ARB_occlusion_query GL_ARB_occlusion_query2 GL_ARB_parallel_shader_compile GL_ARB_pipeline_statistics_query GL_ARB_pixel_buffer_object GL_ARB_point_parameters GL_ARB_point_sprite GL_ARB_polygon_offset_clamp GL_ARB_post_depth_coverage GL_ARB_program_interface_query GL_ARB_provoking_vertex GL_ARB_query_buffer_object GL_ARB_robust_buffer_access_behavior GL_ARB_robustness GL_ARB_sample_locations GL_ARB_sample_shading GL_ARB_sampler_objects GL_ARB_seamless_cube_map GL_ARB_seamless_cubemap_per_texture GL_ARB_separate_shader_objects GL_ARB_shader_atomic_counter_ops GL_ARB_shader_atomic_counters GL_ARB_shader_ballot GL_ARB_shader_bit_encoding GL_ARB_shader_clock GL_ARB_shader_draw_parameters GL_ARB_shader_group_vote GL_ARB_shader_image_load_store GL_ARB_shader_image_size GL_ARB_shader_objects GL_ARB_shader_precision GL_ARB_shader_storage_buffer_object GL_ARB_shader_subroutine GL_ARB_shader_texture_image_samples GL_ARB_shader_texture_lod GL_ARB_shading_language_100 GL_ARB_shader_viewport_layer_array GL_ARB_shading_language_420pack GL_ARB_shading_language_include GL_ARB_shading_language_packing GL_ARB_shadow GL_ARB_sparse_buffer GL_ARB_sparse_texture GL_ARB_sparse_texture2 GL_ARB_sparse_texture_clamp GL_ARB_spirv_extensions GL_ARB_stencil_texturing GL_ARB_sync GL_ARB_tessellation_shader GL_ARB_texture_barrier GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp GL_ARB_texture_buffer_object GL_ARB_texture_buffer_object_rgb32 GL_ARB_texture_buffer_range GL_ARB_texture_compression GL_ARB_texture_compression_bptc GL_ARB_texture_compression_rgtc GL_ARB_texture_cube_map GL_ARB_texture_cube_map_array GL_ARB_texture_env_add GL_ARB_texture_env_combine GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3 GL_ARB_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_ARB_texture_filter_minmax GL_ARB_texture_float GL_ARB_texture_gather GL_ARB_texture_mirror_clamp_to_edge GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat GL_ARB_texture_multisample GL_ARB_texture_non_power_of_two GL_ARB_texture_query_levels GL_ARB_texture_query_lod GL_ARB_texture_rectangle GL_ARB_texture_rg GL_ARB_texture_rgb10_a2ui GL_ARB_texture_stencil8 GL_ARB_texture_storage GL_ARB_texture_storage_multisample GL_ARB_texture_swizzle GL_ARB_texture_view GL_ARB_timer_query GL_ARB_transform_feedback2 GL_ARB_transform_feedback3 GL_ARB_transform_feedback_instanced GL_ARB_transform_feedback_overflow_query GL_ARB_transpose_matrix GL_ARB_uniform_buffer_object GL_ARB_vertex_array_bgra GL_ARB_vertex_array_object GL_ARB_vertex_attrib_64bit GL_ARB_vertex_attrib_binding GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object GL_ARB_vertex_program GL_ARB_vertex_shader GL_ARB_vertex_type_10f_11f_11f_rev GL_ARB_vertex_type_2_10_10_10_rev GL_ARB_viewport_array GL_ARB_window_pos GL_ATI_draw_buffers GL_ATI_texture_float GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once GL_S3_s3tc GL_EXT_texture_env_add GL_EXT_abgr GL_EXT_bgra GL_EXT_bindable_uniform GL_EXT_blend_color GL_EXT_blend_equation_separate GL_EXT_blend_func_separate GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_blend_subtract GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array GL_EXT_Cg_shader GL_EXT_depth_bounds_test GL_EXT_direct_state_access GL_EXT_draw_buffers2 GL_EXT_draw_instanced GL_EXT_draw_range_elements GL_EXT_fog_coord GL_EXT_framebuffer_blit GL_EXT_framebuffer_multisample GL_EXTX_framebuffer_mixed_formats GL_EXT_framebuffer_multisample_blit_scaled GL_EXT_framebuffer_object GL_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB GL_EXT_geometry_shader4 GL_EXT_gpu_program_parameters GL_EXT_gpu_shader4 GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays GL_EXT_multiview_texture_multisample GL_EXT_multiview_timer_query GL_EXT_packed_depth_stencil GL_EXT_packed_float GL_EXT_packed_pixels GL_EXT_pixel_buffer_object GL_EXT_point_parameters GL_EXT_polygon_offset_clamp GL_EXT_post_depth_coverage GL_EXT_provoking_vertex GL_EXT_raster_multisample GL_EXT_rescale_normal GL_EXT_secondary_color GL_EXT_separate_shader_objects GL_EXT_separate_specular_color GL_EXT_shader_image_load_formatted GL_EXT_shader_image_load_store GL_EXT_shader_integer_mix GL_EXT_shadow_funcs GL_EXT_sparse_texture2 GL_EXT_stencil_two_side GL_EXT_stencil_wrap GL_EXT_texture3D GL_EXT_texture_array GL_EXT_texture_buffer_object GL_EXT_texture_compression_dxt1 GL_EXT_texture_compression_latc GL_EXT_texture_compression_rgtc GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc GL_EXT_texture_cube_map GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp GL_EXT_texture_env_combine GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3 GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_EXT_texture_filter_minmax GL_EXT_texture_integer GL_EXT_texture_lod GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp GL_EXT_texture_object GL_EXT_texture_shadow_lod GL_EXT_texture_shared_exponent GL_EXT_texture_sRGB GL_EXT_texture_sRGB_R8 GL_EXT_texture_sRGB_decode GL_EXT_texture_storage GL_EXT_texture_swizzle GL_EXT_timer_query GL_EXT_transform_feedback2 GL_EXT_vertex_array GL_EXT_vertex_array_bgra GL_EXT_vertex_attrib_64bit GL_EXT_window_rectangles GL_EXT_import_sync_object GL_IBM_rasterpos_clip GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat GL_KHR_context_flush_control GL_KHR_debug GL_EXT_memory_object GL_EXT_memory_object_win32 GL_NV_memory_object_sparse GL_EXT_win32_keyed_mutex GL_KHR_parallel_shader_compile GL_KHR_no_error GL_KHR_robust_buffer_access_behavior GL_KHR_robustness GL_EXT_semaphore GL_EXT_semaphore_win32 GL_NV_timeline_semaphore GL_KHR_shader_subgroup GL_KTX_buffer_region GL_NV_alpha_to_coverage_dither_control GL_NV_bindless_multi_draw_indirect GL_NV_bindless_multi_draw_indirect_count GL_NV_bindless_texture GL_NV_blend_equation_advanced GL_NV_blend_equation_advanced_coherent GL_NVX_blend_equation_advanced_multi_draw_buffers GL_NV_blend_minmax_factor GL_NV_blend_square GL_NV_clip_space_w_scaling GL_NV_command_list GL_NV_compute_program5 GL_NV_compute_shader_derivatives GL_NV_conditional_render GL_NV_conservative_raster GL_NV_conservative_raster_dilate GL_NV_conservative_raster_pre_snap GL_NV_conservative_raster_pre_snap_triangles GL_NV_conservative_raster_underestimation GL_NV_copy_depth_to_color GL_NV_copy_image GL_NV_depth_buffer_float GL_NV_depth_clamp GL_NV_draw_texture GL_NV_draw_vulkan_image GL_NV_ES1_1_compatibility GL_NV_ES3_1_compatibility GL_NV_explicit_multisample GL_NV_feature_query GL_NV_fence GL_NV_fill_rectangle GL_NV_float_buffer GL_NV_fog_distance GL_NV_fragment_coverage_to_color GL_NV_fragment_program GL_NV_fragment_program_option GL_NV_fragment_program2 GL_NV_fragment_shader_barycentric GL_NV_fragment_shader_interlock GL_NV_framebuffer_mixed_samples GL_NV_framebuffer_multisample_coverage GL_NV_geometry_shader4 GL_NV_geometry_shader_passthrough GL_NV_gpu_program4 GL_NV_internalformat_sample_query GL_NV_gpu_program4_1 GL_NV_gpu_program5 GL_NV_gpu_program5_mem_extended GL_NV_gpu_program_fp64 GL_NV_gpu_shader5 GL_NV_half_float GL_NV_light_max_exponent GL_NV_memory_attachment GL_NV_mesh_shader GL_NV_multisample_coverage GL_NV_multisample_filter_hint GL_NV_occlusion_query GL_NV_packed_depth_stencil GL_NV_parameter_buffer_object GL_NV_parameter_buffer_object2 GL_NV_path_rendering GL_NV_path_rendering_shared_edge GL_NV_pixel_data_range GL_NV_point_sprite GL_NV_primitive_restart GL_NV_primitive_shading_rate GL_NV_query_resource GL_NV_query_resource_tag GL_NV_register_combiners GL_NV_register_combiners2 GL_NV_representative_fragment_test GL_NV_sample_locations GL_NV_sample_mask_override_coverage GL_NV_scissor_exclusive GL_NV_shader_atomic_counters GL_NV_shader_atomic_float GL_NV_shader_atomic_float64 GL_NV_shader_atomic_fp16_vector GL_NV_shader_atomic_int64 GL_NV_shader_buffer_load GL_NV_shader_storage_buffer_object GL_NV_shader_subgroup_partitioned GL_NV_shader_texture_footprint GL_NV_shading_rate_image GL_NV_stereo_view_rendering GL_NV_texgen_reflection GL_NV_texture_barrier GL_NV_texture_compression_vtc GL_NV_texture_dirty_tile_map GL_NV_texture_env_combine4 GL_NV_texture_multisample GL_NV_texture_rectangle GL_NV_texture_rectangle_compressed GL_NV_texture_shader GL_NV_texture_shader2 GL_NV_texture_shader3 GL_NV_transform_feedback GL_NV_transform_feedback2 GL_NV_uniform_buffer_unified_memory GL_NV_uniform_buffer_std430_layout GL_NV_vertex_array_range GL_NV_vertex_array_range2 GL_NV_vertex_attrib_integer_64bit GL_NV_vertex_buffer_unified_memory GL_NV_vertex_program GL_NV_vertex_program1_1 GL_NV_vertex_program2 GL_NV_vertex_program2_option GL_NV_vertex_program3 GL_NV_viewport_array2 GL_NV_viewport_swizzle GL_NVX_conditional_render GL_NVX_linked_gpu_multicast GL_NV_gpu_multicast GL_NVX_gpu_multicast2 GL_NVX_progress_fence GL_NVX_gpu_memory_info GL_NVX_multigpu_info GL_NVX_nvenc_interop GL_NV_shader_thread_group GL_NV_shader_thread_shuffle GL_KHR_blend_equation_advanced GL_KHR_blend_equation_advanced_coherent GL_OVR_multiview GL_OVR_multiview2 GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap GL_SGIS_texture_lod GL_SGIX_depth_texture GL_SGIX_shadow GL_SUN_slice_accum GL_WIN_swap_hint WGL_EXT_swap_control

Ian Lyons

Community Expert

Since you're using Lr 6.14, then the performance improvements that Adobe put into the keywording and metatdata pipelines in LrC 10.x and 11.x are not present. There have also been significant improvements to how LrC enumertaes the Folder and Collection contents, filtering and even how/when LrC will build previews in background. Again, none of these enhancements are available to users of earlier versions.

GoldingDCorrect answer

Legend

Video card is an AMD Radeon R9 270. Driver version 22.19.172.769 (Windows says it's the latest)

The internal SSD that the Catalog is on is abouit 87% full.

So, less than 20% free. LrC needs that drive to be 20% free, some say 25% free. Performance degrades at that point. Just the type of poor performance you are seeing.

The photos are on an internal 7200 RPM hard drive that ie less than half full

The camera raw cache is on the same SSD as the Catalog. It's maximum size is 1 GB

I don't see the "power mode" setting that I have on my tablet PC.

Much like a laptop, a tablet PC lacks the power supply, and lacks the cooling, to support that, hence not at all surprised that it is not offered.

Ian Lyons

Community Expert

The camera raw cache is on the same SSD as the Catalog. It's maximum size is 1 GB
Location good, on a Windows PC competition with the Windows paging file (by default on drive C) causes performance hits. And both the catalog and the Camera RAW CACHE can take advantage of a SSD drive.

Size very bad, trying to remember back to v6.14, that was probably the default. Current default is 5 GB, also way too small. The larger your catalog is, and especially the more humorous the number of photos you are currently working on, the larger that CACHE needs to be, think more like 20 GB as a starting point.

Camera Raw cache is only used by the Develop module!!!!

GoldingD

Legend

Some inquires

What GPU make/model?
What GPU driver version?
How much VRAM?
How much free space in percent on the hard drive your catalog is in?
Where do you keep your photos?
Whete do you keep the Camera RAW CACHE (what hard drive)? (this would effect Develop, not Library)
How large do you allow the Camera RAW CACHE to get? (this would effect Develop, not Library)
In your Windows OS, Power settings, set to high performance (if not a laptop)? Sometimes Windows updates will foul that up. ( 12 Simple Tips to Speed Up Windows )

kevind47146453Author

Participating Frequently

Video card is an AMD Radeon R9 270. Driver version 22.19.172.769 (Windows says it's the latest). I have Radion Software Version 17.7. Memory is 2048 MB GDDR5.

The internal SSD that the Catalog is on is abouit 87% full. The photos are on an internal 7200 RPM hard drive that ie less than half full. The system de-frags weekly IIRC.

The camera raw cache is on the same SSD as the Catalog. It's maximum size is 1 GB. It's not a laptop and I don't see the "power mode" setting that I have on my tablet PC.

I have now added my Lightroom Catalog folder to the Windows Security exceptions list.

Conrad_C

Community Expert

I have LR 6.14
By @kevind47146453

There have been many performance optimizations in the seven (I think) years since Lightroom 6 was released. It is possible that some catalog-related slowdowns are the result of code that has been fixed since. The GPU is used a lot more in the current Lightroom Classic 12, but that is a separate issue from catalog database performance where I don’t think the GPU is used even today.

I’ve been using a catalog with over 100,000 items in the last few major versions, now about 144,000 images and videos, and on my MacBook Pro laptop with an Apple Silicon M1 Pro processor, I have no major complaints about performance. (It’s slower on my 2018 Intel Core i5 quad core laptop, but usable.)

Although not perfect, with every version they have addressed one performance area and then another. GPU acceleration was expanded between versions 7 and 10. Export is now much faster because it was GPU accelerated in version 11. The performance of scrolling in the Folders and Collections panels was optimized in recent versions. The formerly painfully slow Spot Healing Brush was rewritten in version 12 and is now faster and higher quality. Lightroom 6 is a great and non-subscription application, but based on performance on current hardware, I would not want to go back to it.

dj_paige

Legend

Correlation is not causation! Yes, you have 46K images and yes, the response is slow. These are correlated. However, one is not the cause of the other.

In fact, the idea that catalog size can cause slowness is generally not supported by any knowledge of how databases work and how Lightroom Classic works. In other words, these two are almost surely unconnected based on any known principle.

There are plenty of other reasons why LrC can have slow responses, as pointed out by others.

Ian Lyons

Community Expert

A catalog with 46,000 should perform as well as one with 40 files. In fact, there are customers with 1m plus files with perfectly working catalogs.

If you haven't already done so, then checkout this Adobe help document that describes some steps to improve performance https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/optimize-performance-lightroom.html

I would also suggest that if you have Virus Checker running, then make sure that the Lightroom catalog, previews, etc are excluded from same the VC can cause significant performance hit.

kevind47146453Author

Participating Frequently

I hadn't viewed that particular help page, but I have followed other ones.

It appears to have a mistake, saying that you can tell whether it's running in 64-bit under Windows by looking at the title bar. It's not there, but the Lightrooom System Info says that the Applicatiopn architecture is x64.

It says to have 20% free on the catalog drive, but that shouldn't matter on an SSD since there is no disk arm movement to optimize.

I have now made a few changes including turning off auto generating XMP files, increasing the Preview file size to be the next size up from my monitor width. I increased the camera raw cache size.

Note, I have dual monitors.

Next I'll try to reclaim some space on the SSD.

There is one other thing to consider. The images are stored in a folder within Microsoft OneDrive. It shouldn't matter, though, because I'm not altering the originals -- but those XMP files might be an issue.

Ian Lyons

Community Expert

> Note, I have dual monitors.

Lr performance has always been poor when using two monitors. Note that I'm being very generous when I describe it as poor. A more appropriate word would be rubbish, but then again I have a very low tolerance of anything that reduces performance from what I know is possible.

TheDigitalDog

Inspiring

Anyone that states 10K images is a lot and LR starts slowing down is no expert.

Disabling GPU due to its bugs that crash LR will of course slow down many, many operations depending on the OS/version of Lightroom Classic (GPU usage is a moving target from version to version).

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded