Extremely slow startup for Lightroom

[hmr638b]

After updating to LR 7.3, I began having issues with very slow startup, which has persisted through purchasing a new iMac (2017, with a 1 TB fusion drive and 16 GB of RAM, latest OS). The slow startup has persisted through both of the recent updates, and is still happening after reverting to 7.2, which solved the problem before my new computer. It has taken up to 5 minutes to fully load Lightroom, and it is very frustrating as I watch the memory usage slowly go upward on the System Monitor, all the time saying Lightroom (Not Responding). I have been using Macs since the Classic, and have never been so frustrated in my life.

When I start the in Safe Mode, Lightroom loads in 15 seconds or so. It is also much faster to load if I quit LR and start in again, taking perhaps 30 seconds instead of 5 minutes.

GPU acceleration is not enabled.

Am I having hardware issues (cache problems with the Fusion Drive), OS issues, something else? I even pulled the 8GB of RAM I  purchased the computer, and replaced it and pulled the RAM that came with it, and no change.

I reset the Systems Manager, per advice from Apple support, and it loaded quite quickly, but the next day, when I restarted my computer, the same old slow load happened.

There seems to be no telephone support option for the LR/PS monthly bundle, which is also very frustrating. Why?

Help would be very much appreciated!!!

Thanks

[Sahil.Chawla]

Hi Hmr,

We're sorry to hear about Lightroom performance issue when launched, could you please try updating it to version 7.5 via the Creative Cloud desktop app and let us know if it helps?

Regards,
Sahil

[hmr638b]

I regret that I did not include in my initial message that I had gone through updates to 7.4 and 7.5, and the issue got worse instead of better. Then I reverted to 7.2.

I have been using Lightroom since the Beta of version 1, and this has been so frustrating

[hmr638b]

I just did a computer restart and this is the time it took for various stages of launching Lightroom 7.2:

     splash screen appearance 15 seconds

     catalog selection menu appearance 17 seconds  32 total

     time for selection option to work and closing of menu 20 seconds. 52 total

     catalog open and selecting first image 95 seconds.  147 total

upgraded to 7.5

Splash screen 12 seconds

Menu 15 additional. 27 total

Menu close 10 seconds. 37 total

Ready to work 62 additional seconds   total 92

I am going to restart the computer now.
Splash screen - 38 seconds

Catalog select completed - 10 additional seconds.  total 48

Ready to use - 47 additional seconds.  total 95 seconds

A noticeable improvement, but still seems awfully slow for a fairly new computer.