Slow start

Mail
21

Day 3 of EM, V7.1.33042.0, Windows 7 Professional. I agree S L O W…no, very very slow start up.

Took 3 minutes from pressing the icon to even getting EM on the screen, another minute before emails appeared.

Outlook 2007 from press of the icon would take about 15 seconds to open up, then about another 10-20 seconds to show new emails.

It seems to be how the two programs deal with resources. I am guessing Outlook gets you up and running and then does lots of backroom room stuff in the background with out hogging computer resources, whereas EM says I am going to use every resource your computer has, so much so that you cant do anything else (explorer runs slow, opening excel programs is slow, opening task manager took a minute etc) and I am not going to let you see any emails until everything is done.

This hogging of resources seems to be the issues as yesterday I did a bulk select and delete of emails and my computer slowed down for everything and EM was unavailable, Outlook on the other hand would similarly be unavailable, but at least you could still use your computer.

Ummmm and yes I have large database.

So while I accept my database size doesn’t make it easy for either program, but at least Outlook gets you up and running while it struggles in the background doing its syncing and other stuff.

Other things I miss and don’t like

  • “Move to junk and blacklist domain” doesn’t appear to work, and probably the reason I will stop using EM

  • Crop screen shots within the email.

  • Spell check before sending.

  • Search function hit and miss. Same folder, single word, finds within 5 seconds. An hour later it sits there with the ‘I am thinking’ icon for minutes before showing results.

  • Push. My phone gets emails sometimes minutes before EM does.

Apart from that there is still lots to like about it.

22

Because 7.1.33042 is an unreleased version there may be some issues. If you received the link from Support, you may want to ask them if there are any issues with that version that can be the cause of your observations.

But generally, if the application is very slow, it is related to your hardware. MS Outlook with a large pst file should take only a couple of seconds to start. The same with eM Client. The first thing you need to look at is your hard disk. Slower mechanical hard disks can cause bottlenecks, and especially the slower rpm disks found in pre-SSD laptops. Upgrading to even a slow SSD will make a huge difference, not only to eM Client and MS Outlook, but also to Windows in general.
Another bottleneck is free disk space. You should plan on at least 25% of your disk to be free. You might also want to look at defragmenting your mechanical hard disk.

Can you give an example with details of where blacklisting doesn’t work? As long as the domain is listed in the blacklist, any email originating from that domain will be moved to junk. Check that the from address in the message header is the same as the domain in the blacklist. Obviously if it is not the same, then the Rule cannot be applied. 

Editing of images in the new message window is limited to rotating, flipping and resizing. In Windows 10 there is the snipping tool (while it is still available) to get the screenshot. If you are regularly including screenshots in your messages maybe look at some alternatives available for Windows 7. PicPick is quite good. I always paste the screenshot into an image editor so that I can annotate or otherwise edit the image before I paste it into the message. That’s just me!

Spell checking is automatic as you type. I think this is more in line with modern apps. You can check that it is enabled in Menu > Tools > Settings > General > Spell-checker. You can always do it manually (F7) before you send the message, if that is more your style.

I usually find that the search function is quite reliable. Maybe with excessively large databases it could be a bit slow, but only a few seconds. Again, you want to look at your hardware, and maybe disable conversations (Menu > View > Conversations) and see if it is any quicker. Searching also only works if the message bodies are downloaded. You can change that setting in the IMAP tab for your account. Make sure that download for offline use is selected.

eM Client only supports IDLE IMAP (push IMAP) for instant notification of new messages. So as long as your server supports it, you should get the messages as soon as they arrive. With Exchange and POP3, messages are retrieved on the sync interval, so are not immediate.

23

Hi Gary,

“Because 7.1.33042 is an unreleased version there may be some issues…” This is the one available from the EM Install me page.

“But generally, if the application is very slow, it is related to your hardware…” Same PC as the one Outlook was running on, so the fact that it runs slower and hangs more than outlook is not hardware related? I did a ‘clean’ installation of Outlook 2007 yesterday and let it run over night to allow it to create it’s OST database, 13GB. In windows task manager I notice outlook uses around 80M of memory compared to EM using around 160M.

Regarding slow start, opened up fine this morning, shut it down and reopened just as well…maybe its from a cold start (computer on then open EM) that the issue is for me???

“You should plan on at least 25% of your disk to be free…” Not an issue, and have been caught out by that one before.

“Can you give an example with details of where blacklisting doesn’t work?..” Day 3 was 1st day back at work so still getting my head around EM. It appears default on start-up is “Global Unread”, why the default is not inbox I don’t know. So no, blacklisting is appearing to work.

“Editing of images in the new message window is limited to…” ‘print screen’ button, Ctrl+V, crop, send.

“You can always do it manually (F7)…” Strange, I do that automatically in excel. Why cant they write a F7 script into the program and have it as a tick box option?

“Maybe with excessively large databases it could be a bit slow, but only a few seconds…” This is really hit and miss. Each time you do a search in outlook it defaults to folder only, you have to select all folders as a one time option i.e. move to a different folder or decide to do anther search later on it defaults back to folder only. EM remembers your selection, so if you have selected all folders it will do that each time. Having said that folder only or all folders can be either quick or painfully slow, there seems no rhyme or reason.

“eM Client only supports IDLE IMAP (push IMAP) …” for some reason it came into line (pretty much) with my phone yesterday afternoon, so don’t know what was happening there.

Thanks for the reply, and still standby my feeling that there is a lot to like about EM.

24

I think that eM Client may have saved that version for download by mistake, because they did not list it in the release history. I did test it, and I did not find any differences from the last released version that would account for this issue.

The fact that MS Outlook is also taking so long to start indicates it is either hardware issue, or it may even be a Windows configuration problem. Difficult to say without hands-on but I am leaning towards hardware.

You can select which folder to use on start in Menu > Tools > Settings > General > General > Show on startup …

Editing of images in eM Client’s new message windows is limited to rotating, flipping and resizing.

A pop-up to check spelling before sending is obsolete since checking as you type is now the most common implemented method. For those who want to run a second check, which will give the same results, they can F7 before sending.

There have been some requests for eM Client to automatically clear the search parameters between searches. It is something I would like to see. As far as I know that only happens with a restart.

I had an issue with my email provider over the weekend, where IMAP was not sending notifications of new messages, or it was slightly delayed. By the time I had got a message off to their support, it had resolved. I suppose these things may be there occasionally, maybe more so with free email services than with premium paid ones.

If there is only one thing we agree on, I am happy that it is we both feel there is a lot to like about eM Client. :slight_smile:

25

Goodbye eM Client
Though I never knew you at all
You were so slow
Email downloads seemed to craw…Sorry Elton

26

I think it might have been useful to try and solve the issue as I and many thousands of others do not experience this issue. That you were experiencing crashes with MS Outlook on the same computer would suggest that there are some other problems.

Anyway, hope you find something that works for you. :wink:

27

I love this, but don’t have time to wait for the SLOW load time, takes forever. Too bad, I was planning on purchasing for our offices.

28

My start time is less than a second. 

As with most databases, you will find that performance is reduced on older, slower hardware, especially slow RPM mechanical disks. If you have an SSD in your computer, try having the database on that disk and see if there is any difference.

29

There are too many other email clients available to waste my time and efforts to “solve” eM Client’s problems.  I don’t see buying additional hardware(SSD) to “solve” a software issue is a viable option. When to Thunderbird and it works fine even with my older, slower hardware.

30

With any database a certain minimum hardware standard is needed for decent performance. That’s just the way it works.

I am also a great fan of Thunderbird, and as it has quite low overheads, it is an excellent choice for older hardware. 

31

i have been part of this thread from the beginning, i will say it again. the product is great but when you click on the exe you have no idea when it is going show up on the scree. Put up a banner that its starting so at least you dont move off to something else and then it shows up.