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HarrisonMG
HarrisonMG
Known Participant
August 10, 2019
Question

Photo Merge Suddenly Taking Hours

  • August 10, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 6993 views

Hi all,

I used to do large (I mean a 100-image HDR panorama) merges in seconds to minutes. 10 minutes was a really long time on my 15 in MBP with Touch Bar. I've seen the other discussions bout LR in general being slow on these machines, symptoms of which I've experienced to a certain extent, but this is different.

Because now, after I erased my computer to get a clean slate and reinstalled everything as it was and changed all the settings (i hope), a 36-image non-HDR panorama will take 8 to 10 HOURS. During this time my entire computer is completely UNUSABLE -- i mean, touch a button and you get the spinning beach ball of death.

I make panos all the time, maybe 10 a week. This will not work. I don't understand what has changed; a few days ago it was doing these computations in minutes, not hours. Is there any case similar to mine, or any suggestions?

Thanks!

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    3 replies

    S
    steffenw
    Participant
    August 17, 2019

    I am having the same issue on a 2012 Mac Mini that I've used for similarly large panos of 20+ HDR images with no problem until the recent update.  As soon as I updated I couldn't even rerun panos it had successfully stitched in the past.  Runs about 20% of the progress bar in the preview window then it completely locks up.

    Following along in hopes of a fix!

    99jon
    99jon
    Legend
    August 13, 2019

    The latest update includes batch processing for the Photo Merge function. Not sure if this will help your situation but it could be worthwhile updating to Lightroom Classic 8.4

    See my summary of the new features:

    https://99jon.blogspot.com/2019/08/lightroom-updates-august-2019.html

    A
    Alvaro Rautenberg
    Participant
    August 14, 2019

    99jon​ Thanks for that, updated immediately to LR 8.4 unfortunately it did not change the situation at all. Not sure again, if this is a problem with LR itself, or may be something which is specific to Mac Users only. Would be great if a Windows User could share if they experience the same with an updated LR version?

    It might be only a coincidence, but after I installed the last official update for Mac, the merge function in LR become actually unusable. So may be this is something different.

    Just for info: Mac OS Mojave (Version 10.14.6)  on a Mac Book Pro 2016 with 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 Processor and 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3 Memory.

    If someone has a solution please share.....

    99jon
    99jon
    Legend
    August 14, 2019

    I can confirm it’s working OK for me on W10 at least with HDR merge. Nothing too complicated. I’m making stacks of three bracketed shots and then selecting all those stacks. I then choose from the menu:

    Photo >> Photo Merge >> HDR

    The processing starts in the background and each stack is added to the queue.

    When complete, each stack shows 4 items with the merged HDR on top.

    A
    Alvaro Rautenberg
    Participant
    August 10, 2019

    Hi HarrisonMG,

    Same issue here, Strangely enough when I try to merge 9 pictures only it goes without a challenge. 21 pictures is a real pain. While I am also on a MBP with Touch Bar. The only thing on my computer which has changed since it does not work anymore as fast as before was an Update from Apple. So I guess it must have something to do with the update. As you mentioned that you made a clear reinstall I guess your downloaded version already has the update incorporated. I hope there will be an update soon as I am merging many more than 10 panos a week. The only workaround I have in the moment is to go via the Photoshop merging function, but it is so much more inconvenient. Can only hope that they will fix this soon. In case you find a fix, would be great if you could post this here.

    Thanks

    HarrisonMG
    HarrisonMGAuthor
    Known Participant
    August 11, 2019

    Yeah.....I might try uninstalling, reinstalling LR.

    The update not only pooched LR, but also made one of my favorite apps crash every time I launch it.,

    HarrisonMG
    HarrisonMGAuthor
    Known Participant
    August 11, 2019

    Ok so I think I might've noticed something very strange, not 100% sure its actually what's happening but seems this way.

    Once I start a pano merge, it appears it has a couple seconds to run at full processor usage, and in that time the progress bar goes almost to the middle, or past the middle, somewhere around there, and the fans run at full blast --- then, the progress bar stops moving, the fans go down a lot, and my processor temperature goes from like 202º to 145º for the entire rest of the merge (which takes a long time, if that wasn't clear_)

    And I also updated my computer again with a new release last night.........so doesn't seem as though they ve fixed it!

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