FamilySearch is slow as molasses

LegacyUser

Rick Swenson said: I have many, many names to input into FamilySearch and I'm finding that the new, current version of FamilySearch is very, very slow! Can you change it so that it is not so slow? Do you know of a macros that can pull information from a PDF Family Group Record that inputs into FamilySearch? Please help---this new FamilySearch is slow as molasses.

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m said: Yes, the New Format causes pages to load much more slowly than before.

Often the pages do not load and you have to refresh to get the page to load.

AND I have had to refresh 2 times to get the page to load.

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Rick Swenson said: Hopefully, they will change FamilySearch.

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Tom Huber said: Where in the world are you located? The Philippines are used for testing since they represent some of the longest propagation delays with the servers that are hosted in the United States.

I find that the new User Interface pages actually load faster, but then I'm located in the U.S. Central Time zone. The load is impressive when I am going from one person to another, but the initial profile loaded does take time because a lot is going on with the code that sets things up (the code has to be loaded and interpreted before it can act on the raw data).

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Tom Huber said: The goal with the new user interface was to reduce the amount of data that has to be downloaded to the local computer. The code itself takes time and is not related to the data.

Two factors also impact "load and display" times. One is the amount of available memory to your browser. If you have a lot of windows open, you could be using all of your available memory and that means the new material has to be disc cached, which is extremely slow... as slow as "Molasses in January."

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m said: Only 1 page open, slow as molasses. It's a lot slower than the Old Format.

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Amy Archibald said: It is faster for me and I have multiple tabs open.

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David Newton said: Is this based on benchmarks timed with a stopwatch, or is it just your subjective feeling it is slower?

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Paul said: Overall, I have found no difference whatsoever. So many factors are involved, of course. Some days, images really do load slowly - but then I had that experience previously. However, if you are experiencing problems every day, and only on the FamilySearch website, you should probably report the problem (and your location and other connection details) to Support, just to see if a reason can be established and the problem remedied.

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m said: (Wired connection, Firefox.)

OLD vs. NEW FORMAT DIFFERENCE:
Old Format--pages opened instantaneously and the ENTIRE PAGE would load at once.

New Format--pages open slowly and the ITEMS PROPAGATE ONE AT A TIME and sometimes the page does not go to completion---REFRESH will make the page go to completion.

SPECIFICS:
1) Very Beginning Of New Format Items Propagate From Bottom To Top Of Screen--You would watch the items load one at a time on the screen and they would propagate from the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen.

2) Current New Format Sometimes Items Fail To Load--sometimes items fail to load. The most common example I have seen is when 1 Discussion does not load and there is a BLANK SPACE that loads where the Title of the Discussion should be.----REFRESH will makes the page load to completion and the blank space will be replaced by the Title of the Discussion.

3) Current New Format Sometimes Top Of Page Loads Bottom Of Page Fails To Load--sometimes the Top of the Page loads and basically the part that you want to read doesn't load and none of the items propagate onto the page. This is why we say you often have to REFRESH to get a page to load. Pretty common occurrence.---REFRESH forces the entire page to load.

4) Current New Format Sometimes I Have Had To REFRESH 2 Times To Get The Page To Load---If the page does not load to completion and REFRESH fails to get all of the elements of the page to load to completion, sometimes pressing REFRESH a 2nd time is required.

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gasmodels said: I have had the issue with pages not loading and having to refresh with Edge. I have not experienced it except very infrequently with chrome. An exception is the list of changes to individuals I am watching. I almost always need to refresh that page to get it to load

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Paul said: From the comments above, I assume everyone is talking about Family Tree - not the FamilySearch website in general.

As commented earlier, I am not having any problems with Family Tree pages loading - instantaneous today, in all sections. However, it has been practically impossible to read images on the "main" site as they are taking forever to load / focus and moving from image to image is equally painful.

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Jeff Wiseman said: In general, I've found that pages load a bit slower than they did before the upgrade to improve the download speed of pages was made.

I do see the times where reloads are necessary to get the whole page as well.

LegacyUser

Michael W. McCormick, AG® said: This is odd. I found when they first changed it like a few weeks ago or whenever that it was slower at first. There were bugs which Ron Tanner admitted in his live videos he does for the public on Facebook. However in recent days I feel like it has been faster for me than it was before the changes.

Sometimes I still wonder if I like having to go to a different tab for sources, but it is a lot smoother of an experience than it was when the changes were first released. It feels more refined and faster, and with less bugs. In some ways, like speed, and the top bar that scrolls, and minor stuff, I actually do now like this new design better.

That being said, since this site has come online maybe 5 years ago or so, I find that there are always new glitches showing up while others get fixed. It is always in flux. Some days it is pretty smooth, but every week there is some new glitch. It does usually work though and is a very robust useful site.

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W David Samuelsen said: net neutrality is gone - some ISPs are throttling without your knowledge.

And other times, too many users at once, especially Sunday afternoons.

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David Newton said: Net neutrality is not going to affect a website as small as Familysearch. Yes in the grand scheme of things it is a small website in terms of traffic generated. Besides you're assuming those complaining are in the United States.

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Wuotans Krieger said: It is now so slow to load that have stopped using it regularly. Often when I try to access an ancestor's record it keeps taking me to Family History books! When I try and clear hints it won't get rid of them. Absolutely hopeless. The previous site was far better. People are just going to stop using it.

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W David Samuelsen said: what slow? It's your ISP.

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Tom Huber said: The speed at which a site loads is dependent on many factors.

If your computer is low on memory, the browser you are using will often start swapping memory and disc space.

If your ISP is throttling your speed, that will impact your performance.

If you have not cleared your browser's history and cache, that will impact your performance.

If you are in a remote location, the distance between your ISP and the servers will adversely impact performance.

Those are just some of the more common reasons why one site will not perform as expected in comparison to other sites.

The new user interface reduced the amount of material that is downloaded to your computer, which should, for remote locations in respect to the server locations, improve performance.

If that has not happened, then the issue is most likely related to your computer. Testing the site at another location, such as a Family History Center should reveal whether or not the problem is local to your computer or related to your location.

Loading performance, aside from a) first loading a person's record and b) refreshing the site, will be improved.

Performance is always adversely impacted on Sundays because of the number of Church members working on their Family History on the weekends.

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joe martel said: Rick,
What OS and machine are you using?
Try running speedtest.net. That will tell you how fast your connection is.
It you are in an area or have a configuration that has low bandwidth this version of FamilyTree was written specifically for slow connections: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/lite

LegacyUser

Brett said: Joe

But, more so ...

"FamilySearch"

As "Family Tree" LITE is now available ...

Why did we have to be lumbered with the change to the "Person/Details" page/screen that was released without notice upon us in the "Production" ("Live") Environment on 5/6 September 2018?

And,

Why has the "Production" ("Live") Environment NOT been reverted back to the "Person/Details" page/screen of pre 5/6 September 2018, as has been requested by many Users/Patrons; and, in relation to all the myriad of problems/issues with the release?

'Joe' I am not being nasty, to you personally, I know that this was not you call.

But, I am just being 'you know who's' advocate here.

Especially, as "Family Tree" LITE is available.

Brett

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Tom Huber said: Lite is not a complete copy of FamilySearch as far as what can be displayed. It is, if anything, a "stripped" down version of the full site.

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Brett said: Tom

I very well aware that "Family Tree" LITE is a "Stripped" Down version of the "Family Tree".

It still begs the question, as to why the 'Powers To Be' ( ie. the Management ) of "FamilySearch" were in such a hurry to enable/make/force the release of the 5/6 September 2018, knowing that that "Release" was still full of problems/issues that had not been resolved from the "Beta" ("Test") Environment, let alone all the new problems/issues that 'reared their ugly heads' when the release went into "Production" ("Live") Environment.

Brett

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W David Samuelsen said: Brett, you haven't been paying attention lately, have you?

Improvements and corrections had been made.

In fact, the Research Help is a massive big improvement, better than before.

The ONLY drawbacks are:
1. "Show All", it has to be right-clicked to open in new tab. Once in new tab, the sources are already automatic open to new tab
2. Possible Duplicates open into new tab and if there are more duplicates, open into even more new tabs. - that is very BAD idea, requiring you to shut down previous tabs as needed.

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S. said: Rick Sundays are a littler Slower this is because of how many people get on Family search, but it is everyday on any other day of the week it could also be a issue, so all I can say is good luck and I hope you find out why it is so slow.

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Carol Thoma said: The source linkers load slowly and sometimes the duplicates won't merge even though they're genuine duplicates. FamilySearch's message when I reported the second problem was unhelpful as I already know how to merge correctly. An no; it;s not subjective. I don't normally have to watch as Firefox tells me what it's doing. Normally, the source linkers appear instantly.

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Paul said: There has been a specific problem with the loading speed of the source linker pages, which has been raised elsewhere on this forum. Refreshing the page does the trick, but it has been quite trying over the last two or three days.

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m said: changelog page is sluggish. i was just telling someone that the other day. firefox.