Luminar Neo Heavy Memory Usage
Answered
I have a new MacBook Pro 16" - 2022 model with 16GB and M1 Pro chip. Yesterday I noticed Luminar Neo getting a little sluggish and so I opened the activity monitor and noticed the RAM usage at 14GB. What is going on with that? Why is it using so much RAM? Other apps I have, such as iMovie, only use about 800MB of RAM while Safari uses 200MB.I have read in various websites that Neo has some kind of memory leak issues. Can someone clarify about this issue? Thanks.
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Hi Hermes,
Indeed, memory leaks are a known issue. Namely, we've detected a memory leak when using presets, which may result in the overall slowness of the software after switching between several presets in the pack. This will be addressed in one of the upcoming updates.
Could you please let me know if you have by any chance observed a slowness of the app when you use presets? If you don't use presets, we'd like to know more about your workflow. In that case, I kindly ask you to email us via https://skylum.com/support so that our team could investigate your particular case.
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Yes Margaret, the issue happened when I used the presets, but even on my other PC, which has 32GB of memory, it still drags from time to time so it’s definitely an issue with the code in the software. It really needs to be optimized because the way I see it it doesn’t matter if you have 16 or 64 GB of memory the program will suck up everything you have and still drag down.
Neo uses way more RAM, like 4-5 times more, than Apple’s Final Cut Pro video editor uses and that’s unacceptable.
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Hi Hermes,
Thanks for the additional information, we appreciate it.
While our team is working on optimisation issues, you may try reinstalling the app in the following way:
- Delete the app with AppCleaner. Download AppCleaner from here: http://www.freemacsoft.net/appcleaner
Drag Luminar Neo from your Applications folder into the AppCleaner window. When removing Luminar, mark all the files and folders in the list, except for RTW788AXG3.com.skylum.luminarNeo. - Go to Pictures -> Luminar Neo Catalog and rename this folder (if you have created the Catalog in another Location, please navigate there and rename the Catalog folder). You can choose any name you like.
- Open Luminar Neo Catalog folder, locate the file Luminar Neo Catalog.luminarneo and change its name too.
- Go to Application Support (launch Finder > Go > Go to Folder > paste /Library/Application Support/Skylum Software and delete Luminar Neo folder.
- Go to Terminal and paste: defaults delete com.skylum.luminarneo, then press Enter
- After that please install Luminar Neo back from the link below:
https://skylum.com/download/luminar-neo-paid
- Delete the app with AppCleaner. Download AppCleaner from here: http://www.freemacsoft.net/appcleaner
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Hi HERMES RIVERA,
Thank you for bringing this to our attention, appreciate it!
Have you tried reinstalling the application as suggested by Katherine earlier?
Let us know if it didn't help.
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Thank you for your reply!. Yes I uninstalled and re-installed the application as indicated. Still the same issue. I even re-installed MacOS and then Luminar and still the same thing. I believe the code in Luminar needs optimization as there is something in there causing this high memory usage issue.
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Hi HERMES RIVERA,
Could you please let me know how many images are there in your Luminar Catalog?
Also, are they located on your internal or external drive?
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Hi Hermes,
You're right - We have several code optimization tasks on our to-do list. I've passed your comments on to our tech team for review.
If you could share any more details regarding the sequence of tools/actions that cause a memory leak, my colleagues will be happy to receive them at https://skylum.com/support. You can use the link to this post as a reference.
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We will appreciate it immensely if you send a message to https://skylum.com/support and describe the issue you've faced in detail (which type of photo you process, where the files are located, which tools you apply that result in a memory leak, etc.)
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Adding to the discussion here just to point out for the new users that the memory usage issue is old news. I'm lazy to check backwards, but it has been an issue since at least Luminar 3, then 4, then AI and now in NEO.
I have a love and hate relationship with Skylum. I understand that all those AI modules and all the bells and whistles of the application must come at a price, and I think my "payment" for that, apart from the Pro subscription, is to restart my Mac, close any login apps that I usually just let run in the background, and then open Luminar NEO. All images I'll edit are on the internal SSD, which even then has 50% free space on the M1 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM. Fine with me that NEO takes up everything and then swap some memory to the SSD. Still, the image manipulation updating is not good. When I choose the Noiseless AI plugin, it's totally OK take several minutes to process an image (usually it's around one minute for Low and then Middle setting after that goes really fast. But just those average things like color correction, small masking stuff, Dodge & Burn, can have a significant delay sometimes. If I continue using the same plugin, it kind of loads into the RAM (I guess) and goes faster, but it's not snappy.
I also have the Exposure 6 installed as well as Pixelmator Pro. OK, the latter is light weight in features and no real AI, and the Exposure is "manual" tool but it's great with their various filters/looks that are fast as hell.
So not to compare too much, I'm willing to let NEO take all resources but it has to work smoother.
Another issue is that the Luminar creates a whopping 21,43GB of backup/history in the Catalogue - all for 5,21GB worth of images, around 200 RAW and 200 JPG. I thought this would be the number of GB used while editing and that it would shrink after closing down, but nope, it stayed.
I've changer and increased the amount of space Luminar can take up in settings, in order to try to make it run smoother, didn't help.
The conclusion is - Skylum is developing bells and whistles to attract new users and keep the old ones updating, now to the subscription model (it's me...) but the absolute basic stuff keeps being forgotten, or is in the bottom of any internal roadmaps they have. Memory usage, slimmed down backups and history of edits should be top priority as soon as you've secured the pure existence. Learning from my mistakes made me wait with the upgrade to this new subscription, but I thought "OK, I'll support the app and give them another chance". But that's what I did with the versions 3,4, AI..... Not for much longer.
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@Dragan Ruzic
I am there with you on that last statement. I am quite disappointed in the way Luminar performs, especially when I have a Mac Studio with 64gb RAM and an M1 Max running it and it still drags like you said at basic tasks. I have tried ON1 Photo Raw and it’s lightning fast at doing the same tasks so maybe it’s time to switch if these issues continue.
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Thank you for commenting. I've been watching many videos by Jim Nix and there is no stronger advocate for Luminar than him. At the same time, he's also using Adobe suite and ON1 and I guess several other apps, he's into it researching the best possible way. Just saw one of his ON1 videos and discovered that they also have some AI that does amazing things. I'm going to get the trial and check it thoroughly.
I'm sorry to say this but if it's faster than Luminar NEO and the extra footprint on the hardrive isn't too significant, I'm leaving Skylum, will ask for refund. -
@Member
Yes the RAM usage on this application is ridiculous. The editor is obviously not well optimized. Whatever engine they are using is a resource hog and those extensions are not
Making things any better. I have a Mac Studio with 64GB RAM and an M1 Max CPU and Luminar still drags from time to time. It’s ridiculous. -
Even with the latest update to Neo 1.6.0. Activity Monitor shows memory usage at 49GB!!! I just created a new catalog as tech support told me to do. There are a total of 18 photos in this new library with some simple edits and some presets also. Super slow. I cannot even quit the app without a force quit. Now a System pop up says that I am running out of system memory and must shut down an app!
This has been very frustrating to use even as an early adopter to Neo. But this latest memory leak has been an issue since Ventura update.
Latest Ventura M1 MBP, images are located on the internal SSD.
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I've calmed down ... a little. I'm creating a new library for each project which keeps the things tidier and manageable. Still the memory usage is enormous compared to other big apps like... FinalCut Pro. I mean, it's a video editor and there I'm used to let it go for 30-40GB of combined RAM and swap file usage, and it still runs rather smoothly.
The L. NEO is getting slower after an hour or two of editing but somehow the more memory it takes up - the smoother some of the AI's work. They obviously need a lot of cache to work from and yeah, it's OK.
What I've noticed though, while editing, is that when I open an image and it takes time to come to the full resolution and sharpness on the screen, well, it's time to reboot everything. Really, both the app and my Mac. Then we go again and .. it works. I'm still on the Mac Mini M1 16GB RAM, all edited from the internal drive with 50% of the HD free.
Even with all the flaws, damn those AI's are good. The Noiseless and the Face, Skin, great Develop tools, they are so close to be a perfect app.
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Hi Ed Cohen!
Our developers are working on the app's improvements, but we'll appreciate it if you could contact our support team at skylum.com/support and tell us when exactly you experience memory leaks (at launch/during some specific photos processing/ particular tools or presets/etc.)
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I saw the OP of this thread... the OP complained about 14 GB of memory usage. Today I was editing one black and white photo, and my system crashed and I got a pop up stating my system has run out of memory. NEO was using 49GB !!! This is ridiculous! I am running a brand new M1 iMAC with 18GB RAM and 512 memory. I can run PS C1 and other apps like Topaz all at once with no problem. When using NEO, even by itself eventually bogs down and crashes.
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I got an email from Skylum asking for more details on how this is created. I am also running a new Mac Pro M1 but with only 8 gig of ram. I did some playing around and can recreate the excessive memory issue in at least two different ways. Starting with about 25 medium sized JPEGs you can do the following.
#1. Open an image and click through the presets. It doesn't matter if you apply a preset and then use the back arrow to undo it or if you just click and apply one preset after another.
#2. Scale an image by x2 and then try Sharpen and a couple of other AI related image things. Like adding a sky etc.
Hopefully others will provide info on what racks up memory usage.
Ed
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Im glad I found this thread.
I've been having the exact same problem - extreme lag to the extent of sysyem dysfunction.
Every correspondence with Skylum is basicslly the same - suggesting I delete & reinstall the program, go through a complicated process of clearing out the (superfluous) backup librarary.....etc....only to face the same problem again and again.
I was even offered two extensions for free, but I told them that I just want Neo to actually work.
I've been very close to purchasung an AUD $600 RAM upgrade to resolve the problem, but from the user accounts on this thread, it seems that it won't necessarily resolve the issue.
Is skylum actually willing to address this excessive memory usage issue and render their product usable to their existing customers?
If not, is anyone able to please recommend a software to replace it with?
Thanks very much. -
Hi Mukesh Bhojwani,
We'd be grateful if you contact us via https://skylum.com/support so we could report this issue to our tech team.
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My advice to everyone in this thread is to remove Luminar from your system and try to get your money back. I was playing around with it vs. using Topaz software and while Luminar has some cool features it will eat whatever memory you have. Doesn't matter if you have 8gb or 50gb it will use every single bit. My research shows this has been a problem since the beginning and they have no intention of fixing it. My workflow has me running Topaz Photo AI, Lightroom, and Photoshop all at once each on its own screen and my computer never even struggles yet it can barely run Luminar on its own and it sucked down all 64gb of ram in my machine and started to run to the processor and graphics hard hotter than any game I've played on ultra.
Absolute crap product. I honestly have my doubts about whether or not they support this product at all. It seems they just take people's money. -
I will be removing it and luckily I don’t count on it for my workflow. Unfortunately I was initially persuaded by some YouTubers I should’ve scrutinized the product a bit better. Also the product didn’t really seem to have predictable methodical results compared to working my workflow with C1 to PS. It seems it’s but for people who just want to move sliders around and see what happens.
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