Slow Startup After Recent Update

bforbiggy · 24 May 2024, 17:14

It starts up like normal with two exceptions. The default tab you start with doesn't load and the browser is frozen for a solid 10 seconds before I can do anything.

During the frozen time, I can type in the address bar and press enter but all "vivaldi" actions only take place after the browser unfreezes. The text appears fine but pressing enter to go to a page doesn't work until it is unfrozen.

DoctorG · 24 May 2024, 17:34

@bforbiggy Welcome in our Vivaldi Community

Some useful links for you:

Help on Vivaldi Mail (mail client for use with calendars, feeds, mails)
Help on Vivaldi Calendar (the part of Vivaldi Mail client)
User Reputation to use Vivaldi mail account

Do not hesitate to ask, we are a community to help users.

Enjoy browsing with Vivaldi.

DoctorG · 24 May 2024, 17:34

@bforbiggy Please check Troubleshooting issues.

bforbiggy · 24 May 2024, 22:25

@DoctorG

Troubleshooting Steps
1 Restart the browser
2 Make sure the browser is up to date
3 Test in a different profile
4 Reset settings
5 Disable Extensions
6 Enable (Third-Party) Cookies
7 Disable Tracker and Ad blocker
8 Delete Browsing Data
9 Disable Hardware Acceleration
10 Change the reported User Agent
11 Test in another browser
12 Check your security software
13 Found a bug?

Results

Been doing it
Already updated
Didn't work
Didn't work
Didn't work
Already enabled
Didn't work: no adblock is a non-starter
No: I want to keep site data and the issue is not with a particular site.
Didn't work
No: the issue is not with a particular site
Didn't work: issue is not with a particular site
Not sure: I only use windows defender, no norton no bitdefender nothing

bforbiggy · 25 May 2024, 13:45

I did test standalone versions, and they seem to work immediately.
Did double check and guest profile still doesn't work.

The only reason I can think of the lag is history being loaded because I have not once cleared my history nor do I want to. Opening up history has always been slow because of that but it never affected vivaldi otherwise. Did a new update change this?

Pathduck · 25 May 2024, 14:14

@bforbiggy Well, how large is your history file? Does it get better after your clear it? You can just back up the file History from your browser profile first to try.

Or faster than clearing History from the UI, just delete the History file while browser is closed and start it again. Does it start quickly? If so it's your History.

Note: If you use Vivaldi Sync, you should log out of Sync before doing this in case Sync also deletes it on the server. But shouldn't matter if you have a backup anyway.

Did a new update change this?

Impossible to know, not even developers can answer this.

bforbiggy · 25 May 2024, 17:39

@Pathduck

Well, how large is your history file?

Well... 286 megabytes

Does it get better after your clear it?

After some very quick testing, yes
What do I do now though? I do not want to delete my history

Pathduck · 25 May 2024, 17:57

@bforbiggy I keep mine for 3 months, currently 44MB, I have no need for anything more. And there's good reasons no other browser allows users to save history for ever.

If you now think it's the History file that causes the slow startup, then you need to test this theory.

If your theory is "something changed" then you need to test this by installing an older version as a clean Standalone, load your History file there and time its startup.

You can download older builds here:
https://vivaldi.com/download/archive/

Then install a current version as well, and do the same.
Compare startup times.

Then maybe you have grounds for a good bug report.
You might need to share your History file with the devs for them to reproduce the problem. I wrote some SQL a while back that allows you to anonymize the History file:
https://pathduck.github.io/vivaldi/tools/anonymize-history.sql

bforbiggy · 25 May 2024, 18:52

@Pathduck Tested! I did originally test with a downgraded standalone version to check that it was the history, but double checked it. The problem does occur when using the most recent standalone version! I didn't manually time it, but I think 5-10s is obvious enough

There are reasons why browser perform cleanup, but I'm definitely the exception for occasionally going that far back! Anyways, bug report submitted and hopefully it gets fixed soon.

Pathduck · 25 May 2024, 18:55

@bforbiggy Would help if you attached your History file as well. Developers need to see it to believe it.

Run the SQL I provided if you don't want to share your browsing history. IMO not a big deal, devs don't care where you been.

Test the file the same way after anonymizing it to make sure the issue is still reproducible.

Fromville · 25 May 2024, 22:10

@bforbiggy I’ve been having exactly the same issue – after the last update starts frozen for like half a minute, then works as usual. Solved it just now by turning off the plugins one by one and finding it was Download Master plugin causing trouble.

yasei_no_otoko · 27 May 2024, 23:45

My Vivaldi now takes several minutes to start up as well. After reading this forum, I turned off all extensions and it started up instantly. However, I did not have Download Master installed.
Turning off all extensions improved the symptoms, but this makes no sense.
After several dozen minutes of repeatedly restarting Vivaldi, I was able to identify the culprit extension: an out-of-date extension related to Twitter.com.
I think the cause of the freeze is probably an error around exception handling.