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milana_4259
Inspiring
November 4, 2025
Answered

Library freezes (2-3 sec) between Images, but Develop is Fast? (High-End PC: 3900X)

  • November 4, 2025
  • 4 replies
  • 500 views

Hi everyone,

I'm at my wit's end with a Lightroom Classic issue (latest v15.0) and I've run out of ideas.

The Core Problem (The Anomaly):

My Library Module is incredibly slow. When I cycle through photos (in Grid or "Fit" Loupe view), the entire LrC interface hard freezes for $2-3$ seconds on every single image. During this freeze, I cannot click anything—the UI is completely unresponsive.

The weirdest part: my Develop Module is much faster. I can cycle through the same photos in Develop (using Smart Previews) with almost no lag. This is the complete opposite of how LrC is supposed to perform.

"The Freeze" Details (What happens in those 2-3 seconds):

When monitoring Task Manager during the Library freeze:

  • HDD/SSD: 0% active time (no obvious disk access).

  • GPU: 0-1% usage (not processing).

  • CPU: A small spike (around 10-15%), which on a 3900X (24-thread) suggests a single-core bottleneck or hang.

My System (It's not a slow PC):

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

  • GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3090 (24GB VRAM)

  • RAM: 64GB

  • OS: Windows 11 (Fully updated)

  • Drivers: Latest NVIDIA Studio Drivers

  • Storage (Catalog/Previews): Fast M.2 SSD

  • Storage (Original Photos): Mechanical HDD (Slow)

  • Monitors: Dual setup (1x 4K as primary, 1x QHD as secondary)

The Files:

  • Canon R5 cRAW (Compressed RAW).

  • In one test, I noticed that uncompressed RAW files felt slightly faster, which makes me suspect a decompression issue.

What I Have Already Tried (The Long List):

Before you suggest "update your drivers," here is everything I've already done:

  1. Solved GPU Conflict: Found and completely uninstalled Xtreme Tuner (GPU management software) which was causing a conflict.

  2. Unlocked GPU: Deleted the Camera Raw GPU Config.txt. The new file now correctly shows gpu_compute_quick_self_test_passed="True".

  3. Tested GPU: The AI Denoise function now works and pushes the GPU to 90-100%, proving LrC can use my 3090 for compute tasks.

  4. Deleted Preview Cache: I deleted the entire ...Previews.lrdata folder (the one on my M.2) to start fresh.

  5. Set 4K Previews: Set my Standard Preview Size to Auto (3862px) to match my 4K primary monitor.

  6. Regenerated Previews: I have started the full regeneration for the entire catalog (it's ongoing, but the problem persists even on folders that are 100% complete).

  7. Tested 2880px Previews: Before setting it to $4\text{K}$/Auto, I also tried using $2880\text{px}$ Standard Previews. The $2-3$ second freeze remained exactly the same, suggesting the preview size itself isn't the root cause, but that LrC is ignoring the previews entirely.

  8. Disabled Auto-Corrections: I confirmed my default develop settings are "raw" (no Lens Corrections, Sharpening, or Noise Reduction applied on import).

  9. Reinstalled LrC: I reinstalled LrC (keeping preferences).

My Theory

After all this, the Develop module is fast (correctly using Smart Previews from the M.2), but the Library module freezes.

This leads me to believe that the Library Module is ignoring my newly built Standard Previews (both $2880\text{px}$ and $3862\text{px}$) and is instead trying to read/decompress the original cRAW file every time, causing that 2-3 second single-core CPU hang.

Is this a catalog bug? Is it a cRAW-specific problem?

Has anyone ever experienced the Library being slower than the Develop module? How can I force the Library to only use the standard previews I just spent hours building?

Thanks for any ideas.

 

    Correct answer milana_4259

    Hello everyone, and thank you all ( @Aleke @dj_paige @arjunhaarith ) for trying to help me troubleshoot this.

    After trying every suggestion (including creating a new catalog, which didn't work), I have finally found the solution.

    The problem was corrupted presets.

    I went into the Camera Raw settings folder: %APPDATA%\Adobe\CameraRaw

    I completely emptied the Settings and ImportedSettings folders (where all my user .xmp presets were stored).

    As soon as I restarted Lightroom, the 2-3 second freeze was gone instantly.

    It seems one or more bad preset files were blocking Lightroom's entire render engine. This is why my System Info showed GPUDeviceEnabled: false and Memory cache size: 0.0MB. It was all being caused by the corrupted presets.

    Now, my GPU is finally working (I see 16-20% spikes when changing photos), and my VRAM is fluctuating up to 12GB, which proves it's caching. The Library is finally smooth.

    I am now adding back only the presets I use most often, and the system is still fast.

    So, if anyone else has a mysterious 1-2 second freeze/hang (with 0% disk and 10% CPU), check your presets.

    Thanks again for the help!

    4 replies

    M
    milana_4259Author
    Inspiring
    November 17, 2025

    I am glad my tip about presets, and window to close, helped people, should be a bug Adobe must investigate, because I am sure bugging many people. Me first. Did I won something for discovered such bug? 😁😁😁😁😁😁

    M
    milana_4259AuthorCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    November 5, 2025

    Hello everyone, and thank you all ( @Aleke @dj_paige @arjunhaarith ) for trying to help me troubleshoot this.

    After trying every suggestion (including creating a new catalog, which didn't work), I have finally found the solution.

    The problem was corrupted presets.

    I went into the Camera Raw settings folder: %APPDATA%\Adobe\CameraRaw

    I completely emptied the Settings and ImportedSettings folders (where all my user .xmp presets were stored).

    As soon as I restarted Lightroom, the 2-3 second freeze was gone instantly.

    It seems one or more bad preset files were blocking Lightroom's entire render engine. This is why my System Info showed GPUDeviceEnabled: false and Memory cache size: 0.0MB. It was all being caused by the corrupted presets.

    Now, my GPU is finally working (I see 16-20% spikes when changing photos), and my VRAM is fluctuating up to 12GB, which proves it's caching. The Library is finally smooth.

    I am now adding back only the presets I use most often, and the system is still fast.

    So, if anyone else has a mysterious 1-2 second freeze/hang (with 0% disk and 10% CPU), check your presets.

    Thanks again for the help!

      arjunhaarith
      Adobe Employee
      arjunhaarith
      Adobe Employee
      November 5, 2025

      Glad your issue is resolved @milana_4259 !

      Curious to know what those presets were ? By any chance do you have a copy of those faulty presets ?

      M
      milana_4259Author
      Inspiring
      November 5, 2025

      I should get one by one and add on setting folder and restart LRC each time etc, should be a long process

      D
      dj_paige
      Legend
      November 4, 2025

      My theory ... something is interfering with the usage of your previews. One possible thing that could interfere is the your Anti-Virus software. You should be able to set just about any anti-virus software to ignore certain folders, in this you want to make sure it is not scanning the previews.lrdata folder in the same folder as your catalog.

       

      Your theory about the previews not being used doesn't make sense to me, I don't think there is an option in LrC, or function anywhere in the code, that tells LrC to NOT use the previews that already exist.

      M
      milana_4259Author
      Inspiring
      November 4, 2025

      thank you @dj_paige i already removed my cache and catalog directory from antivirus.

      A
      Community Manager
      AlekeCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      November 4, 2025

      Hi @milana_4259, welcome to the community! Thanks so much for sharing the detailed info about the issue.
      Quick question: did this start happening after you updated to version 15, or were you seeing similar problems in earlier versions too? If possible, could you try creating a brand-new catalog and see if the freezes occur there as well? If they don’t, that might point to something specific with the original catalog.
      Appreciate your help in troubleshooting this!
      Alek

      *(If you mention me with an @, like @Aleke, I’ll get a notification and can respond faster.)*
      M
      milana_4259Author
      Inspiring
      November 4, 2025

      Hello @Aleke , thanks for the reply.

      To answer your first question: this problem has always existed (the Library being slower than Develop), but it has recently become much worse and more annoying. It's not new to v15.

      I also tried your suggestion: I created a new catalog and imported the old one (File > Import from Another Catalog).

      And this is where something very weird happened:

      Right after the import finished, my HDD was working hard (I assume building the new previews). During that time, scrolling in the Library was perfectly smooth and fast!

      But as soon as the HDD finished its background tasks, the 2-3 second freeze between every photo returned.

      I then manually selected a test folder in the new catalog and used Library > Build Standard Previews (set to Auto (3862px)). Even after it finished 100%, the freeze persists. It's like I only got about 10 photos of happiness before the lag came back. 🙂

      It seems like $\text{Lightroom}$ is fast only while it's actively building the cache, but not when it's supposed to simply read from it.

      arjunhaarith
      Adobe Employee
      arjunhaarith
      Adobe Employee
      November 5, 2025

      Hi @milana_4259 ,

       

      Could you please share more information for us to investigate further : 

      1) Is the 'Automatically write changes into XMP' value checked? (this is present under Edit -> Catalog settings -> Metadata tab)? If it is checked, uncheck it and let me know the experience

      2) Did you build the previews using GPU ? (what is the value present in Preferences -> Performance -> Use GPU for preview generation)

      3) What is the behaviour when the preview is other than standard (like minimal / embedded etc.,)

      4) Can you please share the lrc_console.log file present in (C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom)?

      5) What is the size of the previews.lrdata file?

      6) Please share this folder as a zip (C:\Users\xxxx\AppdData\Local\Adobe\CameraRaw)

      7) Perform this step after completing Step 6 :

      What happens after you purge the ACR cache? (You can go to Lightroom Preferences -> Performance tab -> Under camera raw cache settings, click Purge cache. Then restart the system and check once)

      😎 Please share system info (Help -> System Info)

       

      You can share the files to me on haarithg@adobe.com

       

      Thanks,

      Arjun

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