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Moving the installation (Desktop) - Tips/Pitfalls

Explorer ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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I used Lightroom Classic and I'm getting a new drive (a much faster one). So I intend to move the installation of Lightroom classic to the new drive (currently when using Lightroom it maxes out the existing drives output and it's getting a bit frustrating).

So before I attempt this I want to know what may go wrong, things not to do etc. So my photos will all stay in the same location, the current drive still works, so how best to approach this task?

 

My thinking is to get lightroom to store it's catalog on exit -> uninstall -> reinstall in new location -> point it to the catalog it saved on the previous exit -> all will be happy!  

This sounds simplistic (hoping it is), but am I missing anything. Will it break all links, modifications of images etc or will it just work?

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

LEGEND , Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

Move the catalog and the previews (folder whose name ends with ... previews.lrdata) and the masking data (folder whose name ends with lrcat-data) together.

 

I don't think the cache is used by the Library Module (although you still need to confirm you are talking about the Library Module)

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Community Expert ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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No, that's not the best way to move the catalog. Do it using the instructions in this post: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/find-move-rename-catalog/

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Explorer ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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Thanks but that's not quite my question. I'm not wanting to move the catalog. I wish to move the installation of Lightroom. I have multiple drives and moving the photos is simple enough inside of Lightroom (I've done that before).
I've moved the cache to a faster drive as well as the sync'd images. But as soon as I use lightroom classic the usage of my drive that has the installation of Lightroom maxes out. Hence the reason I wish to move the installation.

I may well move the catalog as well, but until I get my new faster drive, the other fast drive I have isn't massive. So only moving chunks at a time to slowly improve speed.
Thanks for the tip so far.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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To install on a different drive, you need to use the Creative Cloud desktop app>Preferences>Apps tab>Change the install location. Then uninstall and re-install. On restart LrC will automatically open the previous catalog. 

 

What does "the usage of my drive that has the installation of Lightroom maxes out" actually mean? 

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Explorer ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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If you monitor the disk usage, then it's the amount of active time - as in reading/writing data. If it's 100% then it's reading or writing as fast as it can. So if I'm scrolling through a 1000 photos then it has to load them or build up previews etc. If the photos/cache/installation/settings/preferences are all on the one disk (old style platters not solid state) then that is a bottleneck.  The processor etc are not maxed out, yet LrC is very slow - as it's trying to read/write and I can see that active time is constantly at 100% when I'm doing things.

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LEGEND ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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If the problem happens when you are browsing through a 1000 photos (I assume you mean in the Library Module) then you want to move the catalog and associated previews to a faster disk. You would not have to re-install the software on a faster disk, that is unlikely to help.

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Community Expert ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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Agreed!

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Explorer ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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Thanks. The associated previews, are they linked to the catalog or the cache. I expected they were part of the cache. In which case the cache is on a faster drive. But when monitoring disk activity that faster drive is still not being accessed much while using LrC.
I'm going to move the catalog next and see what gains that gives. 

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LEGEND ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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Move the catalog and the previews (folder whose name ends with ... previews.lrdata) and the masking data (folder whose name ends with lrcat-data) together.

 

I don't think the cache is used by the Library Module (although you still need to confirm you are talking about the Library Module)

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Explorer ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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yes sorry, forgot to say I am using the library mode. Catelog is moving - will take a while. Will advise if it's speeded up any. Thanks for help so far.

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Explorer ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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You're right, given my results the cache can't be used in the library module as it didn't speed up the process when it was moved. But moving the catalog did - not what I expected.

 

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LEGEND ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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So I intend to move the installation of Lightroom classic to the new drive (currently when using Lightroom it maxes out the existing drives output and it's getting a bit frustrating).

 

It's not clear if you are talking about the photo files, the catalog files, the progam itself, or all of the above. So please tell us which of those you are talking about.

 

I also point out that depending on exactly what actions in LrC are slow (which you don't tell us), a faster drive may not fix the problem. So please tell us, and provide details: what actions in LrC are slow?

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Community Expert ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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I guess the fuller question is, what actions in LrC are currently slow that would not improve by transferring the ACR Cache, and the Catalog with its accompanying folders, onto faster performing storage? 

 

I would expect the LrC application is entirely operating in RAM once started up - assuming there is enough RAM present. If there is not enough RAM, then it will be the OS paging memory to disk which then limits things AFAICT, and that will not change by moving the application install. Another common bottleneck is CPU (main processor) - also not improved by moving the application install. Same thing for GPU (graphics co-processor).  

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LEGEND ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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Some comments pertaining to performance of LrC

 

  • Lightroom application location. Must be on a physical drive, typically on C drive (Windows), no performance advantage to be on a fast drive.
  • Windows C drive. If running out of room, check for junk, check for a recycle bin not flushed, check for temp files not flushed. Move documents to other drives.
  • Catalog location. Must be on a physical drive, internal or external. Placing the catalog on the fastest drive can help performance. The drive must have at least 25% free space (in percent) , some say 20%. 
  • Library previews must be on the same drive as the catalog, within the same folder structure. Just leave it alone.
  • When working in the Library module, the Camera RAW CACHE is not used.The Library previews are used. 
  • Photos can be on any drive, preferably internal or external, preferably not server, NAS, or Cloud. Their is no advantage via fast  hard drives.
  • When working in the Develop module, the Camera RAW CACHE is used. The filmstrip, the Navigator, use Library previews.
  • The Camera RAW CACHE can be on any drive, internal or external. not a server, NAS, or Cloud. It can take advantage of being on a fast hard drive. 
  • On a Windows computer, placing the Camera RAW CACHE on the C drive can cause performance issues. Problem is competition with the Windows Paging file typically on the C drive.
  • Lrc can take advantage of a larger Camera RAW CACHE, many users accept the default 5GB value, that is way too small.
  • Backups of the catalog, and backups of the photos (these are separate) should not be on the same drive as the originals. They should be on separate drives, internal, external server, NAS or cloud. Probably not on C drive as C drive is often in use and as such a vulnerable resource. You should maintain at least two sets located on different media. One local in case of drive failure, one external and locked up in case of theft, for additional safety one external or cloud sent or located far away in case of natural disaster (typically for business safety)
  • Windows Paging file, hmmm??

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Explorer ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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There are some great and very usful comments in this thread. I've now got a system that is perfoming much much faster. So I thought I'd sum up what was the start, what happened and changed. Hopefully this may help someone else.

I have 2 SSD's and 1 HDD.
Windows is on one of the SSD's - lets say C:  (M2 storage)
E: is a small SSD (0.5TB) so I didn't put LrC (or any other Adobe product) on it.

F: is a HDD that's fairly large. This stores all my photos and I also have LrC installed there - as well as the cache, backup, preferences - everything as far as Adobe is concerned.

The machine has 16GB of Ram - Win 10.

The LrC cache was increased to 20GB and I did other things such as 'Optimize Catalog', turn off 'generate previews in parallel'. But when scrolling through lots of photos in Library mode, the disk (F:) was the bottleneck. It couldn't read/write fast enough as the CPU and graphics card were barely getting up to speed.

I moved some of my raw photos (the ones I was wishing to edit/select) onto the small SSD (E:). No improvement in speed.
I moved the cache onto the E:, again no improvement in speed.  F: was still being hammered.
I then followed @Jim Wilde advise on how to move the lightroom installation (which was my orig Q) - again no speed improvement. 
Lastly I moved the whole catalog to the E: (small SSD) and it is now much faster. Monitoring resources, and now the CPU/GPU are actually being used!  

So my raw files are still on a slower HDD, which is a minor slowdown, but it will do until I get the new larger SDD and I can move them onto that.

(just for reference I use Backblaze to back up everything on my machine, which on inital import of files will slow the system down a little. Used to use local NAS but Backblaze is now cheaper and simpler to use)

 

Thanks again!

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Community Expert ,
Feb 21, 2023 Feb 21, 2023

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quote

So my raw files are still on a slower HDD, which is a minor slowdown, but it will do until I get the new larger SDD and I can move them onto that.

 

Because of the way that LrC is designed, you will likely not see much, if any, benefit from moving your raw files to an SSD. On the contrary, the LrC catalog and associated preview folders DO benefit from being placed on the fastest drive in your desktop setup.

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LEGEND ,
Feb 22, 2023 Feb 22, 2023

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So my raw files are still on a slower HDD, which is a minor slowdown, but it will do until I get the new larger SDD and I can move them onto that.

 

As earlier in this thread, @_delpk_ , you talk about the need for speed, but you don't tell us what is slow. There's really only a trivial benefit, so small you probably won't notice, to getting a faster disk for your photos — as stated by @Jim Wilde. So please tell us what speed problems you are having — state exactly and in detail, what actions are slow?

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Explorer ,
Feb 22, 2023 Feb 22, 2023

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The minor slowdown is that in Library mode, when I use the cursor to move left/right between photos - as soon as the photo becomes sharp (as in it starts blurry, and as more data gets loaded/processed, it becomes sharp) I'll mark it as say 'Red', then press right cursor to the next one. Wait for it to load, I don't like it, skip to next - press right cursor key.
Image loads etc.  It's the image loading that is the minor slowdown. Before I moved all the file/preferences/catalog/app to my SSD drive this could take several seconds (or more) for every photo.

I've a very simplist test and press the cursor key 60 times, only once each image was sharp. It took roughly 80 seconds to do this.  I'm in Library mode. The only item left on the HDD are the raw files. My PC has no other need to access the HDD.
This is a chart of that disk during the operation. So LrC is accessing that drive.
During this time the CPU was nowhere near maxed out, and memory has 4GB spare overhead right now.

Moving the catalog had the biggest impact on speed. But if it's still taking just over a second per photo to load it, and it's pulling some data from my HDD then making that faster will have some impact - even if just neglegable. 

default3dcttlohskqz_0-1677088990210.png

Does that help explain what I'm doing?

For ref this is a normal disk activity of that drive when I'm not using LrC.

default3dcttlohskqz_0-1677089318796.png

 

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LEGEND ,
Feb 22, 2023 Feb 22, 2023

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Are you loading in "Loupe" view?

 

What size previews do you generate at import? Was the test you ran using 1:1 previews that had previously been generated? 

 

This slowdown does not sound like something that a faster disk would help with. The generation of a non-fuzzy preview is done by the CPU, that's where the slowdown likely is.

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Explorer ,
Feb 22, 2023 Feb 22, 2023

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This was in a recently viewed folder, so there should have been a cached/generated/preview image available.
That test I did was in Loupe view.

default3dcttlohskqz_0-1677091744705.png

In the interest of another test, I tried the Survey view and it barely touched the disk with raw files.

default3dcttlohskqz_1-1677092011971.png

And at the same time I went through 60 photos in roughly 45-50 seconds. So I think I've found a winning view for selecting images. Guess that's why it's called Survey view.
CPU didn't get higher than 40% (most of the time 20%).

I also did the Loupe view test again and each time I could visibly see it loading you can see the disk activity spike.

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LEGEND ,
Feb 22, 2023 Feb 22, 2023

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Preview going from fuzzy to non-fuzzy is CPU (or maybe GPU). It is not disk speed related.

 

Lightroom Classic, in the library module, may try to generate multiple previews at once, since if you are at a particular image, you could scroll left or right (and in the grid you could also scroll up or down) and so it tries to anticipate this and will read from the disk multiple images. I believe that's why you see the disk usage you see. But this is not normally the bottleneck.

 

This was in a recently viewed folder, so there should have been a cached/generated/preview image available.

 

Well maybe yes, maybe no, depending on what you mean by "recently" and what preview options you have chosen for how long to save the preview before it gets discarded.

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Explorer ,
Feb 22, 2023 Feb 22, 2023

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I hear you. I'm only reporting what I'm seeing. No apps or other programs are loaded onto my drive with photos - only Adobe things (and only LrC is open - which now isn't on that drive). It's not a partioned drive with another part used elsewhere either. OS is on a completly different drive.

By recent I mean imported (4 days ago) and been through them at least once or twice in the past days. As you can see from previous answer, the preview cache should stick around for 30 days.
The setting for GPU usage is on auto and my card is I'd say a pretty good one (use it to drive 4 monitors). Can't recall it name right now. But I may well do some tests in the morning by changing that auto setting to never use GPU or to always use GPU.
Either way I am seeing the HDD being hit when I select images in Loupe View (thumbnails at the bottom and single large image in the middle).
I'm at another sporting event at the weekend, so will see how the newer workflow copes when I load in another few 1000 photos!

 

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Community Expert ,
Feb 22, 2023 Feb 22, 2023

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The GPU on or off shouldn't matter, as the GPU is not currently used for building previews. In order to figure out exactly what's going on, it would be useful to know the following:

 

1. You say you see the images loading, does that mean you actually see the "Loading" message appearing?

2. What size previews do you build during import?

3. And do you apply any Develop Presets during import or immediately after import?

4. When you are moving through the images, are you using Fit, Fill or 1:1 zoom?

5. What is the screen resolution of the monitor that LrC is being displayed on?

6. Have the images been edited yet, or are you still just going through the culling process?

 

The "30 day" period for the Previews refers only to 1:1 previews. Standard previews are more or less everlasting unless you delete the Previews cache (they may get deleted when you edit an image, but they would automatically be rebuilt when the image next appears on screen in the Library module).

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Explorer ,
Feb 22, 2023 Feb 22, 2023

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I'm not at my machine today, so wouldn't have all the answers to your Q's - but I will follow up on this. Fascinating thread with what seems like some very in depth knowledge!

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