Smugmug pictures are slow to load on view and slideshow

dtbain · September 5, 2015

I like smugmug but pictures load very slowly indeed compared with picasa webalbums, google+, etc.

I've a new macbook pro, which is operating fine; my internet connection is fast; and my pictures on other sites load almost instantly -- whereas on smugmug the load is visible and slow, as a line comes down the screen for each one.

(I use OSX Mavericks, btw, and Chrome browser.)

Slideshow is better since the fade between pictures disguises the slow load.

Can't smugmug speed things up?

I saw complaints of this kind about Zenfolio from a few years back, and pictures there (then) were taking up to 5 seconds to load. It's not *that* slow on smugmug, but still can take a couple of seconds per pic, which, when trying to get through a lot of pictures quickly, is very very sluggish.

rainforest1155 · September 7, 2015

Can you include a link to a few example galleries you've seen this for?
To troubleshoot things further, we may also need additional details, so it might be best if you could contact us on the HelpDesk instead.

RKnecht · September 8, 2015

All of my galleries are loading VERY SLOW today. Is there something I should be aware of? Using Windows 10 and Firefox on 150Mbps broadband.

RKnecht · September 8, 2015

RKnecht wrote: »

All of my galleries are loading VERY SLOW today. Is there something I should be aware of? Using Windows 10 and Firefox on 150Mbps broadband.

BTW, this is only happening if I am logged in. If I log out, galleries are speedy.

elizab · September 8, 2015

Me too, as of about an hour ago all my client galleries are taking forever to upload. Never had any problems before. Safari 8.0.8 Mavericks. Only when I am logged in. Smugmug Heroes say there are no problems at the Smugmug end. Glad it's not just me having problems.

rainforest1155 · September 9, 2015

Hi Rich,
I've taken a look at your site and browsed a few galleries (logged in as admin). The pages and photos load up fast for me and I'm not aware of any performance issues. If you're still seeing an issue, could you email the HelpDesk so we could troubleshoot this further?

EDIT: I just noticed on the status page that there was a short lived slowdown in some regions last night, but it should be resolved by now. Can you take another look?

dtbain · October 25, 2016

pictures are STILL far too slow to render

rainforest1155 wrote: »

Can you include a link to a few example galleries you've seen this for?
To troubleshoot things further, we may also need additional details, so it might be best if you could contact us on the HelpDesk instead.

Smugmug remains VERY slow to render pictures, at least in collage landscape mode.

You asked for a link -- well, this is a problem with ALL my galleries, and ALL the galleries that smugmug-using friends have shared with me.

In short, the problem is that one can see a picture slowly appear above a horizontal line that descends down the screen. It takes perhaps 1-2 seconds per picture, which produces an overall very sluggish experience.

By contrast, on Google Photos -- and every other photo sharing site of which I've experience -- pictures seem to appear virtually instantly. In some cases, they appear imperfectly rendered and then very quickly sharpen -- but that too is preferable to my experience with smugmug.

Unless this problem is sorted out soon, I will be leaving smugmug i am afraid -- I am finding this too frustrating, after a year on inaction.

denisegoldberg · October 25, 2016

dtbain wrote: »

Smugmug remains VERY slow to render pictures, at least in collage landscape mode.

My galleries are all in collage landscape mode and they load and render photos very quickly.

Can you provide a link to your site? Just curious to see if your site loads quickly here as opposed to in your location.

Have you run a speed test? There's a link to a speed test to smugmug on this help page. I've pasted the instruction from that page below.

To get a feel for how fast your connection is to SmugMug for downloading and uploading, click here to run a free speed test. Just click the yellow pyramid (San Jose, CA) to start the test.

Even though the page is titled Upload Line Quality Test it tests both upload and download speed.

As Rainforest said in his post, it may be helpful to contact the helpdesk directly.

--- Denise

dtbain · October 31, 2016

Many thanks for the offer of help, Denise.

Try this https://davidbain.smugmug.com/Mexico-City/ (my galleries are normally private, but happy for this one not to be).

I just viewed a couple and, at least on the first view (I just uploaded these last night), it takes a second or two for each to upload.

It's not an eternity, but you can see the refresh line go down the screen from top to bottom, which when scrolling through hundreds of pics produces a very sluggish experience.

I'll try the speedtest at some point, but I've noticed this problem from the beginning, on both my computer and my wife's (both macs, using mavericks), and I don't notice it when friends share from googlephoto etc.

I have a completely ill-informed guess (I am not a computer expert), namely that whereas smugmug renders the full res version first time, google photo and the rest render a low res version first, and then sharpen it as one is viewing it (if at all).

Anyway, please do let me know if you have the same problem.

Thanks a lot again

d

denisegoldberg wrote: »

My galleries are all in collage landscape mode and they load and render photos very quickly.

Can you provide a link to your site? Just curious to see if your site loads quickly here as opposed to in your location.

Have you run a speed test? There's a link to a speed test to smugmug on this help page. I've pasted the instruction from that page below.
Even though the page is titled Upload Line Quality Test it tests both upload and download speed.

As Rainforest said in his post, it may be helpful to contact the helpdesk directly.

--- Denise

dtbain · October 31, 2016

PS. See above Denise. Also: just tried the speed test, but it didn't work. The reason might be that I am now at work, though note that the internet speeds at work are usually very fast. Moreover, even at home, where they're reasonable but slower, I notice no lag in pics' rendering. (I should add that what I am complaining about is not upload speed, but rendering speed; the former is slow, but unsurprisingly, since I upload in full res, not so much because I think that will produce a better viewing experience, but because smugmug is in part a back-up resource for me.)

dtbain wrote: »

Many thanks for the offer of help, Denise.

Try this https://davidbain.smugmug.com/Mexico-City/ (my galleries are normally private, but happy for this one not to be).

I just viewed a couple and, at least on the first view (I just uploaded these last night), it takes a second or two for each to upload.

It's not an eternity, but you can see the refresh line go down the screen from top to bottom, which when scrolling through hundreds of pics produces a very sluggish experience.

I'll try the speedtest at some point, but I've noticed this problem from the beginning, on both my computer and my wife's (both macs, using mavericks), and I don't notice it when friends share from googlephoto etc.

I have a completely ill-informed guess (I am not a computer expert), namely that whereas smugmug renders the full res version first time, google photo and the rest render a low res version first, and then sharpen it as one is viewing it (if at all).

Anyway, please do let me know if you have the same problem.

Thanks a lot again

d

denisegoldberg · October 31, 2016

dtbain wrote: »

Try this https://davidbain.smugmug.com/Mexico-City/ (my galleries are normally private, but happy for this one not to be).

I just viewed a couple and, at least on the first view (I just uploaded these last night), it takes a second or two for each to upload.

I don't see a lag on loading the gallery, and loading individual photos doesn't lag for me either.

dtbain wrote: »

(I should add that what I am complaining about is not upload speed, but rendering speed; the former is slow, but unsurprisingly, since I upload in full res, not so much because I think that will produce a better viewing experience, but because smugmug is in part a back-up resource for me.)

The speedtest shows both upload and download speeds. I believe download is the time it takes to render on the screen as opposed to downloading individual files. It's definitely worth running the speed test to see the results. Can you run it from home?

Have you contacted the help desk directly? That is probably a reasonable next step. http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/emails/new

--- Denise

Smugmug pictures are slow to load on view and slideshow

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