Digital Photo Professional: Blue buffering spinning wheel and a flashing white cursor arrow

[Dick_Davis]

I've been having a long-time ... 10 months?... issue with Version 4.18.10. Opening DPP up I get a combination of a blue buffering spinning wheel and a flashing white cursor arrow. This goes on for 4? minutes. I have to wait until it stops before I can begin editing. This will also appear during editing. Technical support has been ... unfortunately ... less than supportive. I just discovered the newer Ver4.19.10 version. I'm wondering if anyone has had this similar issue. Let's see what happens with the newer version. I've had a Canon camera for 60+ years and would be disappointed if I had to switch.  

[March411]

Are you running a Windows or Mac operating system.

I am currently running V4.19.10 on a Win 11 machine and it runs pretty smoothly stand alone. If I have PS and Topaz running I lose some speed, but then they are are slow.

[justadude]

I'm running DPP 4.18.1 on a newer Mac.  It can be the only program open, and it is sluggish.  On the other hand I can open Photoshop, Lightroom, SilverFast 9 (for film scans), Apple Music, and a browser all at the same time, and they all are lightning fast.  I'm not sure what it is about that program, but some of us find it slooooow, which is too bad because other than that, it's a good program.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

60+years?  As in Canonflex R2000.

What camera are you shooting with now?

Can you provide your system specs?  Brand, and  model of your computer, processor speed, OS and the amount of installed memory, etc.  

I would suggest uninstalling your current version of DPP, restarting and installing a fresh copy of DPP v4.19.10.

Let us know how it goes.

[Tronhard]

Hi and welcome to the forum:
The value of a camera system is not, to me, dependent on the performance of one element alone, particularly the free post-production software.  I am surprised that you would consider walking away from a brand you have used, assumedly for most of your life, on that basis alone.  

The performance of software is dependent on the system it is running on: the type of computer: e.g. Mac, PC or Linux, the processor(s), RAM, hard disc and the configuration of cache memory.   None of which we know and yet that detail is significant.

Inevitably, as applications become more capable, they also become more complex, requiring more system resources.  So, it is important to be cognizant of the minimum system requirements for the version of the program you are using.

[justadude]

Hey Rick, I read your comment, and it made me wonder if the 4.19.10 version would solve the sluggish issues I've had on the past two Macs.  Currently I'm running the Mac desktop on an M2 chip, 32GB of ram, and the latest OS.  So I did the uninstall - shut down and waited a few minutes, started up and installed the newest version of DPP - and it is still fairly sluggish (and the only thing running at the time I tested it).  I have a photographer buddy who also has the same issues with it... however I know most people have great luck with this program running at a normal speed.  So I'm guessing there might be a few more than the two of us (my buddy and I) who just can't get DPP running up to speed.  Best guess is there has to be something running in the background that I am unaware of that is causing this issue.  Might be true for the OP as well?

Thankfully I reply on LR and PS for most of my editing.  I only use DPP on occasion because it does a better job on white balance the native RAW files for any of my infrared photography.

[wq9nsc]

I am in the middle of processing 2,000+ images I shot at Friday night football which included senior night and a celebration at halftime of the 100th anniversary of the football program.  I just upgraded to DPP 4.19.1 and I noticed a huge improvement with the complex files from my 1DX III bodies.  Prior versions had an annoying lag when switching between the main adjustments and cropping tabs but with the current version I can instantly switch from tool to tool making changes without having to wait which is a HUGE improvement in processing.

I have it set for maximum quality instead of speed and at least on the twin CPU workstation I am using, there is no need to opt for the lower quality/higher speed option of 4.19.1

Rodger

[shadowsports]

We'll have to wait until the OP replies.  Then we will have a better idea once he provides details about his system specs and software environment.

Gary,

As far as what 4.19.10 will do.  You're MAC is certainly powerful enough to run DPP.  I've been running 4.18 until recently, although I do my post on PC's.  The laptop I use for travel is a few gens old.  Windows 11, i7 with 16gigs of RAM.  Its not super speedy, but gets the job done.  Its doing fine with DPP 4.18 & 4.19.  I haven't tried DaVinci Resolve on it (probably won't).  The screen is 14 in.  There is no way it will process 4K video well.  My MAC is an M1 with 32GB.  However I prefer windows to Mac os.  🍎😋

[Waddizzle]

Your default startup folder must contain a LOT of photo or video files.

Because DPP does not keep track of a catalog of imported files like many other apps, it scans the startup folder for image files every time it starts up.  On a Windows system, the first time DPP runs it needs a startup folder, so it uses the environment variable for the Windows Media Player startup folder as its initial default.

Assuming this is your issue, how do you “fix” it?  Create a new folder in the root directory of your C drive.  Allow it to be completely empty.  Start WMP and change its default startup folder to this new folder.

Cross your fingers.  Start DPP.  It should  start fairly quickly.  DPP will still grab the WMP default because you have not set a default within DPP.  Once you set a default within DPP,  then it will use your setting, instead of grabbing the default environment variable.  

If you wish to reset WMP back to its initial setting, then feel free to do so.  I do not recommend it.

[Dick_Davis]

I'm curious as to your 2nd paragraph. How was it that I did not meet your expectations?

Thank you.