FH slow to load

Eldon Wade · Post by **Eldon Wade** » 17 Dec 2020 22:47

I have a strong PC running Windows 10 but FH is slow to launch. FH does launch though. I had the problem with FH 6.2 and the problem persists with FH 7. I even have the problem without an antivirus installed.
I noticed a debug file in the FH directory. That debug file had numerous entries to the effect "The system cannot
find the path specified". Could this be causing FH to launch slowly?
Any assistance would be appreciated.
Eldon

Post by **tatewise** » 17 Dec 2020 23:14

It is impossible to run Windows 10 without an anti-virus running.
Microsoft Defender will always take over if nothing else is running.

Could you be specific about where those debug files exist? The 'FH directory' is a bit vague!

E Wilcock · Post by **E Wilcock** » 18 Dec 2020 09:37

I too think fh 7 is slower to load. The screen opens quickly but then the fh software pane stays open for 5 or 6 seconds before vanishing. I have 4 different large research projects for 4 different towns and I used to chop and change between them.
Version 7 has also lost the speed of data entry. It is a pain having to close the citation window.
No doubt in time some clever person will make a plug in to get Version 7 to simulate Version 6.

Post by **tatewise** » 18 Dec 2020 10:12

Don't hold your breath for a Plugin that will make FH v7.0 simulate FH v6.2

At the risk of being hung, drawn & quartered, the FH v7.0 beta test version had a debug trace log that slowed it down.
I have not upgraded to the full FH v7.0 yet, but does anyone know if it has a debug trace log?
See Tools > Preferences > General tab Advanced... button Trace Level top right.

Mark1834 · Post by **Mark1834** » 18 Dec 2020 10:22

Testing them side by side on the same PC (using the FH7 beta, which is licensed to testers until end Jan), FH6 and FH7 seem to do things in a slightly different order, as the splash screen disappears completely in FH6 before the main program appears, but lingers for longer in FH7. Overall loading time is a little slower for FH7 for my ~1000 person project, but not excessively so (probably ~5s rather than ~3s).

I've also noticed that FH7 generally feels slightly more sluggish when moving within a project, but speeds up with time, presumably as more data are held in memory. It also places much heaver demand on your system (processor and memory) than FH6, and is significantly slower when processing large reports with lots of images. Unfortunately, that's the trade off for having more functionality, and in my experience you quickly get used to it.

Plugins only work on your data, to display or manipulate it, and cannot control how the program behaves. That is down to Calico Pie!

Post by **tatewise** » 18 Dec 2020 10:34

Mark, what happens to the timings if you reduce the Trace Level to 0 temporarily?

Mark1834 · Post by **Mark1834** » 18 Dec 2020 11:06

No effect on loading speed, still a little slower in FH7 compared to FH6 with essentially the same project. If I generate a large book from the Sample Project (table of contents, and summary reports for all individuals and families, 194 pages) my perception is that FH7 is quicker than FH6 with no tracing, but slower with tracing, but you would have to do it several times and reboot the PC between each test to be confident that is real.

This is another area where the two versions do things in a different order. When producing a book, FH6 seems to do a lot of preparation when adding each individual item to the book, which can take significant time, but then generates the book and saves to PDF very quickly. FH7 builds the contents very quickly, but appears to save all the processing until you actually view the book and subsequently save it. The two processes therefore feel very different, even if the end to end time is similar.

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 18 Dec 2020 11:12

Eldon, is it possible you have ever mapped to a network drive or usb stick for your data, or put in shortcuts to external drives?

Post by **LornaCraig** » 18 Dec 2020 11:18

Mike, the trace log has been removed from the full version:

: settings.JPG (51.83 KiB) Viewed 6214 times

Eldon Wade · Post by **Eldon Wade** » 18 Dec 2020 13:45

Jane, I do use an USB external drive for back up but have not linked to it.

Eldon Wade · Post by **Eldon Wade** » 18 Dec 2020 14:06

tatewise wrote: ↑
17 Dec 2020 23:14
It is impossible to run Windows 10 without an anti-virus running.
Microsoft Defender will always take over if nothing else is running.

Could you be specific about where those debug files exist? The 'FH directory' is a bit vague!

Here is the full path to the directory with the debug file: D:\Data\Family Historian\FH Wade 121620\FH Wade 121620.fh_data
Eldon

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 18 Dec 2020 14:21

If you open the Project Window does the blue link at the bottom point to a folder which exists?

Eldon Wade · Post by **Eldon Wade** » 18 Dec 2020 14:35

Jane wrote: ↑
18 Dec 2020 14:21
If you open the Project Window does the blue link at the bottom point to a folder which exists?

Yes it does.

Post by **tatewise** » 18 Dec 2020 15:15

So the File > Project Window > Location: is D:\Data\Family Historian and the Project is FH Wade 121620?

In the FH Wade 121620.fh_data folder there should only be the FH Wade 121620.ged GEDCOM file and the standard FH folders such as Books, Cache, Media, Snapshots but no files.

See KB Understanding Projects under Project Structure.
There are some extra folders in FH v7.0 for Packages and Fact Types, etc, but no files apart from the GEDCOM.

What are those unexpected file names and their full content?

If you use the Tools > External File Links... command are there any File Links not in the Program Data - Media folder?

Eldon Wade · Post by **Eldon Wade** » 18 Dec 2020 16:47

tatewise wrote: ↑
18 Dec 2020 15:15
So the File > Project Window > Location: is D:\Data\Family Historian and the Project is FH Wade 121620? ANSWER That is correct

In the FH Wade 121620.fh_data folder there should only be the FH Wade 121620.ged GEDCOM file and the standard FH folders such as Books, Cache, Media, Snapshots but no files. ANSWER The debug file is in that folder.

See KB Understanding Projects under Project Structure.
There are some extra folders in FH v7.0 for Packages and Fact Types, etc, but no files apart from the GEDCOM.

What are those unexpected file names and their full content? ANWSER debug.txt Here is the first row in that file: [1008/160021.223:ERROR:directory_reader_win.cc(43)] FindFirstFile: The system cannot find the path specified. (0x3)

If you use the Tools > External File Links... command are there any File Links not in the Program Data - Media folder? ANSWER There is a folder named D>Data>RootsMagic>then 5 image files

Post by **tatewise** » 18 Dec 2020 17:26

Do those debug.txt files have recent dates?

A Google Search for ERROR:directory reader_win.cc(43)] FindFirstFile throws up a lot of reports associated mostly with Google Chrome. Do any of them fit your scenario?

Does the path D:\Data\RootsMagic\ exist and does it hold those 5 files?

Does the Tools > External File Links... command indicate any broken links? Tick the Show Broken Links Only option.

Eldon Wade · Post by **Eldon Wade** » 18 Dec 2020 18:04

tatewise wrote: ↑
18 Dec 2020 17:26
Do those debug.txt files have recent dates? ANSWER I can't find the date in that row of data.

A Google Search for ERROR:directory reader_win.cc(43)] FindFirstFile throws up a lot of reports associated mostly with Google Chrome. Do any of them fit your scenario? ANSWER I do use Google Chrome but I don't know if any of them fit my scenario.

Does the path D:\Data\RootsMagic\ exist and does it hold those 5 files? ANSWER Yes to both questions.

Does the Tools > External File Links... command indicate any broken links? Tick the Show Broken Links Only option. ANSWER Yes it does. I have fixed that.

Post by **tatewise** » 18 Dec 2020 18:13

in Windows File Explorer navigate to the debug.txt files.
Then on the View tab select Details near the middle of the toolbar ribbon.
That should display at least one date column.

Alternatively, right-click any debug.txt file and choose Properties which show three dates.

Are extra debug.txt files being created every time you run FH or are they created by some other action?

Eldon Wade · Post by **Eldon Wade** » 18 Dec 2020 19:11

tatewise wrote: ↑
18 Dec 2020 18:13
in Windows File Explorer navigate to the debug.txt files.
Then on the View tab select Details near the middle of the toolbar ribbon.
That should display at least one date column.

Alternatively, right-click any debug.txt file and choose Properties which show three dates. ANSWER:
Created: Thursday, ‎October ‎8, ‎2020, ‏‎4:00:21 PM
Modified: Wednesday, ‎December ‎16, ‎2020, ‏‎1:30:12 PM
Accessed:‎ Today, ‎December ‎18, ‎2020, ‏‎34 minutes ago

Are extra debug.txt files being created every time you run FH or are they created by some other action?

Post by **tatewise** » 18 Dec 2020 19:31

That one was obviously created last October way before FH v7.0 (unless perhaps you were beta tester).
The December dates may be due to your inspection of the file, as usually debug/trace files like that don't get reused months apart.
So maybe they are old logs and are just red-herrings?

Eldon Wade · Post by **Eldon Wade** » 18 Dec 2020 19:44

tatewise wrote: ↑
18 Dec 2020 19:31
That one was obviously created last October way before FH v7.0 (unless perhaps you were beta tester).
The December dates may be due to your inspection of the file, as usually debug/trace files like that don't get reused months apart.
So maybe they are old logs and are just red-herrings?

OK, I will rename the debug file to OLDdebug and see what happens.

Eldon Wade · Post by **Eldon Wade** » 18 Dec 2020 20:02

tatewise wrote: ↑
18 Dec 2020 19:31
That one was obviously created last October way before FH v7.0 (unless perhaps you were beta tester).
The December dates may be due to your inspection of the file, as usually debug/trace files like that don't get reused months apart.
So maybe they are old logs and are just red-herrings?

I renamed the debug file as I mentioned and FH launched as it has been - slow. Any more ideas? Should I re-install FH 7?

Post by **tatewise** » 18 Dec 2020 20:11

I doubt if reinstalling FH v7 will improve matters but give it a try as it can do no harm.
Remember to close FH beforehand and right-click the installation file and choose Run as administrator even though you are in an Administrator account. I presume FH is installed in the default C: drive path advised by the installation process.

If it is no better, then can you manage for the time being, and wait until the New Year, when Calico Pie may have more spare time to investigate your scenario.

The only other idea that comes to mind is to set the File > Project Window > Location: to the default My Documents\Family Historian Projects folder and see if that runs any better, perhaps with the Family Historian Sample Project.

Eldon Wade · Post by **Eldon Wade** » 18 Dec 2020 20:19

Thanks Mike.

mezentia · Post by **mezentia** » 19 Dec 2020 00:21

FH7 is noticeably slower to load and save the file I work on on a daily basis. The project is stored on a NAS drive. I do have autosave turned on (every 15 minutes as a precaution) as I have had FH7 crash on a couple of occasions, but exectly why I can't be sure, except once I was editing source citation text. Not sure what the project stats are as it's doing a full backup as I write this, but there's some 17750 individuals, and 8500 families.

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