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photopoeth
photopoeth
Inspiring
November 15, 2024
Question

Performance issues by large number of smart collections?

  • November 15, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 299 views

Does the “excessive” use of Smart Collections slow down LrC? Should its use be limited or does it not matter in your experience?

The background to my question:
I use a location-based folder structure and have “mirrored” this structure as a collection set with (normal) collections. Unfortunately, I always have to remember to synchronize the collections manually when, for example, new images are added to a location. That’s why I’m thinking about solving the whole issue with Smart Collections. Because that would result in a large number of smart collections, I would like to clarify in advance whether I could fall into a performance trap.

What are your thoughts or experiences?

Greetings, Thomas

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1 reply

john beardsworth
Community Expert
john beardsworthCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 15, 2024

I guess I use them "excessively", or at least I have many of them - and not on the latest hardware. So no, slowdown isn't an issue.

 

I'd suggest only setting up smart collections that you do actually need, not putting your time and energy into creating ones speculatively in expectation that they might be needed someday. Remember too that you have the Library Filter and can save your own column presets there.

 

Also, smart collections are only as good as the underlying metadata, so put more effort into adding metadata rather than building neat smart collection hierarchies. It often helps to think in these terms:

  • Folders are only about physical safekeeping - storage, guaranteed backup, easy to restore
  • Cataegorisation and analysis is a job for keywords and other metadata
  • Use collections to collect or gather images for whatever you need at the time
photopoeth
photopoethAuthor
Inspiring
November 15, 2024

I don't plan to create a whole lot of "speculatively helpful" smart collections. In fact I use a set of "organizational keywords" to build "really smart" 😉 smart collections for my organizational needs.

This is very handy because e.g. you can "fill" multiple collections during import just by applying the suitable keywords. For normal collections you can only choose one per import.

Another thing I was thinking about ist, duplicating some of the smart collections to have them sitting in my collection hierarchy at different locatins, to make things easier. I have a "Maintenance" collection set, where all of them are located. This is handy when I am doing a "maintenance session" once a week or month. But some of these I could use day by day if I had them in sight e.g. in my "Locations" collection set. 
That's when it is practical to have it sit on two locations and not having to decide where to put it. But if this would slow LrC down, I'd have have to reconsider. 

So, it's good to hear that this is probably not the case. Thanks and BR, Thomas

 

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