diff --git a/ui (gen4)/features/core.js b/ui (gen4)/features/core.js
index 759a6487..264389ff 100755
--- a/ui (gen4)/features/core.js	
+++ b/ui (gen4)/features/core.js	
@@ -1513,7 +1513,9 @@ var ChangesActions = actions.Actions({
 				if(changes[section] === true){
 					return
 				}
-				changes[section] = (changes[section] || []).concat(items).unique()
+				changes[section] = (changes[section] || [])
+					.concat(items)
+					.uniqueStrings()
 				this.changes = changes
 
 			// section(s)...
diff --git a/ui (gen4)/imagegrid/data.js b/ui (gen4)/imagegrid/data.js
index 046a3f1b..bf2b304f 100755
--- a/ui (gen4)/imagegrid/data.js	
+++ b/ui (gen4)/imagegrid/data.js	
@@ -2947,8 +2947,8 @@ var DataWithTagsPrototype = {
 			if(mode == 'reset'){
 				// iterate through all the gids (both images and buffer/data)
 				for(var gid in Object.keys(images)
-									.concat(Object.keys(buffer))
-									.unique()){
+						.concat(Object.keys(buffer))
+						.uniqueStrings()){
 					// no tags / remove...
 					if(buffer[gid] == null || buffer[gid].tags.length == 0){
 						// the image exists and has tags...
@@ -2976,7 +2976,9 @@ var DataWithTagsPrototype = {
 				for(var gid in buffer){
 					var img = _get(images, gid)
 					var l = img.tags.length
-					img.tags = img.tags.concat(buffer[gid].tags).unique()
+					img.tags = img.tags
+						.concat(buffer[gid].tags)
+						.uniqueStrings()
 					// we are updated iff length changed...
 					// NOTE: this is true as we are not removing anything 
 					// 		thus the length can only increase if changes are
diff --git a/ui (gen4)/imagegrid/ribbons.js b/ui (gen4)/imagegrid/ribbons.js
index cdfba758..259d432a 100755
--- a/ui (gen4)/imagegrid/ribbons.js	
+++ b/ui (gen4)/imagegrid/ribbons.js	
@@ -1633,12 +1633,29 @@ var RibbonsPrototype = {
 		}))
 	},
 	// XXX add options for images to preload and only then do the update...
+	// XXX really slow for very large numbers of input images/gids...
 	updateImage: function(image, gid, size, sync, callback){
 		var that = this
-		image = (image == '*' ? this.viewer.find(IMAGE)
-			: image == null 
-				|| typeof(image) == typeof('str') ? this.getImage(image)
-			: $(image))
+		var imgs = this.viewer.find(IMAGE)
+
+		// reduce the length of input image set...
+		// NOTE: this will make things substantially faster for very large
+		// 		input sets...
+		if(image instanceof Array && image.length > imgs.length){
+			image = imgs
+				.filter(function(_, img){
+					return image.indexOf(img) >= 0
+						|| image.indexOf(that.elemGID(img)) >= 0 })
+				.map(function(_, img){
+					return that.elemGID(img) })
+				.toArray()
+		}
+		// normalize...
+		image = image == '*' ? 
+				imgs
+			: (image == null || typeof(image) == typeof('str')) ? 
+				this.getImage(image)
+			: $(image)
 		sync = sync == null ? this.load_img_sync : sync
 		size = size == null ? this.getVisibleImageSize('max') : size
 
diff --git a/ui (gen4)/lib/util.js b/ui (gen4)/lib/util.js
index f4cb37d0..4ee0d991 100755
--- a/ui (gen4)/lib/util.js	
+++ b/ui (gen4)/lib/util.js	
@@ -40,9 +40,23 @@ Object.defineProperty(Object.prototype, 'run', {
 Array.prototype.compact = function(){
 	return this.filter(function(){ return true })
 }
-Array.prototype.toKeys = function(){
+
+
+// Convert an array to object...
+//
+// Format:
+// 	{
+// 		<item>: <index>,
+// 		...
+// 	}
+//
+// NOTE: items should be strings, other types will get converted to 
+// 		strings and thus may mess things up.
+// NOTE: this will forget repeating items...
+// NOTE: normalize will slow things down...
+Array.prototype.toKeys = function(normalize){
 	return this.reduce(function(r, e, i){
-		r[e] = i
+		r[normalize ? normalize(e) : e] = i
 		return r
 	}, {})
 }
@@ -57,7 +71,7 @@ Array.prototype.compact = function(){
 */
 
 
-// return an array with duplicate elements removed...
+// Return an array with duplicate elements removed...
 //
 // NOTE: we are not using an Object as an index here as an Array can 
 // 		contain any type of item while Object keys can only be strings...
@@ -72,6 +86,12 @@ Array.prototype.unique = function(normalize){
 }
 
 
+// Special case of .unique, allot faster on arrays of strings...
+//
+Array.prototype.uniqueStrings = function(normalize){
+	return Object.keys(this.toKeys(normalize)) }
+
+
 // Compare two arrays...
 //
 Array.prototype.cmp = function(other){