when Zotero is quite slow, how should I troubleshoot?

kate.nyhan
1. Do I just have too many records? 3k doesn't seem like that many....
2. Or too many PDFs associated with the records? Maybe 50-60% of the records have PDFs
3. Is it a plugin? Can I tell which one? I have Scite and PubPeer
  • adamsmith
    Almost certainly the plugins, yes -- both of those try to update over the entire library and can likely slow things down if it's not done conservatively.
    Try temporarily disabling both and see what happens.

    You shouldn't see any noticeable slowdowns under 10k items with attachments, assuming a reasonably modern computer.

  • aborel
    What actions are you performing when you experience slowness?

    The numbers in 1 and 2 should not be a problem.
    You can test the possible effect of plugins by disabling them all and turning them on again, one by one, to see if one of them causes the problem.
  • kate.nyhan
    So I'm not very patient -- I just disabled both plugins, without testing them separately.
    The slowness can happen in all kinds of situations -- when I'm searching in my Zotero library for a record, when I'm trying to toggle a tag on or off. When I am copying a formatted citation to paste into an email -- that seems to take forever.
    It may be a "my computer" problem more than a "Zotero" problem of course....
  • adamsmith
    So are you saying this is still an issue with both add-ons disabled?
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