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FSchleyhahn
Inspiring
December 16, 2025
Question

Navigating Photos in Develop Module is slow

  • December 16, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 1587 views

I just purchased a new computer and installed LR Classic but switching from one photo to the next in the develop module is incredibly slow.  I've optimized the catalog; Purged the cache and set the cach settings to a 100GB Maxium Size; from the NVIDIA App I optimized for Adobe Lightroom Classic; I've enabled Smart Previews; LR Catalog resides on the SSD; but it is so slow going from one photo to the next.  I feel like I have wasted nearly $2K on this new computer:

 

HP OMEN 35L Gaming Desktop

AMD Ryzen 7 8700F 2024

32GB DDR5 Memory

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 WINDFORCE OC SFF 12G Graphics Card, 12GB 192-bit GDDR7, PCIe 5.0

 

Any suggestions?  Many thanks for your assistance.

 

2 replies

SergeiZ
Participating Frequently
December 29, 2025

Lightoom 15 beacame paifully slow on a capable machine that worked brilliatly with Lightroom 14.5.1

I recorded the comaprison. The problem is ongoing and Adobe is in no rush to fix it.

Develop module is painfully slow to operate. I recorded the perfromce difference of 14.5.1 and 15.1

Our machines are more than adequate to go fast. This is embarrassing and unacceptable for such a large company. It's a known issue. Bring the performance back!

 

Watch the video demo below. I have many collegues with the same poor performance on much more capable computers. The issue is marked as resolved, BUT IT'S NOT. See for yourself.

https://youtu.be/VKK70V1MiF0

johnrellis
Legend
December 30, 2025

There are many posts about LR 15 being very sluggish moving photo to photo in Develop and sometimes Library Loupe. There may be multiple causes with similar symptoms. Here's my compendium of magic spells that have each helped at least a couple of people:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/threads/magic-spells-for-sluggish-lr-15.54013/

johnrellis
Legend
December 30, 2025
johnrellis
Legend
December 16, 2025

There are many posts about LR 15 being very sluggish moving photo to photo in Develop and sometimes Library Loupe. There are propbably multiple causes with similar symptoms. Here's my compendium of magic spells that have each helped at least a couple of people:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/threads/magic-spells-for-sluggish-lr-15.54013/

FSchleyhahn
Inspiring
December 16, 2025

Thank you very much for that--I have gone through your checklist and done everything you suggested.  However, it still takes anywhere from 2-3s when toggling between photos in the Develop module.  I'm just curious if that is what you and others are experiencing as well and if this is considered to be the "new norm"?  I have noticed that while in the Develop Module, under the Navigator on the left, the photos instantly populate if I just hover over them, but when I click on one, it immediately populates under the Navigator but it takes 2-3s before it shows up in the main window.  And I've also seen instances where after selecting a new image, the main window still shows the previous image that was worked on while the navigator window shows the correct image.  Since I have invested so much in this new computer, I am on the verge of replacing my monitors with ones that use Freesync to work with the NVIDIA card better.  Do you think that will help?  When looking for new monitors, is 4K the way to go for Lightroom or does that even matter?  I am looking at getting this monitor but it isn't 4K: Samsung - 32" Odyssey G51F QHD 180Hz 1ms AMD FreeSync Gaming Monitor with HDR10 (DisplayPort, HDMI).

 

Thank you again for your help

dj_paige
Legend
December 16, 2025

Well, let me jump in here. This may not be the same as the answer @johnrellis would give, but I don't think a new monitor would help. I have heard that on some computers, a 4K monitor makes LrC slower on some tasks, including switching from one image to the next in the develop module. You didn't mention the size in pixels that the images from your camera takes — higher MP images can also be the cause of slowness.

 

The slowness you described, 2-3 seconds between images, was what I was experiencing on occasion and other times it was faster on my old computer. I just got a new computer, with faster hardware compared to the old computer, and I don't see this slowness any more, moving between images in the Develop module now takes under 1 second (although the new computer hasn't really been heavily tested yet, no long editing sessions in the 2 days I have had the new computer).