eMclient tags menu item very slow (with ~300 tags)

I see that eMclient supports Gmail labels, both using the folder kluge mapping, and as eMclient tags. Great!

Unfortunately, eMclient seems to get very slow when trying to display my list of ~300 tags

  • select message
  • AppsKey or Right Click => menu
  • Tag
  • => a menu, with a “Search in Tags” text box, the tags that sort earliest, and a More item to get the full list of tags.

Clicking More stalls for circa 10 seconds, occasionally much more, before displaying the list of tags.

Entering a search item gives similar delays.

These stalls are excessive, and make it extremely hard to use tags.

It appears that eMclient is not really capable of handling my almost 300 Gmail labels.

Please don’t tell me to use fewer tags/labels. my Gmail dates back many years, and I frankly don’t have time to change it right now just to be able to evaluate eMclient.

—+ Configuration

Microsoft Surface Book 3, Windows 10 Pro,

Process Intel(R) Core™ i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz (much higher in turbo)

32GB DRAM,

Comcast broadband, 100 Mbps DSL reports just now (Dang, should be getting 1Gbps)

—+ Background

E.g. I have several Defer label-tags: Defer, Defer/Briefly, Defer/Soon, Defer/Urgent, Defer/Someday

E.g. I have several Retention tag-labels: Retain, Retain/Keep-Forever, Retain/Deletable, Retain/Keep-7-years, etc.

E.g. I have quite a few Project and topic tag-labels, like riscv, riscv/vectors, etc.

E.g. heck, I might as well admit that I have almost 300 label-tags in Gmail that have accumulated over the years, some of which look like ZZ-old/_older/… I really need to clean these up, but I am reluctant to just discard the email and labels.

The delay showing tags via right click or via the tag dropdown menu etc, was a known issue in earlier versions of eM Client V9 but was fixed in later official releases.

Go to the version history page & check for the latest updates for Windows & Macintosh.

You can check your current version via “Menu / Help / About”

If you already have the latest version of eM Client, then suggest to backup eM Client via “Menu / Backup” and then uninstall eM Client and “don’t delete the database” when asked and finally reinstall eM Client. That should fix it.

I had the latest version of eMclient, having only installed it two days ago.

I followed your suggestion of backing up, uninstalling but keeping the database, and reinstalling

It helps, reducing the stall from typical 12 seconds (10-15, sometimes more) to 6-7 seconds. but I still think that is too slow. My workflow is to plod through my inbox, handling and deleting/archiving as much as possible immediately, but refiling/deferring anything that I cannot handle immediately, typically 25%, plus I also frequently add retention labels and topics. Six seconds per message is still painfully slow, compared to how quickly I can move or copy message to a Thunderbird or Outlook folder. eMclient’s proper support for Gmail labels is a good thing, but I’m not sure it’s worth that much of a delay.

(I know, I will try to apply the same tag to multiple messages all at once, and thereby amortize the delay, but it is sad when the user must change behavior to work around a performance problem of the application software.)

===

BTW, one of the most unfortunate aspects of this performance issue is that it takes five seconds from the time I click the “More” menu item before I even start seeing the rotating doughnut that indicates that something is waiting - and then an additional four seconds. (The last few times I’m getting a nine second delay rather than a six or seven second delay, so there seems to be some variation, and it is not clear if there is much of an improvement.

this delay before the busy indicator may also provide a clue as to what the problem is.

worse still however: I am 99.99% certain that if I adopt eMclient I will be writing speech commands to automate adding and removing several tags, flagging messages, and/or copying or printing some email to OneNote or other software. if the application looks like it’s hung, or if it looks like I haven’t actually hit the menu button, there is a big risk that I will move the focus somewhere else, and as a result have the speech command dump the emulated keyboard events that it uses to select the tag/labels into whatever new app I have changed the focus to. That can be dangerous, resulting in loss of data.

if generating the list of tags cannot be sped up or cached, it would be really really good to at least pop-up the busy spinning doughnut.

while I’m at it, surely the list could be cached. I would be happy to manually refresh such a cache of Gmail labels in order to make it faster.

Reinstalling the latest update helped reducing the stall from typical 12 seconds (10-15, sometimes more) to 6-7 seconds. but I still think that is too slow.

mmm I only have around 1 sec delay when I press the more menu “doing the same thing” with the same version and also have 100s of Gmail labels and sub labels etc, so maybe something else running in the background on your computer could be possibly interfering or delaying this function.

For a test disable all optional background non Windows OS related programs starting up and reboot and then see if it makes a difference to the delay when pressing the more button in eM Client.

If that then works, enable those optionally installed background programs one at a time and reboot till you find the program causing the big delay.

Lastly could be your Gmail cache in eM Client locally is possible a bit corrupted and causing a longer than normal delay. Try “right clicking” on your Gmail “All Mail” folder and “click properties” at the bottom. Then click the “Repair tab” at the top and finally click “Repair” This can take time to recache all your folders and mail etc so be patient when you do this as eM Client has to re-read all your http IMAP mail again locally.

Lastly if still makes no difference, backup eM Client via “Menu / Backup” and try removing your Gmail account and re-adding it via “Menu / Tools / Accounts” just in case it’s a partially corrupted Gmail database locally which should then fix it.

BTW, in my first reply to @cyberzork, after I uninstalled/reinstalled preserving the database, I completely uninstalled discarding the database as well. just because… I have only been using eMclient for two days, and I haven’t really customize all that much yet, or even used it for much real email.

I will try @cyberzork’s second set of recommendations as soon as I wrap up for the day.

I have followed all of @cyberzork’s suggestions to no avail. I still have stalls lasting 6-9 seconds.

  • I disabled all startup related programs and services.

E.g. all apps in Windows 10 Settings > Startup Apps.

E.g. I set System Configuration > General > Startup Selection => Diagnostic Startup.

  • I repaired the Gmail cache in eMclient… Gmail “All Mail” … Repair …

  • I removed the Gmail account and re-added it. (Not bothering with backup)

  • I uninstalled eMclient completely and reinstalled.

No joy. Still slow to load Gmail labels / eMclient tags.

I noticed that several of my Gmail labels had /slashes in the label name - NOT between the labels in the parent hierarchy, but in between. I have been using Gmail since before they had parent-child-under relationships between labels.

I conjectured that eMclient may have been confused by this.

So I renamed all 20 or so such labels with slashes in their label names to have " – " instead.

Still no joy. Still slow.

Possible next step?: test alternate Gmail accounts, possibly recreating the entire 290-odd label hierarchy on the alternate account…

Also, @cyberzork - thanks for your help. Q: how fast is your network - not just up/down-load bandwidth, but also ping latency, e.g. to Google gmail servers?

dslreports’ speed test is giving me 100 Mbps down and 37 up, but 68 ms ping times, and is connecting to servers in Winnipeg, failing to connect to servers in California.

@Ag47

Q: how fast is your network - not just up/down-load bandwidth, but also ping latency, e.g. to Google gmail servers?

I am on an NBN HFC connection and speedtest.net is 50 mbps d/l speed and 18 mbps u/l speed. Also ping times to Gmail.com & Google.com servers are both average 23-34 ms ping times.

The only other thing i can suggest is try posting this issue on the Google Community forum which one of their Gmail moderators might know where the problem lies as sounds like a possibly Gmail label / tag issue in Googles mailbox end.

For the heck of it I decided to try disabling Microsoft services. or at least all of the Microsoft services the msconfig allowed me to disable. of course right away things went bad, I was not able to login getting a message “PIN isn’t available”. but once I figured out how to disable Passwordless sign-on, I was able to login with my password and not my PIN.

So here’s what I have:

creating the label/tag list is

FAST with safe boot
FAST with safe boot & networking
SLOW with normal boot, all services disabled that msconfig allowed to be disabled, no startup items
SLOW with normal boot, all non-Microsoft services disabled, no startup items

i.e. there is something in the difference between SafeBoot&Networking and Normal boot with no services or startup that may account for the eMclient label/tag slowness.

relevant: in safe boot many of my laptop (Surface Book 3) many features do not function: e.g. no camera, no USB dock, no external monitors, … but eMclient should not be dependent on physical I/O devices.

You boot up in (Normal mode), and just disable “any optional software you have installed extra” in msconfig other than the OS itself and what’s needed for your specific computer to run.

@cyberzork said: “You boot up in (Normal mode), and just disable “any optional software you have installed extra” in msconfig other than the OS itself and what’s needed for your specific computer to run.”

Why are you telling me this? Are you trying to explain the difference between “SafeBoot&Networking and Normal boot with no services or startup” from the point of view of how you get to those configurations?

It does not explain the difference in what is running, drivers installed etc.: i.e.

Normal boot without service or startup is not equal to SafeBoot&Networking. As is evidenced by things like the dock not being installed, Nvidia’s GPU software not running, etc. It is worth noting that my laptop is an MICROSOFT Surface Book 3, so Microsoft has at least some responsibility for all of the software and hardware plugged in when I’m not using anybody else’s software or hardware devices.

There are things that you can enable when doing SafeBoot&Networking that get you part of the way to NormalBoot-Services-Startup, and similarly you can turn things off in NormalBoot-Services-Startup at granularity that msconfig does not know, that can further isolate the problem. msconfig is or at least was a great advance over what we had before, but it does not do everything.

But, anyway, thanks for your advice and suggestions. I feel much better seeing that the slowness can be avoided, albeit AFAIK so far only in SafeBoot&Networking. It suggests that the problem is not fundamental. I will probably try to live with these 6 to 10 second stalls, mainly by trying to apply tags by move/copy to folders rather than by applying tags through the slow menu …>Tags>More>…

FWIW I just carefully re-verified something I’d already checked: I still get the eMclient …>Tags>More>… slowness of 6-10 seconds or more even when eMclient is working off-line, and/or when my PC is not connected to the network.

what’s the difference between Safe Mode with Networking boot & Normal boot.

Safe Mode with Networking lets you boot your Windows computer using only a “minimal set of services and drivers” but “also with the networking components included”. You don’t however normally have Wifi or Bluetooth working either in this mode and “only Lan hardwired works” due to those Windows drivers are normally disabled in Safe Mode with Networking depending on your specific computer hardware.

Normal Mode Boot startup loads all the OS core components and services and drivers etc to run Windows correctly including Lan and wifi Networking etc with nothing disabled on the boot.

That’s why I say only bootup in Normal mode as you want “all the usual Windows OS core components and services and drivers etc” to run Windows correctly “including Lan and wifi Networking , Bluetooth etc” and so you only just want to disable any optional non Windows OS related user programs you may have installed separately from the normal OS in msconfig.

Programs that are optionally installed on the boot in msconfig are things like eg: Optional Firewall / Security programs, Optional Antivirus scanning programs, Malware programs, VPNs, etc. Lots of different optionally installed programs can interfere with mail clients in normal startup mode, so hope that helps.

I’ve personally been doing home, business and corporate IT work for round 30+ years so know my way round the various Windows different startups including the registry etc. If you need more info on the difference between all the Windows startup modes in more technical overview, go to Microsoft TechNet forum which is where I started years ago and has lots of helpful peeps there with advise, and also Microsoft technical forums in general too.

I still get the eMclient …>Tags>More>… slowness of 6-10 seconds or more even when eMclient is working off-line, and/or when my PC is not connected to the network

Sounds like you may then possible have some local eM Client tag cache or database problem as this 6-7 sec delay also happens working offline.

If you are an eM Client Pro or Enterprise registered customer you can then submit logs & diagnostics etc from eM Client in a support VIP ticket to find out where the delay is via the eM Client VIP Pro support page. https://www.emclient.com/support

Thanks again @cyberzork.

I am currently evaluating eMclient, with Google label support as my number one requirement. I have to decide whether it is worthwhile purchasing to get support for a problem that might be easily fixed, or which might not be fixed for months or years.

Let’s see, $50 for one Pro license, “lifetime” ( or at least until it stops getting security patches), one year of VIP support. It’s probably worth spending that $50, I really want Gmail labels support. I just have to figure out how comfortable I am with the chance that it might not be fixed in the near future. Can I use eMclient with these really horrible stalls, e.g. by using IMAP folder kluge Gmail labels?


BTW, I have worked with Microsoft since before Windows existed. I am however just a (power?) user, prefer Open Source *IX, only using Windows because it speech recognition is better than *IX, and because throughout my career most of my customers used Windows, so I had to deliver them device drivers etc… It is entirely possible that code written by people onmy team might be some of the code running “between” SafeBoot and NormalBoot that is causing the problem. But I doubt it. eMclient should not have dependencies on code in that area, and Microsoft is usually pretty good about not putting stuff that most applications will depend on in that area. Nvidia, perhaps not so much. Intel usually pretty good, but not always.

I have purchased an individual Pro license for eMclient, and I hope that “VIP Support” Will be able to solve this issue with excessively slow Gmail tags.

so obviously I like eMclient enough to take a chance.

In the meantime, since opening up the eMclient “tags” menus is excessively slow, I am copy/moving messages to folders, since Gmail labels are mapped to IMAP folders and appear as eMclient tags. this is unfortunate because I can only move or copy to a single folder time, rather than applying multiple tags at the same time. Also, tags applied by copy/moving to a folder do not appear with the message as tagged for quite some time, one or two synchronization intervals.

I have a ticket, and have been asked to explain what I mean. I am going to provide screen-snips here, since as far as I can tell I cannot provide screen-snips easily to the ticket,

here is the scenario that is slow, I am looking at a message.

image

I right-click, to get the following menu, and then navigate to tags. this is reasonably fast:

However, when I navigate to “More >” on the tags submenu

It is quite slow to build the list of tags. right now 12 seconds. as I have reported in this form item I have seen values ranging from six seconds to 15 seconds. it has been occasionally fast, when I am in safe mode, but slow when I’m in safemode plus networking

Specifically, when on a message if I do

right click > Tags > More > … it took it took 12 seconds right now to build the list of pads under more.

I.e. almost never is the tag that I want available under the short list of 13 tags are so. I nearly always have to navigate to the Tags > More > … list, or start typing.

Typing into the search box helps, but sometimes I want to browse, and browsing the tag list is very slow because eMclient is extremely slow generating the tag list.

It is quite slow to build the list of tags. right now 12 seconds

This has been all fixed in the last few official release V9 builds for Windows & Mac.