P: Bring back the ability of Enhance to run in the background. (LrC)

[adventure_photo]

I just updated to Lightroom Classic 14.4 and although I do like the fact that I can Denoise without creating a DNG file, I still would like the option to select a series of images and menu: Photo>Enhance... to let it create dngs in the background which enables me to work on other images while it;s doing those. Currently, in 14.4 it takes a long time, especially if I have multiple images that I am denoising and I cannot do anything elese while it's doing that process. Is there still a way possible to do it the old previous way of creating a DNG Denoised file? Seems like an oversight when implementing this new way and slows down my whole workflow.

[roqueproductions]

Hey Adobe,

I hope you are well!  Judging by the comments in the discussion board, there seem to be some kinks to work out with the Denoise tool in this latest release of Lightroom Classic (14.4)

My concern or suggestion rather, is for the tool to run in the background as the previous one did.  This allowed me to run a batch (say 50 photos within the current library), while continuing to preview and/or do other edits the following ones.  With this new release, I am stuck not being able to do anything while the denoise is applied.

Also, I have to say that I really liked the pop up interface in the previous version.  It allowed for one to preview the amount of Denoise to be applied, rather than applying the default (50) and then moving the slider to the desired amount.

I hope others agree that the previous version had an easier and more efficient workflow and perhaps it can be reverted or at least improved.  Thank you as always for a great product which makes our work way easier than "back in the day."

[D.L. Dietz]

On 2025-06-20 my Lightroom Catalog-v13-3.lrcat file was 1,947,116BK.  After using the AI Denoiuse on just 262 photos by 2025-06-28 it had increased to 3,480,836KB.

I routinely backup every day after use so I can track the size of my catalog file and that much of an increase is not normal at all.

[arbitrage000]

Just adding my voice to the thread.  My issue is being locked out while running Denoise.  I typically would move onto Library and start looking for my next keeper to edit and start editing it while the Denoise was running on the first.  Now I'm staring at a progress bar for 28s per image.

[johnrellis]

@D.L. Dietz: "On 2025-06-20 my Lightroom Catalog-v13-3.lrcat file was 1,947,116BK.  After using the AI Denoiuse on just 262 photos by 2025-06-28 it had increased to 3,480,836KB."

The new Denoise has a bug -- when you've enabled Catalog Settings > Metadata > Automatically Write Changes Into XMP, LR copies the Denoise data from the .lrcat-data file into the .lrcat file before writing it into .xmp sidecars:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-automatically-write-changes-to-xmp-can-t-be-...

In your case, that's an average of about 6 MB per photo, which is a typical size for computed Denoise data.

The only workaround known so far is to disable Automatically Write Changes Into XMP (which I've done, grumpily).

[msdingel]

I use denoise all of the time. Currently running 14.4 [ 202506051112-5918896a ]. I like the fact that denoise is non-destructive, however, the fact that it doesn't run in the background is SUPER FRUSTRATING. I'm sure for things like this Adobe says, "man we can't win!" but I can't do anything while it's running so I am thinking of reverting to the previous version. 

[D.L. Dietz]

So turning off the automatic write to XML will stop the issue going forward but what can I do to reduce the current size of the catalog other than re-editing/re-denoising the 262 files I used AI Denoise on?

[C.Cella]

@johnrellis Any Enhance if part of the edits saved into XMP gets stored also in catalog.
Super Res makes the catalog get big really fast.

One solution is, as you said, to disable auto save into XMP and also never save manually.

Another solution is to do all Enhance in Virtual Copeis AND be sure to NOT save them as snapshot otherwise they become part of the data that gets saved into the XMP.
Using VC the XMP will stay light, the catalog will not be bloated as well.

I recommend everyone to not save Enhance into XMP unless totally necessary and rely on VC

.

[johnrellis]

@D.L. Dietz: "So turning off the automatic write to XML will stop the issue going forward but what can I do to reduce the current size of the catalog other than re-editing/re-denoising the 262 files I used AI Denoise on?"

If you want to re-edit the photos, then remove them entirely from the catalog and reimport.  Otherwise, LR may not recover the catalog space of those photos, even if you reset their settings and clear their history (which sometimes does, sometimes doesn't recover the space).

You can recover the catalog space without losing the photos' edits with this song and dance:

1. In Library, make a virtual copy of the photo.

2. With the virtual copy selected, do Photo > Set Copy As Original.

3. Select the new virtual copy (which was the master prior to step 2) and delete it from the catalog.

4. Repeat for all the other photos.

5. Do File > Optimize Catalog (which may or may not be necessary).

This will preserve the photos' edits but lose their history.   

Unfortunately, the Set Copy As Original command only applies to the most-selected photo, not to all selected photos. So you have to do the procedure above one photo at a time. You could likely automate it with a keyboard-macro utility, such as Autohotkey on Windows.

[D.L. Dietz]

Thank you for your help.

Since I plan on re-editing the 262 without using the AI Denoise I will go through the removing from catalog and re-importing.  

I also noticed Lightroom using twice or more of memory when using the AI so with that and the space issues I'm just going to stay clear of AI.

[johnrellis]

Don't forget to delete the .xmp sidecars before reimporting the photos.

[Sierra301705326vj4]

An update in the height of busy season for wedding photographers can be life-changing in both good ways, and bad. 

I recently updated LRCC to the newest version (against my better judgement) and lo and behold, the batch denoise feature has been removed. From what I've been able to find, the "easy" solution is to copy settings and paste them across an album. This is good in theory, but has frozen lightroom each time. I now have to go photo by photo to apply the denoise to each one individually. 

I have a Macbook Pro with an M3 running Sonoma 14.4.1 

I was already stressed enough with editing, but this has pushed it over the edge lol. I'm hoping it's just a bug that gets remedied quickly. 

Does anybody else have any tips and tricks I can try? 

[ryanc9115767]

I'm in the same boat. Batch denoise has made it almost completely unusable. Performance is atrocious compared to old method...

[ronb2]

@Sierra301705326vj4 the easiest thing to do is likely to downgrade to the previous version of Lightroom. Instructions are provided here: https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/apps/download-install-apps/creative-cloud-apps/install-prev...

[roqueproductions]

I went back to the previous version until they can come up with a fix.

[C.Cella]

LrC blocks the Ui when updating Ai settings.

It does so not only for Enhance but for anything connected to AI so when:  Syncing Ai, Auto Syncing AI, Pasting Ai,  applying Presets with Ai, applying AI profile, etc...

LrC blocks  UI to prevent accidents: with Ui blocked the user can't delte, move, edit a file that is currently under Ai analysis.

LrC could instead "block access" to the single files till AI computations on each are done or cancelled, then release these files after.
So we could still work on the images that are "not blocked" and not have the entire Ui blocked by the modal window.

E.g

We could apply Super Res to N images and still be able to work on all the other images that are unlocked OR evne start working on the iamges that will become unlocked when Ai is done.

Going back to baking Enhance edits to files IS NOT a good idea, IS NOT a good solution.

Is a step back, not a step forward.

[ryanc9115767]

I should mention that this is a performance issue for me. Not only does the process of batch denoising take longer, but editing the photo after AI denoise has been applied results in consant slow-downs and crashes on my Macbook Pro (M1 Pro). This wasn't the case with the old DNG method. Also copying and pasting settings from one photo to another seems to recaclulate the whole denoise from scratch, regardless of if denoise had already been applied (it should just change the amount slider of the AI denoise). 

I think the idea of non-destructive AI denoise is great, it just seems to be implemented poorly. 

I've recently switched to Lightroom Desktop from classic, and it looks like some of the issues mentioned are similar, but slightly different?

Will be rolling back my version for now! It's added hours to my work this past week...

[michelleg7073996]

Agreed.  I just had two crashes.  One was trying to apply a mask after AI Denoise.  The other was just running denoise.  What was just taking 8 seconds is now taking 55 just for a single photo.  My whole machine crapped out and restarted, and still LR is taking longer for single Denoise actions.  And in what world should we have to accept a 50% denoise to start and then manually change it back.  At the very least, let us change it and remember, or let us set a default.  I rarely denoise over 35%, so this is such a waste of time and computer resources.  

[C.Cella]

@michelleg7073996 you can create a Reset with the Denoise Amount of your choice.

So if you prefer to start at non 50 then you can.

[johnrellis]

@Sierra301705326vj4: "the "easy" solution is to copy settings and paste them across an album. This is good in theory, but has frozen lightroom each time. I now have to go photo by photo to apply the denoise to each one individually."

If LR is freezing, with no dialog popping up showing the progress and not responding to any further commands, that's clearly a bug. Since this thread is a feature request to allow background processing of Denoise, it isn't a good place to address your problem. Please start a new thread and describe in more detail what you're doing and observing. Full-resolution screenshots (not phone pics) of the entire LR window are always helpful. Also, do the LR menu command Help > System Info and copy/paste the entire contents here so we can see exactly which versions of hardware and software LR thinks you're running and important LR options that are set.

[johnrellis]

@ryanc9115767: "Not only does the process of batch denoising take longer, but editing the photo after AI denoise has been applied results in consant slow-downs and crashes on my Macbook Pro (M1 Pro)."

@michelleg7073996: "I just had two crashes.  One was trying to apply a mask after AI Denoise.  The other was just running denoise.  What was just taking 8 seconds is now taking 55 just for a single photo.  My whole machine crapped out and restarted, and still LR is taking longer for single Denoise actions."

If this is occurring in LR Classic, disable the option Catalog Settings > Metadata > Automatically Write Changes To XMP, which has a known performance bug:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-automatically-write-changes-to-xmp-can-t-be-...

Regarding the crashes, since this thread is a feature request to allow background processing of Denoise, it isn't a good place to address these. Please start a new thread and describe in more detail what you're doing and observing. Full-resolution screenshots (not phone pics) of the entire LR window are always helpful. Also, do the LR menu command Help > System Info and copy/paste the entire contents here so we can see exactly which versions of hardware and software LR thinks you're running and important LR options that are set.

[ryanc9115767]

Hi John, I believe this was a seperate thread but has been merged with this one? Originally I remember replying to this thread in the Lightroom Desktop community...

[ryanc9115767]

Since updating to Lightroom CC 8.4, I've been encountering major performance issues and bugs related to the new AI Denoise implementation on my MacBook Pro (M1 Pro).

Key issues:

• Batch Denoising is significantly slower than before.

• Editing after AI Denoise has been applied causes constant slow-downs and frequent crashes, particularly when adjusting any sliders. This was not an issue with the older DNG-based method.

• Copying and pasting settings between images seems to trigger a full recalculation of Denoise—even when it's already been applied. Ideally, it should just update the amount slider without reprocessing.

• Copying Denoise to an image that hasn’t been calculated yet results in misleading UI feedback—the Denoise slider moves, but the image doesn't reflect the actual denoised state unless I manually flip to another image and back.

•  

I like the concept of non-destructive AI Denoise, but the current implementation feels unstable and inefficient. These bugs have added hours to my workflow this past week.

I’ll be rolling back to an earlier version for now, but happy to provide more detail, logs, or screen recordings if that helps.

Ryan

[johnrellis]

@ryanc9115767, I think that was a moderation mistake. Your post has nothing to do with the feature suggestion of the original post. I'd suggest reposting in a new thread in the forum for the app you're using, with the additional information I suggested, including at the top a specific request not to merge with this unrelated feature request. But there could be signficant risk a moderator will merge that one too. 

[ryanc9115767]

Update regarding point 4 of hte previous post. Slider does NOT move or reflect denoised state unless I manually flip to another image and back. 

[Silentvalerio]

I have noticed several problems related to the new update of version 17.4.1 and I have a huge suggestion that will satisfy all users of the HDR method on long exposures: get rid of this system for good and go back to the method that produces DNG files. I am responding the link to my previous post, which was hopelessly ignored by the communication community.

Image quality deterioration after updating Noise R... - Adobe Product Community - 15358958

So I please beg adobe team remove the new AI Reduction Noise from Camera RAW, or to keep everyone happy, to keep both options but definitely to keep the version prior to the new update that produced a new DNG file that is very useful in post-production.