New update causes painfully slow import time

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Level 1

9 points

New update causes painfully slow import time

Is anyone else feeling the pain of REALLY slow imports? On a typical shoot, I may have more than 1,000 images to import. I never had a problem before this recent update to 3.3.1. Before, it took, I don't know, maybe 20 minutes to upload all the photos (RAW 12 megapixel files), plus some time for processing. Now, it takes 20 minutes to import just 75 images. So last night, I did the import of 900 before I went to sleep. I imagine it took two or more hours.

I have the previews set to standard, and nothing else appears to be different from before. It just seems kind of ridiculous.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Jul 12, 2012 8:16 PM

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Answer 1

Frohmaster Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 12, 2012 8:34 PM in response to Frohmaster

OBSERVATION. I am now importing 271 RAW files. It took about 10 minutes to create the previews ... not sure why it's doing this. Now, it's 'copying files', and is taking about 10 seconds for every single photo, or about 45 minutes for the lot. And I still have a second card with more than 900 images. I can't wait for that one!!!

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

194,755 points

Jul 12, 2012 8:44 PM in response to Frohmaster

Your Aperture library may be damaged. I did not notice any new slowness when importing with Aperture 3.3.1. If your Aperture library is causing this, then the import should be much faster, if you import into a new, empty library - you may want to make test import to compare import times.

If it is indeed the library, use the Aperture "Library First Aid Tools" to repair the permissions and to repair the database:

Repairing and Rebuilding Your Aperture Library

http://documentation.apple.com/en/aperture/usermanual/index.html#chapter=27%26se ction=10%26tasks=true

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Answer 3

Frohmaster Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 12, 2012 8:50 PM in response to léonie

I guess I can look into that, however, I did create a fresh new library after I noticed the slowdown, and it's still just as slow.

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Answer 4

Jul 12, 2012 9:02 PM in response to Frohmaster

It's worth getting to the bottom of. Importing is (afaict) faster on 3.3.1 than it was on 3.2.x. Have you checked your drives and cards?

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

194,755 points

Jul 12, 2012 9:03 PM in response to Frohmaster

If you do not need the previews immediately, I would turn off the automatic generation of previews and the face detection.

Another possible reason for slowness when importing may be a lack of disk space. Do you have less than 20% free disk space on your system drive or the volume where your original images are stored? Are your originals referenced and on a network drive?

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Answer 6

Frohmaster Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 12, 2012 9:05 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

I'll continue to look into it. At first I thought it might have been my card reader. So I tried an import via USB cable to my camera. Then I bought a new card reader. I have libraries on several drives, and on my computer's hard drive, and so far, they are all running the same way.

It's now been 45 minutes, and it still has 75 files of the 271 left to copy.

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Answer 7

Frohmaster Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 23, 2012 10:59 AM in response to Frohmaster

PROBLEM SOLVED?!! I believe I found the 'problem' that was causing the slowdown. It was the USB port. Only one on the iMac is actually a high speed bus. In copying the exact same files to my desktop, transferring from one USB port took almost 45 minutes. The exact same files from another USB port took less than two minutes. Crazy. I don't think I always used the same ports in the past, so maybe something happened. But I'm happy again at last. For now anyway.

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Answer 8

Mar 11, 2013 9:45 AM in response to Frohmaster

had same issue (macbook pro, latest osx, canon dslr), and same solution - switch usb port, all good! crazy.

thanks!!!!!

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