I've had an issue where Lightroom classic has been super slow for several years. I noticed that when I created a new catalog, I wouldn't have the problem, but in my main (300k photos) catalog, it was very slow. I assumed this was because Lightroom couldn't handle it.

I decided on Monday to break my catalog into parts, starting with 2007-2012 and then 2012-2018. It was in importing the files from 2016 that I noticed a problem. 2016 only had 14,000 photos in it, but when I went to import the folder it was reporting at 300k+ photos...

In one of the directories was a Windows shortcut to the top level photos folder directory, essentially recursively adding all of my photos to the 2016 directory over, and over and over...

I've now successfully imported 2016 and can report a much smoother operation of Lightroom. Now to try it with the full 300k.

TLDR: I'm an idiot!

I just finished building my first PC today out of spare parts from my brother and some friends and was super excited to finally be able to use LR without turning my laptop into a potential pipebomb. It was the entire main goal of this endeavor! (That and modded Skyrim lol) So imagine my frustration when i got everything hooked up and ready to go just for Adobe to tell me my rig is not up to snuff? And yes this goes for LRC as well!

Im running
Windows 11 Pro 64-bit
i9-9900k
48 GB Ram
RTX 1050-ti 4GB
2 TB of free space

The only thing I can think of is maybe the GPU as it is a little old and stinky, but It still meets the minimum requirements as outlined by adobe. It is compatible with DirectX12, but not with DX12 Ultimate. Is there anything else I might be missing here before I drop a couple hundo on a new graphics card? I might be miffed now, but Ill be even more miffed if I do that and it doesn't even fix the problem!

Still blows my mind my little laptop can run it but not this whole rig I cobbled together!
Thanks for any help or pointers you can give!

I have a question about XMP files. My camera (Canon EOS R5) is set to capture images in RAW + JPEG. When is the XMP file created? Does my camera create the XMP file to hold the metadata and the preview image for Lightroom Classic? I am asking because I don’t always see XMP files for my CANON EOS R5 (Have only had it for a month. Was previously shooting with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II), but I always saw XMP files with my 5D Mark II.

Is an XMP file always visible or can it be embedded into the CR2/CR3 file? My concern is that I want to ensure that I have RAW, JPEG, and XMP files for each photo I create. Also, when I import photos into Lightroom Classic, my MAC only imports the RAW file even though I have the box to treat the RAW file and JPEG as separate files checked in the import settings.

I am probably overthinking this. Let’s say for some reason I copy a RAW file to my hard drive, but don’t see an XMP file. Once I import the RAW file into Lightroom Classic, will Lightroom Classic create the XMP file to record the edits if an XMP file can’t be found?

Thanks for any insight you can offer.

Hi all and Happy New Year.

Probably a bit of a daft question so I do apologise, but can't find an answer to this anywhere else.

I've been playing with some photos I recently took with my a7IV using the FL Creative Look. The photos have very strong highlights/whites. I noticed that the Lightroom's matching profile is not quite 100% matching the embedded previews of the original RAWs and the hues are a tad off on the Lightroom's matching profile.

Has anyone noticed this? (I noticed this is a little bit more obvious in highlights) and if I haven't gone mad, are there any workarounds to fully replicating the tones and the HSL/grading of the Sony profile(s)?

Cheers

On my older Nikon D600, my workflow would be to use Lightroom to import the .NEF files to the local disk with the library module during import from the SDCard. On my Z8, I've figured out that Lightroom treats the CFExpress card as a SSD rather than memory card, so it doesn't copy the files over to my Lightroom library on import. When it imports, it only copies over the previews to the Lightroom catalog but leaves the .NEF files where they are on the CFExpress card.

I'd like to keep the same workflow as previous, insert the CFExpress card, import .NEF files to local hard drive (really a big 4TB MacBook SSD), eject the CFExpress card (and format), then edit/develop. Is there a way to configure Lightroom to do this?

I tried moving them back to Lightroom to send to a client, but the edited photos weren’t edited anymore. Did I move them back wrong? I still have the XMP files. TIA

I have a Veracrypted encrypted drive with images on it. When I decrypt the drive, it does not appear as a source in Lightroom for import. Windows detects it just fine. I am able to open folders on the drive from the "From:" -> Other Source in the top left of the import panel so lightroom kind of detects it. However this workflow is pretty terrible. Does anyone have any experience or suggestions?

Version: Lightroom Classic 14.1.1

SOLVED: Mount the Veracrypt drive on a different letter. Don't know why this works but it does.

A year ago I got my a6000 from my mom and the sd card came with loads of old pictures on it. I took some photos and than a few months later I realized, wow this sd card is a mess, but since I didn’t know how to deal with it at the time, I just chucked all the files into my google drive.

Now, many months later, I finally am going to try to deal with this mess. My google drive has 8 gigabytes of random files. Some of which are photos that I’ve taken, and some are photos that my mom took years ago.

The problem is, I can’t figure out how to easily select all these files and transfer them straight to lightroom. And organizing files on google drive is a nightmare.

Hi everyone, I’m struggling with a messy Lightroom setup and could use your advice. Here’s what’s going on:

1. Removing Edited Photos From Lightroom I have about 1,000 photos in Lightroom, and 40 of them are fully edited, loved, and even sold. I want to remove these 40 photos from Lightroom while keeping the edits intact for future use if needed. What’s the best way to do this? Should I export them as TIFF or another format to preserve the edits? Or the only option is keeping them on Lightroom?
2. Catalog Workflow Confusion My current workflow is chaotic. Should I:
   • First create folders on my computer (e.g., "Trip to the Beach") and then import those into Lightroom?
   • Or let Lightroom manage everything during the import process? What happens if I move those folders to an external hard drive later? How can I avoid breaking the catalog links? For future imports what the best way to do this?
3. Organizing & Cleaning Up My Lightroom catalog is messy, and I need to urgently organize the 1,000 photos and delete the ones I don’t like or need. What’s the best approach to declutter without accidentally losing important files?

Thanks in advance!

I recently started using Lightroom for photo editing, and everything was going fine with the photos I worked on. However, when I downloaded a RAW file (CR2) from someone else to practice on, the program became extremely slow, making it almost impossible to edit the photo comfortably. I’ve worked with RAW files before, and the resolution of this one was nearly the same as the others. I performed similar edits, such as basic adjustments and a few masks. When I tried other files, everything worked perfectly again. Then I tried again the problematic file and it was the same, slow. Does anyone know what might be wrong with this file?

Hello,

It is a newbie question but I just can't make it.. :(!! I selected all my RAW photos with 5 stars from a shooting session. I have now 37 photos selected. How can I copy these 37 photos to a folder in my PC?

- Control + C not working.

- If I click "Export" it creates a idiot xmp file together.

I just want to copy my RAWs selected easily!

Thank you so much for your help,

Cheers!

I keep getting the following error message when trying to open a catalog:

“The Lightroom catalog named “Julia & Matt - Reception” cannot be opened because another application already has it opened.”

I have restarted my computer, I’ve closed ALL applications… I’m not sure what else to do besides delete the catalog and start from scratch even though I REALLY don’t want to.

Once I select Export (it doesn't matter which one) Lightroom takes several minutes to open the Export dialog panel. I'm at my wits end - I've tried:

• Restarting Lr
• Restarting computer (yes, turn it off and on again)
• Restart Lr with default preferences
• Use new empty Catalog file and import single image for export
• Removed Lr and installed fresh instance from Adobe site

I've tried a few of these in combination with others.

I've also done a whole Catalog Export to a new Catalog - in the past this has filtered out corruptions or peculiarities in the old catalog and given a better, faster, version. Not this time though.

I'm on the latest version - "Lr Classic 14.1.1 / Camera Raw 17.1" according to Help/About

If anyone has any further ideas, I'd be grateful. Thanks.

Here and there, video clips have found there way into my LR library. I keep videos on seperate HD from photos and don't import them into lightroom (inentionally). What is the best way to search for vides within my catalog to find these files?

I haven't used Lightroom for a bit but my workflow used to look like this:

* Create Folder, Drop my photos into that folder
* Go through them and use star method to rank them (using 1-5 keypad)
* Then view by 1 star, tweak, edit, then do 2 star, repeat
* Once my edits were done I could export them based on star ranking

Now in the latest version something must have moved because i'm not able to just view 1-5 star rankings and display them only. it shows evertything so when I adjust a ranking to 0 it moves me into the fold of all the images.

Where did I go wrong? This is such a pain for my process.

Hi everyone! I want to learn some advance level masking, do you have any recommendations on YouTubers or courses?

i am struggling to find a workflow that feels a bit more optimal. My problem is that my macbooks SSD is too small, i cannot keep all my pictures in there, so for me the ideal would be: -importing cameras from ssd to computer -editing in LR (idk if I should create more catalogs but I feel that its better to work with one catalog per year or something like that) -export -move the folder with the exported and the raws to my external SSD.

i read that some people import their pictures directly from the SD Card to an external SSD, and work on their pictures with their external SSD connected to their computer during it. I - believe - that its a bit easier and maybe faster (?) to work with the pictures on the computers SSD instead of an external SSD (even if its connected through USBC). But im also not sure about that.

i tryed to use bridge as well to import but it looked more complicated than it has to be.

anyone has any kind of inputs how I can do this more organized and smoothly? Is the option to edit on computer and later move to the external SSD good or would be better to just have it on the SSD?

thanks!

To editors, what's your favorite monitor for photo editing on Lightroom now?

I'm planing to buy a good one for my current Mac pro 2018 (planing to upgrade to another better). I have no more specific requirements and I'm curious to know your recommendations for monitors of all screen sizes, price ranges. I'd also hope to hear your experience with it, thanks so much!

Hi all,

I've edited on Lightroom from a number of devices including an ROG ally and even the new microsoft surface tablets and neither device ever had this issue. I just had a new PC built - far superior to both the mentioned devices and yet, regardless of whether I'm editing cloud photos or local photos, Lightroom seems to want to stutter sporadically - at a rate closer to every few seconds, lasting about a half second to maybe 2 seconds... anywhere in that range. its basically a guarantee that every adjustment i make on a photo there is some form of a stutter that occurs while i try to make that adjustment.

a couple of things to note:

- my library is not full, in fact i recently carved out a chunk of files from years ago

- the stutter itself doesn't occur as a result of making an adjustment, it just kinda happens in the middle of making one.... one moment I have the temperature near perfect, the next I've turned my subject into a smurf

- the monitor currently being used is a Samsung monitor (g7 odyssey i think) however, I've used it across many devices with no hiccups in regards to this weird stutter.

- processor being used: AMD Ryzen 5 9600x 6-core

- 32gb of ram

- gpu: ASUS DUAL Radeon™ RX 7600 XT OC Edition 16GB GDDR6 DUAL-RX7600XT-O16G

- currently running the latest version of LR

- no, I've not tried uninstalling and reinstalling, as lazy as it sounds, I was hoping that there's some ridiculously easy solution that my sleep deprived brain hadn't thought of yet and that its a quick fix

I'll reserve the "just reinstall" advice for later when nothing else works lol but TYIA for any other suggestions that may work!

https://reddit.com/link/1hpghxl/video/v3xc0nwdgx9e1/player

Up until recently I was happy using Lightroom 4.1, maybe a little old school but I am an amateur photographer and it did what I wanted it to do. However I had to upgrade my laptop and now I’m running Sonoma and lil old LR4 doesn’t get on with it. I’m kinda bummed because I paid for this software and now I just can’t use it and upgrading means getting a subscription but I really can’t justify that when I’m using LR maybe 2/3 times a year.

Has anyone been in a similar position and figured out an alternative that works for them? Maybe you got some freeware that works well for you?

I know that when I would give a file a 1-star rating, the thumbnail in the filmstrip at the bottom of the screen would show the 1-star rating. That always made it easier for me to keep up with what I'd edited. But now, starting a few weeks ago, the star rating no longer shows up in the thumbnails. Did turn something off? Did they do away with that feature in the last update?

Got a "new to me" laptop recently. AI denoise now doesn't denoise and makes images very dark. Any insight. Computer is a HP Spectre x360 16-f2010ca 2-in1 Notebook (TOUCHSCREEN) Intel Core i7-1360P 32GB Intel Arc A370M Graphics 2TB SSD 16.0-inch OLED Touchscreen Display Windows 11 Home.

Original

https://preview.redd.it/hlbtu2isjv9e1.png?width=1244&format=png&auto=webp&s=66f2923b52185dff93c1ee51b4ab957206ec9515

Denoised

https://preview.redd.it/wtlthqdkjv9e1.png?width=1643&format=png&auto=webp&s=16daaa7eaf696cb08bc83d686b90fee5daa61bac

Thanks!

I would like to move folder from one current catalog to another one. For example I have one catalog called "All Photos" and the one I am working actively on is " Current Photos" Within my current I would like to move all my 2020 folder photos to All Photos. I am assuming one way is just do shut down both and move the folder from location A to location B and then synchronize folder on the open catalogs to just the missing photos and the new added photos. But how do I also export the settings for all the adjustments made, rotation, filters, touch ups, etc for all those photos and then import them to the new catalog? I've already tried Export as a Catalog which does both duplicate photos and all settings, but it also creates it as an independent catalog recreating all the .lrcat, data and Preview files, which I do not need to be independent. I would like to export those and import them to the prior catalog?

Where should I be looking for more info on how to create that process?

So I just bought adobe lightroom and photoshop and its saying that "OS update is required for Lightroom" same for photoshop I went to update my system but it says its up to date so I don't know what's really wrong but if you need any info you might need to help me figure out what's wrong also this is on desktop i cant figure out what version it is though

https://preview.redd.it/kqny2ezt0u9e1.png?width=2626&format=png&auto=webp&s=a559192c35975d6d2c39e3e41083d66cf2545cdf

As you can see the window is cutting off the top third of the program. I have tried adjusting resolution, restarting the computer and LR multiple times... nothing is working and I am too dumb to figure out how to google this!

Any thoughts??