Memory problems when using the editor

ingewertwijn
edited December 31, 2022
I am running into big memory problems with the new editor. Zotero is using over 54% of memory (1,441.0 MB). After a while other programs like MS Word stop responding, and after another while, Zotero itself can no longer load the pages of documents that I am editing.
The only way to solve the problem is to shut of the computer and restart, and even then the memory stays fragmented and I quickly run into problems again.
Is there a setting I can change to stop this happening? I am on Windows 11.
  • dstillman
    edited January 1, 2023
    Do you mean the PDF reader? ("Editor" would imply the note editor.)

    How much memory does your computer have?

    1.4 GB isn't an abnormal amount of memory for Zotero to use if you open some large PDFs and shouldn't be a problem on most modern computers. On computers with <=8 GB memory, recent versions of Zotero will only keep a couple tabs in memory to limit memory usage.
    The only way to solve the problem is to shut of the computer and restart, and even then the memory stays fragmented and I quickly run into problems again.
    That's not how memory works. When you restart your computer everything memory-related starts from scratch.
  • ingewertwijn
    edited January 1, 2023
    Well, perhaps I have been giving you information that is not relevant. But the problem is real. After using the Zotero pdf editor for a while, pages no longer show and other programs, like Word no longer function. Until I start up the computer again. This never happened before the new version. It never happens with any other program either.
    I have 16GB memory btw
  • dstillman
    edited January 1, 2023
    If Zotero is using 1.4 GB and you have 16 GB of memory, it wouldn't make sense for Zotero to be slowing down other programs, unless you have a huge amount of other stuff open. You'll need to check Task Manager to see what's actually happening on your system.

    Your situation does point to a problem, though. The current version of Zotero can only use ~3 GB on Windows, regardless of the amount of system memory. That will be fixed in the next major version of Zotero, but we should actually change the behavior I mention above and have the Windows version only keep a couple tabs in memory on Windows. Otherwise a Windows system with more than 8 GB could probably actually perform worse than one with 8 GB. We'll make that change for the next release.
  • ingewertwijn
    edited January 1, 2023
    Ok thanks. Just to inform you, when the problem occurs, Word starts behaving like Zotero, not displaying pages of a document.
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