LightRoom Classic Export Draining MacBook Pro Battery

[NBS0616]

When I export 500+ images for a timelapse, Lightroom drains my MacBook battery when plugged in.  It went from 100% to 6% in about 20 minutes time and the export is less than 25% done.  I used to love Lightroom but continue to have so many issues like this that it becomes a burden and the creative process is less and less enjoyable.  There was one point that it took maybe 10 minutes for the export to complete and the battery didn't drain.  It's going to take more than an hour for this export to complete at this rate.  Battery ran down that low, that fast, with a charge cable plugged in at the same time to a higher wattage Apple brick charger.

I bought this MacBook in October 2019 brand new.  I'm on OS Catalina.  I run Lightroom from a catalog on the internal MacBook hard drive, which is what Adobe told me to do on the phone when diagnosing other issues.  I have 16 GB of RAM and upgraded every item possible on my MacBook Pro when I purchased, so that I would have optimal performance.  My source image files are on an external drive, which also what Adobe suggested to do for optimal performance.

Does anyone else have similar issues?  If so, did you come up with a solution?  The solutions from other similar threads have not provided any help. I saw the thread below but no solution provided.  Those issues are similar to mine.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic/adobe-lightroom-classic-too-slow-and-battery-drain-...

Thanks so much.

ns

[NBS0616]

Update: talked to Adobe support on the phone at length.  They had me upgrade to Big Sur for my OS so that it was as up to date as the version of Lightroom Classic, which is 10.3.  Now the export is even slower - I'm sitting at 2+ hours and the export of about 590 images is only at about 20% done.  Lightroom is slow to respond to clicks/scrolls. Last night I spent quite a bit of time on the update and even cleaned out my internal HD to start from scratch along with the OS update to Big Sur.  Lightroom just continues to give issue after issue and when on the phone with Adobe, I'll spend an hour or longer on the phone in general before I have to end the call due to other things happening in the day.  I swear this software is more of a nuisance than a help at this point; can't even get any work done.

[dj_paige]

You are asking the computer to do a HUGE amount of work, I think draining the battery is expected. Whether that battery drain is reasonable is another story; but that's what YOUR battery is doing.

[TheDigitalDog]

I will add, on my MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019), even when plugged in, the battery never shows 100% which is a newer behavior of the OS I believe. 

https://www.macworld.com/article/234348/dont-keep-your-mac-laptop-charged-to-100-percent-all-the-tim...

Check your prefs

[NBS0616]

My MacBook does actually show 100% when I click the battery icon up top. When I click on battery preferences, it also still shows Fully Charged, all while being plugged in. Lightroom has now been exporting for 30 minutes and neither of those have changed. 

[NBS0616]

I just returned from the Apple Store. They gave some input about my set up. I have an uplift desk and plug my charge brick into the surge protector for that. I told the tech that when I'm plugged into power, the battery drains from 100% to 0% in a matter of a couple of hours. That doesn't seem common to me. He said it's not. We determined that best practices would be to plug the charger into a wall directly and to also beef up to a bigger charger with more wattage to it. I'm running an export now and the battery still shows at 100% after exporting for 25 minutes. Usually below 25% at this point. Seems we figured out the power problem. The export lag is still an issue I'm working on. 

[TheDigitalDog]

Sounds bogus to me, sorry. 

Plug directly into a wall (no surge suppressor) for one doesn't seem like a good practice. 

I have mine plugged into a UPS after going through a ThunderBolt hub. No issues.  

[NBS0616]

 

What part sounds bogus? The Apple charge brick has a surge protector built in to it so for my personal preference, I don't see there being a need for a 2nd surge protector. In the image attached you can see that during a 591 file export, the battery is still fully charged at 100%. It has been plugged in the entire time and the battery has not lost any of its 100% charge. 

The 90+ W charger solved power problems completely without issue on my end. 

[TheDigitalDog]

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@NBS0616 wrote:

 

What part sounds bogus? The Apple charge brick has a surge protector built in to it so for my personal preferencend. 

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Vritually all of it. 

The Apple 'power brick' has a surge suppressor? 

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3007634

Further, not only do I have no such issues you report (with LR), my Powerbook is powered via USB C through a Thunderbolt hub into a UPS so no brick. And no problems. 

Anyway, there is zero evidence that any of this power stuff has anything to do with Lightroom Classic which is what this forum addresses. 

[NBS0616]

That thread is 10+ years old. I would have to believe that the brick has been improved since then to add more safety features. The booklet that comes with the charger even says to plug straight into the wall. It doesn't say to plug it into a surge protector. If Apple thought there would be issues with plugging directly into the wall, I'm sure they wouldn't tell people to plug it straight into the wall. I'll trust what Apple says on that. 

I said above that the power issue has been resolved with the higher wattage charger. In other words, the power issue wasn't caused by Lightroom as I initially thought. 

The power issue is resolved and there's no issue related to that any longer. 

[TheDigitalDog]

As I said; nothing here has anything to do with LR. This isn't a hardware or power charging forum. 

[Conrad C]

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@NBS0616 wrote:

I told the tech that when I'm plugged into power, the battery drains from 100% to 0% in a matter of a couple of hours. That doesn't seem common to me. He said it's not. We determined that best practices would be to plug the charger into a wall directly and to also beef up to a bigger charger with more wattage to it.

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The way I interpret that is it could be related to the high power requirements of the 16" MacBook Pro, which is 96 watts maximum. The power supply must supply that level during heavy use. Exporting from Lightroom Classic is very heavy use, because all CPU cores crank at up to 100% during the entire duration of the export. If you are using the AC adapter that came with it, it must be the 96-watt charger and if that’s what’s being used, it should not drain to 0% when plugged in, no matter the load.

If a USB-C Power Delivery AC adapter of less than 96 watts is used, that would be enough to run the 16-inch MacBook Pro during most operations, but during an unusually high demand operation like Lightroom Classic export, you could expect the battery to drain. Especially if the Mac is connected to peripherals such as displays and external storage that also demand power at the same time the CPU is being maxed out.

@NBS0616 wrote:

Battery ran down that low, that fast, with a charge cable plugged in at the same time to a higher wattage Apple brick charger.

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The question there, just to make sure, is which specific “higher wattage Apple brick charger” were you using? Because there is a range of them from low to high, and the 16-inch MacBook Pro not only needs it “higher,” for maximum power loads it requires the highest one on this list:

• 30 watt (MacBook Air) 
• 61 watt (MacBook Pro 13-inch) 
• 87 watt (MacBook Pro 15-inch) 
• 96 watt (MacBook Pro 16-inch) 

Any adapter that is lower than 96 watts can potentially allow the battery of a 16-inch to drain if the power load is high enough.

This is also something to watch closely if using non-Apple USB-C Power Delivery AC adapters, battery power banks, USB-C/Thunderbolt hubs and docks, and displays with USB-C, because the majority deliver 60 watts or less. Not a problem for my 13" MacBook Pro that only needs 60 watts, but a problem for the 16". Only recently are we seeing more third-party chargers/power banks/hubs and docks that are rated at up to 100 watts through USB-C.

You would also have this problem trying to work when plugged into an AC outlet on an airliner, because their AC outlets are typically limited to 75 watts.

Another possible thing to look at — make sure you are using the Apple USB-C charging cable that came with the laptop, or a USB-C Power Delivery cable rated for 100 watts. Because again, there are many Thunderbolt/USB-C cables that are only rated for 60 watts or less, making it possible for you to have a powerful enough power supply but getting choked at the cable. The entire chain must be up to spec.

If you are in fact using the 96-watt Apple AC adapter and cable or another combination with that rating or higher, then I’m not sure what the real cause was.