Aperture running at a crawl since lion upgrade

Aperture worked resanble on my 27inch 2011 iMac with 4GB. But I noticed that when I did noise it became very slow. So I went out and bought 8GB extra memory. Now Aperture work good on my iMac. I have about 6000 RAW files referenced.

So I thing more memory is a good idea.

sorinfromtoronto wrote:

For those with 4GB of memory it appears that switching to 32 bit mode will reduce the active working set size to less than 2GB, which allows the system to run well, without excessive page outs.

For those with 8GB, other factors may come into play: size of library, refenced files or not, time machine, need to rebuild/fix the db, etc. This is why some of the users with 8GB seem to be able to improve the performance without switching to 32 bit.

The average working set in 64 bit mode is just under 5GB, which is very high. Apple can fix this or issue a release note explaining memory requirements.

The reason for 64 bit is to be able to use larger memories, so this is not something that needs a "fix" from Apple. 32 bits fits nicely in Macs with smaller RAM.

That said, I can't find any general Apple advice on settings apps to 32 bit mode. Yet.

I had the same problem on my late-2009 MBP 2.8 with 4GB RAM. Think I found a temp (until Apple updates Aperture) solution.

I was reading through threads and discovered talk about the 64-bit-ness of Lion and "only" having 4GB of RAM.

My Aperture had turned GLACIAL after the Lion update.

I simply selected 32-bit mode in Aperture's Get Info window and Aperture runs much better - back to it's old Snow Leopard peppy self.

Worked for me!

Peter, I have consolidated my advice above in the posting at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3238726

Hi guys,

I found this thread after Googling around for an answer for the same problem. Yes, since upgrading to Lion, Aperture 3.1.3 has been running GLACIAL for me as well, almost to the point of being unusable, and I never had a problem like this under Snow Leopard.

After not being able to stand it any longer, my analysis of the situation is the following: it seems like Spotlight is trying to re-index the entire Aperture library (mine is huge) every single time the program is started.

Even after the inital Lion upgrade Spotlight re-index has finished (it's not this), you will see mdworker thrashing away at your hard disk in the background while you're trying to run Aperture, every time. In my case, this never finishes. Every time you re-open Aperture, it will do it again.

Before you start Aperture, run in the Terminal: sudo fs_usage

Then start up Aperture, and watch the mdworker process start thrashing through every single image and preview file you have in your library.

This very much explains the horrible application performance. So for me, it's no so much that Lion needs more RAM or some horrible new Aperture memory leak, it's the hard disk being scanned at full speed by a background process.

The temporary solution is to go into System Preferences->Spotlight->Privacy and add the ~/Pictures directory to list of places for Spotlight to not index. (You can't add only the Aperture Library file.)

This solved 90% of my post-Snow Leopard performance degradation. I also tried the earlier hint of setting the Aperture binary to run in 32-bit mode and that helps a bit as well. Between the two, that gets me almost back to my Snow Leopard level of speed.

The other earlier hints that said to remove the Aperture Library from Time Machine may be related to this. I believe Time Machine does something with Spotlight before or during the backup. But once I blocked that directory from Spotlight directly, it did the trick. My Aperture library is still set to get backed up by Time Machine.

I'm not sure about the internals of why this is happening and I know Apple doesn't read or care about these forums, but what were they thinking? Aperture is one of their marquee, professional applications and they specifically released a new update for Lion compatability. Did no one test this before Lion was released?!! Please fix this Apple! Alas, this is the type of thing early adopters of Apple vX.0 releases have unfortunately grown used to.

I have the same problem. Old macBook Pro with core2duo.

With Snowleopard Aperture worked fine. Since I upgraded to Lion Aperture kills my Mac. I switched of Spotlight for the entire Pictures Folder, told it not to index any Picture at all (in the prefs), switched of TimeMachine, but nothing helped.

Even when I try to open a project with only jpgs in it (about 20 pics) it takes aperture over 30 seconds to render the view of a picture.

Creating a new empty project takes 20 seconds till the icon appears, to rename it I had to wait another 30 seconds.

Now my MBP was working for the last 24 hours to export about 8500 pictures, so I can switch back to iPhoto...

For my raw workflow I use Bibble, which is not updated for Lion but so much faster, that I can even work on my Mac while importing raw files. By the way, that is what I think is normal on multicore machines. But Aperture takes so much of my Mac, that, if it locks the screen, I cannot even re-login. It takes about five minutes to show up the login dialog.

greetings

Sven

I did not upgrade to Lion yet, but since the 3.1.3 update Aperture is running terribly slowly.

I have a 2x2.8 QuadCore MacPro (Early 2008) with 12 GB of RAM and 10.6.8. My Library is comprised of 17K images.

Even while idle (I mean, just launch the app and... do nothing), Aperture uses around 150% of my CPUs. The used RAM is something around 2 GB. The rest of the system becomes very slow and unresponsive - it wasn't like that prior to 3.1.3...! Up to 3.1.2, I could easily work on Aperture (which was fast) while listening to some music and keeping my mail client opened in the background...

Repairing permissions did not fix the issue (there was nothing to repair though).

I've been having similar problems on my mid 2010 MBP w 4 gigs and no proir paperture issues. I looked at Activity Monitor and believe the problem at least in part is memory usage. In 64 bit aperture begins to consume most of my 4 Gigs and the swap files goes up dramatically. After switching A3 to 32 bit, the speed increases to pre problem levels (so far) and the memory usage improves dramatically. I also stopped "Spotlighting" my aperture folder but I'll turn that back on soon. Aperture has been 64 bit for a while so it is either version 3.1.3 or Lion or a combination.

Hi there,

i have a 2x2.66 HGH 6 core Intel Xeon with 32 GBgb RAM and a SSD start up disk with 3 multiple screens.

before Lion this somehow worked. This is the fastest Mac there is on the market, right?!

since Lion its an absolute nightmare, the program keeps freeying and if its not freezing i might as well do it by hand, its realllllllly slow. its embarrassing after spending soo much money on hardware and software.

also multiple screens are terribly supported by apple.

when you buy it you can read how many screens the graphic card supports and i even got the better and faster graphic card but the software support isnt there.

R

Raphael.

Sorry to hear about your issues of freezing and poor performance with Aperture. There are a lot of discussions suggesting actions to take, but clearly this is not the common one related to insufficient RAM!

On the subject of the new Lion "support" for multiple screens, I would encourage you to take this up with Apple.

I have an iMac with three screens and have gone back to Snow Leopard because the 2nd and 3rd screens are no longer usable under Lion with Aperture in fullscreen mode.

I have taken the following actions:-

• Provided feedback to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/aperture.html
• Provided feedback to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
• Submitted a bug/enhancement request via my free Apple Developer account
• Written to pretty much every mainstream Mac publication
• Encouraged every poster, like yourself, to raise this with Apple in your own words
• Next week, I will call Apple Support under the AppleCare agreement for my iMac

Please give them feedback, and we might get this silly design decision changed.

We did not buy three monitors to have two of them limited to displaying fake linen!

Hi John

thank you for your reply.

yes, this is not the right place, i get a bit lost in all these forums. i hardly am ever on any. stupid, i should take a bit more advantage and give to the community in this respect but honestly i am a bit lost with all these support and questions forums on the web.

anyway, yes, i do have a problem with the multiple screens. and my aperture keeps crashing but maybe it is because of that. i think that is what you were implying right?

i will follow your recommendations and write to these feedback platforums

and maybe i should go back to SnowLeopard. its always the same story. i get all excited, new system software but if we were smart we should wait half a year until all the kinks are out.

i hope this is considered a kink.....same story with FCP...ugha

Raphael

Raphael,

No I don't think the Aperture crashes are related to the multiple screens. When I tried Aperture under Lion with multiple screens on both my MBP and my iMac, I did not get any crashes. No problems apart from the one of turning expensive monitors into fake wallpaper!

And this is a fine place to post Aperture issues. You did the right thing! However, Apple doesn't use these Apple Support Communities as a way for us to communicate with Apple. It's for us users to talk to each other.

When users can't help you, and it looks like an issue requires Apple to take action, then it's time to use the formal Apple feedback mechanisms.

You may well find a cure to your crash/performance woes in these discussions. Keep looking. If you have AppleCare or are still in the Aperture support window, then you should also contact Apple Support.

But on the issue of multiple monitor "support" under Lion, this looks like it was a deliberate design decision. Not a good design decision, but it's probably not a bug, and certainly is not something that any user has come with a cure for, so you had better contact Apple.

If enough customers push back on this design decision, we may get an option, say in System Preferences, to not blank out secondary screens when an app goes into fullscreen mode.

I just got home from vacation, and imported about 500 photos.

I fired up Aperture to start tagging, and noticed I couldn't do ANYTHING. Super-slow.

I searched and found this thread.

As I was reading this thread, it dawned on me that my external drive (where my Aperture library lives) was chug-chug-chugging. Time Machine was not doing a backup, and I wondered if this contributed to the problem.

In Activity Monitor, I saw that the process mdworker (user _spotlight) was using 55% or more of my CPU.

I'm no system expert, but I image that Spotlight was busy indexing all of the new images I'd imported. ?

I let it sit for a half hour or so. When the chugging was done, I fired up Aperture and it now seems to be operating normally. Not sure if my problem is related to anyone else's, but I feel like I can now do stuff.

More anecdotal evidence that Spotlight is the culprit, or at least a contributor: When I edit a picture to share in email, go to Safari to email that new photo via Gmail, it does not show up in the media browser. Older photos do, but the new one is invisible.

This approach used to work, but no longer does.

{Of course, I can drag the photo to the desktop to quickly create a jpeg, or export to the Apple mail client, but my point is that something new is happening if a file that exists can not be seen in the media browser.}

Same issue here Aperture incredibly slow on Lion compared to Snow Leopard. Also have noticed reduced quality of previews after upgrade (very pixilated). Was running 64bit in Snow Leopard as well so I don't believe the 32 vs 64 bit recommendations I have heard is the fix. Issue has been consistent even after initial index of the drive that Lion does. Since I process upwards of 100,000 photographs a year thought Aperture it is critical that Aperture is fast.

Running both a Mac Pro 2x3Ghz Dual Core Intel Xeon with 12GB RAM and 1900XT GPU with 1TB main drive and 2TB Mirrored RAID vault using referenced files, as well as a MBP 15in dual 2.4Ghz with 4GB RAM. Both computers are experiencing the same issues though not getting the Beach Ball of Death it's still dog slow and doesn't seem to be tapping the processors over 50% when checking system stats. RAM usage is also leveraging only about 4GB of the 12GB that I have on the Mac Pro. I seriously hope that Apple gets a update out soon to fix this issue.