Does Zotero run substantially slower on Macs?

MTBradley

I've been using Zotero on my MacBook for several months now. Yesterday I downloaded it to a Dell desktop at my office and was suprised to find that the Windows version navigates and adds tage much, much more quickly than on my laptop. Is the issue with my machine or does the Windows version of Zotero just work that much better?

noksagt

zotero is mostly developed on Macs & I use it on win32, os x, and (both x86 and x86-64) linux. I haven't noticed substantial OS dependent performance issues. (There have been visual rendering quriks depending on platform, though--performance may not be identical either.)

Since you've been running it for several months, you might check that you have the most recent version on the Mac (there have been performance improvements with updates). Also: what about your collection size?

dstillman

1) Is this with the latest version on both machines?

2) Is this using the same library? Currently, adding of tags will become substantially slower the more tags you have.

3) It may come down to hard drive speed. Laptop hard drives are almost always considerably slower than desktop hard drives, so operations involving disk seeks could be slower on the MacBook. You can use Activity Monitor (or something like MenuMeters) to see what exactly is slowing down performance.

4) I'm not aware of any major performance differences between platforms. Database access was actually much faster on Macs until a recent upgrade of Zotero, which should've brought Windows performance more in line. Firefox, however, is generally slower on Macs than on Windows, so it may come down to the respective JavaScript implementations on each platform...

sybille

I was noticing that it was taking a long time for Zotero to delete some attachments yesterday. And I also discovered that there were some malformed URLs in the "Extra" field (I think) of three of my items that prevented me from generating a report. Once I had fixed those problematic URLs (by deleting them, since they weren't needed), other operations with the database like deleting attachments no longer were slow. This is on Linux.

All of which is to say that I'm wondering if there might not be something amiss with your database as well, and that this is the source of the slowdown. You might try checking the database with the tool in Preferences -> Advanced. (That did not show the errors for me, however). Or maybe try generating a report for your whole Library. (That's how I found my errors).

BTW, the problematic URLs were in some of the first items I ever added to my library with an older version of Zotero, and I don't think I entered them myself. I'm supposing they were artifacts of earlier releases with markup that's since been changed, or something like that.

It's also possible that you might be experiencing slowdowns due to having a lot of items in the database. See http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/1093/ (final post), where it's stated that 10,000 items is the upper limit for Firefox 2.0. Could that be it?

MTBradley

Thanks to all who gave feedback. I checked out my computer and the PC at my office and...

-Both machines are running versions 1.0.0rc3.
-My MacBook's processor is a 2 GHz Intel Core Duo.
-I was not using the library from my MacBook on the PC desktop, but rather had just started a new one.
-I've checked Activity Monitor under normal operating conditions at several points and I've shown no more than 30%-40% of my CPU in use (some of that being Activity Monitor, of course).
-I estimate (is there a function to get an exact count?) that I have over 1,000 records/notes/attachments in my library and 150 or so tags.
-I ran the "Check Database Now" function and received the message "Failed: Errors were found in the Zotero database!"
-I can't/don't know how to produce a report of the entire library. I succsesfully produced reports of several smaller folders, but when I tried to produce a report of my largest folder I got an URL in the navigation bar but no onscreen text. I tried to scroll down and Firefox froze. I checked Activity Monitor at that point and Firefox was using 99% of my CPU.

Any further feedback is of course much appreciated!

dstillman

I was not using the library from my MacBook on the PC desktop, but rather had just started a new one.

A new library will be much faster than a library with many items.

I estimate (is there a function to get an exact count?) that I have over 1,000 records/notes/attachments in my library and 150 or so tags.

You can hit + in the items list to expand all nodes and then do a Select All to select all items. The item count will appear in the right pane.

I ran the "Check Database Now" function and received the message "Failed: Errors were found in the Zotero database!"

You should run your database through our DB Repair Tool.

I can't/don't know how to produce a report of the entire library. I succsesfully produced reports of several smaller folders, but when I tried to produce a report of my largest folder I got an URL in the navigation bar but no onscreen text.

This is a known issue—it's a Firefox bug.

caseylw

Zotero is also starting to run very slowly on my Mac laptop, which otherwise runs just fine. When I add a reference to a Word document and select a reference from the pop-up window, it then takes 25-35 seconds to process and insert the link. I can't figure out why this is happening -- my library only has about 75 references, and I only have a few tags.

Thanks.

dstillman

When I add a reference to a Word document and select a reference from the pop-up window, it then takes 25-35 seconds to process and insert the link.

Have you experienced this slowdown in Zotero itself, or only in conjunction with the Word plugin?

caseylw

I've only had this problem with the Word plugin. Zotero runs fine, and I can continue using Firefox after about 5 seconds. But it's now taking 45-60 seconds for Word to come out of its coma when I add a reference.

dstillman

caseylw: Are you using the latest versions of both Zotero (1.0.0rc3) and the Word plugin (1.0a3) available from zotero.org? If so, do you have a Word doc this happens with that you wouldn't mind sending to support@zot....org?