Lightroom 3 freezing when using import

In the hopes that this might help someone finding this thread first,

I found that reducing the amount of memory use by the program, especially video or display memory allowed using the Import feature as normal.  This was the first time it froze on me in version 3.x (now at 3.5)

I chose a view with just 1 item then tried again, walla (voila, viola) hah it's working now.  Import started with a strange (to me) reduced version of the dialog with fewer options.  I had to change to a folder search, then enlarge the view to get back to normal.  ASN: all systems nominal now. 

Strange behavior.  As strange, if different from CNX2.  Must use different dartboards to decide on weird behaviors.

Now if Adobe can only figure out that I need to send the ORGINAL file to other programs to edit rather than insisting on converting it to a TIFF (LR3 -> CNX2) I'll be able to use the prog much more effectively.

/..

(my post, copied from this thread:  http://forums.adobe.com/message/2981433#2981433#2981433  )

I must say I am having this problem as well, no resolution in sight. I have read all suggestions here... nothing seems to help.

Here is the scenario:

-ONLY when importing a set of files, simple Nikon RAW .NEF plus .JPGs out of camera.

-Quantity is no matter

-Problem arises when I preview a large number of images before improting to cull the import down to the necessary needed.

-The more images I double-click on to preview from the thumbnails, the performance progressively degrades

-CPUs rarely below 100%

-Eventually, LR3 becomes unresponsive and while it will not crash, it requires a swift kick (kill process)

+Workaround is to simply import the images and delete after in Grid/Edit modules.

Systems where observed

+OLD System

-Intel Quad Core Extreme QX6700

-4GB RAM

-Windows 7 Ultimate x64

-Dual 10K RAID0 Boot

-Dual 10K RAID0 Scratch

-Dual 7.2K RAID1 Data

+NEW System

-Mac Pro 1,1 (Upgraded)

-Dual Intel Xeon X5355 Quad Core Processors (8 cores total)

-32GB RAM FB-DIMMs

-Boot Camp running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (OS-X running 10.6.7)

-Single 7.2K Boot

-Single 7.2K Scratch

-Single 7.2K Data

-Single 7.2K Backup

Lightroom 3.4.1 x64

Let me know if more info helps or not. Thanks for your help...

Today, I have been testing with a CF-card containing 69 Canon CR2 files. Lightroom 2.7 completed the import well within 25 seconds.

I have newly installed LR3.4, and I am importing into a newly created library.

First try, 255 seconds.

Then I deleted them all and disabled the virus scanner. That was promising: Also within 25 seconds. Next, I spent some time looking for the settings in Comodo to ignore any Lightroom related file traffic, but I couldnot reproduce the fast import ever again, even not after completely removing the security software from memory.

The epson printer has been switched of all the time since bootup.

Windows XP64, AMD Phenom II X3 705e, 8Gb Ram

Finally got mine working.

My computer windows 7 with an I7 CPU. It also has one of those Multi card readers on the front.

After trying everything I could think of I put a different type memory card into a different slot and viola! It popped up and worked perfectly. I then removed the chip and noticed that I can then import from my SD chip or my hard drive location.

I toggled the automatically detect Memory chip to off as well.

I know, makes no sense but thats all I did.

I have been having this problem almost continuously over the past few months. LR will import a portion of my photos and then at some point hang. I'll get and apparent freeze in the action, tumbnails stop displaying and then a "not responding" notice. No amount of waiting seems to work and I have to force a shutdown. Just restarting LR doesn't do the trick. It will import a few more and then hang again.  So far the only way around this I've found is to reboot my PC and import immediatley after. I'm hoping there is a more elegant solution than this as this is a major pain. I've tried unplugging what is practical (my keyboard and mouse are USB) but even if that worked that would be a pin in the butt. What's going on here? Why is this popping up but no clear solution exists.

I'm using Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit with 8 Gb.

Just got Lightroom 3 and having the same issue. I have it loaded on a screaming fast I7 machine on Windows 7.

All works great until IMPORT, then it is very slow, takes a long time for the directory tree to display, then the scroll bar will freeze, show "Not responding" in the top of the screen. if I wait it will move if I try to do anything again I get the windows error asking if I want to wait or close the program.

I called tech support and they had me delete a file that partains to import settings. I was then able to slowly select some stuff and import but still not right.

I installed LR  on my laptop as evaluation to see what it would do there and although the whole program runs slower the import did work as it should.

Looking at the older posts about removing sd cards etc, I am wondering if it has something to do with my multi-card reader on the front of my PC that accepts all type of SD cards. Looks like someone is fighting for the same memory space or an IRQ conflict of some sort.

So it looks like there is still an issue with this. Maybe I can import using my Laptop which shares the same catalog across the network LAN?

I would like to add that once I do manage to have my source and destination folders set and then click the final IMPORT it does it quite swiftly. So my issue is just with the way it pulls up the director tree's etc.

I had been having a terrible time with LR3.3 freezing on import - it froze frequently - say 3 times - before I could improt 20 photos... then I'd have to wait til it responded again.  In one of the posts I read that someone found the epson printer was the problem. I turned off my epson printer and have not had a freeze since - I can't believe the solution was that simple in my case.  so just in case you have an epson printer or some other hardware conflict - you may want to try to unplug all unused hardware, usb's etc.

same problem here:

import works some times, but most of the time seems to hang after importing a couple of images.

one aspect particular to my circumstances which may or may not have a bearing on the problem; my photo library is not on the same computer on which i am running LR3.  it is on a networked server.  this *may* add some more credence to the theories that LR3 import is likely to fail if there is not a 'direct' path from camera–through LR3–to library.   ie. in my case the connection between LR3 and my library is over my intranet. in other reported cases the connection between camera and LR3 is via a hub or other device.

just a thought!

Hi,

My two cents...

[Using XP SP3 - 3GB - plenty of disk space]

I didn't have this problem when importing RAW files until I scanned some old films and decided to import a batch of TIF files. Then the "freezing when importing" problem immediately appeared. LR3 freezed after some disk activity as soon as I clicked on the Synchronize button in the Synchronize Folder dialog. No way to recover beside killing the process. Note that when this happens, you may not be able to access other applications until you minimize the LR3 main window (strangely enough the Minimize button remains active). For example, when hitting Control+Shift+Esc, the Windows task manager should appear and stay in the foreground. If you do that once LR3 has frozen, the Task Manager window remains in the background until you minimize the LR window (which is the only way to refresh the display in that case). In order to be able to click the Minimize button, you may have to hit the Escape key. This makes the LR main window caption bar active.

I could also observe the following:

1. The problem doesn't occur (never) if I uncheck the "Show import dialog before importing" option.
2. The problem does occur when right-clicking a folder in the left pane and chosing "Import into this folder".
3. The problem does occur when you drag and drop an image file from Windows Explorer to the current folder which should trigger the display of the Import dialog.
4. The problem does occur when clicking on the Import button (bottom left in the Library module).
5. Now the problem also occurs when importing RAW files. Bad move...

So (at least for me) the problem is clearly related to the Import dialog which is never displayed when the bug appears. I have the feeling that there's a problem during the import dialog creation process which happens before the window is made visible (this could explain the strange things reported above).

Pretty buggy anyway. Waiting for the next version...

Thanks for pasting in the links. Not unlike CNX2.2.4, the Adobe LR3 was not ready for prime time it would seem.

Knowing which and what OS and such is fine for sleuthing in code-land but running  i7, NVIDIA,  8mb Ram, external eSATA @ 7,200 RPM's and internal SATA, there is not much else to say other than both of these companies are costing end users and professionals time and money, so welcome to the digital age.

Marketing is important but all y'all should have not rushed this out just because the business has been soft.

Your Adobe program simply crashes on importing, or if I'm lucky, it waits until I try to set the check boxes and move it to the editing platform.

Very dissapointing indeed to toss $300, as I've been able to do editing twice in time to transfer the TIF back to CNX before LR3 dies, out of a few dozen trys.