Running out of Application Memory

[RHughE]

I am processing a folder containing a large image sequence of 50,000 x 75MB tiff images. The images are converted to high-res jpegs. Everything works fine expect that PS runs out of applications memory after about 9000 files. (My Mac Studio memory is 64 GB.)

I have looked at all the PS 2022 preferences concerning file storage and history, and tried to set so that PS does not retain any file information after processing an image, but I have not been able to change the situation.

Is there any way to prevent PS from retaining information about already processed files so that it does not run out of application memory?

Would setting up a fast external scratch disc solve my poblem? (I have not tried that as I suspect it may slow down my already long processing time?)

[kevin stohlmeyer]

How much free HD space do you have and what is your available scratch disk space?

In my experience 50,000 images of this size are a bit much to run all at once.

I would break this up into batches and run separately to avoid memory errors.

[RHughE]

Thanks for your reply.
I have 3TB of available SSD space.
I have not tried setting up an external scratch disc. Might this solve my
problem?
I guess I have been effectively breaking up into batches, in that I have to
restart PS every 9000 frames. But that is a pain as each 9K-frame run takes
about 5 hrs, and I have to be around to restart.

RHughE

[Test Screen Name]

To break up, my personal approach would be to prepare batches of around 500 and automate running each batch in turn, with restarting Photoshop in between each set. Even 500 sounds a lot. I really wouldn't be looking to use an interactive app for a hundred times that, they just aren't made for it.

[RHughE]

OK, thanks. Advice well taken.
Actually I have the free application ImageJ, which should be able to handle
this in a more efficient way.

[Lumigraphics]

I'm not sure I'd use ImageJ either, ImageMagick would be my choice if it had the processing features I needed.

[rayek.elfin · Accepted solution]

Photoshop's batch processing is flakey at the best of times with larger batches in my experience. And veeeeeerrrrrryyyyy slow even if it is able to finish a large batch. Just not worth the time and frustration.

I use IrfanView to batch process these kind of jobs, and it cuts through images like a hot knife through butter: fast. Lightning fast compared to Photoshop, but unfortunately IrfanView is not available on Mac. .

A good free alternative for mac is XNView and XNConvert. Its batch processing is also incomparably fast compared to Photoshop. It has an ARM version for your Studio Mac.

https://www.xnview.com/en/xnconvert/

[RHughE]

Hello Hayek.elfin:

Many thanks for this tip. I have downloaded XnConvert, and am running tests.
It seems it is only 2x faster with the settings I chose (which is an
enormous help), and I will not have the problem with Application memory.
Thanks again for your help.

RhughE

[rayek.elfin]

Good to know.

It's been a while since I compared batch conversion speeds.

On my Windows system IrfanView takes 8 seconds with one test batch while Photoshop 2023 finishes at 25 seconds. So quite a difference.

"only 2x faster" is still a considerable difference in my book 🙂

Tested on a Ryzen 3900 Windows 10 system with 128GB RAM installed. Test done on a fast M2 drive.

[RHughE]

Yes, I agree - x2 is great. I wish I had tackled this problem a long time
ago, and save many 24 hr+ computer runs!
Thanks for your help and interest.

RhughE