[jenniferp]

I don't think so as I've never used OmniGraffle...

Jennifer

[Grail]

Originally Posted by Ken Case

I just launched OmniFocus on my iPhone (from the home screen), and according to my stopwatch it took 4.9 seconds before it was ready to accept input. (I currently have 1,124 tasks in my database.) I launched the built-in Notes app (which is much simpler than OmniFocus), and it took about 4 seconds.

Hmm... interesting. After I read this, I went and checked all my other applications - I guess what makes them feel like they load faster is that I get to see "stuff" earlier. A couple of the applications apparently take screenshots to display back to you while actually loading up - which leads to people talking about Calendar and Contacts being "unresponsive" for a few seconds.

Can OmniFocus do the "screenshot just before quitting" Jedi mind trick? More often than not, the thing I'm looking for will be in the same page of stuff that was open the last time I quit OmniFocus.

I will certainly send my feedback to Apple about loading times for applications.

[Mixalis]

Originally Posted by Mauronic

I said it in the slow syncing thread and I will say it here. The slow load time makes OF practically unusable for me. I don't know what to do about it.

I hope one of the developers make a response here.

I wholly agree with this. It seems to get slower and slower. And, in case anyone suggests my database is too big, I have 516 actions and regularly archive my completed actions. It seems that all users are experiencing this problem to a greater or lesser degree.

[Toadling]

Originally Posted by Mixalis

It seems that all users are experiencing this problem to a greater or lesser degree.

I don't really have an issue with the load times, and my database has over 2000 items. That's not to say I'd turn down any performance improvements Omni Group might come up with, but the current situation is not a problem for me. And I think it's a mistake to assume it's a problem for *all* users based on the handful posts in this thread. There may be thousands of users who find load times acceptable and just haven't written about it.

-Dennis

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by Mixalis

I wholly agree with this. It seems to get slower and slower. And, in case anyone suggests my database is too big, I have 516 actions and regularly archive my completed actions. It seems that all users are experiencing this problem to a greater or lesser degree.

Without a little more detail, it is hard to know whether what you are seeing is unexpected or not. For example, you say you have 516 actions (a perfectly reasonable number), and it gets slower and slower. How many actions did it have before it got slower? The speed of some operations will have a sensitivity to the number of actions in your database. If you double that action count, I would expect it to be slower even if everything is working as designed. By the same token, if you've been holding steady at 500 actions, but some action now takes 20% longer than it did two weeks ago, that would be something to investigate, for sure.

Some factors that could conceivably cause a slow-down which are outside of Omni's control:

1) network throughput between iPhone and WebDAV server
2) load on the WebDAV server
3) changes in your sync behavior (it goes fastest when any given sync only pulls in changes from 1 client)

If you do a Show Package Contents from the ctrl/right-click menu in the Finder on your OmniFocus.ofocus file, how many files are there? A database with 500 actions that has been compacted should be faster to load and process than one that hasn't been. I took a look at your more recent posts, and didn't see any indication that you've run the Coalesce script, and you do have 3 clients, which until recent changes has kept the auto-coalesce mechanism from working for many people with 3 or more clients, though desktop OmniFocus is relatively unaffected by the uncompacted databases in my experience. With the latest versions on desktop and iPhone, if you simply make sure that all your clients are synced up at one point in the day, and that more than an hour later they are all synced up again, the auto-coalesce operation should run.

[Mixalis]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I hadn't realised the significance of the 3 clients and, indeed, this could be something to do with the problem. I will run the coalesce script and see if it makes any improvement.

The delays are subjective and I haven't put a stopwatch on them; I will consider this.

My database started off at around 300 actions but I've now got up to just over 500. The ofocus file contains 172 files, but I don't know how this relates to the number of actions. Anyway, as you say, a perfectly reasonable number.

[Mixalis]

Further to my last posting and running the coalesce script (and syncing with MobileMe), I notice a very strange thing. The ofocus database on my desktop contains 172 files while that on my notebook contains 1,029 files. I'm not sure how this can be and haven't fiddled with it for the moment.

For the record, I ran coalesce on the desktop. The laptop then reported that the database appeared to be unrelated to the MobileMe version, so I replaced it with the MobileMe. I haven't yet looked at the iPhone.

[Brian]

Without duplicating stuff mentioned in previous posts in the thread, one simple thing folks can do for faster access to their data is to open up Settings, open their sync settings, and set Auto-Sync to "Off".

OmniFocus will now just load your existing data on startup, instead of doing a full sync with your server.

You'll need to manually tap the sync button on the toolbar from time to time to send your data to the server, but if you enter a lot of tasks, the tradeoff may be worth it.

[Christopher]

Originally Posted by Grail

Hmm... interesting. After I read this, I went and checked all my other applications - I guess what makes them feel like they load faster is that I get to see "stuff" earlier. A couple of the applications apparently take screenshots to display back to you while actually loading up - which leads to people talking about Calendar and Contacts being "unresponsive" for a few seconds.

Can OmniFocus do the "screenshot just before quitting" Jedi mind trick? More often than not, the thing I'm looking for will be in the same page of stuff that was open the last time I quit OmniFocus.

I will certainly send my feedback to Apple about loading times for applications.

You know, you're totally right. Most other apps load slowly, too - they only seem to load faster because of the display. I would really like OF to load (and sync) faster - but it's so much more awesome than anything I've ever had, how can I complain?

[Mixalis]

Originally Posted by Brian

Without duplicating stuff mentioned in previous posts in the thread, one simple thing folks can do for faster access to their data is to open up Settings, open their sync settings, and set Auto-Sync to "Off".

OmniFocus will now just load your existing data on startup, instead of doing a full sync with your server.

You'll need to manually tap the sync button on the toolbar from time to time to send your data to the server, but if you enter a lot of tasks, the tradeoff may be worth it.

Brian,

I took your advice on this and usability is now so much better. It's a small point, the idea of switching off auto sync, but it is something I would recommend to everyone. With auto sync off, my iPhone database (575 actions) is ready for input after typically 11 seconds. When I press the sync button, the fastest sync (from start to being able to use the application again) is 1m 48s. This is on a wifi connection and I suspect it will be longer on 3G, but it is now no longer a major hurdle.

Anyway, a big improvement and thanks for the tip.