Slow LrC startup

[RobertHaines]

Lightroom Version Number

Latest

Operating System

1. Windows 10

It seems that with the last two updates, Lightroom Classic on my PC is VERY slow to startup. Much slower than I was used to. As an example, it will get most of the way through startup, to the point where it is listing the folders on the left side of the screen. They are greyed out and it takes quite a while (15-30 seconds) for them all to change from being greyed out to not being greyed out and being accessible. The splash screen is visible for almost 45 seconds when I start. LrC is th only thing running. The PC is a very fast PC with a very high-end video card and lots of RAM. Could it be related to the size of my catalog or a disk space problem? Where the disk is too close to being full?

 

[Replytoken]

Welcome to the forum. Generally you want about 10% of your primary disk to be available. If it is less than that, things can get problematic, and not just with LR Classic. Also, have you tried to disable your graphics card to see if that has any effect, positive or negative?

--Ken

 

[RobertHaines]

Thanks. I’ll try disabling the graphics board even tho9ugh I doubt that’s the problem. It is a new addition. I really don’t think its a disk space problem, but I’ll double check that.

Thanks again.

 

[Gnits]

Try excluding your Catalog and related files (eg Previews) from any antivirus software scans. Also consider excluding your images repository (if images only). Maybe a Windows update has disturbed some user settings.... (I stopped customising Office menus because Windows / Office updates kept resetting them). Another area to check out is the default search settings. Maybe Windows is trying to index all your images, previews, etc. Do a health check on your disk ... There are probably lots of other avenues to explore. Monitor cpu and memory usage when starting Lr.... Also, if you have images on a Nas or other disk enclosure it takes a while for these drives to come online. I notice that querying a file on an M2 drive can trigger my Thunderbolt enclosure to kick into life. Are files / folders on a network drive.. If you continue to have problems try clearing the preview cache ... junk in there can cause all sorts of weird behaviour.

 

[RobertHaines]

Thanks. I will check all of these out. Lightroom is on a SSD or a type of non-rotating drive. The photos/images are on a RAID drive in an closure connected by high speed cables. But none of this has changed. The Search settings could be a problem.I also have a package called Excire on Lightroom which may be executing a search on startup. I’ll try disabling that. That makes the most sense. Thanks for jogging my brain on this.

 

[RobertHaines]

I disabled a few add-ins and that seems to have done the trick. Start-up time is about 20% of what it was. That’s a lot for your feedback!

 

[Gnits]

Just fyi.
I ran a query on a catalog with 800k images using 2 different plug-ins to get to a specific field / image status. It took between 24-36 hours. I use one of these plug-ins regularly.

I ran an SQL query to find the same data on a copy of the catalog and it took 2-3 mins.

The main point I am making is that Lr is built around a relatively complex set of tables and Lr has lots of built in routines designed to validate and or protect itself. This is the consequence of having a very functionally rich application. It only takes a small overload on these routines to impact performance. There are some brilliant plugs and plug-in developers out there, but I should have mentioned removing plug-ins as one of the first steps to take when trying to solve a performance issue.

Well done for tracking down the problem.

 

[RobertHaines]

Just fyi.
I ran a query on a catalog with 800k images using 2 different plug-ins to get to a specific field / image status. It took between 24-36 hours. I use one of these plug-ins regularly.

I ran an SQL query to find the same data on a copy of the catalog and it took 2-3 mins.

The main point I am making is that Lr is built around a relatively complex set of tables and Lr has lots of built in routines designed to validate and or protect itself. This is the consequence of having a very functionally rich application. It only takes a small overload on these routines to impact performance. There are some brilliant plugs and plug-in developers out there, but I should have mentioned removing plug-ins as one of the first steps to take when trying to solve a performance issue.

Well done for tracking down the problem.

Thanks for the in-depth explanation. As a former IT nerd, I understand what your leading to and appreciate the inforation from behind-the-scenes. Lightroom is an incredible program with many ways to accomplish the ”same” effect and quite a bit of flexibility. Another compliment to its design is the ability for plug-in/add-in designers to enhance its functionality albeit, as you mention, with adding in a performance hit. Still, that can be worth the wait, at times. Thanks again.

 

[Gnits]

I expect there are lots of plug-ins with absolutely no performance hit and others probably impact performance depending what features are used. I do not want to give the wrong impression regarding plug-ins.

However, they are an obvious target to check if you do run into performance issues.

 

[Edwin Hermans]

I disabled a few add-ins and that seems to have done the trick. Start-up time is about 20% of what it was. That’s a lot for your feedback!

Had the same problem on a MacBook. Updating Excire plugin to v 2.1.1 solved it.