spinning rainbow of death

[L Robbin]

Lightroom Version Number

15.1

Operating System

1. macOS 26 Tahoe

I am wondering... is there any way to turn off some features so that this gigantic piece of software, LR, is not almost continually hung up. I'm a 'straight photographer' and don't use or want many of the features outside of representational photography

I recently bought DO PhotoLab so I could move forward and get some photo editing work done. The idea was to go back and forth between PL and LR.

Perhaps my iMac (24GB RAM; 1TB storage; external hard drives for pic files) is not up to handling this massive titan of software (LR) that gets hung up so easily and so often.
I've tried every tip online , including LR Queen's forum, and I've run out of options.
Thoughts?

 

[clee01l]

I am wondering... is there any way to turn off some features so that this gigantic piece of software, LR, is not almost continually hung up. I'm a 'straight photographer'
and don't use or want many of the features outside of representational photography

I recently bought DO PhotoLab so I could move forward and get some photo editing work done. The idea was to go back and forth between PL and LR. Perhaps my iMac
(24GB RAM; 1TB storage; external hard drives for pic files) is not up to handling this massive titan of software (LR) that gets hung up so easily and so often.
I've tried every tip online , including LR Queen's forum, and I've run out of options.
Thoughts?

If you have an Intel Mac, you may not have a GPU and VRAM adequate for your images . Anything larger than 24mp is probably going to put a strain on an Intel Mac or an M1 Silicon Mac. If you can copy the contents from the menu {Help}{ System Info} into your reply we can evaluate.. The new AI features do not need to be invoked and won't impact performance until they are invoked. You probably have already Minimized the GPU settings based upon Following the articles in LRQ.

 

[L Robbin]

OK I'll get that to you tomorrow.
Meanwhile I've heard if I create a new slimmed down catalog that could help.

 

[clee01l]

Meanwhile I've heard if I create a new slimmed down catalog that could help.

Not really. While Lightroom is multi threaded and multi tasking able to do several tasks concurrently, the size of the catalog is irrelevant. What does help sometimes is to clears any orphaned records and other detritus from the catalog file. What is the size of your catalog file?

 

[Gnits]

Just fyi. I built a high spec PC, close to bleeding edge at the time. I would rate the performance at the time (pre Ai) as ok and in reality … underwhelming for the spec and money spent… but was ok.

Some time later, I upgraded from a Sony a7r3 to a Sony a7RV…. and Lightroom descended to a chorus of spinning beach balls. Improved by reducing scope of AntiVirus and Indexing (ie Spotlight) .. but only returned to OK when I upgraded the GPU.

Bottom line… multiple factors at play, including the size of the raw files been processed.

Housekeeping can help… such as making sure there is enough free space on your drive, delete and rebuild previews, clear raw cache. Every 18 months or so I rebuild my Catalog via import /export into a new empty catalog to flush out database table and index debris… but care needed if doing this and you synch to the Cloud as the Synch connection is lost. This is not an issue for me as I only hold a few albums in LrCloud, which I can easily refresh.

 

[L Robbin]

Here is the system info. I hope it points somehow to a solution!
Meanwhile, I'll review youur notes.
thanks!

 

[L Robbin]

Not really. While Lightroom is multi threaded and multi tasking able to do several tasks concurrently, the size of the catalog is irrelevant. What does help sometimes is to clears any orphaned records and other detritus from the catalog file. What is the size of your catalog file?

Here are my catalogs. They are on an external SSD drive

 

[jrobnz]

Having your catalog on an external drive could be the cause depending on the speed of the interface. It's generally recommended to keep your catalog on the internal drive unless you have a very fast Thunderbolt or USB4 connection. All your photo files can stay on an external drive though.

You can easily test this by quitting Lightroom and copying just the Primary Catalog-3-v13.lrcat and .lrcat-data to an empty folder on your internal system drive and then double click on that lrcat file. See if that makes any difference. If so, you can then copy the previews if you want or just let LrC generate new ones as you work.

When you have completed this test, keep in mind you have two copies of your catalog. Choose only one of these to continue using. Check the LrC settings to ensure you are using the catalog you intend or use Lightroom's option to rename the active catalog so you are certain which-is-which. You don't want to end up with edits in two different catalogs. If you need help finding those settings, post a reply

 

[clee01l]

Here is the system info. I hope it points somehow to a solution!
Meanwhile, I'll review youur notes.
thanks!

This is not the system info that I asked for although it does tell me that to have a basic Silicon M3 Mac.

copy the contents from the menu {Help}{ System Info} into your reply we can evaluate

With

• 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores
• 10-core GPU.
• 24GB of Unified memory

Your Silicon chip is a little under powered. to handle the AI intensive processes like DeNoise And if you only have a 512 GB Primary disk you are probably short on space to handle the temporary files the Lightroom creates.

 

[L Robbin]

OK, I've followed the suggestions. Let's see if it makes a difference and the spinning death ball is dead.