My Serious Problem With Lightroom Classic; Solved!

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post describing the issue I was having with Lightroom Classic (LR) being extremely slow.  Painfully slow, in fact.  You can read that post here for more information about the issue, my computer and the things I had done to try to figure out what was going on.

Additionally, I asked you to comment in if you had any suggestions.  A few did and I am thankful for your thoughts and comments.  But none were the solution to my LR problem.

I’m pleased to say that I’ve figured out why LR was responding so slowly while editing, masking and enlarging images on my monitor's screen to view them at 100%.  It was baffling since Photoshop, which uses the same raw conversion and editing engine in Camera Raw, (the other) Lightroom, Topaz Photo AI and DXO PhotoLab 7 all ran at the same fast speeds as before.  No slowdowns.  Only LR had drastically slowed since the v.13 introduction.  In fact, I first realized it was running slow while on my road trip in May.

What was causing LR to run at a crawl?  (Sometimes it would take 30 seconds just to change the image view from ‘Fit’ to ‘100%’ and another 30 seconds to go back to "Fit.")  As I continued to use it, I happened to notice that sometimes when I changed the position of my hand and palm on my Wacom Intuos Pro Medium tablet (I've been using my tablet and stylus as I have had for the past 12 years), the edit or image change I was trying to make snapped to completion!  What?  What was that all about?

I then started experimenting.  I disabled my Wacom tablet and connected a very old Microsoft trackball (mouse variant) and tried using that instead of the tablet and stylus.  Lo and behold, LR was as fast as ever.  No slowness.  Everything I did in the editing, masking and image viewing process was as fast as before.  Eureka!

I then started to search the web about Wacom tablets and LR and found a number of individuals who were having issues with LR and their tablets being laggy and slow.  It seems the latest version(s) of LR Classic doesn’t play nice with Wacom tablets in many cases.

To further ensure that my tablet was the cause, I reconnected it and went through a number of editing steps with several images and the slowness returned.  Again, if I clicked on a mask, say the sky, and didn’t move my hand and stylus away from the tablet's surface, I may have had to wait more than 30-40 seconds for the mask to actually choose the sky.  But if I clicked, then removed my hand and stylus from the area of the tablet, the process completed much more quickly.

My Wacom tablet is 12 years old so I’ve certainly gotten my money’s worth out of it.  I checked for a newer driver, but I had the latest one.  I also uninstalled the Wacom software, rebooted the computer, then re-installed it but any increase in speed was marginal and temporary.  Time for a new tablet.

My first inclination was to buy another Wacom Intuos Pro medium tablet but then thought if I bought another Wacom was I asking for the same problems?  Time for some additional research.  After reading several reviews and watching several YouTube videos, I decided on the XenceLabs medium tablet bundle instead.  The bundle has the medium tablet, two pens and several spare nibs in a nice case, a separate keypad and the ability to connect by USB or Bluetooth.

The XenceLabs bundle arrived last Friday.  Setup was easy.  I downloaded the XenceLabs software and the drivers for both the tablet band the Smart Kays.  All went perfectly.

I then initially tried out the new tablet and stylus with some image files in LR.  All seemed to work as I would expect—at LR's former speed.  I have now been using the new tablet since last week and I’m happy to report that this tablet and stylus plays very nicely with LR.  I think my speed issue has been solved.  I've experienced no issues whatsoever.

This is what is included with the XenceLabs bundle.  The first thing I noticed was the packaging
was first class.  You get the tablet, a stylus that is very similar to the one supplied with a Wacom
tablet except it has three buttons instead of just two, a slim stylus for smaller hands, a case for
the two stylus’ as well as several extra nibs, two USB cables, one USB-C and the other USB-A,
USB-A to USB-C adapter was well as a Bluetooth adapter, the ‘Magic Keys' pad that is either
Bluetooth or USB, a drawing glove and a nice case in which you can store the tablet.  Nice!
(Press Photo)

Using Bluetooth, this is what would be on your desktop. (Press Photo)

(Press Photo)

All in all, I am very happy with the XenceLabs tablet and accessories.  Everything about the tablet, two stylus’ and accessories is of excellent build quality.  Very professionally done.  There is no lag when using the stylus and its positioning is precise.  So far, I can recommend it based upon my limited use.  If something changes, I’ll let you know.  Oh!  By the way, this tablet is less expensive than the comparable Wacom tablet.  What’s not to like?

Who would have thought that the Wacom tablet would have been the issue? Well, as Mr. Sherlock Holmes was once quoted as saying to Dr. Watson, "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”

…and so it goes.  If there is any update to this, I’ll be sure to let you know.

DISCLAIMER:  I have no relationship with any manufacturer.  I buy all my gear at the same prices that are available to anyone else.  On this site I have no advertising, click-through links, affiliates nor do I receive any remuneration, commissions or in-kind rewards of any sort.  My goal is to share with you information that might help you enjoy your photography as much as I have enjoyed mine over the past 53 years.

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Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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