Lightroom becoming unresponsive

[DaveRichardson]

I am in the process of transferring my images to Lightroom. I am doing this in batches and tidying up the key-wording (previously added in bridge) at the same time.

Several times during, a key-wording session, Lightroom has become unresponsive - initially showing some delays then grinding to a total stop. Closing Lightroom and re-opening restores order until the next time.

For example I just imported around 700 images and was working in the Library module (grid view) selecting images in batches, each time adding or deleting keywords. Lightroom was getting slower at doing this i.e. when selecting a group of images by clicking on the first and shift clicking the last , it was taking longer and longer for the intermediate images to be highlighted.
Eventually the mouse stopped responding.
At that point windows task manager showed Lightroom using only 8GB of RAM and no CPU time - it showed the app as "not responding".

I have a reasonable quick PC , running windows 10 64 bit and with 64GB RAM fitted.  Lightroom is on an SSD drive. Lightroom is version 2015.6. The camera raw cache is set to 10GB. I write data to XMP sidecar files.


Is this normal?

Dave

[Simon Garrett]

I've had this: Lightroom getting slower and slooooower, and then back to normal after exit and restart.  Often after importing a lot of images. 

I know of no fix other than to exit and restart. 

[rdonson]

My experiences are similar.  For me it's especially noticeable after long Develop module retouching sessions.  It is cured by quitting and restarting Lightroom.

I've used Lightroom since the first public beta and it's my goto photography platform but it's never been high performance in my mind.  I realize that its parametric editing nature and content management core has performance limitations and I've come to accept them. My understanding is that it can use up to 6 cores for processing.  Faster drives like SSDs and tuning settings help but only to a point.

I still haven't found anything that suits my needs better.  Yes, I know there are lots of people who will recommend other software but this is it for me.

[DaveRichardson]

Thanks Simon, thanks Ron

I wondered if it was just something on my set up. Guess it is something I will have to live with (a move back to Bridge and ACR would be a pity as I'm starting to like the way Lightroom functions)

Dave

[Simon Garrett]

For me it's not something that happens all the time.  Importing large numbers of images might make it slow down, as it has to mess with the database and build previews in the background, or a lot of editing.  But most of the time it's not a problem for me unless I've been editing for an hour or more.  But if you quit and restart then it comes back right where you were, so no great hardship. 

[dwswager]

I am in the process of transferring my images to Lightroom. I am doing this in batches and tidying up the key-wording (previously added in bridge) at the same time.

Several times during, a key-wording session, Lightroom has become unresponsive - initially showing some delays then grinding to a total stop. Closing Lightroom and re-opening restores order until the next time.

Is this normal

Dave

Yes, it is normal, at least for me.  I have only been using Lr a short time, but I get this from time to time.  I still use Br a lot, but it too can have a slow down.

It's poor programming.  Probably not cleaning up and releasing memory.

[dtrozzo]

This may help - turn off or pause: Sync with Lightroom Mobile, Address Look Up and Face Detection while you are editing.

[DaveRichardson]

Thanks all.


drtozzo - thanks for the suggestions. All three are turned off on my set up ( I have no need for them)

Dave

[JRSmit]

The problem can well be your ssd. Ssd's do have a performance cliff. I switched to a enterprise ssd from samsung . I look ed for one that does not have this per cliff.

[JRSmit]

Addition i use a samsung sm863 for my catalogue and cache.  I doe not experience these slowmotion down any more.  Of course optimize catalogue is done on a regular basis.