Very slow loading of photos in Lightroom Classic 10.1 on macOS Big Sur

[defaultld1p1qin6a4v]

I recently upgraded from Lightroom 6, which I have used for the past several year, to Lightroom Classic 10.1.  I have roughly 25,000 photos stored on an external disk in one Catalog.  Part of the reason for going to LrC was the recent upgrade of our Mac operating system to Big Sur.   Since making the switch, editing work in the Develop module has been trouble-free.  However, loading photos from the hard disk, updating previews after editing, and searching the catalog using Keywords has at times been extremely slow.  I say "at times" because I have had periods of 1 or 2 hours working trouble-free, but the system will suddenly (and unpredictably) act up.  Any suggestions?

{Thread title edited by moderator}

[nikunj.m]

Hi,

We're sorry about the trouble with Lightroom Classic. Please go to the System Preferences for your Mac, then Security and Privacy, then select the Privacy tab. Then select Accessibility from the list to the left & check if Lightroom Classic is added to the list with a check mark in front of it. If Lightroom Classic is not a part of the list, please add it by unlocking the window first using the lock at the bottom left, then clicking the + icon & navigating to the Applications folder. Also, grant permissions to Lightroom Classic under Full disk access located in the same list as Accessibility. Once done, restart the Mac & check if it helps.

If the issue persists, you can try optimizing the preferences of Lightroom Classic using the steps suggested here: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/optimize-performance-lightroom.html

Let us know if this helps!

Regards,

Nikunj

[defaultld1p1qin6a4v]

Thank you for your reply but, unfortunately, the suggested changes to Mac Preferences has not improved the performance.  

[nikunj.m]

You can try to reset the preferences of Lightroom using the steps mentioned here: https://adobe.ly/2JSym5e

Please backup your presets prior to resetting the preferences.

Let us know how it goes!

Regards,

Nikunj

[defaultld1p1qin6a4v]

No change I'm afraid.  Whenever I open LRC, performance seems normal as I edit a series of photos for awhile then loading slows dramatically.

[Mohit Goyal]

Also, try an update Lightroom Classic to the 10.1.1 version via the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop app and check if that helps.

Thanks,

Mohit

[defaultld1p1qin6a4v]

I am using 10.1.1.  Should I try an earlier version?

[Jao vdL]

Are you on a laptop that supports automatic switching of the GPU? I have noticed that with Big Sur and the latest CLassic when Classic is open and the GPU switches (usually because you disconnect from power), Classic becomes glacially slow only fixed by a restart of Classic. Also, if you are using an external display and are calibrating that display there is a really bad bug in Classic that causes it to become super slow. This is fixed by setting the display profile to sRGB (or adobeRGB if it is a typical wide gamut screen) and calibtrating it to that standard.

[defaultld1p1qin6a4v]

No.  I'm using an iMac desktop with 3.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, 32GB 2400 MHz, and my catalog is on an WD My Passport 2TB, USB 3.0 external drive.

[defaultld1p1qin6a4v]

None of the above suggestions have improved the situation.  LRC 10.1.1 performance is so poor that I am seriously considering returning to Lightroom 6.

[DdeGannes]

There are many issues reported with LrC 10.1 and 10.1.1 and macOS Big Sur which are being addressed by Adobe and a fix is being worked on, I would suggest using the Creative Cloud Cloud app to revert to LrC version 10.0 and see if this helps in any way.

Please also advise specifics of your Mac's operating system including the date of the computer release, specifics of the GPU card.

[defaultld1p1qin6a4v]

 Our computer is an iMac18,3 with Quad-Core Intel Core i5 processor,
3.5GHz processor speed, 32GB RAM, 2.12 TB HD capacity (1.73 free),
Radeon Pro 575 GPU card.  Photos are stored on external hard disk (2TB
with 1.63TB available.