This post was last modified: 2012-07-10, 09:46 by Gunther.

LR-Timelapse suddenly stops loading previews on directories with many images
If you have a sequence with several thousend big images and try to load all previews, it may occur, that Java runs into memory issues. 

First you should try to lower the size of the previews generated.
You will find settings for width and height of the created previews in the settings dialog. Lower the size to say the half and hit Shift-F5 on your sequence to recreate the previews.

Background and other solutions:

This behaviour ist not a problem of LRTimelapse, it’s java related.

When launching a Java Program you have to assign a certain amount of memory to the virtual machine. On runtime Java will manage that assigned memory.
The Problem is: if I assign to much, the App will crash on machines with less physical RAM. If I assign less, users with a lot of RAM and the demand to process a great amount of images will experience problems.

The Java memory management on Windows is pretty good and I did not manage to crash LR-Timelapse even with thousands of Images.

Unfortunately the virtual machine on the mac seems to have more problems dealing with the memory demand.

Solution on Mac
You can change the amount of memory that is assigned to the virtual machine. This makes sense if you have very little or a lot of ram in your machine.

In the downloaded ZIP-file, under LR-Timelapse.app\Contents\ you will find a file called Info.plist

open it in an editor and find the line:
‹string>-Xms256m –Xmx2048m</string›

the first value is the initial heap-size, you can increase it as well, but normally it's not necessary. The second values is the maximum heap size.

Now you can replace the second value (2048m) with a value (in MB) of memory you want to provide to LRTimelapse. For example if you have 6GB ram, you can try
-Xmx2048m or –Xmx4096m

If you however only have 2GB of RAM, you should lower the values, a good starting point would be -Xms256m –Xmx1024m

Please take care to not set it higher than the amount of RAM you can provide (take into account that your OS and other applications need RAM as well!)

Generic solution

If you are experiencing memory problems you could try to start LRTimelapse via commandline or batch-script. The command is:

Code:

java –Xms256m –Xmx2048m –jar *path*LR-Timelapse.jar

where *path* is the path where you put LRTimelapse.jar into.

On Windows
You can edit the CMD file provided in the LRTimelapse install folder to increase the memory values and launch via cmd.

my memory RAM is 1GB, is it ok for running the app. ?

You could try it by launching the JAR file directly (double click) that will reserve less memory, but it fear it won't be a pleasure. Couldn't you increase your memory, it's cheap these days. Lightroom is not fun to use with such little memory either.

did not work, please tell me what to do ?, i cant increase the ram these days

This post was last modified: 2011-10-30, 01:45 by Gunther.

try launching with

Code:

java –Xms256m –Xmx600m –jar *path*LRTimelapse.jar

(edit the .cmd file)

you might have to try different values <1000 for -Xmx (it's the maximum Memory provided for the java virtual machine.

Hi I have the new 1.6 and for mac and i can't find the Info.plist at all. especially that on mac it's only the app icon without any other files associated with it... I Have 8 GB ram. I'm running the app on 4000 small resolution JPG, slightly above HD. It cant go past 75%.... left it overnight with no luck.

Please advise

LR-Timelapse suddenly stops loading previews on directories with many images

Since Version 1.1.0 this should not happen anymore. However, if you have several thousend big images and try to load all previews, it may occur, that Java runs into memory issues.

This behaviour ist not a problem of LRTimelapse, it’s java related.

Background

When launching a Java Program you have to assign a certain amount of memory to the virtual machine. On runtime Java will manage that assigned memory.
The Problem is: if I assign to much, the App will crash on machines with less physical RAM. If I assign less, users with a lot of RAM and the demand to process a great amount of images will experience problems.

The Java memory management on Windows is pretty good and I did not manage to crash LR-Timelapse even with thousands of Images.

Unfortunately the virtual machine on the mac seems to have more problems dealing with the huge memory demand.

Solution on Mac
You can change the amount of memory that is assigned to the virtual machine, if you experience problems and have a lot of RAM in your machine.

In the downloaded ZIP-file, under LR-Timelapse.app\Contents\ you will find a file called Info.plist

open it in an editor and find the line:
‹string>-Xms256m –Xmx2048m</string›

the first value is the initial heap-size, you can increase it as well, but normally it's not necessary. The second is the maximum heap size.

Now you can replace the 1024m with a value (in MB) of memory you want to provide to LR-Timelapse. For example if you have 6GB ram, you can try
-Xmx2048m or –Xmx4096m

Please take care to not set it higher than the amount of RAM you can provide.

Generic solution

If you are experiencing memory problems you could try to start LRTimelapse via commandline or batch-script. The command is:

Code:

java –Xms256m –Xmx2048m –jar *path*LR-Timelapse.jar

where *path* is the path where you put LRTimelapse.jar into.

As of version 1.6 you could as well lower the size of the previews generated, you will find two parameters in the user.props file located inside your userdir/.lrtimelapse the name and defaults of the parameters are:
previewWidth=450
previewHeight=300

Right click on the LRTimelapse App and than chose show contents (or similar)

As of version 1.6 you could as well lower the size of the previews generated, you will find two parameters in the user.props file located inside your userdir/.lrtimelapse the name and defaults of the parameters are:
previewWidth=450
previewHeight=300

I have version 1.6.1. I don't see userdir/.lrtimelapse only userdir/LRTimelapse. In the LRTimelapse I see a .props but no parameters related to previewWidth and perviewHeight. Is this the correct file? Should I just add the parameters to the end of the file?

I have version 1.6.1. I don't see userdir/.lrtimelapse only userdir/LRTimelapse. In the LRTimelapse I see a .props but no parameters related to previewWidth and perviewHeight. Is this the correct file? Should I just add the parameters to the end of the file?

Yes that's the right file. The name of the folder changed as of 1.6 (see releasenotes). You can add those parameters if you want.

Best,
Gunther

Running it as a jar file may be a solution and that will assure that you are going to run it on far less memory but the thing is you lose on a lot of its functions that make it great and workable.

I think that the best option is to upgrade your memory and that is the route I will be willing to take to continue using it. You are going to be limited in terms of use if you continue to work around that limitation anyway.