False advertising promises

[WolfgangB]

Hi,
Other software can do a lot better than AC, but the image management is great, so I'm still a customer.
But why has ACDSEE Ultimate 2021 become so much slower? All previous versions are faster. When editing and also at startup. I have a newly installed Windows 10 system, a fast computer with 32GB RAM and only SSD drives.
The advertising promises are wrong - AC did not get faster but slower!
What can I do to make ACDSEE run faster? Please help.

P.S.
Sorry for the google english ...

[TomV]

I have disabled Face Detection. My stuff is running OK now. I have no faces to detect since I am a birder.

[WolfgangB]

Thank you TomV,

of course I deactivated face recognition, I don't need it...

[StepHock]

I agree. It takes forever (well, around 1 minute) to start up. Ridiculous. Once it's up and running, it runs smoothly enough.

[Framon]

I'm sure you are right but I don't understand your disppointed comments.
My startup : 5 seconds ! I have only 2 HDD and an upmarket I3 processor.

[Greyfox]

U2021 Startup time here 2.35 seconds - Windows 10 Pro 2004, Intel i7-10700 10 Gen CPU, 32GB Ram GTX1660 Graphics, SSD drives.

[WolfgangB]

Greyfox
Enviable ...

I have now uninstalled AC U2021 and then reinstalled it. It's still slow when switching from Develop to Edit - but the start improved to 32 seconds.

The start times of my other programs (checked several times):

Photoshop - 4 Sec.
Lightroom - 4 Sec.
Affinity-Photo - 3 Sec.
Luminar 4.3 - 13 Sec.
Paintshop Pro 2021 - 7 Sec.
ACDSee U2020 - 8 Sec. (!)
ACDSee U 2021 - 32 Sec.

No other programs are running in the background. Know I'm not alone with this!

For information: Windows 10 runs on LW C (separate SSD), my image editing programs separately on LW D - also a fast SSD. I maintain my database regularly.

[GusPanella]

YMMV. When I first installed U2021 it was fine... Then I went on a short trip and found the same start-up issue mentioned. Went snooping to see why there was a stall and traced it to delays in the connectivity to external networks. There seems to be a lot of traffic generated during initialization of the 365 feature.


I doubt tech support would approve this solution....
My solution was to firewall U2021 to use of only local networks. It worked. Start up speed was back to normal. A quick check toggling U2021 in the firewall confirmed I could turn the issue on/off.

Caution: this may have adverse effects that I am not aware (for example; check for updates may no longer work)

Of note.... For other reasons, I have also turned off features like face detection and indexing... and don't use 365 features.... so I am not sure on adverse effects to those features due to firewalling the app.

I have since kept U2021 firewalled.... with no ill effects (keeping in mind the things I don't use in the first place)

[Trevor]

My solution was to firewall U2021 to use of only local networks.

Hi Gus,
how do you do that ?
I'd like to try too
Thanks

[GusPanella]

Not sure I can describe it in full..

Win10 Search bar...

Windows Defender with Advanced Security
Outbound Rules
New Rule > Program > Path ( pick_ult2021) > Next
Block the connection > all profiles
give it a name... I called it ACD 2021

I also did the same for the inbound rule, but probably not needed...

After creating the rule, it should be "active"
I then open the rule... keep it active... but change the action to "Block the connection"
If all goes well, you should see a red cicle with a line thru it next to the rule.


Note: you may need to tun the rule a bit depending on configurations and requirements

[GusPanella]

Oh... one more things that is worth reviewing... make sure the ACD database, images, cache is NOT on a drive location that syncs to the cloud.... and as stated in other thread, make sure that ACD directories and EXE files are excluded from your virus checking program (including that in WIn10)

[Framon]

@ GusPanella :
I think if you unables the incoming and outgoing connections, you'll not receive informations about updates.
Why exclude EXE files from antivirus ?
Do you use an unofficial version of ACDSee ?

[GusPanella]

Framon
Correct, you may not rcv info on updates from ACD. Easy to get informed about updates through other means. f I get faster response, then updates through other means seems to be a tiny price to pay. [Note other things in ACD may or may not break (face detection, indexing, other). I can't comment as I do not use these items (many reasons).

I have learned for reasons of speed to exclude programs and data folders for programs that heavily use a database. Vicus programs intercept OS calls and file calls.... If I trust a program, there is no harm in removing it from virus scan. I also exclude files with JPG and NEF extensions from virus scan. Certainly, that is a choice that is relative to how risk is viewed.

I'm not sure why the question is asked, but I have paid for licensed ACD products ~2007 through today. In my mind, using unlicensed copies of any software is thievery and should be prosecuted without exception.

[WolfgangB]

There are a lot of tips, but I'm a normal user and I can't and don't want to make settings in the system if I don't know enough about them. I am of the opinion that software must work well, stably and quickly even without "tinkering". This also works for other software manufacturers.

It's clear that there is no such thing as a 100% error-free program, but at AC I always work in a beta version - although I always have to pay in full for it. And the performance is getting slower. This is just not good, I feel cheated!

Doesn't ACDSEE want or can't?

[Trevor]

U2021 Startup time here 2.35 seconds - Windows 10 Pro 2004, Intel i7-10700 10 Gen CPU, 32GB Ram GTX1660 Graphics, SSD drives.

lucky you!

Looks to me like we have some users with rocket speed peformance, while others have to suffer the waiting game instead of concentrating on the photo processing task at hand.
It is quite possible that ACDSee 2021 "lets itself be disturbed" and thus runs slower because of other things installed/running on the PC or because of particular hard drive/network situations , or because of certain other configuations/settings of certain antivirus programs or,.... but what ?
It would be great if ACDSee could investigate some of these slower PC's and find out why, and then give out some specific tips/recommendations for the general PC setup needed to make the ACDSee expecrience enjoyable.