Develop Module in Lightroom 4.1
I have compiled a list of recommendations that might help you improve the performance of your Lightroom setup regardless of which version you might be running. I currently use Lightroom on a slow computer by comparison (Macbook Pro 15", 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM, 7 200 RPM 750 GB hard drive, running Lion OSX with 150 000 photos and videos in my catalog) and thus I can clearly see how these reccomendations impact the performance. I have listed them in the order starting at the most important. Please feel free to email me at isakpretorius@gmail.com if you have any additional inputs and I will keep this list updated!
1) UPGRADE COMPUTER SPECS
Faster hard drive, faster processor and more RAM (memory). This one is quite obvious and upgrading any of these components should make a difference. I've noticed a big improvement when upgrading my RAM from 4 GB to 8 GB and my hard drive from 5400 to 7200 RPM.
2) ENOUGH AVAILABLE HARD DRIVE SPACE
Some people suggest you should have at least 50% of your local hard drive space available. I've noticed that if I keep at least 10% of my local hard drive space available it makes a significant difference in Lightroom's performance. Thus, on my 750 GB hard drive I make sure I keep more than 75 GB space available.
3) CLOSE UNNECESSARY APPLICATIONS
For the seasoned computer user this is a no-brainer. All applications use processing power and RAM, thus Lightroom will run much faster when it does not have to share resources with the other applications.
4) KEEP THE CATALOG ON YOUR LOCAL HARD DRIVE
The Lightroom catalog file is a database that stores small jpg versions of each file, development changes made to the images and associated data like keywords, collections and star rating. The catalog is effectively what you see on the screen when you use Lightroom. You can still run the catalog of Lightroom and see your photos even if you are not connected to your original photo files. There is a lot of data that continuously move between the application and the catalog file as you use Lightroom. Thus, it is important to give your computer the fastest possible access to the catalog file.
5) RESTART OCCASIONALLY
As most IT professionals know, switching a computer off and on again solves most of the problems users encounter. When I have not restarted my computer for about a day and I encounter sluggishness from Lightroom I simply restart my computer. Whether this is based on logic like memory leaks for example I'm not sure, but it usually does improve the performance again.
6) BACKUP AND OPTIMIZE AFTER SIGNIFICANT CHANGES
Optimizing your catalog regularly is good practice. I've noticed that after adding or deleting lots of images my system becomes slow but after optimizing the catalog the performance returns to the level I'm used to. Backing up your catalog and storing it on another disk is recommended to make sure you don't loose your catalog when your hard drive crashes. I've setup my Lightroom to prompt me to backup and optimize after every exit. I mostly skip this, but once a week or after significant changes I do select to backup and optimize.
Lightroom > Catalog Settings > General > Back up catalog > Every time Lightroom exists
7) RENDER PREVIEWS IN ADVANCE
With both the standard-sized and the 1:1 previews rendered there should be no delay in displaying the images in a grid, full screen size and zoomed to 100%. It is frustrating when clicking on a photo, zooming to 100% and then having to wait while it builds the 1:1 preview for the first time. I usually select the new images in my catalog and initiate the building of the 1:1 previews before I go to bed to let it run over night. If you have never done this before it might take a few nights before everything has been built.
Library > Previews > Render Standard-Sized Previews Library > Previews > Render 1:1 Previews
8) KEEP YOUR PREVIEWS
Lightroom automatically deletes the 1:1 previews after a while. This means that you end up with the same problem of having to wait for a few seconds every time you zoom an image to 100%. Lightroom can be setup never to delete the 1:1 previews. I've noticed that when setup like this Lightroom runs much faster since it does not continuously have to search through my images to see which previews it needs to delete.
Lightroom > Catalog Settings > File Handling > Automatically Discard 1:1 Previews > Never
9) SET YOUR PREFERENCES
Make sure you adjust the size of your previews to fit your screen resolution. If your screen is 1440 pixels wide for example then building your previews as large as 2048 pixels will make your system unnecessarily slow. Choose the option closest to, but not smaller than your screen resolution. Set the preview quality to medium instead of high. You won't see the image at the best quality while you edit it, but this might make such a big improvement in performance that it will be worth it.
Lightroom > Catalog Settings > File Handling > Standard Preview Size > 1440 pixels Lightroom > Catalog Settings > File Handling > Preview Quality > Medium
10) LEAVE AUTO WRITE XMP TURNED OFF
When you work with other applications like Adobe Bridge for example it might be beneficial to have this feature turned on. What it does is it stores all changes made in Lightroom, e.g. keywords or contrast and brightness, in an XMP file next to the original file. The changes you made in Lightroom will be reflected in Adobe Bridge and visa versa. It does slow Lightroom down, so my advice is to switch this feature off regardless. You could still export the files with an accompanied XMP file from Lightroom even if you have this feature turned off.
Lightroom > Catalog Settings > Metadata > Automatically write changes into XMP > "uncheck"
11) RUN IN 64-BIT MODE
Running Lightroom in 64-bit mode will utilize all of your RAM and not just 2GB which is the ceiling for 32-bit operating systems. If you use Mac it automatically runs in 64-bit. Windows users should check which version they run.
12) FASTER CONNECTION TO EXTERNAL DRIVES
If you keep your image on an external drive then upgrading the speed of the drive or the connection type will improve performance. In most cases the limiting factor is the connection type. Upgrading it from a USB 2 connection to a Firewire 800 connection for example will make the connection significantly faster. Here is a list of common connection types, listed from fastest to slowest: eSATA, USB 3, FireWire 800, USB 2, FireWire 400, USB 1
13) INCREASE THE SIZE OF THE CAREMA RAW CACHE
While you edit images in the Develop Module Lightroom renders new high quality previews with each adjustment you make. It stores and access the file you are working on in the Camera Raw cache. The cache is a specific folder on your hard drive assigned for this task and you have the option of increasing its size. By increasing the size you allow more images to be stored in the cache and performance will be greatly improved as you go back and forth between editing a selection of images. After all the images in your selection have been edited you can purge the cache to make room for new ones. My suggestion is to increase the cache to 30 GB.
Lightroom > Preferences > File Handling > Maximum Size: > 30 GB Lightroom > Preferences > File Handling > Purge Cache
14) SMALLER CATALOG
Lightroom 2 certainly had problems with large catalogs. I have been running Lightroom 4 with a large catalog without any problems. My workflow involves only marking photos to delete during the month, but then at the end of each month I bulk delete them all at once. After the bulk delete I optimize my catalog again. It might just be my imagination but common sense would also suggest that after decreasing the size of the catalog Lightroom does run faster.
15) DEFRAGMENT THE HARD DRIVE
As you add, delete and move files on the hard drive, its available space is no longer in a single continuous block. Without enough continuous space the system has to break up files and split them across your hard drive in the available small spaces. This is called file fragmentation and slows the system down. By doing a disk defragmentation you can improve the performance of your system. This can be done manually every now and again on the Windows operating system while Mac hard drives do this automatically.
16) INSTALL LIGHTROOM AND OS UPDATES
Most software are continuously being improved with updates released by its software developers. These often include bug fixes that will improve the performance of your system, the operating system (e.g Windows 7 or Mac's Lion OSX) as well as your software applications like Lightroom. It is thus recommended to keep both up to date with the latest updates.
17) TURN OFF THE SECOND WINDOW VIEW ONTO AN ADDITIONAL SCREEN
If you have a computer setup with two screens then Lightroom has the feature of splitting the application across the screens in a second window. This is very handy as you might have the image in grid display on the one screen and the selected image full-screen on the other. On my system I've noticed that browsing through the images using the second screen option slows down Lightroom's performance. I'm not sure why this would be, maybe insufficient power of the graphics card or perhaps Lightroom has to collect too much information to be displayed onto two screens and thus making it slow. Now I have Lightroom open full screen on my Cinema Display while I have other applications like mail and safari open on my Macbook's screen. This seems to work much better.
18) RENDER PREVIEWS OF SELECTION
When I've been working with Lightroom for a while and I choose another collection of images to work with, e.g. selecting a day folder to review images in that folder for the first time, I find that Lightroom becomes sluggish. It becomes slow bringing up the next photo or have a slight delay in showing the next photo clear and sharp. This is frustrating since I know that I've rendered both standard-sized and 1:1 previews for the images in this collection before. The solution I found is without a logical explanaition: I select all the images in the collection I'm working with and render both standard-sized and 1:1 previews again. Lightroom looks through the selection to see which ones to render but finds none since they have all been rendered before. After this "check" the Lightroom performance is back to normal.
Library > Previews > Render Standard-Sized Previews Library > Previews > Render 1:1 Previews
19) TURN OFF INFORMATION IN GRID DISPLAY
In the grid display in the Library Module one can choose the information to be displayed around the thumbnails of the images in the grid. I found that turning off the information speeds up the performance of Lightroom when I browse through the images in the grid display.
View > Grid View Style > Show Extras > "unselect" View > Grid View Style > Show Badges > "unselect"
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