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Slow Running Lightroom 3 on El Capitan

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Pedro

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Joined
Mar 25, 2017
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Intermediate
Lightroom Version
Having used Lightroom successfully on my MacBook Pro since 2009, I updated the OS on it to El Capitan last week.

Other than Lightroom 3 running a little more slowly, I noticed no significant problems until yesterday when I imported 264 CR2 images (shot on Canon EOS 5D Mk II, average image size 25 MB) via a Delkin card reader.

The process, which prior to the update would have taken roughly 30 minutes, lasted almost 4 hours.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions, which don't involve upgrading to Adobe CC, that could help speed things up again.
 
Welcome to the forum. Is there any reason that you did not simply update the OS to Sierra (MacOS10.12.3)? I think the last free update to LR3 is LR3.7 Although it is no longer being supported by Adobe. You can update to that version or you can purchase LR6.9 upgrade here: Software & Services
You do not need to purchase a subscription. The upgrade price for the standalone version of LR6.x i s $79USD.
 
Welcome to the forum. Is there any reason that you did not simply update the OS to Sierra (MacOS10.12.3)? I think the last free update to LR3 is LR3.7 Although it is no longer being supported by Adobe. You can update to that version or you can purchase LR6.9 upgrade here: Software & Services
You do not need to purchase a subscription. The upgrade price for the standalone version of LR6.x i s $79USD.
Welcome to the forum. Is there any reason that you did not simply update the OS to Sierra (MacOS10.12.3)? I think the last free update to LR3 is LR3.7 Although it is no longer being supported by Adobe. You can update to that version or you can purchase LR6.9 upgrade here: Software & Services
You do not need to purchase a subscription. The upgrade price for the standalone version of LR6.x i s $79USD.

Thanks Cletus, I appreciate your response.
My MacBook Pro is, unfortunately, too old for the Sierra update.
The Lightroom version I have is already 3.6. I do not currently have available funds to upgrade to LR6.9, therefore I'd like to try to get the best performance possible out of what I have.
 
Thanks Cletus, I appreciate your response.
My MacBook Pro is, unfortunately, too old for the Sierra update.
The Lightroom version I have is already 3.6. I do not currently have available funds to upgrade to LR6.9, therefore I'd like to try to get the best performance possible out of what I have.
Without available funds, LR3.6 is probably at peak performance. The thing that might be slowing you down that has come on only recently is free space on the primary hard drive. When Importing LR creates lots of temporary staging files on your working storage (free space) you need to maximize the free space on the primary hard drive to not stress the system during imports. I would recommend that you have ~75GB of free space for these temporary files. I am betting that the sudden slow down when you imported 264 CR2 images was due to lack of working storage space to put the staging files.
 
Without available funds, LR3.6 is probably at peak performance. The thing that might be slowing you down that has come on only recently is free space on the primary hard drive. When Importing LR creates lots of temporary staging files on your working storage (free space) you need to maximize the free space on the primary hard drive to not stress the system during imports. I would recommend that you have ~75GB of free space for these temporary files. I am betting that the sudden slow down when you imported 264 CR2 images was due to lack of working storage space to put the staging files.

Thanks, but please take a look at the attached. Over 231 GB of working storage is available.
As I said earlier, up until I upgraded to El Capitan, last week, Lightroom was performing without problems.
I'd be grateful for any other suggestions you, or anyone else, might have.
 

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Hi Pedro, welcome to the forum!

That does sound frustrating! So let's narrow it down a bit. Can you run a couple of tests...?

1. Copy the photos to the hard drive using Finder and note down how long it takes.
2. Create a new catalog in LR and ask Lightroom to import the photos that you've just copied over, with it set to ADD at the top of the dialog. Again, note the times.
3. Create another new catalog in LR and ask Lightroom to import the photos from the card as you normally do. Again, note the times.

You can delete the 2 temporary catalogs when you're done, but that'll help to identify possible causes.
 
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