Lightroom Classic suddenly painfully slow when importing Photos

[Till Krueger]

I have no idea what happened, but my MacBook Air (M1, 16GB, 1TB) has been an absolute speed demon in comparison to my MacBook Pro 2018 (i9, 32GB, 1TB), and until recently, most operations in Lightroom Classic were nearly instant.

I mean, sure, when I imported a Timelapse folder with 5000 Photos in it, it would take a few minutes, but today I was importing a folder with 78 iPhone photos into a new Library (placed on the internal storage which clocks in at nearly 3000MB/sec read/write), and it took nearly 20 minutes to import and build the previews...that's not right!

what could possibly be causing this immense change in responsiveness?

[kentdesign]

Do you mean that nothing changed, no OS updates, and suddenly the import has totally slowed?

[Till Krueger]

Sorry for the late reply. I didn't see any update notices to this thread.

Well, when I say that nothing has changed, I meant that nothing *major* has changed since I last spent time in LrC to import and work on photos. So, the version of Big Sur probably did change from minor point update to another (I think I was still on 11.3 when I last did a smooth LrC session, and now I am on 11.4).

It's just that I usually important mostly timelapse sequences of many hundreds to a few thousands of photos per sequence, and see them pop up with thumbnails almost immediately...for a few thousand, I sometimes do have to wait for an hour+ to see the previews build complete.

But when I imported just 78 photos the day I made my original post and then watched as each thumbnail took 30secs or so to build, it just felt all wrong.

[kentdesign]

Another question - were both your laptops using the same Big Sur OS?

[Till Krueger]

Since I haven't used my MBP 2018 to work in LrC since I got my MB Air M1, I'd say it's safe to say that they were not using the same version of Big Sur.

But your questions make me wonder whether you suspect Big Sur of being at fault, here?

[Jao vdL]

There are a few other reports on this forum of random extremely slow import in Classic running in emulation on M1. Not sure what causes it. Hopefully Adobe releases a native Classic soon. Don't have an M1 machine so not possible to test myself.

[Till Krueger]

I was hoping that a native LrC is in the stars and available soon. I am one of many who love LrC for all my organizational and processing photography needs. Apple Silicon is a revelation, and I hope that we can all get a bit more life out of this venerable application.

[FAVOUR0101]

Perhaps you shoul free memory space

[Till Krueger]

I do have a memory app installed that I use frequently to "free memory", or is there a macOS/Terminal process that you recommend I initiate?

[kentdesign]

HI again,

Just want to be sure you know that those of us answering in this forum are advanced users ourselves and not Adobe employees. Sometimes, an Adobe Tech person will answer to help us, and if so you will see the Adobe Logo by the person's name.

I do suggest that you try Uninstalling LRC from your new M1, then reinstalling it completely.

That often clears up some glitches on Intel machines. M1 is a brave new world - so who knows!

[Till Krueger]

Thanks for the clarification and advice. After 35 years of dealing with these types of issues, I am not a fan of the old "de-install/re-install" trouble-shooting method, as it rarely makes a difference, in my experience, but for the sake of not wanting to come across as thick-headed, I shall give that a try in the morning (I am in Berlin, Germany).

The world of Apple Silicon has been amazing, so far, but maybe your hunch is right, and the incessant Adobe updates rhythm has gunked up some shared files that could cause these types of issues.

If anyone else has any wisdom/guesses, let me know, otherwise, I'll report back after that tedious task 😉

[kentdesign]

Awe - come on - it is not such a "tedious task!" In the old days of slow computers, restarts, multiple parts, and slow boots, it was tedious — not today!

And as you know, it may not work or may not be the answer!

Troubleshooting computer glitches is like cleaning out a closet. If you pull out one tiny item, something else could fall on your head...So sometimes, clearing everything out and putting it back in an orderly fashion actually makes sense and in the end, saves time. 😉

Yes - I know that is not an engineering technical answer....but should at least make  you laugh! Have a good night!

[Till Krueger]

Haha, sure, I know it's not as bad as "have you tried to re-install macOS"...that's why I used a wink after "tedious task"...but I shall give it a try if I can't get a better solution soon.

[Jao vdL]

Instead of reinstalling (or perhaps in addition to it) one fix for many weird issues in Classic is to reset its preferences file. https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/ 

[Till Krueger]

Maybe I'll try that first, before re-installing LrC. Thanks for the link! I'll have more time tomorrow than I did this past week.

[jsmilanicforum]

This did the trick for me, thanks! If anyone else on a new M1 Pro / Max is having issues with slow-to-load image previews when importing in Lightroom Classic, try this. 

[kentdesign]

YEA!! 

[kentdesign]

I agree with Jao, try resetting the preferences first using the Lightroom Queen's suggestions - Victoria (aka Lightroom Queen) is an excellent source! Her books are well worth buying! We have most of them and have spoken with Victoria several times through email...

Maybe that will do the trick!

[ikpoasikpaiwe5C98]

I am having the same issue on PC. I have tryed all the above and still have very slow import as soon as I click the import it "no respons" and or waiting for over 30min if it respons

[dj_paige]

I am having the same issue on PC. I have tryed all the above and still have very slow import as soon as I click the import it "no respons" and or waiting for over 30min if it respons

By @ikpoasikpaiwe5C98

Please try the suggestions already made in this thread.