Import sticks and is slow

Report · May 27, 2024

I updated to 13.3 over the weekend and proceeded to import about 2000+ photos. After the catalog conversion, the import seemed to be stuck, so I quit everything and upgraded the old catalog again. Then quit Lightroom and started it again to import the photos. Again, super slow. I then proceeded to import in batches, which eventually completed.

All activtities seem to be very slow. Adding keywords often doesn't work, as the processes seem busy with something else. HDR Merge is exceptionally slow, as is stacking and unstacking. There's also a crazy amount of XML file updating going on.

If find performance slightly better after restarting, but that doesn't last for long.

I have roughly 200000+ photos in the catalog. M1 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM and using an external SSD. Processing JPG and RAW.

Anyone else noticed something similar?

Report · May 27, 2024

"..... as the processes seem busy with something else. "

My guess is that it might be busy doing a background update task that, with patience, will complete.

Report · May 27, 2024

Possibly, but I've left it unattended for a number of hours and there's no indication of activity. The moment I start add an HDR Merge, for example, everything is super slow. If this was a major update, I could understand a significant amount of processing, but it's a point release. I have never seen it behave like this after any minor update.

Report · May 27, 2024

Yes, it was a point release. But, unlike most point releases, something changed that required the .lrcat file to be updated. My guess is that with 200,000 files it might be busy updating previews. Another guess is that facial recognition is updating. Have you tried an online chat with Adobe techs?

Report · May 27, 2024

Thanks - yes, I checked for Previews being built, etc. But none of those tasks are active. There is no indicated activity. But I'll check with Adobe or wait for a possible update 😉

Report · May 27, 2024

You haven't mentioned whether you import after selecting your SD card in 'Devices' section or 'Files' section. If Devices, then be aware that there is known bug that causes theimport behaviour you describe. Until this bug is fixed, the best option is to select you SD card from the 'Files' section (see attached screesnhot).

With 'Devices' the import will either take a very long time or will not include all of the files to be imported.

Report · May 27, 2024

Thanks - I always prepare the files on the hard drive I'm using first. The directory structure, etc. is fixed and I simply import from there without copying anything anywhere else.

Report · May 27, 2024

Ok, that's the best way as it puts the files where want them rather than doing battle with LrC destination options.

Report · Jun 01, 2024

Thought I'd provide some feedback on this.

I left Lightroom running for about 4 days. During that time, it generated many XMPs and also seemed to re-sync many cloud photos. The application was almost unresponsive during that time, but the good news is that it has seemingly now completed what needed to be done and is up and running in the way one would expect it!

One key observation for me is that this is more of a user interface issue than anything else: Lightroom is built to process a lot in the background, but a task like this clearly takes over all resources. It would be great if the application could:

- indicate a period for completing its tasks, or

- present some information on what needs to be done, or

- provide a log file that indicates progress

The first assumption is always that something has broken and with no way of seeing what is going on, there is not much to go on. The good old text file showing what photo is being synced, processed, or whatever is definitely missed in this scenario when no information/dialog box is displayed.

Report · Jun 01, 2024

Exactly this. I've just installed 13.3 (see previous posts of mine about how earlier versions of 13 don't work for me), and it's been in 'Initializing sync data' for about 4 days now. Since I've got about 360K files in my catalogue, it seems I'm going to be waiting at least another 4 days before any new photos get synced. It would be nice to have some sort of indication of progress, reassurance that this will actually end at some point and that it hasn't got stuck (and therefore I should cut my losses and revert to LRC 12 again).