9. Use an SSD

SSDs, or solid state drives, can perform computer tasks up to 30 times faster than traditional disc based hard drives. Everything you do in Lightroom can be sped up by using an SSD, from importing (copying files), editing (writing information), to exporting (saving new files). Most Mac computers have transitioned to SSDs as a primary drive these days, and it's a common feature in high end PCs as well, but if you don't have one it is a very simple process to add one to your desktop, but a little trickier to add one to most laptops. Either way, they are worth their weight in gold when it comes to saving you time and speeding up your computer in general, not to mention the Lightroom performance increase.

10. Optimize Your Hard Drive.

Whether you use an SSD or an HDD, there are a few things you can do to ensure they perform the best for Lightroom's needs. All hard drives perform better when they have plenty of free space to work with. If your drive has less than 25% of it's space free, all of those temp files and caches Lightrooms creates and uses can cause things to really bog down, or worse, crash. Advanced tools like Photo Merge can be especially storage space hungry and cause issues if you don't have enough space free. I recommend keeping at least 30% free and transferring files to an external drive when you get beyond that to make room. If you use a traditional HDD, defragging regularly can help the lifespan and performance of your drive. Both Windows and Mac machines include disc utilities to defrag and clean hard drives. Note, if you use an SSD do not bother defragging, as they don't have the same platter system HDDs use and reorganizing the files on an SSD will do nothing to help performance.

Got any other tips to share?

If you know any other ideas to speed up Lightroom, please share below. Let me know if these tips help you as well.

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