Slow refresh after update

Movies Movie Collector
1

I have a collection with 1560 cartoons in it. If I add a link to a movie file on my file server it takes more than 15 seconds before the program shows the file url in the list window under Movie Files.
It doesn’t seem to matter what values I change in the Edit window. The list refresh seems to be as sluggish no matter what.

Even if I limit the list to movies starting with a speficic letter, reducing the number of movies in the list to perhaps 50 movies, the program uses the same amount of time.

Why so slow? And, more important, is there something I can do to make it perform better?

2

Remember when your computer used to take several min to boot up? Yet now 15 sec seems like a long time :upside_down_face:

3

Yes, several minutes to boot the computer was annoying even though you maybe did a reboot once a week, but this 15 sec refresh time happens every time I make a change to a movie. If I update 50 movies I have to wait 12-13 minutes. Computers are now so fast that the refresh should take less than a second with databases as small as this.
I wonder if this is related to something happening at the server because it doesn’t make sense that it should be this slow.

4

Could be something of a rights issue/that it can’t immediately connect to the server if it were only adding a file. But you mention it’s happening for each edit you do?

With 1560 items in the database file on Windows that really should not be slow - but - it is SAVING the .mvc file.

If there is something like dropbox or onedrive or something running on the folder where you save your .mvc database file (the movie collector database file, usually in Documents > Movie Collector), that may take the file hostage, it could take long to save. It could also fail.

Now if the sluggishness is just the program, there are some things you can try.

If the program is slow on STARTUP: The program may be trying to initialize a barcode scanner at startup, but failing because the scanner is not present. Have you in the past maybe used a barcode scanner, e.g. the OPN-2001 or the Flic scanner?
To solve this, you would need to remove that “Initialize scanner at startup” setting from the registry manually.
Here’s how:

  • make sure Movie Collector is not running
  • open the Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
  • navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Collectorz.com\Movie\Settings
  • there, remove the “Automatically Activate Flic” entry (just delete it)
  • close RegEdit
  • Restart Movie Collector

Slow in the program while adding?
A firewall may be blocking the program’s internet access, but not in the right way. A firewall that blocks access should result in an instant “access denied”, but we’ve seen some firewalls somehow hanging up the internet request, causing slowness.
Can you check your firewall software to see if our software is allowed to access the internet? Maybe completely remove the rule for your Collector program, then re-add it?

Also:
We’ve seen rare cases where the new skins (Dark and Light) are causing the program to be slow, maybe because of an unusual display setting or driver.
To resolve this, try switching to the System skin, through the View menu, then Skins, then System.

Lastly, you could have too many columns active in the main list. I recommend clicking View > Columns > MODIFY and just have like 4 columns active as a test. If you have ALL columns active, then reloading the list could take VERY long.

5

I didn’t say that the database has 1560 items, but a collection. There’s another collection in the database with 2050 items.

It takes long both to bring up the edit screen from the movie list (10 secs) and this evening the refresh of the list after pressing return without making any changes took bwteen 22 and 25 secs.

The program takes 10 secs to start.
It’s running on a Windows 11 Pro PC with AMD Ryzen9 7900 with 32 GB RAM. The program and the database is stored on a 2 TB Kingston KC3000 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD with more than 1.5 TB free space.
I’ve added the program to the defender firewall, but it didn’t make a difference.
I’ve tried changing the skin - no effect. The same applies to number of columns - no effect

6

Alright, in that case we might need to see a video of this happening, I want to check if there’s anything on the entire screen that might provide me with a hint.

You can record your screen via this website:

You can send me the file(s) via:

  • Can you also tell me in which folder you are saving and if you use OneDrive/Dropbox anything like that?

  • And lastly, can you try with internet connection switched OFF, see if that makes any difference?

7
  • Screen recording sent
  • MyCollection.mvc is located in c:\Users\njalf\Documents\Movie Collector
  • No difference with internet connection switched off
  • I don’t use cloud storage
8

Thanks for the video. That is interesting to see.

Can you try the following:

  • Click menu File > New Database
  • Add 2 movies, just random ones.
  • Now edit them.
    - Is this fast?

Then I would like to reset the registry, see if that does anything:

Please follow the steps below to try and resolve this issue, this process will affect some local settings in your software such as the width of columns, but your database will not be affected.

  • Click the Windows start icon and type ‘regedit’ into the search box, then press ENTER.

  • Locate the following key:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Collectorz.com > Movie

  • Select that “Movie” folder entry there and delete it!

  • Download and install Movie Collector from your My CLZ page:
    https://my.clz.com

  • After installing, you will have to unlock the software. Fill in your username/password to unlock the software.

  • Now, reopen your database: Click File > Open then locate the database file in order to get things working again.

If that ALSO doesn’t work, can you send me your database file? The .mvc file.
You can send me the file(s) via:

9

Created new database and added 2 movies. Double-clicked one of them and it took 8 seconds before the edit screen was displayed. Changed the title and hit Return. After 20 seconds the movie list was updated. This is not fast!
Same results after clearing the program registry info and reinstalling the program.
I had to zip mvc file to be able to send it with wetransfer.

10

Thanks for trying that, and thank you for sending your database file.

I notice you have a lot of big box sets. Those take longer to load (it’s grabbing data from all 50 or 97 movies inside, it’s something we never optimized for the Windows version), it might be related.

However, when testing in your collection, it seems to be fast for me: Please see this video:

The fact that with 2 movies it is also slow worries me a bit. I need to ask one of my colleagues. This might take a bit more time before I can get back to you. My apologies for this.

Couple more questions:

  • was it ever fast?
  • if so, when was the last time it was fast?
11

My PC rebooted during the night and now Movie Collector is as fast as your video. Strange!

12

Really? Oh wow.
Hm.

Something tells me it might still be related to some kind of connection issue/rights issue to that harddrive.. I’m not sure of course.

Rebooting wouldn’t explain it though.

13

I was wondering if the Nord VPN client was running and causing a slow-down, but as far as I could see it wasn’t active. It has a “protection mode” that is a real speedkiller on javascript code. I have written a small Angular app can be run from my web server; and after an update of the Nord VPN software a new feature was on by default and my app slowed down by much. When I found out what was causing the slowdown I disabled the option.

Is there some sort of garbage build-up in Movie Collector? I leave my PC on all the time, and if Windows doesn’t decide that it needs to reboot my PC, I can have Movie Collector running for weeks.

14

We’ve seen a multitude of issues with NordVPN (and other VPN services that have like “protection stuff” for your computer). Always a lot of trial and error (and randomly working sometimes again).

I don’t believe I’ve had issues with “garbage build-up” in Movie Collector in the past, but having it open for weeks… well I haven’t tried that. But I’m sure others may have done that from time to time to. Never had any support on that though.

In any case.. I think you’re good to go then now :slight_smile: