Computer almost unusable when Filemaker is performing tasks in background

[James Gill]

I'm sitting here on my laptop because as of now, but desktop is performing a DDR Import with BaseElements and is almost unusable.  I have noticed that whenever I am performing a task in Filemaker 13 that takes a lot of CPU cycles (Import/Exporting a ton of records, looping through large scripts/found sets, etc), my computer slowly becomes less and less responsive to keyboard inputs.  It's running on a 27-Inch Core i5 iMac with 16GB of RAM so it's not the latest and greatest machine, but it's no slouch either.  

 

Has anybody else encountered this or know of a fix?  This was never a problem before FM13.

[Lee Smith]

Have you contacted BE about this, they may be able to shed some light on this?

FYI, I tested both Base Elements and Inspector Pro 4 on several files a couple of weeks ago, and I did not see a speed issue with either, at least not to make me feel that I should kill some time doing something else or go to Starbucks.

It's probably like comparing Apples to Oranges, my computer is a Mac Mini (Core i7 and 2.3 GHz).

HTH

Lee

[James Gill]

It's definitely not something to do with BE4 since it happens all the time in Filemaker even when I'm not using BE.

[LaRetta]

I have noticed that whenever I am performing a task in Filemaker 13 that takes a lot of CPU cycles (Import/Exporting a ton of records, looping through large scripts/found sets, etc), my computer slowly becomes less and less responsive to keyboard inputs. 

 

Hi James,

 

I have not experienced slow-downs with 13 versus 12 or 11; on the contrary.  However, imports CAN be slow depending upon how many dependencies are involved and that depends upon your structure and schema, number of calculations (and whether they are cascading), auto-enter calculations etc.

 

It might be wise to have your solution evaluated to identify the bottlenecks and recommend alternate approaches.  There are many things, including hardware as Lee points out, which can slow a solution.

[Sky Willmott]

There must be something wrong with your system, maybe try using it in a different OS X user account and see if the problems persist...

I've recently been using FMP 13 on a now ancient 2007 2GB RAM, 2GHz Core 2 Duo old white MacBook (OS X 10.7)... and don't get any of these problems... Note this isn't my main computer which is a much newer iMac and also an i5 Mac mini I use.... No problems like that on any of them....

[Lee Smith]

What version did this file originate in?

 

This might have something to do with Layout Themes and Styles.

[James Gill]

Perhaps I did a poor job of describing the issue.  The performance of Filemaker is not the problem, the issue is that while performing tasks where Filemaker is 'busy' (Loops of large record sets, Imports of large sets of information, applying schema changes to fields with indexes, etc) it seems to intermittently and randomly grab the focus of the Finder, therefore interfering with keyboard inputs for the duration of whatever task Filemaker is performing.

 

I'll have to verify if this is happening with brand new files when I have some free time.

[LaRetta]

Ah, yes indeed ... I experience the same.  If I am running a speed test in FM, and I try to type emails for example, it only types every third character.  I must type very slowly and repeat several keys to get through it.

 

It seems that a computer's resources, if tied up with an intensive task (no matter the task), will always produce this result - I know that it happens when I'm performing a download from dropbox and several other instances as well.  

[Aussie John]

If you look at "activity monitor" (app inside finders utility folder) you will be able to see CPU and disk usage. Not that it helps fix you problem.

[James Gill]

Ah, yes indeed ... I experience the same.  If I am running a speed test in FM, and I try to type emails for example, it only types every third character.  I must type very slowly and repeat several keys to get through it.

 

It seems that a computer's resources, if tied up with an intensive task (no matter the task), will always produce this result - I know that it happens when I'm performing a download from dropbox and several other instances as well.  

 

Ah, I wonder if it's something specific to the OS and not necessarily FileMaker.  I just (~3 months ago) upgraded to Yosemite and never had this problem before that...

[Craig Wall]

I've seen the exact same issue, James. Keyboard responsiveness in other programs seems to get badly interrupted. I even started to wonder if my keyboard had a bad USB cable or something, but with time it became obvious that it was only misbehaving while doing large imports and such in the bg.

 

Yes, I'm on Mac. Yes, I'm using Yosemite.

[JamesT]

I've been having this issue for a number of releases. Can't remember when it started but it's something I've just accepted. I run substantial import tasks which are usually scripted on the server over night, however sometimes I have to run them manually and that's when it ties up my computer. I've tried everything, I usually set the affinity to a single core to move it away from anything but that doesn't really change it.

I'm on Windows, but have experience the issue on both.