Library module 13.3 Slowdown - Thumbnails & Previews

[mlondon]

Lightroom Version Number

13.3

Operating System

1. macOS 14 Sonoma

I'm running LR Classic 13.3 on a 2021 MacBookPro w/M1Max, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD. Library is about 200k images stored on a very fast Thunderbolt 3 SSD RAID 0. Not currently synching to LR Mobile/Cloud.

Under 13.2, everything was working fine - stable and fast. In Grid mode, thumbnails displayed instantly, and scrolling through large numbers of images was smooth. Previews (1:1 or Standard) were quick to build when needed.

When I updated to 13.3, everything came crashing down. I'd get frequent beach-balling. The app would take up to minute to quit, or sometimes just hang on quitting. I rolled back to 13.2 and opened my backup, and everything was fine again. I SHOULD have called it a day, and waited till 13.3.1 comes out. But after scanning the reports here and on Adobe's forums, it seemed like 13.3 should be stable (wishful thinking?)

First I optimized the catalog (a few times), and trashed my Preferences.plist. That didnt help. Next I uninstalled all Adobe apps, and cleared the system of ALL associated application files, caches, etc. That seemed to help with the beachballing/quitting/hanging issue, but LR stilled seemed very sluggish. Next I tried removing my Previews.lrdata and SmartPreviews.lrdata files to see if they had possibly been corrupted. LR seemed much more responsive, so I decided to rebuild my Previews from scratch. I recreated all the Smart Previews, and am building 1:1 previews for my more recent work (I've got plenty of space on the internal SSD, so dont mind having a massive Previews.lrdata. Even with my M1Max MBP however, the preview generation seems slower than before, so it will probably take another week to do so.

BUT > LR is still very sluggish in the Grid mode, even when I'm displaying folders that have both Smart Previews and 1:1 Previews. (I understand that the 1:1 Previews are only used in the Develop module.) And building the Previews doesn't feel as snappy as it used to be.

Trying to figure out how I can at least resolve the Thumbnail / Scrolling slowdown in Grid view. Despite reviewing the Missing FAQ book, I'm still not 100% clear on which Previews (Smart or Standard) are used to display the Thumbnails. Would building STANDARD Previews using a small size (ie: 1024px) and Low quality help with the Thumbnails/Scrolling?

 

[clee01l]

Are you syncing some images to the Adobe Cloud? Do you have “Automatically Write changes to XMP checked? Have you checked to determine if the new Sync process has finished?


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[mlondon]

Are you syncing some images to the Adobe Cloud? Do you have “Automatically Write changes to XMP checked? Have you checked to determine if the new Sync process has finished?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

No syncing (I had written " Not currently synching to LR Mobile/Cloud" in my intro)
Had unchecked "Automatically Write changes to XMP" just before reading your post. That seems to help a little bit.

But my question still remains about which Preview is best for the Thumbnails? (Interestingly, in my research I'm seeing posts from as far back as 2011 talking about Thumbnail problems and known bugs that were affecting them. Seems like Adobe, along with the rest of the planet, is obsessed with introducing shiny AI features (which are wonderful, dont get me wrong!) but at the expense of the deep code cleanup needed to address the basic robust functionality of the database.)

 

[clee01l]

No syncing (I had written " Not currently synching to LR Mobile/Cloud" in my intro)
Had unchecked "Automatically Write changes to XMP" just before reading your post. That seems to help a little bit.

But my question still remains about which Preview is best for the Thumbnails? (Interestingly, in my research I'm seeing posts from as far back as 2011 talking about Thumbnail problems and known bugs that were affecting them. Seems like Adobe, along with the rest of the planet, is obsessed with introducing shiny AI features (which are wonderful, dont get me wrong!) but at the expense of the deep code cleanup needed to address the basic robust functionality of the database.)

Sorry the I missed that in your initial post. This set of questions seem to be pretty standard for MacOS people encountering problems with v13.3. There is a bug with those users that are automatically writing changes to XMP. If I understand you, the new syncing process is not running at all.
Are you trying to rebuild a lot of Previews or is this something that occurs on import?
On import, I set LrC to generate minimal previews and no Smart Previews. LrC will automatically generate any preview size needed for the image that you are working on. Smart Previews in the Smart Previews folder are not required and are only used in certain develop step or when the Original Image file is not available. I do not have a Smart Previews folder.


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[mlondon]

I use Smart Previews (or "Smart Proxies" as someone rightly suggested they should be named) because I keep my masters on an external drive, but want to be able to work on my Catalog even when I'm away from my desk.

Are you trying to rebuild a lot of Previews or is this something that occurs on import?

Yes, trying to rebuild ALL of my Previews. I had to get rid of the previous Preview.lrdata file as it (seemed) to be the source of some of my problems.
Haven't imported into 13.3 yet, still trying to get all the issues ironed out.

Question still remains...

 

[clee01l]

I use Smart Previews (or "Smart Proxies" as someone rightly suggested they should be named) because I keep my masters on an external drive, but want to be able to work on my Catalog even when I'm away from my desk.


Yes, trying to rebuild ALL of my Previews. I had to get rid of the previous Preview.lrdata file as it (seemed) to be the source of some of my problems.
Haven't imported into 13.3 yet, still trying to get all the issues ironed out.

Question still remains...

This IMO is the only reason to need Smart Previews. And I guess if you want mobility leaving the original behind. Then you need current smart Previews. But you do not need Standard Previews except for the files that you want to view currently. Let LrC build these on the fly. It should only pause for a few seconds between the time you request the image and when you see it.


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[mlondon]

But you do not need Standard Previews except for the files that you want to view currently. Let LrC build these on the fly. It should only pause for a few seconds between the time you request the image and when you see it.

I can wait to generate Smart Previews until later. But I still have original problem that I wrote in my post: viewing and scrolling in Grid view is very slow. Most images show up as grey rectangles and then slowly appear one by one. I've got hundreds of thousands of images. I need to be able to view my catalog quickly, not waiting a few seconds for each image to appear.

To restate my question:
- I need to be able to scroll thru my thumbnails quickly.
- I'm willing to generate 1:1 Previews, but they will take a week or more to build, and it is not clear to me that the 1:1 Previews are even being used to display the thumbnail.
- Given that there is no "Rebuild Thumbnail" command, I'm trying to figure out the quickest way to get my Catalog back into action. It seems that building Standard Previews, with a small size (1024px) and Low quality, will be the fastest option, correct?
- If I have a low size/low quality Standard Preview, and then later build a 1:1 Preview, with LR automatically use the higher quality one if available?

 

[clee01l]

I can wait to generate Smart Previews until later. But I still have original problem that I wrote in my post: viewing and scrolling in Grid view is very slow. Most images show up as grey rectangles and then slowly appear one by one. I've got hundreds of thousands of images. I need to be able to view my catalog quickly, not waiting a few seconds for each image to appear.

To restate my question:
- I need to be able to scroll thru my thumbnails quickly.
- I'm willing to generate 1:1 Previews, but they will take a week or more to build, and it is not clear to me that the 1:1 Previews are even being used to display the thumbnail.
- Given that there is no "Rebuild Thumbnail" command, I'm trying to figure out the quickest way to get my Catalog back into action. It seems that building Standard Previews, with a small size (1024px) and Low quality, will be the fastest option, correct?
- If I have a low size/low quality Standard Preview, and then later build a 1:1 Preview, with LR automatically use the higher quality one if available?

You do not need 1:1 Previews (these are probably the slowest to create). To get thumnails, you need to build Standard previews. The 1:1 Previews will get created or updated as necessary. Lightroom will always use the preview size that it needs and build it on the fly if necessary.

viewing and scrolling in Grid view is very slow.

This is because there is no preview of any size to use and it is building the ones it needs for the grid.
You could select the most recent images (i.e. the ones you are likely going to need to see) and start the Standard Preview build process and let that run over night. If you are organised in Collections as you should then select your most important collections and build Standard Previews for them.

From Time to time I let my Previews folder grow to a size the it might be crowding the disk drive that it is stored on. I delete the Previews folder and LrC builds a new one. On restarting LrC, I'm presented with a grid of gray thumbnails. I guess I am patient because the delay does not cause me grief as I know the reason.

If you have backup of your Previews or an old copy, you could restore those and your thumbnails and every other preview will be there. Your most recent Previews fold could be in the ".Trash"

What you are dealing with now is not a v13.3 problem, but an impulsive deleting of the Previews folders

 

[Victoria Bampton]

And building the Previews doesn't feel as snappy as it used to be.

They might be slightly slower to build because they're using a different compression now, but once they're built, they should be faster. I'd just leave them building overnight or over a few nights. Personally, I wouldn't worry about 1:1 size unless you need to be able to zoom into 1:1 in Library to check focus, which only tends to happen during initial culling. I wouldn't go super small though, go for the right size for your screen.