MacBook Pro M1 Overheating

[bartek.muller]

Hi,

I'm using MacBook Pro with M1 for a month. Maybe a week ago I realized, that when I'm exporting my photos in Lightroom Classic, my MB is sooo overheated. It also runs really really loud...

It only happenes in Lightroom Classic. I'm also rendering videos in 4K in Premiere Pro, doing graphics in Photoshop and nothing similar to that ever happened to me... 

Is here someone who have the same issue or know how to fix it?

[GoldingD]

What exact version of LrC?

[bartek.muller]

Adobe Lightroom Classic 10.4 Release

[DdeGannes]

In addition to what GoldingD indicates, provide additional details of your OS and other relevant details. Disk storage available etc. Details of the export task file type number of files etc.

[bartek.muller]

I always have the same types of RAWs. They come from Canon EOS R (.CR3 files). Usually, it's about 100 RAWs, with the average size of 40MB. 

Lightroom Classic 10.4

My Mac specs:

macOS Big Sur 11.4

MacBook Pro 13 M1

16GB RAM

500GB of storage

About 180GB of free space

Sometimes I keep my files on Samsung T5 disk (1TB, about 80GB of free space)

[John R Ellis]

"when I'm exporting my photos in Lightroom Classic, my MB is sooo overheated. It also runs really really loud..."

If by "overheating" you mean that the laptop feels very warm to the touch and the fan is constantly running, that's normal for any laptop doing LR exports, especially Macs. 

To make exports go as fast as possible, LR uses most of the available processors, in a way that few other apps do -- rendering raws is extremely resource-intensive.  When the processors (CPU) are used intensively, they generate a lot of heat, and the fans must run to dissipate that heat. 

The fans may run more on Mac laptops than on other brands or on desktops because Apple likes to cram as much as possible into very small packages, and such designs will heat up faster.

When a computer truly overheats, generating more heat than its fans can dissipate, it will shut down abruptly to avoid damaging the hardware. 

[bartek.muller]

Thanks a lot for your answer. 

I was curious if everything is okay with my laptop, because when exporting it's louder than on my old MB Pro 15 2016. It also happenes only with LR. If you think that's okay and normal, then I'm calm. Now I know. 

Thank you one more time!

[Conrad_C]

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@bartek.muller wrote:

I was curious if everything is okay with my laptop, because when exporting it's louder than on my old MB Pro 15 2016.

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The 13" M1 MacBook Pro with two ports replaces only the low-end 13" Intel MacBook Pro with two ports, not the higher-end 13" with four Thunderbolt/USB ports (although the Apple Silicon replacement for that model is expected to be announced at next Tuesday’s Apple Event).

The reason that’s important is that the low-end 13" MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt/USB ports has only one cooling fan. The 4-port 13" and the 15/16" MacBook Pro have two cooling fans, so those models can run two fans at a lower, quieter speed. To cool down a given high temperature, the two-port 13" may have to run its one fan sooner, faster, and louder than the higher-end MacBook Pro models.

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@bartek.muller wrote:

It only happenes in Lightroom Classic. I'm also rendering videos in 4K in Premiere Pro, doing graphics in Photoshop and nothing similar to that ever happened to me...

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It should happen in any application that keeps the CPU at or near 100% for several minutes without a break, such as exporting hundreds of images from Lightroom. Very few consumer applications keep the CPU that busy for that long. Some other activities that can do that are exporting edited video, or rendering a 3D scene. It shouldn’t usually happen in Photoshop when editing one image.

If you are exporting video from Premiere Pro in a format like H.264 that has encoding support in the hardware or GPU, the CPU is not having to work as hard because the encoding hardware takes much of the burden off the CPU. Unfortunately, still image export from Lightroom is not yet hardware accelerated, so the CPU has to do everything. (GPU acceleration is only in the Develop module.) So it isn’t surprising that Lightroom export seems to push the CPU harder than Premiere Pro export. (A way to test this is to set the renderer in Premiere or Adobe Media Encoder to Software Only. That will not use graphics acceleration, giving all the work to the CPU, which should result in fan activity similar to Lightroom bulk export.)

Also, it is true that a computer is not “overheating” as long as it is still working. If a Mac or PC suddenly crashes or shuts down when hot, then it really is overheating and something is wrong with the hardware…because if the cooling system is working properly, it should always keep the computer below its temperature limit, even if that means slowing the CPU.

[DdeGannes]

The author stated “ Sometimes I keep my files on Samsung T5 disk (1TB, about 80GB of free space)“

Do you export to this disk? That is much to low free space and could be what's causing your problem.

[dj_paige]

Exporting a lot of photos from Lightroom Classic is a CPU intensive task. It can indeed cause the computer to get hot and fans run loud. What happens in other software is irrelevant.

Although this is somewhat expected side effect of exporting photos, you should check the cooling system in your MacBook Pro to make sure all elements (fans or other cooling devices) are running properly. Vaccuum out dust from the case. Make sure the air vents are not blocked. Make sure the air vents are not flush up against a solid barrier such as a wall or piece of furniture which can restrict airflow. And then there is this thread, which claims (via actual experience) that external cooling devices really do help prevent these types of problems of overheating and fans running loud.

[John R Ellis]

To build on Paige's reply, see these two Apple help articles explaining what's "normal" for Apple notebooks:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202179 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201640 

I keep my Macbook Pro 15" (which generates a lot of heat) on two thin corroguated cardboard strips so that air circulates freely underneath. I haven't done careful experiments, but I believe it significantly reduces how much the fans run (which drives my wife crazy).