Really slow image browsing Build 6552 on Ventura

[dell2405]

I am on Macbook 14 M1 Max with 64gb RAM and switching through full screen images from Sony A1 RAW has become really slow. 
It takes about 2 seconds after hitting right arrow to display next preview image.  Is this just 6552 incompatablity with Ventura or somehting else?
I am running Capture 22 15.4.17(latest build) and it is extremely fast with full screen previews.

[ahoward]

All of our testing with Photo Mechanic on MacOS Ventura has not shown any issues with the interaction between our software and the new operating system. How long ago did you update to MacOS Ventura? For this kind of issue it is usually best if you can get in touch with our support team by phone at

+1 503.547.2888

Hours: Mon-Fri, 9:00am-5:00pm [PST/PDT]

If you'd like to set up a time for a call, you can send us an email at support@camerabits.com

[rhomberg]

Same here. PM is barely useable any more with Ventura on a M1 Max. Jumping from one picture to the next takes around 1.5 seconds.

Plus, there has long emerged horrible performance when scrolling through the thumbnails using the magic mouse touch scrolling. It can lock everything up for close to 10 seconds until PM finally becomes responsive again.


Is there any plans to bring out a native Apple Silicon Version at any point or will we be stuck with intel code forever? By now, Adobe Lightroom Classic has become lightning fast in comparison to Photo Mechanic 6. Which defeats PM's sole purpose. PM became slower and slower over the last years and came never anywhere near where the good old 32bit code has been performance wise. As of today, I would describe Photo Mechanic as the slowest piece of software on my entire mac – by far!

[ahmedphotos]

Ditto for me too. M1 MAX with 64GB Ram, same build, same Mac OS and the same issue with the slowness. Following this with a view to hopefully having a solution for all concerned.

[Kevin M. Cox]

As a data point, I'm not seeing any difference in speed on an Intel Mac mini after upgrading to Venutra.

I haven't upgrade my M1 laptop yet however.

[rhomberg]

I just did some testing and invested more time since this issue essentially makes us unable to do any work anyways. You cannot cull pictures when you need to wait more than a second after you press any key.

Turns out: The issue must be related to a second screen. PM performs as before only when BOTH its windows are on the MacBook's OWN display. No influence if a second screen is connected or not. Though once EITHER of the PM windows are moved over to the external screen, performance gets immediately 50x worse. Move both the the external screen and performance gets 200x worse.

In the past year or so I was used to absolutely unusable performance in the preview window as long as the thumbnails were displayed in a large window on an external screen in the background of the preview window for a long time now. Making the thumbnail window tiny in the background so that it only showed a few pictures before hitting the space button was a workaround I had to use. But now it's bad performance always on the external screen.

Camera Bits: That might be the reason you were not able to reproduce the issue when another user complained about the speed issue on Venture a whole month ago! You there wrote that your only Ventura test machine seems to be a MacBook Pro. I assume you have no external screen connected or you did never use it to test PM.


Please, everyone else – try to work around it in the meantime by using PM only on your MacBook's own screen and let them know if that fixes it. No idea about the Studio Mac though. 

[ahoward]

Turns out: The issue must be related to a second screen. PM performs as before only when BOTH its windows are on the MacBook's OWN display. No influence if a second screen is connected or not. Though once EITHER of the PM windows are moved over to the external screen, performance gets immediately 50x worse. Move both the the external screen and performance gets 200x worse.

Okay, I just tested your findings with my test machine and external monitor, adjust every setting I would think could impact performance and could not reproduce anything matching what you are describing. Perhaps there is a factor here we are not considering. It may be best if you send us an email at support@camerabits.com with a phone number we can reach you at and a time during our business hours (9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday) so we can work with you directly on this issue. Hopefully we can look into the issue you've been experiencing over the past year as well.

[mrfearless47]

Using PM6 (6552) on a Mac Studio Ultra (20 CPU, 48 GPU, 32 ML cores, 64 GB).  Machine updated to Ventura (had been running beta as well) release build.  I'm not seeing any slowdown whatsoever under Ventura.  Nikon Z9 images just fly by browsing.

[rhomberg]

@ahoward Thanks for giving it a try, that's weird indeed! Is your external Monitor a Retina / HiDPI one? That might be a difference. I think I remember the issues started for me once I ditched the old monitor that had non-retina resolution. Now what we come to see on Ventura might just be an amplification of the same underlying problem?

Also make sure it's set up as a 2nd active screen maybe, not a mirror or so. FWIW my screen is connected via USB-C/Thunderbolt, which I guess is then basically using DisplayPort. Not sure about that. Anyways it's not HDMI is what I'm saying.

See this quick video just to give you an idea about the scrolling performance I am experiencing only with PM:
https://www.veed.io/view/eb4c5f24-dd50-446b-9c87-f0999bbb3a5c
(online for 24h – maybe someone knows a better service to host?)

This is why I never scroll in PM 

What time zone are your business hours based on?

[ahoward]

What time zone are your business hours based on?

Pacific Time Zone, sorry, forgot to include.

I watched your video. Yes, that is really bad. I definitely want to look into this further with you.

[rhomberg]

Thanks, I'll send you my details by mail, we can set up a call in the morning probably. I am UTC+1 and therefore 8 hours ahead.

[Brofessional]

Same problem.

2021 MBP 16 inch M1 max, 32GB Ram
PM6 Version 6.0, build 6552 (1b31032)
External display LG 27UP850

Updated to Mac OS Ventura, and working with external display almost impossible. Any action takes almost 2 seconds, image browsing like laggy slideshow.
Without external display is perfect and smooth.

[ahoward]

Same problem.

2021 MBP 16 inch M1 max, 32GB Ram
PM6 Version 6.0, build 6552 (1b31032)
External display LG 27UP850

Updated to Mac OS Ventura, and working with external display almost impossible. Any action takes almost 2 seconds, image browsing like laggy slideshow.
Without external display is perfect and smooth.

What resolution do you have that external display set to? Can you post a screenshot of its display settings window in System settings?

[Dominik Pluess]

Using PM6 (6552) on a Mac Studio Ultra (20 CPU, 48 GPU, 32 ML cores, 64 GB).  Machine updated to Ventura (had been running beta as well) release build.  I'm not seeing any slowdown whatsoever under Ventura.  Nikon Z9 images just fly by browsing.

I have the same configuration, but it's slower. Are you using the Apple Studio Display? Do you use NEF or JPG or NEF and JPG?

[dannyngan]

I'm also encountering noticeably slower performance on PM Plus Build 6552 under Ventura on my 2021 13" M1 MacBook Pro. Stepping through images in the Preview window goes at roughly 2-3 images per second which is entirely too slow. I press the arrow key and there's a slight pause before the next image shows up. Holding down the arrow key is basically a slideshow instead of rapidly blasting through images. It was easily twice as fast before updating to Ventura. By comparison, Lightroom and Capture One scroll through images so fast when holding down the arrow key that I can't actually see every image. This has caused my image reviews to go so much slower, especially on high-volume shoots (I cover mostly events and concerts). I am not using an external display either, since I often review and edit on-site.