Photoshop CS4 Slow to Open Files

[Jeff Mottle]

For some reason I'm finding that PS SC4 is taking a really long time to open even small files. I've ruled out the network by moving the files locally, but even a 50K file takes 3-5 seconds to load. I read that the issue could be related to network printer drivers so I uninstalled all of them and still the problem persists. Any ideas?

[SandmanNinja]

That's interesting.

 

I put CS4 on my i7 and it seems to perform well. I do extensive photoshopping of photographs I take for my photography biz, so they are quite large (for me - start around 8-10 megs, when I'm through about 40-50 megs). I must do hundreds a day and don't have an issue with loading files. An 8-10 meg file takes about a second - maybe 2 - to load. Not sure, it happens pretty quick.

 

No RAID on the i7, running XP64, 6 gig DDR3 Corsair RAM, nVidia 9800GT with a gig of DDR3 video ram, Dual 22" ViewSonic monitors (VA2226W), 2 Physical 500-gig HD (nothing special about them)

 

The files are local on my data (D drive) and I have no printers assigned (other than Adobe PDF).

 

The computer is networked to my Q6600, and I have a laser printer attached to the Q6600. I can try to map a network printer for you, if you like.

 

The router is a simple ADSL DLink Router that I use for my internet connection.

 

I run Defraggler (a free and very awesome Defragging program) and I keep the C: and the D: to below 50% (I think the C: is about 90% free and the D: is about 70% free).

 

If your drive is chockers, perhaps try reducing the used space to below 50%? That was the "old" Thrash level for hard drives.

[Jeff Mottle]

The open speed seems to be the same whether they are on my SSD or from my RAID 5 network server. slow. Clearly there is something getting in the way here.

 

I have an i7 12GB RAM (Local = SSD RAID 0 / Network= RAID 5 Raptors over gigabit LAN) Video card is an ATI 8750

 

My local drive is not even 50% full yet and only a week old so fragmentation is not an issue. The fact that network vs local is the same tells me that it has to be software. Might have to pay for an incident report with Adobe tomorrow.

[Jeff Mottle]

Another interesting development. If I batch open the files and perform some actions on them via the Automate command, they open fast. In fact it can probably open 2-3 files and process them faster than I can open the image in Photoshop manually.

[SandmanNinja]

Hmmm....

So, once the open progress begins, the data flows in real fast.

 

What about if you just drop a photo onto your open photoshop app?

Any difference in speed?

 

I wonder if it's a Vista thing?

I googled: adobe photoshop cs4 slow performance

An update that addressed "a number of performance issues" was released:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4292

It's 35 megs - try that.

 

What type of file are you opening? Try opening a different type of file and see if that makes a difference. I know - weird - but this is a weird problem. And I bet Adobe will say "Download the latest patch/update" and since you aren't 'down', they'll give it a low priority to resolve.

[Jeff Mottle]

tried drag n drop open as well from the Open menu. Tried JPG, PSD and TIF, all slow to open. The file sizes ranged from a few KB to 20MB and both opened at about the same speed.

 

I also have the latest patch already installed.

[Dave Buchhofer]

This may seem odd, but I've on occasion run into issues where i had an old mapped drive that was no longer there slowing down *most* of my explorer based actions.

 

If you're really keen on seeing whats happening, you could check out ProcMon by sysinternals/microsoft, recently i figured out that our switch to a domain distributed file system was slowing everything down immensely (~10 seconds per directory change in explorer.) using procmon, but be warned it is a ridiculous amount of information overload as it records everything the OS does. If you do try it out, you can add a highlight filter to only show items in the list that have a duration over say 1ms, to narrow down the massive list.

[SandmanNinja]

That's true.

 

Windows networking has a time-out value for mapped drives.

Since it can't tell WHY a networked drive may be slow (network congestion? bad cabling? could be any reason), Windows will wait a given amount of time anytime a File -> Open command is issued.

 

Go to: File -> Run -> and type CMD & hit enter

type NET USE and hit enter (or NET USE > c:\DRIVES.TXT which makes the output go to a text file on the root of your c: drive and allow you to study it)

Look for any drive letter that may be DISCONNECTED. Look at the pathing and see if you really need it or if it's left over from some older network configuration.

Disconnect it and then re-run the NET USE and see if it disappears.

 

IF you had one, then the file i/o should be faster on the initial open.

 

NOTE: This has nothing to do with you actually clicking on File and Open.

If the same command is issued INTERNALLY by the operating system, it will be forced to wait for the network timeout value.

[classix]

Hi,

make your default printer a local one. This helps with Photoshop CS3.

Nice bug.

 

Marcus

www.einherzfuerpixel.de

[Matt McDonald]

Hi,

make your default printer a local one. This helps with Photoshop CS3.

 

Really? Has anyone else experienced this?

[SandmanNinja]

Seems it has been reported:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/372521

Yeah, I can confirm Photoshop CS3 is slow as hell on Vista Home Premium 64-bit.

I've done pretty much everything that can be done to speed up Vista - disabled aero, indexing and tons of other stuff. There's no extra software running in background - fresh install + performance tweaking and disabling M$ annoyware.

and

 

OK, another couple of minutes spent browsing Google search results narrowed down the issue to the network printer. Apparently the problem is that I have one ;-) - connected to #1, so it's the box that is unaffected.

Setting the default printer to a dummy local one solves the performance problem.

(Another reason I love XP64)

 

Good catch, Marcus (hopefully it's help Jeff)

[Jeff Mottle]

That's true.

 

Windows networking has a time-out value for mapped drives.

Since it can't tell WHY a networked drive may be slow (network congestion? bad cabling? could be any reason), Windows will wait a given amount of time anytime a File -> Open command is issued.

 

Go to: File -> Run -> and type CMD & hit enter

type NET USE and hit enter (or NET USE > c:\DRIVES.TXT which makes the output go to a text file on the root of your c: drive and allow you to study it)

Look for any drive letter that may be DISCONNECTED. Look at the pathing and see if you really need it or if it's left over from some older network configuration.

Disconnect it and then re-run the NET USE and see if it disappears.

 

IF you had one, then the file i/o should be faster on the initial open.

 

NOTE: This has nothing to do with you actually clicking on File and Open.

If the same command is issued INTERNALLY by the operating system, it will be forced to wait for the network timeout value.

 

The only drive that shows up is the network drive I mapped to my NAS, so that looks ok.

[Jeff Mottle]

Hi,

make your default printer a local one. This helps with Photoshop CS3.

Nice bug.

 

Marcus

www.einherzfuerpixel.de

 

Yeah I read about this on CS3 and tried that. Even uninstalled my network printer too. I did try making my PDF printer the default. It did not help though.

[Jeff Mottle]

This may seem odd, but I've on occasion run into issues where i had an old mapped drive that was no longer there slowing down *most* of my explorer based actions.

 

If you're really keen on seeing whats happening, you could check out ProcMon by sysinternals/microsoft, recently i figured out that our switch to a domain distributed file system was slowing everything down immensely (~10 seconds per directory change in explorer.) using procmon, but be warned it is a ridiculous amount of information overload as it records everything the OS does. If you do try it out, you can add a highlight filter to only show items in the list that have a duration over say 1ms, to narrow down the massive list.

 

Dave, you're my hero. And I can't seriously believe after using this app I figured it out so quickly. I've used ProcMon in the past, but never to do this.

 

So once I filtered the the results to processes taking more that 1 ms the autoscroll slowed down to a readable pace.

 

I then tried opening a file off my desktop and saw Photoshop polling my network drive over and over again. This made no sense as the file was local. I disconnected my network drive and the problem went away and files opened really quickly again. Obviously removing the mapping to my network drive is not an option so I started to look at the file paths is was trying to access. As is turns out they were all files I had opened recently. I went to File>Open Recent and sure enough the files there were the same paths photoshop was polling. I pressed "Clear Recent" and files opened fast again! Problem solved right? Nope.

 

So I thought well I will just go into the preferences under File Handling and set the "recent files list contains" value to zero. That would stop PS from recording the recent files. Unfourtunately, that just stops PS from showing them in the list. Behind the scenes it still records them. I opened a few dozen files from the network and everything slowed down again. When I set the recent files back to 30 sure enough all those files had still be stored.

 

So I know the problem, the trick is how do I prevent PS from recording recent files? If I open a ticket with Adobe, they had better not charge me for this. This is surely a bug!

[SandmanNinja]

Congrats Dave! (takes hat off)

Glad ya got it figured out - now to get it patched/fixed.

 

This sounds like a good candidate for a Hot Fix - but it depends on how many requests/complaints Adobe has had recorded for this same/similar problem.

 

What if you try mapping it in a different way?

How are you currently accessing the files across the network (to the NAS drive, I assume)? By a UNC (i.e. \\NAS\Photos) or by a mapped drive letter (i.e. E: )?

If you are doing it one way, then try accessing it the another way.

So, clear your cache, reconfigure your remote drive access method, and then see if PS goes bonkers.

 

Also, check with the NAS developer to see if they have anything like that recorded.

 

I find it very common when there is a weird problem involving hardware and software, one side tends to point the finger at the other side.

[Dave Buchhofer]

Good point Jeff, and i'm glad it helped.

 

and now that you mention that, we had similar issues here a while back, the last time our network drive changed servers on us, photoshop was un-openable on some machines! i believe we actually had to unplug from the network, open photoshop, clear the recent file list, and then reconnect the network!

 

ad-aware had an option to clear up the MRU's (Since for us it had affected multiple applications!) and that helped out somewhat, I'm not sure how to disable it completely however, though i'm sure there's got to be a way

[Jeff Mottle]

So the problem occurs whether or not the files are opened from a mapped drive or via UNC connection without a mapped drive. As long as the network based file is opened and stored to the recent files list...it's fubar.

 

My NAS is a dedicated server that uses OpenFiler, which is a Linux based software RAID NAS application.

 

I've also posted this on the Adobe Forums and it's not good news:

 

"This is a known long-standing problem with some networks.

You could try saving locally in future and moving the saved files over to the network drive when done.

 

Adobe engineers have stated categorically that they cannot cater for every conceivable network configuration and recommend saving locally if problems occur."

[Dave Buchhofer]

That certainly sounds like adobe support.

[Jeff Mottle]

I submitted an email support ticket to try to figure out if this is true or if there is a resolution to the problem, for which I would have have no problem paying for an incident report.

 

Oddly this problem did not happen with XP and only started on Vista 64 bit. I also just tried it in the non 64 bit of PS and the same problem happens. The only variable that's changed is Vista, so I'm assuming it has to do with how it handles network requests or something.

[Jeff Mottle]

Got an official response from Adobe today:

 

According to your forum post, you have changed the default printer your

operating system to a document printer and the problem recurred.

Since the having your default printer be offline can cause this issue,

please verify that you made this change and then restarted the computer

before using Photoshop.

 

If you have done so and the problem still recurred, then there are

essentially three options to avoid this issue:

 

-Save and open your files locally, and then copy or move them to your

NAS after completing work in Photoshop. This will avoid adding entries

into the Recent Files list that would cause the problem.

 

Please note that Adobe does not recommend or support using files

directly from network storage locations. For more information, please

review the following document:

 

Photoshop CS4, networks, and removable media

http://go.adobe.com/kb/ts_kb406793_en-us

 

-Use Adobe Version Cue® and Adobe Drive® to manage the files on the

network. This is the recommended workflow, and should help to avoid the

problem you describe. For more information, see "Working with Adobe

Version Cue" in the Version Cue CS4 Help or access this topic with the

following URL

 

-Prevent Photoshop from storing a list of recent files.

 

*DISCLAIMER: This procedure requires you modify the Windows Registry.

The registry contains critical information about your system and your

applications. Adobe does not support problems that may arise from

improperly modifying the registry. For more information about the

Windows registry or the Registry Editor, see the Microsoft Help and

Support site at http://support.microsoft.com.

 

1. Close all applications.

 

2. Click Start, type "regedit" in the Start Search, and then press

Enter.

 

3. In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\MediaBrowser\MRU\Photoshop

 

4. Within the Photoshop key there is a key called FileList.

Right-click on FileList and choose Delete. Click Yes if you are asked

to confirm the action.

 

5. Right-click the Photoshop key and choose Permissions.

 

6. In the Permissions For Photoshop dialog, click to select your

Windows user name from the list at the top. In the Permissions For

section at the bottom, check the Deny checkbox for Read control.

 

7. Click OK to close the Permissions For Photoshop dialog.

 

8. Exit the Registry Editor.

 

9. Restart your computer.

[Jeff Mottle]

Only problem is option 3 is the one I want and there is no such registry entry with CS4 on 64bit Vista.

[Koper]

Maybe you can script an action that opens 30 blank files (1x1 pixel files) localy and then close them so that the recent registry is kept clean with local files. Then assign an F-key so that you can run it very quickly.

[SandmanNinja]

Have you fished around in the registry? Maybe it's not named exactly that.

[Jeff Mottle]

Have you fished around in the registry? Maybe it's not named exactly that.

 

Yeah I looked around, but could not find it. Posted back to Adobe so see if something changed in CS4.