Compacting LightRoom database

Using the SQLite database browser to compact my Lightroom database of about 20 000 nefs has made a big difference to performance. This option probably needs to be added to LightRoom (just as OutLook Express offers to compact its databases every now and again).



If you haven't tried it, download the browser from http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlitebrowser/ . Install it and open your lightroom database and then choose File%26gt;Compact Database.
Compacting LightRoom database
I just had to try this and I --think-- the startup time have decreased quite a bit on my machine. It seems to be ready to do real work much quicker ;)



Not sure about the overall performance, but it looks very promising



But can this impact the database in any way ?? I made sure I had a valid backup before doing this !!



Great find, Bob !!



Regards,

Oddee
Compacting LightRoom database
I've got it installed as well but just can't bring myself to hit the button - will be watching further replies to this thread with interest before deciding.

I think I will wait and see what the pro's say.

There was a post recommending this about 6 weeks ago. THanks for the reminder, I'll go and do it.%26lt;br /%26gt;%26lt;br /%26gt;As with anytime you mess with a DB, take a backup first. The easiest way is to copy the file %USERPROFILE%\My Documents\My Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Database.lrdb to another location then run the compress. Lightroom backs up it's DB into the subdirectory of backups in the above directory. %26lt;br /%26gt;%26lt;br /%26gt;%USERPROFILE% is a system variable which is usually set to c:\documents and settings\%26lt;user name%26gt;\%26lt;br /%26gt;%26lt;br /%26gt;John Gregson
Adobe does not support nor has Adobe tested this procedure so proceed at your own risk. Caveats aside, the procedure does have the potential to improve Lightroom performance. Please make sure to back up your current Lightroom database and close Lightroom before compacting the database.



Regards,

Tom Hogarty

%26gt;Caveats aside, the procedure does have the potential to improve Lightroom performance.



And indeed it has in my experience, Tom. I hope you guys are looking into making it part of the package. And thanks for checking in on this.

Thanks for those comments Tom. I've done this a few times now, and can't see any problems as a result. I'm on a PC, so could be different on a Mac I suppose.

Hi, I have 10k photos in LR and I have not noticed any measurable improvement in the start-up time for LR after compacting the database.



My system is around 3 years old but is still quite reasonable: I am running Win XP-SP2, 2.8GHz P4 (HT), 2GB RAM with 3 10k rpm Raptors. The LR database is on a separate drive to the OS.



It still takes around 45s for the startup screen to disappear and LR only becomes responsive (i.e. hour-glass disappears) after 1 minute and 15s. This timing is the same if I re-start the program.



When I only had a couple of hundred images in LR the program would startup in around 10 seconds.



Regards, Nigel

%26gt; and LR only becomes responsive (i.e. hour-glass disappears) after 1 minute and 15s.



Oh, that's gotta hurt! I can't say that I timed it here before compacting, but it seems quicker since. Intitial startup time is 18 seconds ready to go, subsequent startup only 8 seconds. I have 15,000 in the library.

I'm afraid that it what you have to expect with an old computer!! I've just upgraded mine to core2duo processors, and LightRoom and Capture Nx are now very usable.



For instance, with 23 000 images referenced in my LightRoom database (and after compaction) the splash screen disappears in 4 secs (four!). My 3.2 P4 processors used to be flat out trying to cope with LightRoom and Capture Nx. Now the core2duo rarely goes above 50%.



I have 2xraptors in Raid0 for the system and database, with the pagefile on another HD, and the images on another - all backed up onto a second computer.

I ran the SQLite command folks are talking about against my Lr DB (and Apple Mail DB) and it shrunk it a bit. I noted no other difference.

I would really like to try this - but don't understand how to install the browser - I've downloaded 4 files from Surgeforce - but can't find any installation notes. Aslo - do I need QT for it and where can I get that?

Peter, on Windows at least, there is no installation required. Just unzip the SQLite browser to a folder and then double-click on it.

Thanks - once I'd put a MSVCR71.dll in the same directory worked a treat! Size reduction wasn't very great (12,000 files) but it definitely opens faster.

I have a 8,000 image database with lots of keywords. Running Lightroom on WinXP CoreDuo 2GHz/2GB as well as MBPro Core2Duo 2.16GHz/2GB. Database and referenced files are on a FW400 external hard drive. On my Mac there wasn't that much of a difference, but the difference on Win is huge. Database had a small file size savings but the impact on database opening and hourglass disappearing so I can start editing is significant. Also makes scrolling through pages of images much faster. I've made backup of database but so far have not found anything missing or corrupted.