How to speed up photos app starting if library contains 368,000 photos and videos?

Question

How to speed up photos app starting if library contains 368,000 photos and videos?

Jacques Riopel 120

junk.png I was using live photos gallery for the longest time, still do on a windows 10 PC connected to 8 TB external hard drive.

I tried putting my E: drive (the external USB) in the File Manager library, then starting the Photos app. It appeared ok after starting up, but as the count was growing large, the speed it was going at started to slow down. A lot. now its been running for days, and now goes up by 1 about every 2 seconds. According to windows live photo gallery, I have 368,060 pictures and videos.

Main reason I'd like to use Photos instead of WLPGallery is with photos, I can search for something like "dogs" at it returns automatically pictures with dogs in them.

Suggestions?  Alternatives?  Reality check?

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Answer accepted by question author

Emma1-N 13,695 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Welcome Jacques Riopel,

Thank you for reaching out. With a photo library containing more than 368,000 pictures and videos stored on an external drive.

A few questions first:

Is the external E: drive an HDD or an SSD?
Does the photo count in Photos continue increasing, even slowly?
Is the Photos app using significant CPU or disk activity in Task Manager while it is processing?

In the meantime, I'd suggest these quick checks:

Open "Task Manager" and check whether "Photos.exe" and "Microsoft Photos" background processes are actively using CPU or disk resources.
Leave the drive connected continuously and prevent the PC from sleeping during indexing. If the process is interrupted, Photos may need additional time to resume scanning.
If the external drive is a traditional HDD connected through USB, performance can be substantially slower than an SSD when processing hundreds of thousands of files.
Consider testing with a smaller folder (for example, 5,000-10,000 photos) to see whether AI search features work as expected before committing the entire 368,000-item collection.

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Jacques Riopel 120 Reputation points

2026-09-22T11:12:23.6733333+00:00
Hi Emma. thanks for being there for me. In answer to your questions,

The external USB drive is NOT an SSD. I am including a screenshot of its specs.

The count continues to increase, slowly. To give you an idea of progress, note the below:
368,060 pictures and videos to do Date Time Count
260921 1717 296805 260922 0657 309306

Resource Utilisation
Jacques Riopel 120 Reputation points

2026-09-22T11:14:13.6266667+00:00

I created a reply and received this!
JuliaMarvin 23,095 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-09-22T11:26:39.9366667+00:00

@Jacques Riopel
I restored your prior comment which was wrongly system-deleted.
Horace Wiggins 535 Reputation points

2026-09-22T12:33:37.7466667+00:00

Do you have HDDs or SSDs? A solid-state drive will load your photos faster. Providing more information about your computer will help. What CPU do you have? How many cores and threads does it have? See example image below showing what my desktop computer has.

This image will show my WDMYCLOUD external storage drive (3TB-HDD). It is connected to my router and my pictures load instantly when I click on the folder. My videos are in a separate folder.
Emma1-N 13,695 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-23T10:08:59.08+00:00
Hello Jacques Riopel,

Thank you for the detailed screenshots. The photo count is still increasing, but the screenshots also show that Photos.exe and SyncToyCmd.exe are both using considerable CPU resources. Please perform the following test to identify what is slowing the scan:

Close Microsoft Photos and temporarily stop SyncToy or any backup/synchronization task accessing drive E:.

Restart the computer, reconnect the external drive, and open only Microsoft Photos.

Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc, select Performance, and click Open Resource Monitor.

In Resource Monitor, open the Disk tab and expand Disk Activity.

Select Photos.exe, then check whether files from drive E: continuously appear under File and whether the Read (B/sec) value changes.

Record the photo count, leave Photos running for one hour, and then compare the new count.

If Photos.exe is continuously reading files from drive E: and the count keeps increasing, the application is still processing the library. The 5400-RPM USB hard drive and the very large collection are then the most likely performance constraints.

If Photos.exe shows no disk activity and the count does not change during the test, please let me know. That would indicate the scan may have stalled.
Jacques Riopel 120 Reputation points

2026-09-23T13:31:47.3033333+00:00

Hi Horace. Here are some screenshots to compare with yours.

Progress-wise, I offer this: 368,060 pictures and videos

Date Time Processed

260921 1717 296805

260922 0657 309306

260923 0837 310624

If I had time, I'd do a little graph to predict when/if I have hopes of it finishing.
Emma1-N 13,695 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-24T07:49:22.91+00:00

Hello Jacques Riopel,

Thank you for sharing the progress numbers. They confirm that Microsoft Photos is still processing the library and has not stalled. The application processed approximately 14,000 additional items between Sept. 21 and Sept. 23, which is a positive sign.

As a final test, copy a small folder of photos to your internal drive (C:) and add only that folder to Photos. If indexing and searches complete much faster, it would confirm that the external hard drive is the main performance bottleneck rather than the Photos app itself.
Jacques Riopel 120 Reputation points

2026-09-24T11:00:51.62+00:00

It appears to have finished.

368,060 pictures and videos

260921 1717 296805

260922 0657 309306

260923 0837 310624

260924 0643 308015picts+17568vid=325583

It's not quite 368,060 but things may have changed in the meantime with me adding/moving files around, so I am happy with the current situation, but will try the test you suggested with my C: drive (which is a SSD).

Just did that, 21 photos, it took about half a second. I would say my "problem" is solved. Thanks all!
Emma1-N 13,695 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-25T07:26:18.8666667+00:00

Hello Jacques Riopel,

It's great that you've reached a satisfactory result. Thank you for sharing the outcome, and I wish you the best with your photo collection!

1 additional answer

Your answer

Jacques Riopel 120 Reputation points

2026-09-22T11:12:23.6733333+00:00

Hi Emma. thanks for being there for me. In answer to your questions,

The external USB drive is NOT an SSD. I am including a screenshot of its specs.

The count continues to increase, slowly. To give you an idea of progress, note the below:
368,060 pictures and videos to do Date Time Count
260921 1717 296805 260922 0657 309306

Resource Utilisation
Jacques Riopel 120 Reputation points

2026-09-22T11:14:13.6266667+00:00

I created a reply and received this!
JuliaMarvin 23,095 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-09-22T11:26:39.9366667+00:00

@Jacques Riopel
I restored your prior comment which was wrongly system-deleted.
Horace Wiggins 535 Reputation points

2026-09-22T12:33:37.7466667+00:00

Do you have HDDs or SSDs? A solid-state drive will load your photos faster. Providing more information about your computer will help. What CPU do you have? How many cores and threads does it have? See example image below showing what my desktop computer has.

This image will show my WDMYCLOUD external storage drive (3TB-HDD). It is connected to my router and my pictures load instantly when I click on the folder. My videos are in a separate folder.
Emma1-N 13,695 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-23T10:08:59.08+00:00

Hello Jacques Riopel,

Thank you for the detailed screenshots. The photo count is still increasing, but the screenshots also show that Photos.exe and SyncToyCmd.exe are both using considerable CPU resources. Please perform the following test to identify what is slowing the scan:

Close Microsoft Photos and temporarily stop SyncToy or any backup/synchronization task accessing drive E:.

Restart the computer, reconnect the external drive, and open only Microsoft Photos.

Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc, select Performance, and click Open Resource Monitor.

In Resource Monitor, open the Disk tab and expand Disk Activity.

Select Photos.exe, then check whether files from drive E: continuously appear under File and whether the Read (B/sec) value changes.

Record the photo count, leave Photos running for one hour, and then compare the new count.

If Photos.exe is continuously reading files from drive E: and the count keeps increasing, the application is still processing the library. The 5400-RPM USB hard drive and the very large collection are then the most likely performance constraints.

If Photos.exe shows no disk activity and the count does not change during the test, please let me know. That would indicate the scan may have stalled.
Jacques Riopel 120 Reputation points

2026-09-23T13:31:47.3033333+00:00

Hi Horace. Here are some screenshots to compare with yours.

Progress-wise, I offer this: 368,060 pictures and videos

Date Time Processed

260921 1717 296805

260922 0657 309306

260923 0837 310624

If I had time, I'd do a little graph to predict when/if I have hopes of it finishing.
Emma1-N 13,695 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-24T07:49:22.91+00:00

Hello Jacques Riopel,

Thank you for sharing the progress numbers. They confirm that Microsoft Photos is still processing the library and has not stalled. The application processed approximately 14,000 additional items between Sept. 21 and Sept. 23, which is a positive sign.

As a final test, copy a small folder of photos to your internal drive (C:) and add only that folder to Photos. If indexing and searches complete much faster, it would confirm that the external hard drive is the main performance bottleneck rather than the Photos app itself.
Jacques Riopel 120 Reputation points

2026-09-24T11:00:51.62+00:00

It appears to have finished.

368,060 pictures and videos

260921 1717 296805

260922 0657 309306

260923 0837 310624

260924 0643 308015picts+17568vid=325583

It's not quite 368,060 but things may have changed in the meantime with me adding/moving files around, so I am happy with the current situation, but will try the test you suggested with my C: drive (which is a SSD).

Just did that, 21 photos, it took about half a second. I would say my "problem" is solved. Thanks all!
Emma1-N 13,695 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-25T07:26:18.8666667+00:00

Hello Jacques Riopel,

It's great that you've reached a satisfactory result. Thank you for sharing the outcome, and I wish you the best with your photo collection!

Answer 1

Jacques Riopel 120

Hi Julia. Not sure why but after I write a reply and press Post, I get this: User's image

I'm always afraid my reply will be lost and I'll have to re-enter it, and by pressing cancel, which asks me if I want to stop repeating messages, I press cancel, it says I might lose my changes, I press cancel and it saves my poste anyway. Sigh.

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