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Experiencing performance related issues in Lightroom 4.x

Community Beginner ,
Mar 06, 2012 Mar 06, 2012

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Anyone else notice that lightroom 4 is slow? Ligtroom 3 always ran fast on my system but Lightroom 4 seemlingly lags quite a bit.

My system is:

2.10 ghz Intel Core i3 Sandy Bridge

8 GB Ram

640 GB Hard Drive

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

Message title was edited by: Brett N

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Dec 18, 2012 Dec 18, 2012

It's now impossible to see the wood for the trees in this whopping 43-page long thread.  Many of the original 4.0-4.2 performance issues have since been resolved, and it's impossible to figure out who is still having problems, and what they can try.

I've started a nice clean thread to continue this discussion for 4.3 and later. http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1117506  Thanks to Bob_Peters for the suggestion.  I'm locking this one, otherwise it'll continue to get increasingly unweidly, but please f

...

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New Here ,
Mar 07, 2012 Mar 07, 2012

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.

AndyYau wrote:

I used LR4 Beta since it was released and found it sluggish like hell when processing G10 & 450D raw files.

And after installing LR4 release version, I found the same problem. Using sliders was always in slow motion and

it took 1-3 secs to response.

After reading this forum, I tried the so-called solution by deleting cache and preview files serveral times and nothing was chagned.

And finally I tried changing a profile of a photo from 2012 to 2010 and then back and forth. The strange thing is that when switching from 2012 to 2010,

all adjustments to the photo was lost. The result was the same as a reset. Is this normal?

Besides this, I also tried import raw files using Copy As DNG to see if DNG will work better.

After these operations, my LR4 works as fast as LR3. I do not know what was happened. I tried to touch serveral ten photos and LR4 is still fast.

And slider operation is almost instant. And all other operations is at lest 2-3 times faster than it was before.

My computer is always the same unit: Mac Pro 3GHz, 8-core, 16G Ram, System Disk: SSD, Data Disk:Raid0 x 3, OS X 10.7.3.

It seems I am dreaming but it is true. I even tried to check the screen if I am using LR3.

I do not know if LR4 will slow down again....

Thank you Andy,

Tried the import Copy As DNG and the loading, sliders and adjustment brush are all quicker.  Like you said, don't know if it will last, but it's good for now.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 07, 2012 Mar 07, 2012

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If so, I think I have to apply a LR4 patent for this! 

Adobe may want to remind us there is something call DNG.

Actually there is no need to edit raw files using DNG format. After of Copy As DNG, LR4 become very responsive for all my CR2 files.

I also notice the CPU activity is much lower as shown by Activity Monitor.

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Guest
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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Thanks, it seem to be a solution to get a workaround.. yes switching from profil 2012 to 2010 reset all my previous adjustments but then, even with NEF files, LR4 is now working fine as fast as LR3. After installing beta LR4 I've found that from this precise installation time, even LR3 is becoming more sluggish than before. I've also noticed a very long time to wait when switching from Library to Development module, back and forth (LR4, not LR3). This too seem to be right now with LR4, but I don't understand why ?

Config is : iMac27 i5, 16 Gb, Radeon 4850, some external FW800 HDs. OS X 10.7.3.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 07, 2012 Mar 07, 2012

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SPECS: Core i7 950 not overclocked, Asus Sabertooth mobo, 12 GB RAM, Radeon 5700 video with 1GB, Win7 Ultimate 64bit on SSD with programs (including LR), images on separate 2TB HDD, Dual displays.  In other words, quite capable hardware that runs anything I have ever thrown at it with aplomb.

I'm going to chronicle my experiences thus far:

1. Installed LR4 beta when it came out and made a test catalog of about 2000 images.

2. Noticed sluggishness immediately, especially in develop when moving sliders.  Chalked it up to being beta and went back to LR3, waiting for LR4 final.

3. Yesterday, excitedly installed LR4 final, which updated my LR4 beta test catalog

4. Experienced the same sluggish performance.  Thought it was maybe because the catalog was made with the beta.

5. Created a new LR4 catalog, and imported about 60 "fresh" raws (Nikon NEFs) to test it out.

6. Experienced the same sluggish performance. 

Sliders are slow to react to mouse dragging, and the image preview is slow to update to the adjusted values once the slider has finally moved. The slider handle doesn't follow the mouse pointer unless dragging really slowly, and it is difficult to make fine adjustments - e.g. the exposure slider sort of jumps along in 0.2-0.4EV increments.  The second display lags behind the first by as much as 4 seconds.  There is a less severe but still noticeable sluggishness to the overall navigation, such as switching between modules or scrolling and clicking in the filmstrip.  LR4 is virtually unusable in this state.  CPU activity monitor spikes on all 8 threads everytime a slider is moved.

Frustrated, I started experimenting further and found some suggestions on this thread to try:

1. Performace increases to the point of usability with the second display disabled, but this isn't a solution.  I need my dual displays!  And even with a single display, it isn't as smooth and responsive as LR 3.6

2. PV2010 vs. PV2012 doesn't seem to matter in terms of performance.  Both are unusably slow.  But again, PV2012 is where it's at, so it needs to work!

3. Building fresh previews doesn't seem to help, since performance was poor with the beta test catalog and with the newly created one with newly rendered previews.

4. I imported a batch of 180 images into the LR4 catalog using "Copy as DNG" to see if that helped matters.  I have never used DNG before.  The conversion and preview rendering took about 4-5 min total for all 180 images (12mp NEFs).  Seems reasonable.

5. Again performance seems a bit jerky but usable with only one display in use, but slows to a crawl with both enabled. The second display lags significantly behind the main display.  So DNG doesn't seem any better than just the regular NEFs for me.  And again, using DNG isn't a solution anyways, just a workaround.

Soooo, I'm in a rut.  Nothing I do really seems to fix the problem.  Looks like Adobe has some investigation to do, so lets hope these posts help shed some light on the source of the problem.

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Engaged ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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Across 4242,

I have another system than yours (WIN7 64, Q6600/2,8GHZ, GTX 470, 8GB RAM) , but this is exactly my experience. You seem to have a very fast system and LR4 is still slow. I`d like to hear something from Adobe on this.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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As an update to my previous post (#46), I tried terry275's suggestion of removing the lightroom folder and allowing LR4 to regenerate a virgin setup.  I then created a new catalog with freshly imported images.  Performance was the same - usable but not perfect with one display but very jerky with the second display enabled.  The second display is lagging far behind the main display - they don't change simultaneously like in LR3.  CPU spikes to 100% when the second display is trying to refresh.  With 2 displays enabled, LR4 is practically unusable.

And, as someone else mentioned, recreating catalogs from scratch isn't a realistic solution for those of us who have spent hours editing, sorting, rating, and keywording images in our LR3 catalogs.  They need to convert properly.

Out of curiosity, I installed L4 on a computer at work: Core i5, 4GB, Radeon 5450, Win7 Pro 64bit.  This machine is lesser spec'd than my home machine (i7, 12gb, Radeon 5750, Win7 Ult).  I created a new catalog and imported some raws. LR4 is much more responsive on this lesser machine than on my home machine, for some reason. It is smooth and snappy, like LR3.   With a second display enabled (as a window on the main display because this comp doesn't have two physical monitors), performance slows a tiny bit and the second display image lags about 1-2s, but this is much better than it is at home on my better computer.  On my less capable work computer, LR4 would be totally usable even with two displays.

Differences: At work, LR4, Win, and the source images are all on the same drive wheras at home, the images are on a separate internal sata drive.  Work has a slower CPU and less RAM. Work never had LR4 beta installed (did have LR3), home did.

Similarities: Same OS, both 64bit, both ATI video, both LR4 final, both new catalogs, same RAW files.

Message was edited by: aross4242

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New Here ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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Same slowness and spinning wheel with LR4. I just turned off my secondary monitor and closed all the panels in develope modular except the 'basic' and the speed seemed much improved.  But of course I want my secondary large screen display.  Hopefully there's a fix for dual screen users.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 12, 2012 Mar 12, 2012

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powerful win7 64bit, dual video cards, 16 gig ram.....

AND...

i have the EXACT same issues. Kinda bummin me out. New product that doesn't even fit in my workflow at the moment. I have faith.... great idea's in here.... but PLEASE dial it in a bit. Crunch that useless code!!!!!! This thing moves like a turtle right now. How frustrating. It's like shooting with film. I feel like i'm on AOL dialup.

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Engaged ,
Mar 12, 2012 Mar 12, 2012

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LEASE dial it in a bit. Crunch that useless code!!!!!! This thing moves like a turtle right now.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the LR code, not fundamentally/across the board anyway. I have the same system specs as you and LR4 is lightning fast on my catalog of 50k images, even faster than LR3, which is saying a lot  Apparently something is problematic for some people, but it isn't bloated code.

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New Here ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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I have had a call back from Adobe support and there would seem to be issues with settings imported from beta and previous versions.  There advice and it worked for me to to remove the LR4 beta version with windows software then reboot your machine.  Then in windows 7 go to c:users/pc/appdata/roaming/adobe and then drag the lightroom folder to the desktop.  Then start LR4 and create a new catalog.  DO NOT IMPORT OLD ONE.  This will create a virgin set up.  LR4 on my machine now performs as well as LR3 did.  Have not yet loaded a old catalog from LR3 so hoping that will be OK

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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Of course we cannot delete our existing catalogs and start new ones. That is not a fix.

terry275's fixes are Windows-specific, fwiw: I use a Mac.

This is a major drag, literally. Fortunately I still have LR3 installed, and only one or two catalogs 'upgraded' to LR4 slowness.

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Engaged ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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AndyYau,

I`ve watched your video, especially between 0:46 and 1:03, where you adjust the exposure slider. Would you call that smooth? Screen redraw looks very jerky. Or is it just your video recording? Is what you see in that video what you see on screen in this situation?

If yes, it`s as jerky as on my PC. The means, you pull the slider, but what you see on screen is an update maybe two or three times a second.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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I have just verified with LR4 and also LR3.

It is my hand, not LR4. I did not keep my mouse constantly moving.

I think you do not encounter the slow issue of LR4. When this problem happens,

your mouse is almost sticked to the slider. And every movement take 2-3 seconds.

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Engaged ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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Andy, so it is smoother than what the video shows? I`m wondering, because the slider movement in the video seems much more constant than the screen update.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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Steven,

You are right. Just compared with LR3 again and again. LR3 slider is faster and smoother. LR4 is slightly jerky if compared with LR3.

But LR4 is now several times faster than when I just installed it. I almost cannot work with it as any adjustment takes 1-3 seconds for screen to update!!

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Explorer ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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AndyYau : good video. Development time (from 1 picture to the other) seems to be 4 / 5 secondes. Same  with me (I had the same with LR3).

BUT : Some users mentioned that they had about 0.1 s for that action !

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New Here ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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You dont delete yuor catalogs as they are saved in a different folder

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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Of course you're right, Terry275; I didn't phrase it correctly. What I meant is that not having access to the older catalogs is the problem. All that work!!! Hundreds of hours.

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New Here ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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Now confirmed you can load old catalogs in LR4 after virgin start up and they do convert but run sluggish which is what adobe have identified and presumably are working a fix.  When you revert to the virgin catalog in LR4 and work on new imports via LR4 the software performs to LR3 speeds.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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Yes, thanks,

I see the same thing here.

Starting a new catalogue (no re-install) and doing a new import of the same pictures makes LR4 much more responsive.

Activity monitor shows a much better balanced and overall lower load on the CPU cores when manipulating sliders in the develop module.

While before the load on all CPUs would brickwall to the max when doing adjustments resulting in jerky slider movements, now all the cores have some headroom and slider movement is reasonably smooth. Pretty close to old LR3 behavior even with the new process.

It seems like Adobe has to look at how to "upgrade" old catalogues without the speed penalty. Recreating the catalogues from scratch is obviously not an option for people with thousands of pics organized through LR.

Now confirmed you can load old catalogs in LR4 after virgin start up and they do convert but run sluggish which is what adobe have identified and presumably are working a fix. When you revert to the virgin catalog in LR4 and work on new imports via LR4 the software performs to LR3 speeds.

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Guest
Mar 21, 2012 Mar 21, 2012

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Moving the Lightroom folder from that point will move a lot of customization out.  What did they say about all of the other templates, plug-ins and presets?  Do they suggest reloading all of that stuff?  Anyone who's been using LR since 1.0 will have a lot of stuff in there.  This seems like a bad solution to a problem introduced with LR4.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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After playing LR4 with speed improvement for the whole night. I find it is still smooth.

All of you can check with the video in order to compare with yours.

See description in the video for more information.

http://youtu.be/2vfK5iJ-kbw

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Guest
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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@AndyYau

Thank you very much for the work, that you uploaded that video. I had a look at it in several quality settings. I can see clearly how your mouse mooves and how the picture updates. This is laggy as hell....sorry. Yes, maybe it is in your case as fast als LR3.6, but in my case lr3.6 works completely fluid....and my lr4 works exactly like i saw it in your video.

So this is not fast......this is slow as it can be. not useable!

King regards Frank!

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Explorer ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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Frankc1978 : What I don't understand is that some people like AndyYau or me find the same results with both LR3 and LR4. Indeed, this is much slower that what you describe on your high end machine but there is no difference between the 2 versions. I would think that LR 4 would worse on LR 3 on all machines (not just on the high end ones). So , there might be an other reason.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 08, 2012 Mar 08, 2012

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Hi Frank,

Fast and slow is relative and this is why I upload a video for us to compare.

I think we have to seperate two cases:a

1. When LR4 is normal (now on my Mac), it may be not as smooth as LR3. But the different is small. And I agree LR3 is a little bit faster.

2. When LR4 is abnormal, it is serveral times slower than the speed shown in the video. (For example, when I move a slider, my computer CPU load is almost 100% for all 8-cores, and I need to wait 2-3 second for the screen to refresh for just ONE mouse action). The speed different is huge.

It is pity that I do have have a video to show case 2. After Copy AS DNG, it seems problem of case 2

is solved. But the inherent probelm of LR4 in case 1 is still there.

So I think we are talking two different issues of LR4.

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