Lightroom 11.1 and whole system freezes if I import more photos and videos (300 files) .

[Tomas Bartl]

Hello everyone,

I keep running into an issue, that after trying to import more photos (more than few hundreds), whole system freezes and after system restart I always get MacOS message:

--

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xfffffe0015f3f84c): watchdog timeout: no checkins from watchdogd in 94 seconds (91 total checkins since monitoring last enabled)

Debugger message: panic

...

--

Importing in smaller batches seems to help, but it is very unpractical.

I have a new Macbook Pro 14 with Monterey 12.1 and Lightroom Classic 11.1.  Switched from Win 11 to MacOS to get more reliable experience, but this never happend on Win before.

Anyone experienced this?

[KR Seals]

What is the source of the files you are trying to import. From camera? From card in reader? Files already on a drive?

Just a few minutes ago, I was setting up my new MBP M1Max. I was able to easily and quickly import many folders at a time, some with more than 1,000 files. These files were already on the 2TB internal drive.

LrC V 11.1 Mac OS 12.1

[Tomas Bartl]

I am importing from internal SD card reader.

It is really strange. I don't have many other programs installed (basically only Office, Google Drive Sync, OneDrive Sync, ESET antivirus, Chrome, Slack, WhatsApp). Other than that notebook is basically totally clean. I might start disabling all the programs running, if it helps, but if I wanted to do something like that, I might have stayed on Windows.:-)

[KR Seals]

I will try importing from the internal reader this afternoon. 

Try copying all the files from the card to the folder where you want them with Finder. See if that makes a difference.

You might try activity monitor to see how everything is using the cpu when you try the import.

[KR Seals]

Hi Tomas, I just ripped of 500 20MB raw file in my Nikon D500. Fortunately, it shoots at 10 frames per sec 🙂

I was able to import them all into my new MBP 16" M1Max 64GB ram in 1 minute and 20 seconds, including building the default previews of 3456 pixels. I used a Lexar Professional 1000x SD card speced at 150 MB/sec read speed.

I had no glitches at all.

Maybe you should have an Apple store check out the machine for proper operation of the SD card slot.

[Tomas Bartl]

I might find the culprit. I tried to disable Google Drive sync and just do an import and it worked ok with about 600 files. It seems that there is some issue with how Lightroom writes backup files and how Google Drive reads them.

[KR Seals]

@ Tomas, Glad you figured that out. It's good to know your solution as others may have the same issue. I do not use any online storage.

[dj_paige]

Whole system crashes, when performing CPU intensive tasks such as importing, are very often hardware problem. The most likely culprit is that your computer is overheating, and then shuts down. You need to check your cooling system to make sure that all elements are working properly, and vaccuum out the case (if you can open it) and make sure all vents are unblocked, and that the vents are not up against a barrier (such as a wall).

Adding, it is hard to imagine how use of Google Drive could do this, unless it increases the load on the CPU, and I don't think it does, except in a trivial sense compared to the load on the CPU because of doing an import. Anyway, if you have found a solution, I make this post for others who may have similar system crashes without the use of Google Drive.

[KR Seals]

All excellent advice DJ. However, the OP said he is working on a new Apple M1 MacBook Pro which is not likely to have cooling issues yet 🙂

[dj_paige]

All excellent advice DJ. However, the OP said he is working on a new Apple M1 MacBook Pro which is not likely to have cooling issues yet

And yet, I disagree. Hardware can malfunction at any time. Yes, hardware is less likely to malfunction on a brand new computer, but still possible.

In my opinion, cooling system failure is still the explanation that best explains the symptoms. Yes there are other possible causes, but my paradigm is you investigate the most likely cause first.