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jaker37138131
jaker37138131
Participant
April 25, 2021
Question

Slow import & processing for iPhone photos

  • April 25, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 2720 views

Is anyone else experiencing very slow import and preview build load times for iPhone photos on an M1 MacBook Pro? I did not have this problem prior to this computer. Any suggested causes / resolution would be much appreciated!

 

RAW images from my DSLR are blazing fast by comparison. Problem occurs whether I import directly from the iPhone or via my computer.

 

Am using maxOS 11.2.3, an iPhone 11 Pro Max, and Lightroom classic 10.2

    3 replies

    Theresa J
    Community Expert
    Theresa JCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 30, 2022

    Are you using Lightroom Classic? You posted this in the Classic forum. If you use Classic there is no reason to import iPhone photos. Use Lightroom on your phone instead. Add your camera roll photos to Lightroom on the phone. Leave the app open on the phone while the images are uploading to the cloud. When the sync is complete, open Lightroom Classic on your Mac and turn on the sync with the cloud icon in the upper right. All of the photos on the phone will download to your computer automatically and be imported into the Classic catalog. I recommend changing the download location in the Classic preferences before you start this process.

      Gennady Meergus
      Gennady Meergus
      Participating Frequently
      September 1, 2022

      Yes, I'm using Lightroom Classic. Thank you for the reply.

      The suggestion to do it via cloud does not make sense to me. Why I have to upload all photos all the way to the internet and then download them back to my computer which is right here near the phone.

      I already copied the photos to the local disk using the cable, I wonder why importing them to Lightroom is so slow? 
      Adding camera photos, which are 20 times larger, works more than 10 times faster on the same computer from the same local disk.

      Apparently it's a kind of bug.

      By the way, it only happens on Mac.

      On Windows PC, with the same version of Lightroom (8.2), same camera and same phone, iPhone photos are processed much faster than camera photos, which is quite expected considering their size.

       

        Theresa J
        Community Expert
        Theresa JCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        September 2, 2022

        I use the Lightroom cloud to move photos to my computer because it is automatic, it doesn't require cables and it doesn't require me to manually download photos to a computer drive.

        If you already downloaded your phone photos to a local hard drive LrC shouldn't have any issue importing them using the Add method. Sorry, I don't have an explanation for why it is going slow.

          Gennady Meergus
          Gennady Meergus
          Participating Frequently
          August 30, 2022

          YESS!!! Having the same problem. MacBook Pro M1, iPhone 8+ set to "High Compatibility" JPEG, importing into lightroom roughly 30 times slower than on PC.

          2.9MB files are imported dozens time longer than 50MB raw files from the camera.

          I thought it is because my lightroom is not yet updated (I keep LR8.2 for compatibility with my old computer for now).

           

          Good to know that someone has the same problem, please keep me posted if you have an answer, a solution or a workaround.

           

          THanks,

          Gennady

          Q
          quanghuyvu
          Participating Frequently
          April 26, 2021

          Sometimes I have trouble editing HEIF photos taken with iPhones as well. Photos taken by iPhone are default generated in HEIF file format, which is not really well-supported in Lightroom than the traditional JPEG ones... Maybe you should try converting it to JPG in advance?

          Also, you mentioned that you imported photos directly from your iPhone to Lightroom? Using pre-built Lightroom features? I strongly recommend that you import your photos into the computer's hard drive first, then import them into Lightroom using the traditional method. If you are using iCloud Photos, you can use the Mac's Photos app to copy images to your hard drive. If you don't use iCloud Photos, you can use AirDrop or Image Capture app (which come with macOS) to import the images to your hard drive.

          Hope this helps and correct me if I'm wrong.

          All the best,

            jaker37138131
            jaker37138131Author
            Participant
            April 26, 2021
            Thanks for the reply, and good to know I'm not the only one experiencing
            this!

            I should have specified in my post that I'm using jpeg rather than the
            Apple format -- that doesn't seem to be the cause of the problem.
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