Why is PM5 suddenly slower than Lightroom?

[jshorephoto]

I am posting here because two direct support requests have been ignored (except for an automated “we have received your message”). 

I am running Photo Mechanic version 5, build 13915 on Windows 7x64, installed on a SSD (30GB free space), running on a 12-core 3.2GHz CPU with 32GB memory.

Until recently, PM5 was in my workflow because it was considerably faster than Lightroom (including LR5, which is what I run now).   No more.   

About a week ago the performance of PM5 changed suddenly.   It’s now always slow when changing how images are sorted (e.g., from Tagged to Untagged) - "sort in progress" appears for a long time at the bottom left.  And quite often (but not always),  PM5 is  very slow when moving through images while tagging some of them.   It’s now faster for me to skip PM5 and do all of my initial culling and ranking in LR5.   

None of the following have made any difference:   (a) resetting all preferences to factory defaults; (b) increasing cache size; (c) uninstalling and re-installing PM5.   As far as I know, there were no substantive changes to my system (installations, etc.) that coincided with the PM5 slowdown. 

I would appreciate any solutions or advice.   

[Kirk Baker]

I am posting here because two direct support requests have been ignored (except for an automated “we have received your message”). 

I take it you used the website form? I'll check with the support folks and find out if there is something wrong it.  There are other methods of contacting support:

Email them at support@camerabits.com
Call them 503-547-2888

I am running Photo Mechanic version 5, build 13915 on Windows 7x64, installed on a SSD (30GB free space), running on a 12-core 3.2GHz CPU with 32GB memory.

Until recently, PM5 was in my workflow because it was considerably faster than Lightroom (including LR5, which is what I run now).   No more.   

About a week ago the performance of PM5 changed suddenly.   It’s now always slow when changing how images are sorted (e.g., from Tagged to Untagged) - "sort in progress" appears for a long time at the bottom left.  And quite often (but not always),  PM5 is  very slow when moving through images while tagging some of them.   It’s now faster for me to skip PM5 and do all of my initial culling and ranking in LR5.   

None of the following have made any difference:   (a) resetting all preferences to factory defaults; (b) increasing cache size; (c) uninstalling and re-installing PM5.   As far as I know, there were no substantive changes to my system (installations, etc.) that coincided with the PM5 slowdown. 

I'd like to see your PM.log file.  You can generate a compressed version of it by going to the Help menu in Photo Mechanic and choosing "Reveal Support Data..."  You can either post it to your reply here, or send me a personal message (click on my name to the left of this message) and I'll give you an email address to send your file as an attachment.

In the meantime, I suggest a full preferences reset, which you can do by following the instructions in this post:

http://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=8219.0

-Kirk

[jshorephoto]

Thanks.  I'll generate a PM.log file and send later today (can't do it right now).   

In the meantime, please note that (as mentioned in my post) a full preferences reset was the first thing I tried. 

(P.S. - yes, I used the web form; I also emailed support@camerabits.com directly.)   

[Kirk Baker]

Thanks.  I'll generate a PM.log file and send later today (can't do it right now).   

In the meantime, please note that (as mentioned in my post) a full preferences reset was the first thing I tried. 

You followed the instructions in that post or did you do some other method?

-Kirk

[jshorephoto]

(Yes, I followed the reset preferences instructions in that post, although I had found them here: http://wiki.camerabits.com/en/index.php?title=Preferences#Windows)   

I have attached the PM.log file, but I think I may have solved (but not understood) the problem.   I looked at the log file and noticed a lot of messages "could not open [path]/desktop.ini" for "rb" access.  Sleeping 500ms and trying again", so I deleted the desktop.ini file.  Now PM is considerably faster.

That said, I did not create the desktop.ini file and I have not changed my pre-PM (import) workflow in any way, so I don't know how it got there.   I found a desktop.ini file in a few other image directories (indeed, ones where I had the same problem).   I don't know why or how desktop.ini files are created (although I've read that they have to do with folder customization).   

So... (a) do you think that the desktop.ini files cause the problem?   (b) can you guess how they got created?  (c) why should their presence slow down PM?   (Perhaps the right question is why can't PM open them?)

Thanks.




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[Kirk Baker]

(Yes, I followed the reset preferences instructions in that post, although I had found them here: http://wiki.camerabits.com/en/index.php?title=Preferences#Windows)   

I have attached the PM.log file, but I think I may have solved (but not understood) the problem.   I looked at the log file and noticed a lot of messages "could not open [path]/desktop.ini" for "rb" access.  Sleeping 500ms and trying again", so I deleted the desktop.ini file.  Now PM is considerably faster.

That said, I did not create the desktop.ini file and I have not changed my pre-PM (import) workflow in any way, so I don't know how it got there.   I found a desktop.ini file in a few other image directories (indeed, ones where I had the same problem).   I don't know why or how desktop.ini files are created (although I've read that they have to do with folder customization).   

So... (a) do you think that the desktop.ini files cause the problem?   (b) can you guess how they got created?  (c) why should their presence slow down PM?   (Perhaps the right question is why can't PM open them?)

Thanks.

They're definitely not files that PM would normally use.  I'll add a filter to the next build of PM5 and make it ignore them when they're present.

-Kirk

[jshorephoto]

Thanks Kirk.