LRc 14 reading every single files images in my catalog disk usage 100%

[alexandrephotog]

LRc 14 reading every single files images in my catalog disk usage 100%.

Ever since migrating from 12.x to 14.x (14.0.1 and 14.1), it seems that Lightroom Classic just want to scan my entire images from my catalog.

Looking at the Ressources Monitor (Windows 10 latest), it's scanning (reading) all files from the early years to now, and reading the catalog lrcat file. It's comparing?

So I have 250000 pictures, it's scanning everyting from the past years, disk usage (hard drive) is 100%.

Right now, after 22 minutes of reading, it stopped reading the storage, and it's writting to the catalog lrcat file (with one or two threads).

While it's scanning, I can still continue to work, but it's clower and some stuff is not working, like when an image is  "set as rejected" , it's not greyed out. After the scan, the flagged picture are now greyed out.

This is the 3rd time it happened.

Also, If I close LRc, the app is not on the desktop anymore, but the app is still in memory and will continue to scan for a while and everntually close.

[Moved from ‘Bugs’ to ‘Discussions’ by moderator, according to forum rules.]

[GoldingD]

Is your Windows computer perhaps busy indexing?

something may have gone wrong in the OS and a repair is underway (look on the web about indexing)

[alexandrephotog]

No, it's the application lightroom.exe reading the files / images.

[scottsinger]

I'm seeing exactly the same thing on my system, and like @alexandrephotog says, the file activity is associated with lightroom.exe.

@alexandrephotog - did you find an anwer to why this is happening?

[alexandrephotog]

> @alexandrephotog - did you find an anwer to why this is happening?

None of course.

[johnrellis]

LR might be:

- Scanning photos to index faces. Click on the identity plate in the upper-left corner and disable face detection to stop it.

- Rebuilding previews for some reason. There's no way to stop that other than to let it run to completion over many hours, depending on the catalog size.

[scottsinger]

Face detection was already disabled.  Perhaps it's some other end-to-end traversal of all the files to update.....something related to the speed improvements in v14.2?  Who knows.

I guess my biggest thing is:  It would be super helpful to have some sort of "re-index/scan in-progress" message so users don't wonder if LR is going crazy 🙂

[johnrellis]

"It would be super helpful to have some sort of "re-index/scan in-progress" message so users don't wonder if LR is going crazy"

I don't think LR normally does such a scan except for face-indexing or when you explicitly select all photos and do Library > Previews > Build or Metadata > Save Metadata To File or Read Metadata From File.

I think it's more likely that LR is misbehaving in a way that wasn't intended.

[bob frost]

I've noticed that every time there is a major update to LR Classic it writes the number of the new update to every image file and xmp. I only noticed this when I go to backup my image files and find that they all need backing up! Of course I could turn off copying to xmp and jpgs etc. I can't see any need for this - recording the new update when an image is edited is fine, but no reason to do it to all of them when not even being looked at.

Bob Frost

[johnrellis]

@bob frost:  "I've noticed that every time there is a major update to LR Classic it writes the number of the new update to every image file and xmp."

LR does this when it changes the representation of Develop settings and you've got Catalog Settings > Metadata > Automatically Write Changes Into XMP (as I do).  Normally, it does it incrementally as you visit individual photos and it re-renders them (e.g. for 100% previews or you go into Devleop), not all at once. (And that incremental updating as been the source of bugs with spurious changes to the modification status of published photos.) I think Adobe would consider it a bug if this updating of develop settings occurred all at once.

[alexandrephotog]

"Automatically write changes info XMP" is not checked.

"... and disable face detection to stop it." , is paused, you can't disable it. If I click on it, it start scanning my 250000 pictures, so it's definitely paused.

[alexandrephotog]

I think I know what is happening, and this is the "solution" of this post.

From @johnrellis reply:

"- Scanning photos to index faces. Click on the identity plate in the upper-left corner and disable face detection to stop it."

Currently my face detection is paused and the Catalog Settings Metadata Face Detection "automatically detect faces in all photos" is unchecked, ***BUT....***

"... and disable face detection to stop it." , is paused, you can't disable it. If I click on it, it write that it's starting to scan my 250000 pictures, so it's definitely paused.

If you click on face detection, in the identity plate, and "un-pause" it, even if you pause it back, it will re-scan your entire library! 🤬🤬 *YMMV*.

So maybe this should go in Suggestions instead of discussions.

>> [Moved from ‘Bugs’ to ‘Discussions’ by moderator, according to forum rules.]

[scottsinger]

I see what you are saying, and agree with the 🤬🤬 comment if that's what happens. 
State of things on mine is this:

And at the same time, this is NOT checked in the Catalog Settings.

Starting to look like an annoying bug.  I'd expect to see "Face Detection: Not Enabled" instead of paused.  🤬🤬🤬🤬

[johnrellis]

The settings Catalog Settings > Automatically Detect Faces In All Photos and Identity Plate > Face Detection are exactly the same internal setting.  Face detection is always either enabled or paused.  

In normal operation, when LR is actually indexing faces (by reading photos), it shows that above the identity plate (Mac) and in the drop-down (Mac and Windows):

And in normal operation, when you click the pause button or uncheck the preference setting, indexing stops instantly.  That's what I've observed just now with my LR 14.2 / Mac OS and Windows 11 -- when indexing is paused, CPU utilization drops to very low, and when it is enabled, it zooms up.   

In addition, I used the Process Monitor utility to monitor file reads on LR / Windows 11, and when face detection is enabled, I can see the individual photos being read, and when face detection is paused, no photos get read.  (The Process Monitor menu command Tools > File Summary is a handy way of viewing file accesses.)

@alexandrephotog: "If you click on face detection, in the identity plate, and "un-pause" it, even if you pause it back, it will re-scan your entire library!"

How are you determining that it continues to read the cataloged photos after you've paused face detection?   Did you use a tool like Process Monitor to verify that LR continues to read particular photo files, or are you looking at aggregate CPU and disk utilization?

If indeed LR continues to read the cataloged photo files even when face detection is paused, that's clearly a bug. But unfortunately, Adobe is unlikely to pay much attention unless they can easily reproduce the problem or many people report it. Given that there any reports I've been able to find here from others having similar symptoms, if we can't come up with a recipe for reproducing the problem on other LR installations, I don't think Adobe will investigate.

[alexandrephotog]

UPDATE 2025-06-09. (YYYYMMDD), with LRc 14.3.1.

I have removed the solution to this post since in my case, face detection is not related to this bug after a couple of months of usage.

Everything was going great, until... either **A** I removed my Previews folder (to reset previews) OR/AND **B** changed the Catalog Settings - Previews tab - Preview Storage Management section - Limit Preview cache Size Max Size : 20GB (instead of Automatically Discard 1:1 Previews after 30 days).

And now Lightroom.exe is scanning my 2018 - 2023 files (images) again like fire. After 20 minutes, it stopped, paused for 4 minutes, then started to scan again with the 2008-2013 files.

Also, my "Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata" where the Previews cache are, is growing in size while Lightroom.exe is scanning my images drive.

QUESTIONS :

1. Is LRc is trying to get back the Previews cache that it lost?
2. Are'nt Previews supposed to be created ONLY when looking at a folder (and will scan only that folder) or when using any of the "Build Previews" commands?

If you want to try to test the **A** theory :

Resetting previews cache :

1. Close LRc, wait for the app to close completely.
2. Rename the Previews folder %username%\Lightroom Catalog\Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata to Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata-BKP. (Typically the full path will be : C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Pictures\Lightroom Catalog NAME\Lightroom Catalog NAME Previews.lrdata or go to the Catalog Settings-General tab, and click on the Show button to see the path of your catalog and rename the Previews folder only). LRc will create a new after starting.
3. Open LRc, work 5 minutes in it, look at pictures, etc.
4. To be sure, validate that the %username%\Lightroom Catalog\Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata folder is newly created.
5. Use LRc like intented and see if your drive is been used with tools like the taskmanager.

If you want to try to test the **B** theory :

1. Note : This theory might only work if both A and B are executed, since this is what I did.
2. Catalog Settings - Previews tab - Preview Storage Management section - Limit Preview cache Size Max Size : 20GB.
3. Use LRc like intented and see if your drive is been used with tools like the taskmanager.

20GB is a suggestion here.

Since it's still scanning, I'll wait to see if LRc will stop at 20GB and report back.