Lightroom 3 freezing when using import

[Richard4911]

Whhen attempting to import images from an external USB hard drive Lightroom 3 freezes.

The import bar goes across and Lightroom import about 3 images before freezing.

If I close Lightroom and re-start the import it'll import a few more images and freeze again.

Any ideas?

[port98]

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.

[Guest]

I broke my head on this a lot as well. I am running Windows Vista Home Premium with LR 3.3.

Finally traced the hung import to a program: video_thumbnailer.exe that seems to be the culprit.

Noticed that everytime import hung (after a few images were imported), there would be an instance video_thumbnailer.exe in Task Manager. If I killed and restarted LR and the import, another instance of this exe would show up in TaskManager.

When I started killing these processes, the import would proceed until the next time a video would be uploaded and a new instance of this exe got created and presumably hung.

Workaround - rename the exe and your import should complete. Of course, you will not have any thumbnail previews of your videos in the Library.

Haven't researched the cause of this program to hang yet. But then I was more interested in getting my photos into the Library.

[JohnnieAce]

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.

[port98]

In an older post someone noted that epson printer drivers were interfering

with the performance of LR3. As soon as I turned off the printer I no

longer had the freezes. LR is fast and very responsive. Now when I work

in Lightroom I try not to have my printers on - and disconnect all

usb-connected hardware - such as scanners, and do not have any SD cards in

the slots. When in Library mode this works fine - then I turn on the

printer when I'm ready to print something in print mode. Hope this helps.

[Wimbolleke]

port98 wrote:

In an older post someone noted that epson printer drivers were interfering

with the performance of LR3.   ...  When in Library mode this works fine - then I turn on the printer when I'm ready to print something in print mode.

Hmm... first test is positive. It needs some more trying. Once before I have cheered too early.

[Guest]

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.

[port98]

when I had the problem it was very much like you describe - I literally

could not import more than a few photos at a time - get the freeze - do the

shut down, reboot etc - just like you are doing. But just turning off the

printers (not even unplugging them) solved it for me.

I am not a computer professional - but if turning your printers and scanners

off doesn't solve it - you may want to go into task manager and shut down

other applications - I read some posts where other applications were

interfering - or what I also tried was to go into msconfig and disable all

my applications - then reboot - and work in lightroom - and then reenable

them when I was finished. I would make sure my virus scanning was enabled

though - just in case I connected to the internet.

good luck!

-

[Photosteve729]

There are obviously quite a few people who experience this problem.

There also seem to be a number of solutions. It seems some work for some

people and others work for others.

As I said before, the solution that worked for me was to reinstall

Lightroom. I suspect that, once installed, something changes in the

computer's configuration that interferes with the import under specific

conditions. Since changes to a computer's configuration are so

frequent-- and often not even detected by the user-- it's difficult to

diagnose the exact cause of the problem. By reinstalling, whatever

conflict occurs may be compensated for somehow.

It's really sad that such a fine product has such a flaw that it causes

people to be unable to use it properly.

[Tetralogy]

I had these sorts of problems when I first loaded LR3 on a networked computer. When I spoke to Adobe support they told me LR3 was not designed to be on a networked computer despite the fact the beta version worked fine on that platform. I loaded it on a freestanding laptop and it performs fine. I am not sure if LR# "thinks" printers, etc are networked hardware and somehow gets "confused". Adobe support told me that the program goes out on the network and seeks out any potential image file to import and as such gets very bogged down and crashes. Seems to be a fundamental flaw in design that was not there on the beta version, but that is what we have. It is odd that several different solutions work for the same problem.

Eliot

[JohnnieAce]

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.

[Guest]

I have the same problem on my Macbook Pro.  I cannot import any images!  I've updated the to the current LR, created new libraries, etc.  Nothing seems to help execpt to STOP USING LR.

[Geoff the kiwi]

Have you rebooted the Macbook? Just a first step that's all.

[Guest]

The machine is rebooted daily. This has been going on for the last month.

[Geoff the kiwi]

Can you give us a run down on what type of files you are importing, from where and how?

[Guest]

I am running a Macbook Pro with the current OS.  The files I am trying to import are CR2 raw files from my cannon.  The files are located on a USB exgternal drive, on the desktop, and on the local network.  I see no difference on where the files are located. I have removed LR3, re-installed, downloaded current updates, used new catalogs, etc. I'm totally out of ideas.

Maybe a I need to do a different uninstall.  The only way I know is to take the program file and drop it into the waste basket, since there is not an un-install file.

Any help you can give me would REALY be appreciated.  I'm a full time photographer and not being able to use LR3 on my Mac is a real problem.

[Geoff the kiwi]

Ok, seems like you are doing things as they ought to, next I suggest removing the preference file which are in:

User/Library/Preferences - com.adobe.Ligntroom3.plist

With Lightroom closed remove this (and if there is a Lightroom2 plist remove that too) to the desktop and restart Lightroom.

[Guest]

There was only a plist for LR2.  I deleted it and LR is working!!!!

Thank you very much.  I'm back in business.

[Geoff the kiwi]

Great news, thanks for reporting your success!!

[Wimbolleke]

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

[gonzalu]

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...

[port98]

my crashes seemed to be resulting from a conflict with the USB devices

(printer). I am not familiar with MAC environment. does LR crash if you

copy your files from camera to hard drive first? then import them from the

hard drive?

[Geoff the kiwi]

Also are you running LR under OSX or bootcamp??

[gonzalu]

Like I said in my systems report, Windows 7 Ultimate  x64. I mentioned Bootcamp version in case someone cared 🙂

Have not tried the import under OS-X version of LR... but from what I read here, issue seems to span both OSs.

Thank you!

[wizard155]

A couple of pointers about USB devices. Beware of USB hubs as they can be horrible pieces of crap and can cause more issues than anything else. So if you have one, get rid of it if you can.

If you are having conflicting devices but no USB hub then might I suggest moving devices around in the slots until you find the right combination. If you can look at the power consumption for each usb port as this will give you an indicator of what's chewing the most power.

If all else fails try remove each device to determine which device(s) is/are causing the issue. Sometime a device or cable could be faulty and causing the issue rather than it be a conflict.

[Wimbolleke]

Be this true or not, I couldn't tell. But if USB were the cause of

trouble, then every application including LR2.x would suffer from the

problem, wouldn't they?