Slow loading of images

[Stevord41]

This is really strange.  I keep all my folders on an external drive.  I can load one folder/catalogue and when it re-opens in LR CC classic, i can quickly click on any thumbnail and the image loads right up, but if i open this one particular folder, the thumbnails show up but if i click on any one, it takes a long time to populate. And if i then click on another thumbnail, i get the spinning beach ball.

So, why would one folder or catalogue act differently than others?

FYI i'm on a Macbook Pro using Mac OS Mojave

Thank you.

Steven

[Sahil.Chawla]

Hi Steven,

That's what definitely shouldn't be happening, let's make it right.

As the images are loading slowly on Lightroom Classic, are all your folders stored on the external drive?

Could you please let us know the exact version of Lightroom you're working with? You can find that out by going to Help > System Info

Could you try creating a new catalog in Lightroom and try importing a folder into it and let us know if that opens up quickly?

Regards,
Sahil

[dj_paige]

Stevord41  wrote

but if i open this one particular folder, the thumbnails show up but if i click on any one, it takes a long time to populate. And if i then click on another thumbnail, i get the spinning beach ball.

Be specific, how many seconds/minutes is a "long time to populate"?

I am assuming this problem you mention is in the Library module? Is that correct? Perhaps you have not requested that Lightroom generate full-sized previews for this particular folder. What happens if you select all of the photos in this folder and then Library->Previews->Build 1:1 Previews? Does that improve the situation?

You might want to scan your hard disk for bad sectors, perhaps this particular folder is located in a bad sector.

[Stevord41]

Sorry for the delay in response and thank you to those who responded.

As it turned out it was a defective external hard drive (which proceeded to completely stop working a day later). Western Digital has now replaced the drive.  I was unable to recover the data on the drive, but i had a duplicate back up so i'm ok.

Thanks again.

Stevo