Vivaldi Unresponsive Since Update

Raindrops1 · 14 Jan 2025, 13:19

Vivaldi has become unresponsive after last update (Windows also got an update on the same day)

Since last 4 days, my Vivaldi browser has become unresponsive. It takes a few minutes for any action (e.g. launch a tab, close a tab, etc.)

Both Vivaldi and Windows 11 got updates on the same day, so I do not know what to blame.

I have seven workplaces, and a total of 15 web pages in all workplaces. Before the Vivaldi+Windows update, the browser was working blazing fast with close to 100 websites loaded in all workplaces. It used to work fast even with multiple Vivaldi windows running 150 tabs.

All other browsers (Chrome, Edge) work normally.
All other non-browser apps (FreeCAD, Blender, pdf reader, etc.) work normally.

I tried to reset cache, but that did not change anything.

Kindly advise!

P.S. I have saved the bookmarks and passwords, but I would like to save my sessions data in case I have to reinstall Vivaldi.

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ModEdit: Title

Zalex108 · 14 Jan 2025, 13:26

Hi,

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Please,
On each report add:

Vivaldi Version: |

Since when happens: |

OS / Version / DE |

URL |

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Add the V and OS versions.
Start from the bottom with the Full Profile BackUp from the File Explorer.

Then check in a Clean Profile

Start with the Basic Desktop Troubleshooting Steps.

Extras

Clean Site Data
Clean Service Workers
vivaldi://serviceworker-internals/
Reset Flags
vivaldi://flags [If personally enabled]
Disable CSS / JS Mods

Regarding Bug Hunting
Regarding Downgrades

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Also,
Some useful links:

Forums	Community	Official Tutorials	Official Help

Forum Categories	Modding Vivaldi	Vivaldi Features	Vivaldi Help
Forum Markdown	Panels • Engines	Vivaldi Tutorials	Issues
Feature Requests ¿?	Menus • Guides • FAQ	Vivaldi How To	Bug Reports

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Avoid Data loss
Follow the Backup | Reset links below

Vivaldi Backup | Reset + Extra Steps

DoctorG · 14 Jan 2025, 13:42

@Raindrops1

Large History? Keeping it over many months/years?
Security applications running in Windows?

Raindrops1 · 14 Jan 2025, 13:54

@Raindrops1

oops! My bad!

1. Details:

Vivaldi: 7.0.3495.29 (Stable channel) (64-bit)
OS: Windows 11 Version 24H2 (Build 26100.2605)
JavaScript: V8 13.0.245.25

2. I had deleted the following for "all time":

Browsing History
Cookies
Cache
AppIications Cache
This did not result in any improvement.

Before posting, I did search extensively for "unresponsive" and "slow" in Vivaldi desktop section; and found no similar complaints.

I will try the other things and revert.

Thanks for the rapid response!

@DoctorG
Yes, admittedly I had large history, but it had never slowed down Vivaldi gradually. In any case, I cleaned up the history entirely (and other things listed above). But that did not help.

As soon as Vivaldi and Windows 11 got updated, the trouble started all of a sudden. I never had the chance to see the effect of the updates in V and OS separately.

Windows Bitdefender has been running since I bought this laptop. No other change.

mib2berlin · 14 Jan 2025, 14:26

@Raindrops1
Hi, we had reports about an update of Vivaldi cause issues/lagging with third party AV software.
Just check in the Windows Task Manager if Bitdefender is running higher CPU if you doing something in Vivaldi.
Edge, Chrome are always whitelisted but Vivaldi is not.

OrbitalMartian · 14 Jan 2025, 17:06

@Raindrops1 @mib2berlin

third party AV software

It may also be worth testing with Windows Defender disabled. I know this sounds bad but it has been messing with software. I fly in the FlightGear flightsim and the scenery servers can’t be reached with Defender on but work perfectly fine with it disabled.

mib2berlin · 14 Jan 2025, 17:37

@OrbitalMartian
Hi, I don't think this is necessary, we never had reports Defender cause any issues with Vivaldi.

Cheers, mib

Raindrops1 · 22 Jan 2025, 08:34

While troubleshooting, I found that the Vivaldi Default folder (in the AppData\Local\Vivaldi\ UserData path) has bloated to 2.26 GB (when I started, it was 80 MB).

Here are the largest subfolders in this folder:

Cache 489.25 MB
IndexedDB 482.03 MB
File System 407.81 MB
Code Cache 285.20 MB
Extensions 212.52 MB
VivaldiThumbnails 89.85 MB

I checked this in ChatGPT, which recommended the following:

Close Vivaldi completely (kill all threads),
Back up the following items located in the Default folder:
** The Notes file
** The Preferences file
** The Sessions subfolder
Delete all these subfolders:
** Cache
** IndexedDB
** File System
** Code Cache
** VivaldiThumbnails

(ChatGPT recommends not to delete the Extensions subfolder.)

I followed these steps, and now Vivaldi works very fast, as before.

My bookmarks, notes, workspaces, and saved sessions were not affected.
So my backup was not needed after all!

If anyone else has this issue, hopefully these tips will help.

Thanks for the help!

RobJa · 31 Jan 2025, 03:35

Can we have a Vivaldi developer look over and comment on these recommendations?

I really prefer using Vivaldi but had to give up a few months ago, when a series of updates rather drastically affected operational performance. One of them did greatly improve startup time, and even more the shutdown time, but made regular operation pathetic, generally over 30 seconds per keystroke or mouse move or click.

My usage appears to be different than others, often doing genealogy with hundreds of tabs open for a project, somewhere over 4500 tabs total open across 3 or 4 windows when I gave up, but it had been working fine until those updates. When performance became so bad, and I saw a report of someone losing all their tabs after another update, I moved to Firefox, not happily, hoping to come back when it seemed safe. Is it?

Even the problem with the Help menu had returned, where you try to open it, and every Vivaldi window and thread disappears in a fraction of a second.

My own hypothesis is excessive garbage collection in the background, as that is what it appeared like in the Task Manager, with lots of constant but little memory releases occurring, to many threads, both Vivaldi and non-Vivaldi. Actual page display was fast, but there was 'extra work' happening constantly, between almost every keystroke or mouse action (except in system boxes). Perhaps some buffer had been decreased, had become too full, and was forcing repeated garbage collections?

mib2berlin · 31 Jan 2025, 04:44

@RobJa
Hi, maybe you read a few weeks ago a Firefox user loose 7500 tabs collecting over years.
This was during work no update needed, this thing simply crash.
Data loss can happen with any software, imagine a user open 5 Photoshop instances and 4000 images but never save any changes. One crash, power loss and all work is gone.
Make backups.
My last tests with 2300 tabs show no lags at all but I use workspaces instead of windows.
The help menu bug is fixed, the user hover over the Window entry and Vivaldi load all open tabs to list them.
If a user have more than 900 tabs open Vivaldi crashed.
The garbage collection does nothing if you don't enable them.
For me 50% of 4500 tabs is more or less garbage, maybe even 90%.
One can put all tools available on the workbench, maybe you need one next month but this is not effective.
Anyway, just start with a clean install and check out Vivaldi for the next project again.

Cheers, mib

mib2berlin · 31 Jan 2025, 04:52

@Raindrops1
Hi, seems reasonable to delete these folders, at least it doesn't harm Vivaldi, all folders are recreated at next start.
VivaldiThumbnails include all tab previews, so you have to reload all again.
I don't thing this folder can slow down Vivaldi but a speed dial folder looks like this if you delete it.

Cheers, mib