Switching between pictures is slow

Report · Aug 14, 2025

I had LrCC open all day while I was working my other job so everything was all synced and backed up. No importing, no migrating, etc. I re-opened it right before I started editing. Switching between pictures is painfully slow. Editing, I constantly have the spinning wheel of death when trying to adjust any slider. It will say, "Synced and backed up," but then I can't even paste anything without it taking 2 minutes to paste my edits on another photo. It doesn't matter what I do - wait for everything to sync and back up, close and reopen LR, or just edit as things are syncing - it's taking the longest time to edit my photos these days. I've written this entire post and my paste still hasn't posted to my photo. It's now taking me 4x as long to edit a wedding as it normally does and I'm dying over here. I'm noticing that because the syncing is so slow, it will show that an edit has pasted, but then when I go back to the photo later, no edits were pasted and I'm having to start from scratch.

And before anyone asks... I work for software company so my internet is fast. I'm on a 2023 MacBook Air M2, Sequoia 15.5. Lightroom Cloud 8.3.1 I'm going on 5+ minutes without it being able to paste copied edits from one picture to another. Screw the AI adds, give me basic functionality 😞

Report · Aug 20, 2025

Hi @AroraTheExplorer,

Thanks for reaching out and sharing those details. Let’s work together to try to narrow down what’s going on.

Here are a few checks and suggestions:
1. The latest available version of Lightroom Desktop is 8.5. Please update the app via the Creative Cloud Desktop app to ensure you have the latest performance and bug fixes.

2. Click the cloud icon in the upper-right corner to check if any files are still syncing or stuck.

3. Try pausing syncing temporarily from the cloud icon menu. Close and reopen Lightroom, then resume editing. This can help isolate whether syncing is affecting performance.

4. Check if Lightroom is using internal storage or external/slow drives to cache originals, preferably a fast local MacBook SSD. Ensure “Store a copy of all originals locally” is not enabled unless needed.

5. If performance degradation builds up over time, you may want to try clearing the Lightroom cache: Preferences > Local Storage > Click “Clear Cache”. Then quit and relaunch Lightroom.

6. Ensure no other heavy apps or disk-intensive processes are running alongside Lightroom, especially those that may compete with memory or SSD I/O.

If none of this helps:
• Please help us investigate further by sharing your full system info. In Lightroom, go to Help > System Info. Copy and paste the full output in your reply.

• If possible, share a short screen recording showing the delay you’re seeing when trying to paste edits. This will help us better understand the symptoms.

Let us know what you observe after going through the above. We’re here to help you get back to a smooth editing workflow.

Best,

Anshul Saini

Report · Aug 26, 2025

Hi Anshul,

If I close out LR then reopen it, it works for about an hour before getting slow again. I often have to pause syncing while I’m editing no matter what, otherwise it takes even longer to load and edit a photo. I’ll try updating to see if that helps at all.

Thank you!
S

Report · Aug 29, 2025

Thanks for confirming those details, @AroraTheExplorer. A couple more checks so we can narrow this down further:

Were you able to update to Lightroom v8.5.1 (the most recent release)? Please let us know if that helped with the slowdown.
If the issue continues, can you confirm whether you’re working with files stored locally on your MacBook SSD, or if Lightroom is set to work directly with cloud-only originals?
As another step, try resetting Lightroom’s preferences to default settings: Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) + Shift while launching the application, then select Reset Preferences.

This will help us determine whether the slowdown is related to syncing, local storage, or preferences.

Let us know how it goes.

Best,

Anshul Saini

Report · Aug 29, 2025

I did upgrade to the latest version but actually downgraded after using the new remove tool (sorry, it just wasn’t as good as the previous version). I’ll try your other suggestion as well – I have a new wedding to edit so I can put those to the test 😊 Thanks

Report · Aug 29, 2025

I know you’re probably overloaded right now with wedding edits, but if you get a chance, could you share a bit more detail about the issue you noticed with the new Remove tool? I’d like to pass that feedback along to the product team.

Also, when you can, please try the other suggestions (resetting preferences and confirming if you’re working with local vs. cloud-only files) and let me know how it goes. That will help us narrow down whether the slowdown is related to syncing, storage, or settings.

Thanks again for hanging in there. Appreciate your patience while we sort this out.

Best,

Anshul Saini

Report · Aug 29, 2025

Sure, so what I noticed with the newest update is that the tool didn't read around the selected area as well as the old version did. For example: I was removing an exit sign that was partially blocked by a curtain. In the old version, it read that it was a curtain on hangers. The new version - it read it was a curtain, but didn't include the hangers. So I had a curtain hanging from nothing.

I'll be editing more this weekend so I'll keep you posted!

Thanks so much for your help.

Simone

Report · Sep 22, 2025

Hi @AroraTheExplorer

Just checking in to see how things went with your edits. Were the earlier suggestions helpful, and did you notice any improvement?

Let me know if you still need a hand, happy to help further if needed!

Regards,

Srishti

Report · Sep 22, 2025

Hi @Srishti Bali!

I tried to steps above and it unfortunately didn't help. It seems to be after a while of editing, things slow down a lot. Even if it says, "Synced and Backed Up" - it takes me minutes to get things to load quickly as I flip through them to edit. Opening it right away and using it is fine, it's after an hour or so of editing that things really slow down. I've typed up this whole message and I'm still waiting on one photo to load so I can edit (even though everything is synced.

Report · Sep 22, 2025

Adding one more thing - even when something is "syncing" - when I click to view what's syncing, it's not even the photo I'm trying to load. I've now waited 5+ minutes for one photo to load and finally gave up and closed out of LR