Lightroom still "loading" slow even after SSD installation!

For many reasons, including wanting LR to load/preform faster, I installed an SSD on my iMac. This is for boot/os and all applications, including Lightroom. (I'm using my original HD for storage, etc....) Then I moved my photos (thru LR!) to the SSD.

Lightroom does seem to launch faster, which is nice. BUT, when I try going between pictures (with the app full screen) it still takes about 5 (or so) seconds to completely load. (I get the "loading...." message.)

In Preferences I...
- I changed my LR Camera Raw cache to a folder on my SSD.
- Set max size to 70 GB (Camera Raw cache)

Any other thing you can think of? I want this to perform as quickly as possible.

Thanks!!!!

Did you also move your catalog and preview onto the SSD? It is my understanding that it is more important to have those on the SSD than the original image files.

Also, having the cache on a fast drive is good but you must make sure there is plenty on free space. If the drive fills up speed will suffer.

Dan Marchant wrote in post #17793633
Did you also move your catalog and preview onto the SSD? It is my understanding that it is more important to have those on the SSD than the original image files.

Also, having the cache on a fast drive is good but you must make sure there is plenty on free space. If the drive fills up speed will suffer.

Thanks.

Yes. The lrdata and lrcat files are all there on the SSD. Over 100GB of free space.

Yes it is the Catalogue and previews, which are all subfolders under the catalogue anyway, which need to be on the SSD. Initially having the images on the SSD at import can help the speed of building the previews. When you first look at the images LR uses the built in preview in the RAW file while it builds it's own preview. Once the preview is generated though LR really only uses the previews. You will see that if the catalogue and previews are on a different drive to the images, that once the previews are built that dirve access to the image file drive will be minimal.

Alan

Generating previews is processor dependent and a fast drive won't really help. You might want to set Lightroom to generate previews and let it chug away. As fast as the SSD is in my computer, my slow processor is the limiting piece of hardware.

LR sucked life out of any machine I ever used it on. It works OK at first and then just slows down to a crawl.

Thanks to shooting Sony I could get C1P for only $30, never looked back.

Any final disposition on this matter?

I don't use an SSD for storage of my images because I have waaay too many images and the SSD I'd need cost too much, but I do have LR program on the SSD. With that said, one thing I always do is optimize and test the integrity of my catalogs (set to do this every time I close LR) and that keeps things fresh. Also, when I import photos, I have LR generate the previews, so that I don't have to wait for them to be generated later. My file handling (catalog setting) is set to 2048, high quality and set to discard previews after 1 week.

With these settings, I have no issues as you state.

Someone mention the process being CPU dependent. Which CPU do you have? When viewing my CPU usage, I noticed mine spike to 100% on all cores when I am working in LR (opening images and processing them), so there's some truth to that statement. For reference I have the Intel i7 2600k, overclocked to 4.6ghz and LR uses as much as is there.

Methodical wrote in post #17860886
Any final disposition on this matter?

I don't use an SSD for storage of my images because I have waaay too many images and the SSD I'd need cost too much, but I do have LR program on the SSD. With that said, one thing I always do is optimize and test the integrity of my catalogs (set to do this every time I close LR) and that keeps things fresh. Also, when I import photos, I have LR generate the previews, so that I don't have to wait for them to be generated later. My file handling (catalog setting) is set to 2048, high quality and set to discard previews after 1 week.

With these settings, I have no issues as you state.

Someone mention the process being CPU dependent. Which CPU do you have? When viewing my CPU usage, I noticed mine spike to 100% on all cores when I am working in LR (opening images and processing them), so there's some truth to that statement. For reference I have the Intel i7 2600k, overclocked to 4.6ghz and LR uses as much as is there.

Thanks for the info! I ended up purchasing Photo Mechanic and culling my images there (ingesting into SSD). Then I import the "keepers" into LR and do the edits there. I also generate the previews 1:1. LR still seems slow, but now that I use PM to cull my workflow has sped up, so it's alot less annoying.

WebDevGuy wrote in post #17861016
Thanks for the info! I ended up purchasing Photo Mechanic and culling my images there (ingesting into SSD). Then I import the "keepers" into LR and do the edits there. I also generate the previews 1:1. LR still seems slow, but now that I use PM to cull my workflow has sped up, so it's alot less annoying.

Some of the guys I shoot football with swears by photo mechanic. They say the can upload images faster than in LR or PS. I believe they were using USB 2.0 instead of 3.0 because I can load thousands of images in about 5 minutes and render those same images within 10 minutes. What's so special about it? Do they have a trial version?

Thanks

Methodical wrote in post #17861631
Some of the guys I shoot football with swears by photo mechanic. They say the can upload images faster than in LR or PS. I believe they were using USB 2.0 instead of 3.0 because I can load thousands of images in about 5 minutes and render those same images within 10 minutes. What's so special about it? Do they have a trial version?

Thanks

Yes. Try the trial. You'll love it! It's pricey but it's very quick for culling.

I'll have to check it out.