Joe Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 I've been having problems with Lightroom, Photoshop and Finder not responding on my new MacBook Pro which I bought in May. Apart from the deathly slow wifi (at times), everything worked fine until about a week ago. After talking to Adobe support for hours and reinstalling creative cloud it seemed to be okay (ish). When i try to open an image in Photoshop, I get the spinning wheel and not responding message in activity manager. Finder also says not responding. I had a quick chat with apple who told me to reboot in safe mode. That solves the finder problem short term. If i click "get quick look" on a jpeg image in Finder I just get a grey window and spinning wheel. Creative cloud app says install Photoshop, which is already installed. Doesn`t give me the option to uninstall. I don't think I could survive another mammoth Adobe support session. Would resetting the Macbook to factory settings be an option? Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 (edited) A few questions. Have you got antivirus software installed? What are the specs of the Mac - how much RAM? Graphics? Is it 13 or 16 inch model? What happens if you turn WIFI off? Edited September 10, 2020 by MDM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 Michael, no antivirus installed. Macbook is 16 inch 16GB RAM. Graphics - AMD Radeon pro 5300M Intel UHD graphics 630 1536MB. If I turn wifi off and on it doesn't make much difference. I can live with it. We have a fast internet connection, so connecting via cable isn't a problem; if I'm in the same room. I had another "quick" session with adobe support who said it was something to do with permission... Photoshop and Lightroom running okay now. Lightroom is sluggish scrolling through thumbnails in library. Maybe because my images are on a WD external that is plugged into a USB/thunderbolt hub. Do you think buying a new cable to plug in external drive direct to laptop port would make a difference? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 The computer specs should be fine. It could well be the external drive but what type of drive is it (USB3 I presume)? Portable or desktop? I use Thunderbolt as well as USB 3 and all work well with images and catalogs on them. I would try it with a LR catalog on the internal drive with a few test images on it to see if it is the drive or the hub. Also how full is the external drive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 Thanks, Michael. I`ll give it a go. External is portable WD My Passport, 4TB with about 1.5TB free Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 (edited) I have several of those WD portables as backup drives but a few of them have gone bad so it might be the drive. They are not fast drives anyway and could slow a machine like yours down if used as the main image drive. Let’s know how you get on with running on the internal drive then. Edited September 10, 2020 by MDM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 Thanks, Michael. I`ll let you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shearwater Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 As MDM states, I would bet for the external HD. And would also check internal disk free space. Let us know your findings. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 (edited) With respect to Wi-Fi speed. I found my MacBook Pro's WiFi speed dropped massively when the lid was closed and I was connected to an external display. Probably some sort of interference issue? Luckily my Wi-Fi router offers both 2.5GHz and 5GHz channels. Swapping from the 2.5GHz to the 5GHz channel completely resolved it. With respect to 16GB RAM. If you see a significant processing speed slow down, it's always worth opening the Activity Monitor app and checking RAM and processor usage. If I'm seeing problems I keep the Activity Monitor app open so, if I see a problem, I can swap straight to it and see some history of resource usage. Mark Edited September 10, 2020 by M.Chapman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted September 11, 2020 Author Share Posted September 11, 2020 Jaime, 300GB free space on internal drive. Looks like an external drive/Mac issue. I tried moving around 200 images on the external drive to a new folder inside Lightroom and the laptop froze. Had to press the power button to turn it off. Mark, our router doesn't have the 5GHz option, only 2.4 GHz -20MHz Thanks Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted September 11, 2020 Share Posted September 11, 2020 (edited) 23 minutes ago, Joe said: Jaime, 300GB free space on internal drive. Looks like an external drive/Mac issue. I tried moving around 200 images on the external drive to a new folder inside Lightroom and the laptop froze. Had to press the power button to turn it off. Mark, our router doesn't have the 5GHz option, only 2.4 GHz -20MHz Thanks Joe Joe. I meant you to create a new catalog on the internal drive with a few images on the internal drive in it not try to copy within Lightroom from the external. It is important to create a new catalog on the internal, not use the main one if that is already on there. Leave the external drive unplugged. If that works then it suggests there is a problem with the external drive. If it doesn't then it is a problem with the Mac. If you don't have some spare images on the internal drive, copy a few manually from the external or just shoot a few new ones and add them. But make sure the external drive is unplugged. Edited September 11, 2020 by MDM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shearwater Posted September 11, 2020 Share Posted September 11, 2020 1 hour ago, MDM said: Joe. I meant you to create a new catalog on the internal drive with a few images on the internal drive in it not try to copy within Lightroom from the external. It is important to create a new catalog on the internal, not use the main one if that is already on there. Leave the external drive unplugged. If that works then it suggests there is a problem with the external drive. If it doesn't then it is a problem with the Mac. If you don't have some spare images on the internal drive, copy a few manually from the external or just shoot a few new ones and add them. But make sure the external drive is unplugged. +1. This way you isolate the possible problems. Start a new test catalog from scratch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted September 11, 2020 Share Posted September 11, 2020 8 minutes ago, shearwater said: +1. This way you isolate the possible problems. Start a new test catalog from scratch. Yes as it is also possible perhaps that the original catalog could be corrupt although that is probably unlikely. It is best to have the catalog on the internal drive or on a fast drive anyway (SSD, Thundebolt or even a desktop USB drive) even if the images are elsewhere. The WD portable USB drives are not fast enough. I have done tests on drive speeds and the portable WD MyPassport drives are much slower than the others. I use them for backup mainly and I used to swear by them but I have had a few of the 4TB ones start to go really slow when copying so I no longer really trust them. Reformatting made no difference either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted September 11, 2020 Share Posted September 11, 2020 (edited) Given that the Finder is crashing/hanging as is previewing images with quick look this suggests either a Mac problem (rather than an Adobe one) or more specifically an issue with the storage the images are on. Leaving aside Lightroom for a moment, try copying a few images to the internal storage on the Mac and see if there's any issue with opening them and previewing with the quick look feature. If the issue appears to be that the Mac is generally "unwell" then my experience suggests the internal storage may be on its way out, ie failing. If there is no other obvious cause (rogue software, high CPU usage, out of memory) the storage struggling to read and write as it goes bad can cause long periods of freezing. If you can rule out the problem to the external drive, it's likely to be that. Regarding the speed of the drive, as long as it is functioning properly even a slow drive shouldn't be this slow as to cause problems. Even cr@p drives can generally achieve 30-40MB/s transfer rates which for just moving data around is fine. I have a total of 5 (five!) external hard drives plugged into my Mac, some of which are absolutely ancient and still using USB2 enclosures (remember them?). Aside from the fact that USB2 is only half duplex most of the time I don't even notice the speed drop as the limitation is still caused by the spinning disks and the slower nature of random reads/writes. USB3 in most cases is absolutely wasted on the external storage it is often attached to, save for the advantage of full duplex. Anyway, waffling over, once you can isolate whether it's an external HD problem or not will give further clues. However, my gut feeling is given that you're also getting issues with Finder is that this is not an Adobe issue and I wouldn't, for now, be pursuing it further with them. Edited September 11, 2020 by Cal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted September 11, 2020 Author Share Posted September 11, 2020 Thanks, everyone for the advice/help. I've opened images in the current catalog and a new images in a new catalog from the internal drive and everything works fine: scrolling in Lightroom really fast... I connected the external WD drive again and could open folders and quick look in Finder. When I tried to open an image in Lightroom from the external i had the same problem; Lightroom and Finder not responding. Another of my WD externals doesn't show in desktop, another does and works fine. Maybe it´s the the USB hub I´m using. All of my external were working fine on my creaking old Dell last week. Lightroom never skipped a beat on that machine. Regretting dismantling and recycling it now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shearwater Posted September 11, 2020 Share Posted September 11, 2020 Great to know you have isolated the problem. I'm not fan of USB hubs...they usually create problems or at least slow down things. The cable(s) could be a problem too. I'm of the same opinion as MDM...WD external disks are quite slow. Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted September 11, 2020 Share Posted September 11, 2020 (edited) 57 minutes ago, Joe said: Thanks, everyone for the advice/help. I've opened images in the current catalog and a new images in a new catalog from the internal drive and everything works fine: scrolling in Lightroom really fast... I connected the external WD drive again and could open folders and quick look in Finder. When I tried to open an image in Lightroom from the external i had the same problem; Lightroom and Finder not responding. Another of my WD externals doesn't show in desktop, another does and works fine. Maybe it´s the the USB hub I´m using. All of my external were working fine on my creaking old Dell last week. Lightroom never skipped a beat on that machine. Regretting dismantling and recycling it now. Glad to help Joe. The WD disks may have been working fine on the old Dell but you have a very nice machine there and you are actually slowing it down using the WD portables as working drives (fine for backup). Imagine buying a new fast car and putting old worn tyres on it. Well it might work but it won't work properly and it might take you off the road. If you don't have room on the internal drive then I would suggest (strongly) that you invest in an external G-Technology portable SSD drive. These are available from Apple so you should be able to get one in Spain but that Jigsaw 24 price is a bargain and they are an excellent company. Alternatively a G-Tech Thunderbolt 3 desktop drive is fast, just not as fast as the SSD. Finally I would advise you to make sure that whatever files you have on the drive that is running slowly are backed up. It might be on the verge of failing. It's happened to me as I said. Edited September 11, 2020 by MDM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted September 11, 2020 Author Share Posted September 11, 2020 Thanks for the G Tech link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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