Lightroom Freezes when I press IMPORT

Welcome to the forum. The first thing that I would check is how much free space you have on the working storage drive (usually C:\). Lightroom uses this Working Storage folder (C:\TEMP) to hold temporary files during import. If your drive is full or nearly so, then LR can't get enough space there to hold the temporary files in preparation for import. Usually it is recommended to keep about 100GB free for Working storage files for LR and other apps as well as the Windows Swapfile. Also It might be good to reboot Windows to clear out leftover file that might be stuck in working storage.

You need to be on the latest release of your version of LR. Your forum user profile says LR5 and a subscription. If one is correct, the other probably is not.
To help us sort things out for you, could you go to the LR help menu and click on {System Info...} then copy and paste the contents of that dialog into a reply here.

The only cache that is associated with LR is Camera RAW cache which is used if you shoot RAW file and not JPEGs. or Video Cache which is used with video files. Neither of these are a significant impediment to importing either RAW files or Video Files.

clee01l said:

Welcome to the forum. The first thing that I would check is how much free space you have on the working storage drive (usually C:\). Lightroom uses this Working Storage folder (C:\TEMP) to hold temporary files during import. If your drive is full or nearly so, then LR can't get enough space there to hold the temporary files in preparation for import. Usually it is recommended to keep about 100GB free for Working storage files for LR and other apps as well as the Windows Swapfile. Also It might be good to reboot Windows to clear out leftover file that might be stuck in working storage.

You need to be on the latest release of your version of LR. Your forum user profile says LR5 and a subscription. If one is correct, the other probably is not.
To help us sort things out for you, could you go to the LR help menu and click on {System Info...} then copy and paste the contents of that dialog into a reply here.

The only cache that is associated with LR is Camera RAW cache which is used if you shoot RAW file and not JPEGs. or Video Cache which is used with video files. Neither of these are a significant impediment to importing either RAW files or Video Files.

Click to expand...

thanks for your attention and help. C drive is almost 14 GB free :/
and this is the system info :
.
Lightroom version: 5.7 [991162]
License type: Perpetual
Operating system: Windows 7 Ultimate Edition
Version: 6.1 [7601]
Application architecture: x86
System architecture: x86
Logical processor count: 2
Processor speed: 3.1 GHz
Built-in memory: 2046.4 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 716.8 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 394.0 MB (54.9%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 375.8 MB
Memory cache size: 0.0 MB
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 2
System DPI setting: 96 DPI
Desktop composition enabled: Yes
Displays: 1) 1600x900

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.7
Library Path: C:\Users\Karin\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom 5 Catalog.lrcat
Settings Folder: C:\Users\Karin\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
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2) Canon Tether Plugin
3) Facebook
4) Flickr
5) Leica Tether Plugin
6) Nikon Tether Plugin

Config.lua flags: None

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Video Memory : 1011
AudioDeviceIOBlockSize: 1024
AudioDeviceName: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
AudioDeviceNumberOfChannels: 2
AudioDeviceSampleRate: 44100
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karin_karim said:

C drive is almost 14 GB free :/
Built-in memory: 2046.4 MB

Click to expand...

As a dyed-in-the-wool MacMan I don’t claim any Windows expertise, but 2 GB total memory and 14 GB free drive space strikes me as very, very restricted for today’s memory hungry applications.

2 GB RAM is the minimum Lightroom requires, but Adobe recommend 8 GB. As for drive space, a good rule of thumb is to have at least ⅓ of the disk capacity free to avoid it seriously bogging down.

So while I can’t say for sure, a qualified guess is that this has something to do with Lr hanging on you.

I think oleleclos is close on his assessment.

karin_karim said:

C drive is almost 14 GB free.
Logical processor count: 2
Built-in memory: 2046.4 MB

Click to expand...

With only 14GB available foe the Working storage AND the Swapfile, you are going to have problems. That LR is starting to freeze on import when it did not earlier suggest strongly that you had more free space available before. Begin by emptying the Recycle/Trash bin. These "deleted" files are also stored in that 14GB. Take a look at apps no longer used that can be uninstalled and data that can be deleted or moved to an external hard drive. If you don't already have an external disk that is attached to your computer (that is NOT dedicated to backup), consider buying one. A Terabyte EHD is quite cheap usually less than $100USD. With an EHD, you can move all of your cataloged images off of the C:\ drive and this alone will probably free up enough space for working storage. If your LR catalog backups are stored in "C:\Users\Karin\Pictures\Lightroom\Backups", you might do a little housekeeping and clear out older back up catalogs. You might move the ones that you keep and future catalog backup files to another drive where they will be safer when you primary (C:\) drive fails. If your C:\ drive is the original. and is over 3 years old, you can expect it to fail at any time. Make sure that you are making system backups and can restore everything stored on that C:\ drive. Also you should include any other EHDs in the system backup if your start moving data to and EHD.
LR is a multi core app and will use all of the logical processors available up to about 6. You have only 2 on your CPU which has to be shared between LR and all of the other apps and processes that are running alongside LR. When you consider getting a new computer, look for one with at least 4 cores (Logical processors).

With only 2 GB of RAM, your are going to be constantly swapping out active memory to the swapfile when programs or parts of programs no longer need to be resident. That swapfile "lives' in that 14GB of free space. If it is convenient, add an additional 2GB of RAM to your present machine. LR5 will consume up to 1GB of RAM when it is active.

karin_karim said:

Real memory available to Lightroom: 716.8 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 394.0 MB (54.9%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 375.8 MB

Click to expand...

Says LR as it was running when you took this snapshot needs 3/4GB of memory and only 394.0 MB is allotted to it by Windows. In addition to RAM, programs need file handles and threads that are assigned by the OS. If the OS runs out of file handles and LR is requesting more for import, the OS will refuse and LR will hang. Every process in multi threaded LR requires a thread assigned by the OS. The OS will limit the number of threads assigned to an app. While this number is quite large it is limited and during import, LR will try to import process many image files simultaneously. If the OS refuses the request, LR can hang waiting for its request to be filled.

You are currently running LR 5.7 with a perpetual license. The last free release for you is LR5.7.1 It contains some bug fixes that might correct issues in LR5.7. I don't think that your issue is caused by a bug, but it can only help if you are on the latest release of LR for your license.

If you decide to move some or all of your cataloged image files from C:\Pictures to an EHD, please come bak here for instructions on the best way to approach this so that the LR catalog file can keep track.

karin_karim said:

the problem started few months ago. dont know why but when i press that import button the whole lightroom freezes. sometimes I close the task and reopen the app and its ok, sometimes im forcing to restart the pc to solve it, i searched for that in the internet and looked that there is a clear cache or something in lightroom, i did it sometimes and its ok, but now, i did everything but the problem is still unsolved. and it's drivin me crazy dont know how to make it ok.

Click to expand...

Karin,

Having read all the other suggestions, I can only comment that you could avoid all those issues by getting a new system, running Windows 10 64-bit, with 8 or more GB of RAM, and a SSD of 256 GB for program and catalog storage, plus an EHD of 1 TB or more for image file storage. And consider an upgrade to LR 6 perpetual. (It is still offered by Adobe, although they don't make it easy to find on the website.)

Yes, this is a pricier alternative, but your current system may have reached its limits.

A temporary fix is to purchase an external drive and using Lr move your images from the internal drive to the new drive.

But .... you then need to purchase a second external drive to back up your images .... now you have the expense of two external drives and the hassle of managing them.

It is always tricky when you get close to capacity on a laptop or desktop.

Even if you upgrade or purchase a new machine you need to think about a backup strategy.

Finally...when you are that close to running out of space the risk of something else going wrong increases exponentially.

There are a lot of good suggestions posted so far. The first step is to see what your nett situation is if you can do a tidy up, but at the same time not delete anything important.

Just one other possibility to throw out there... what other devices are attached to your system? There have been issues with some phones/tablets/printers in the past, so just a quick one to rule out.

clee01l said:

I think oleleclos is close on his assessment.
With only 14GB available foe the Working storage AND the Swapfile, you are going to have problems. That LR is starting to freeze on import when it did not earlier suggest strongly that you had more free space available before. Begin by emptying the Recycle/Trash bin. These "deleted" files are also stored in that 14GB. Take a look at apps no longer used that can be uninstalled and data that can be deleted or moved to an external hard drive. If you don't already have an external disk that is attached to your computer (that is NOT dedicated to backup), consider buying one. A Terabyte EHD is quite cheap usually less than $100USD. With an EHD, you can move all of your cataloged images off of the C:\ drive and this alone will probably free up enough space for working storage. If your LR catalog backups are stored in "C:\Users\Karin\Pictures\Lightroom\Backups", you might do a little housekeeping and clear out older back up catalogs. You might move the ones that you keep and future catalog backup files to another drive where they will be safer when you primary (C:\) drive fails. If your C:\ drive is the original. and is over 3 years old, you can expect it to fail at any time. Make sure that you are making system backups and can restore everything stored on that C:\ drive. Also you should include any other EHDs in the system backup if your start moving data to and EHD.
LR is a multi core app and will use all of the logical processors available up to about 6. You have only 2 on your CPU which has to be shared between LR and all of the other apps and processes that are running alongside LR. When you consider getting a new computer, look for one with at least 4 cores (Logical processors).

With only 2 GB of RAM, your are going to be constantly swapping out active memory to the swapfile when programs or parts of programs no longer need to be resident. That swapfile "lives' in that 14GB of free space. If it is convenient, add an additional 2GB of RAM to your present machine. LR5 will consume up to 1GB of RAM when it is active.
Says LR as it was running when you took this snapshot needs 3/4GB of memory and only 394.0 MB is allotted to it by Windows. In addition to RAM, programs need file handles and threads that are assigned by the OS. If the OS runs out of file handles and LR is requesting more for import, the OS will refuse and LR will hang. Every process in multi threaded LR requires a thread assigned by the OS. The OS will limit the number of threads assigned to an app. While this number is quite large it is limited and during import, LR will try to import process many image files simultaneously. If the OS refuses the request, LR can hang waiting for its request to be filled.

You are currently running LR 5.7 with a perpetual license. The last free release for you is LR5.7.1 It contains some bug fixes that might correct issues in LR5.7. I don't think that your issue is caused by a bug, but it can only help if you are on the latest release of LR for your license.

If you decide to move some or all of your cataloged image files from C:\Pictures to an EHD, please come bak here for instructions on the best way to approach this so that the LR catalog file can keep track.

Click to expand...

WOW !!! thanks for this complete and full-explained answer ! I think i must go and check for new stuff on my pc, at least a new cpu and some more RAM, and maybe install new version of windows. cause every other acts on my pc is running truly slow. thanks for everything !

karin_karim said:

WOW !!! thanks for this complete and full-explained answer ! I think i must go and check for new stuff on my pc, at least a new cpu and some more RAM, and maybe install new version of windows. cause every other acts on my pc is running truly slow. thanks for everything !

Click to expand...

If you want to do all those upgrades, you can save yourself a LOT of hassle by gettin ga new system. With a 64-bit Windows, everything will run faster. Data transfers between the CPU and RAM will be faster, as will data transfers to/from the disk drive. (which should be an SSD for Windows and catalog data). Plus you avoid the hassle of upgrading Windows "in place." Only downside: you will need to re-install your programs on your new system. Get 64-bit versions if available.

Phil