Why is Lightroom taking longer and doing 'embedded preview' when uploading photos?

[#1]

Lightroom is doing 'two' operations now since I've changed to a newer Mac and using OS Catalina when uploading photos from my camera card. Is this a new default operation? It's telling me that 'two operations in progress' in the upper left corner of the workspace window and then 'embedded preview' in the lower right portion of the screen over the image window. Is this good? It might be... I'm just not sure of what is going on. Maybe previews are going to be more instantly available. I did jump to 32G of ram with the newer computer, maybe Lightroom sensed that and added this new step to make thing faster than my older 16G Mac. Any explaination would be appreciated.

TIA,

Ken

{Moved from Lightroom Cloud to Lightroom Classic Forum by Moderator} 

[#2]

Here is more of what I see on screen during import. What is happening? Are imported previews something new or an added feature?

[#3]

You see 'Embedded Preview' because that is what you apparently selected when you imported the photos. Lightroom warns you that the preview is what the camera produced, and so the preview that Lightroom will eventually have to produce when you start making edits won't be the same. Lightroom can do things in parallel, so the two operations may be two images that are imported at the same time, or two other processes running at the same time. Why does that worry you? Do you experience something that isn't right, or is it just curiosity?

[#4]

I just wondered what was going on as now, with a newer computer, this had not happened on my older computer. It takes more time to upload images from the camera and I wondered what benefit, if any, I was getting in exchange for the wait time. It sound like you are saying it's a good thing? I do see images nice and clear instantly on the new computer in Lightroom, but didn't know if that was because of the preview download. All in all, does it help my workflow, yes, if images are sharp and clear instantly, but is that because of the newer faster computer with more RAM or is it also because of taking the extra time to download previews? If it is only the camera previews that are being downloaded and are not used by Lightroom, then it is a waste? Tell me more as you seem to know exacty what is going on. TIA, and I appreciate.

[#5 · Accepted solution]

When you import in Lightroom Classic, there are several stages to the process. How long they take and what they do depends on the selections you make for the previews in the import panel as already mentioned. There are 4 main choices on import. Minimal, "embedded & sidecar", Standard, and 1:1. There is also a choice to generate smart previews. By far the fastest thing is to selected "embedded & sidecar" and to leave smart previews unchecked. What happens in that case is that the files will get copied from the card and after that, Lightroom will read the previews embedded in the raw files that have been generated by the camera and those will be available right away. If you select anything else, a second stage will happen that can take a very long time depending on whether you do minimal, standard or 1:1 where Lightroom will read the actual raw data and generate new previews using the default settings. This is a much slower process than reading the embedded previews and while it is doing this, it will simply show the embedded preview (which is why you see the badge) and only after a while show you its own interpretation. Note that previews are used everywhere in Lightroom except in Develop where you get to see the actual raw data. All other modules use previews. So if you want to cull images a s quick as possible, "embedded and sidecar" is the way to go. If you want to see the images as Lightroom will eventually interpret them and have lots of time to wait before doing something else, select standard (the default) or 1:1. 

One major tip to give people is in preferences->presets is to select "camera settings" for the master raw defaults. This will make Lightroom by default develop the images very close to the in-camera jpeg engine. In that case, the embedded preview will actually be very close to the default Lightroom rendering and that offers by far the best compromise speedwise and result wise.

Finally, smart previews are only needed when you need to edit your images off-line. For example, when you put your images on an external drive that is not always available when you want to edit. In all other situations, smart previews offer no benefit and only take up lots of disk space.

[#6]

Incredible insight and information, Thank You so much for that and the outlay of related facts helps tremendously. I'm taking it all in and will definitely alter my settings for import. I hope this does not negate the usefulness of what I have already brought in as I gather there is nothing being done that is destructive to the images themselves. I've always loved Lightroom but now, just with this information, there is more to love.

Appreciation,

Ken

[#7]

Okay, I'm trying to work on this and thought it would just be opening 'Preferences' but I see nothing like you mention in Preferences. Where are the selections made for the processes of 'Minimal, Embedded and Sidecar, Standard and 1:1. Finding out where these choices are will be the first step to gaining controll of what Lightroom is doing with this.

TIA,

Ken

[#8]

This choice is made in the import dialog on the right hand side. It is not a preference. You can choose different options for different import sessions. The default raw handling is set in preferences->presets.

[#9]

Whew, In-depth knowledge of lightroom and I am so impressed. Thank You Jao_vdL for getting me set in a better way than ever working with Lightroom.

Sincere Thanks,
Ken

[#10]

You should be able to click on either one of those progress bars to see what is progressing.