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Access to files over network extremely slow - any tips?

NNN635343923873061557
Hi

I have recently set up a NAS (a synology) on my LAN, have copied a lot of rather large files onto it (primarily .cr2 files). However when I try to access them from Capture One (7.2), it is extremely slow.
The connection from the iMac to the synology is wired, on gigabit. When I access the files via Finder (I have tried both via AFP and SMB, and SMB seems the fastest), it is also as fast as expected, but in Capture One it is VERY slow.

I am well aware that it would be faster to have the files on the local machine, but they aren't (due to backup reasons etc).
Do anyone have any tips on how to optimize settings, better protocols etc?

TIA,
Peter
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Comments

7 comments

Date Votes
  • NNN635344211698069710
    Hi.

    Same issue here. Feels very slow and each picture I'm adjusting, the "spinning ball of death" appears at least twice...til' I can switch to the next picture. So I have to wait several seconds when pictures are loading or when I'm adjusting it. That slows my workflow extremely down - just because of waiting.
    No signs that the CPU of the Synology is too slow to handle the files.

    Is there a way, to speed it up?

    Hardware is:
    Synology DS414 (directly connected per LAN-cable to MacMini)
    MacMini 2,6GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 128GB-SSD

    ...sorry for my clumsy english... 😐

    Greetings
    Martin
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  • Corey Riggle
    The short answer is. Phase One doesn't support this.

    The long answer is to look at your network and file store. You can spend a ton of money on a file server with fibre channel connections to a superfast raid and or SSD system. You could even get a 10BgE network and increase your network bandwidth by 10.

    And potentially it won't really help. But I have been in a large studio environment where we had a proper server and high speed data storage at it worked pretty well.

    I'd suggest entering a support ticket and requesting Phase one support over network access to files. But that still might not make your current setup faster.
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  • NNN635343923873061557
    Hi Corey

    Thanks for your (rather depressing) answer. 😊
    I was afraid that this was the case. The NAS is one of their high-end models with a quite fast raid, and as mentioned, when accessing through the Finder, speed is not an issue, so it makes sense that Phase One is the bottleneck - I was just hoping that I had overlooked some clever tricks.

    Cheers,
    Peter
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  • Corey Riggle
    One thing to remember is that Capture One is reading several files when it reads a single raw file. Settings files, proxies, dark matter references? So unlike the finder, and other file managers that just look at the single file, Capture One has a lot of overhead. So that could be one of the reasons it's slow.

    Maybe you should think of it like this....

    Your NAS is a safe place for your files. I've seen different versions of capture one corrupt or over right settings files, or ignore them completely. Try reading files captured with version 7 in capture one 4. Version 4 is ignorant of 7's settings files and will regenerate them to default. Now this is an extreme example, but I've seen enough of this kind of thing that it's a concern.

    Maybe a best practice is to Copy your files from the NAS to a local drive work space. Do your thing, then if you want to save what you've done copy them back to the NAS, in a new directory if you want to keep a history of versions, or overwrite the originals.
    It's more work, and it's slower, but it's also probably safer to work this way.

    Just some thoughts.
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  • Paul Steunebrink
    There are a range of issues that can affect performance when working with sessions over a network. Most of them are already mentioned here. From a Capture One point of view, the answer is using a catalog. CO7's catalog can work very fast over a network when setup properly (catalog file on local disk, images on NAS, import 'current location', a.k.a. referenced).

    If you prefer to work with sessions, do so on your local disk, move the images to the NAS when done (you can have a backup on your session to the NAS as well) and import the images with adjustments into your catalog.

    In case you like to work with sessions and images on a network share like a NAS, I suggest the following checklist.
    - limit the amount of images in a folder; divide large amounts in sub folders
    - make different folders a session favorite
    - limit the size of your previews to the max. you require (CO7 preference setting)
    - use only one network protocol on both sides, typically SMB (which means you disable AFP) unless you are working in a Mac-to-Mac environment, in which case you could use AFP exclusively
    - connect wired only, min. 1 Gbit Ethernet
    - monitor your computer's activity with Activity Monitor to find a bottleneck
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  • NNN635343923873061557
    Thank you for your useful tips, Paul

    I'll try it out as soon as possible.

    Cheers,
    Peter
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  • Paul Steunebrink
    You're welcome Peter,

    Just a note on changing preview size: after changing the setting in preferences, you need to regenerate the previews for selected (all) images. Next, restart CO7.
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