Speed up Adobe Lightroom Imports

If you are like me, your Lightroom imports can take forever.  Not all of us can afford high-end computer hardware to resolve this.  I came up with a process to speed up imports on MY computer.

Not getting into detailed how-to instructions here.  There's plenty of tutorials on the Internet, and many are FREE.  Try this one from Anthony Morganti: Lightroom 6 / Lightroom CC Training Videos.  He has videos for other version as well

However, please contact me if you need more help.

• Perhaps the best way to speed up imports is to import only photos you want to keep.  Some photos are just horrible, so why keep them? Note on the Import screen I unchecked several photos I don't want to import.  The fewer files to import, the faster the import.
• In the File Handling section on the upper right, Build Smart Previews and Make a Second Copy can both take a large amount of time.  I always recommend a Second Copy as a backup, but you can Build Smart Previews later, if you even want them.
• Setting fewer options manually will obviously save setup time.  
• Make extensive use of presets for anything you typically do to any photo, such as Develop Settings, Metadata and an overall Import preset containing all of the above.
• Make Develop presets in the Develop Module.
• Make Metadata presets in Library Module.
• Select these presets for an import in Apply During Import  on the right hand side.
• Set any other options on the import screen you will typically use, such as Location, Add to a Collection and Keywords.
• Now create an overall Import preset in Import Preset for all the above on the bottom center of the import screen.
• On future imports select your Import preset, again, at the bottom center.
• Note that after selecting your Import preset, you can still change any of the settings for a specific import
• You can also create multiple presets, if that helps.

Finally, run a long import when convenient, like overnight.

NOTE: Even though an import runs in the background, it can bog down your entire computer tremendously, so keep that in mind.  Frankly, I would close down all other programs when importing.

I'll be glad to let you know my personal preset settings, but that's outside the scope of this blog.

However, if I get enough requests for these settings, I'll do a blog post on those.

Hope these few simple ideas will help.

Happy Holidays