JW library runs slow

[moosic]

Is anyone else having problems with JW Library slowly loading? It can be quite a few seconds delay before the page loads after clicking a link whilst using my tablet? 

[Old]

I have that problem on my PC. It is quicker to go get my ipad from the other room than wait for windows to load JWLibrary.

[moosic]

1 minute ago, Old said:

I have that problem on my PC. It is quicker to go get my ipad from the other room than wait for windows to load JWLibrary.

Haha, I have the same problem with my laptop in general. I've just had to fill in a couple of forms and email them to someone, and by the time I had downloaded a PDF file on my laptop, I had downloaded, filled out, and sent the email on my tablet 🤣

[Myew]

That's most likely a problem with the tablet or laptop itself. App loading speed on most devices is primarily affected by the type of hardware storage - perhaps you have JW Library stored on a slower SD card rather than the faster eMMC internal storage? I've noticed a lot of tablets slow down after several years, usually due to flash storage and battery degradation. My 2015 tablet can still load and run JW Library pretty quickly, but it hitches a lot when running Chrome anymore and takes a while to load pages. Once they're loaded, it's fine. Modern security updates can cause things to slow down too, it's possible you might have other processes running in the background hogging CPU or RAM, especially if it only has 1-2GB of RAM. When it comes to any kind of PC, loading JW Library slowly is most likely due to using a Hard Disk Drive rather than a Solid State Drive.

[Old]

6 hours ago, Myew said:

That's most likely a problem with the tablet or laptop itself. App loading speed on most devices is primarily affected by the type of hardware storage - perhaps you have JW Library stored on a slower SD card rather than the faster eMMC internal storage? I've noticed a lot of tablets slow down after several years, usually due to flash storage and battery degradation. My 2015 tablet can still load and run JW Library pretty quickly, but it hitches a lot when running Chrome anymore and takes a while to load pages. Once they're loaded, it's fine. Modern security updates can cause things to slow down too, it's possible you might have other processes running in the background hogging CPU or RAM, especially if it only has 1-2GB of RAM. When it comes to any kind of PC, loading JW Library slowly is most likely due to using a Hard Disk Drive rather than a Solid State Drive.

Yeah, we know disk is slower, but it does not happen with other programs. WTLibrary load as fast as I can type. With JwLibrary I can go get a glass of water to slip while it loads. Nothing else is loading in the background. Not a problem unless I want it right now, the only other program that loads this slow is the oveobliviated current MS Word and we know it is overweight and ridulouse in size. Wish I still had XP word.

[ChrisC]

JW Library is noticeably slower opening publication types on the left since the last update. 2 or 3 seconds instead of instantly as before.

(iPad Pro 11” 1TB storage (with loads free),  so 6GB RAM.)
 

It also crashes a couple of times a day when I navigate quickly.

[Myew]

Opening the publications is taking longer now since they added the Older Publications and Yearbooks sections to the main publications tab. it has to load around 80 more publications metadata and icons each time they're not in RAM. They could probably use their own section.

 

10 hours ago, Old said:

it does not happen with other programs. WTLibrary load as fast as I can type. With JwLibrary I can go get a glass of water

JW Library is a very different sort of application compared to whatever other programs you likely happen to use. I will get more bloated over time due to the nature of our publications. I really don't think you can compare WT Library which was designed for computers in 1994 to JW Library that came out almost 20 years later. WT Library will load much faster as it's almost purely text based with a very minimalistic GUI. They have added some picture/video stuff to it from the study bible, but they do not work well with that kind of interface and I've often been unable to get them to work at all. Installing and updating WT Library from scratch on older machines from the 2000s still takes literal hours. JW Library is designed for touch interfaces and picture tiles that constantly dynamically arrange themselves based on orientation and resolution. It will run on any Windows 10 computer, but it won't run smoothly without at least a decent quad core CPU and an SSD. I wish they would list recommended specs. On my PC I notice a few hitches, but it still loads anything within a few seconds using a first gen Ryzen 5 1600 CPU 6 core CPU and a 256GB Sandisk SSD. It saturates quite a bit of the SSD read/write while first loading tabs and checking updates (watching task manager), but I have more than enough headroom that it doesn't throttle and waste time. That's the 'budget/value tier' in the current market, a bit above the cheapest. JW Library really requires more than the cheapest to run well on a PC due to operating system overhead. Most new computers that can run this stuff well start in the $300 range to buy or build, or around $200 for used.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076XXMJZH/ A $30 256GB Micro Center SSD. You want at least 256 SSD because 128s or smaller are actually a fair bit slower.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XTQZJ28/ This is the best bang for the buck CPU you can currently get, the Ryzen 5 1600AF at $85 which is actually a more recent 2600 in disguise for far cheaper due to newer 12 nanometer manufacturing processes rather than the original 14nm. With 6 cores and 12 threads, and capable of overclocking to around 4.2Ghz, absolutely nothing can compete with it in this price range.
 

11 hours ago, Old said:

Nothing else is loading in the background.

I don't know if you are familiar with how background processes work, but Windows Defender and OneDrive normally autostart with Windows 10 and take a huge amount of CPU and Disk resources, especially on lower end or older machines, making applications load and feel much more sluggish than they may have on a different operating system.
 

11 hours ago, Old said:

Wish I still had XP word.

I recommend LibreOffice. You can easily download it without any bloat from https://ninite.com/ It has all of the features anyone could want, but is also designed for speed and I find it still works better on most lower end machines because it's Linux based and comes default with most Linux distros. I also use https://docs.google.com/ for the cloud storage aspect and collaboration with our Letter Writing group. As long as you can run a browser well, it is fine.

[Hugh O'D]

3 hours ago, Myew said:

I wish they would list recommended specs.

I think part of the problem is that because its continuing to grow the specs become obsolete. But its not just a JWLibrary problem I had the same problem with Google Maps.

 

I had a phone and a tablet that everything worked on. Once. Gradually I just took JWLibrary off the phone (first removed everything bar the Bible and the Good News brochure). I kept using the tablet but was embarrassed when going from scripture to scripture on the door and I couldn't get any stats for what I should upgrade too. During the same time Google Maps gradually stopped working on both devices. I still have the old Tablet, its several years old but works fine otherwise.

 

Few months ago I got a new phone. I explained my situation, the guy said "There's no such thing as a bad phone, there's just a cheap phone". Spent over 300 euro's on the phone, Android 9, CPU Kirin 710,, Octacore, RAM 4 GB. I couldn't believe how WTLibrary App now worked, as did Google Maps. I got a Tablet not quite as good and again JWLibrary App works wonderfully for me (making me so happy on the ministry).

 

In the hall I can see that our computer is taking longer and longer to load JWLibrary App. Yes its a pain but its expanding to meet the needs of the territory, and its far from the only APP that's expanding beyond the abilities of older models.

 

Is there ways of getting round this without having to spend more money? I hope so but I'm not tech lit enough to do it.

[Myew]

3 minutes ago, Hugh O'D said:

Is there ways of getting round this without having to spend more money?

Not in general, but you can future proof to an extent. Basically, never buy the bottom of the barrel/cheapest stuff unless you strictly can't do any better. Know exactly what you're going to be needing it for, how you're going to be using it and if you can accept the downsides. Ask enthusiasts in the know. Watch and compare reviews ahead of time. I always go for the 'value' pick that has the best performance per dollar to last around 4-5 years with proper care. I really considered getting one of the Huawei/Honor $200ish phones myself when they were at the top of Amazon's best sellers for a long while. Very good hardware specs for the price. It may come with the possibility of the Chinese government spying, but that's everywhere nowadays. Ho-hum. The range where new phones start to get the best performance ratio and features usually comes with the fingerprint readers around $200.

The other option is to buy older/used high end stuff. You can potentially get better performance for the money, but they can carry the risk of a degraded and irreplaceable battery in mobile devices. You might have a lug around a $20 10,000mAh power bank. Also, never use a phone with a bloated battery... if it gets too hot or exposed to oxygen expect a runaway lithium cascade fire. Swappa is legit for used phones and tech. A little nicer than eBay for the buyer, no broken phones. https://swappa.com/buy/phones

[ChrisC]

Quote

Windows Defender and OneDrive normally autostart with Windows 10 and take a huge amount of CPU and Disk resources,

After reinstalling Windows 10 repeatedly the last few years, I found that my PC becomes almost unusable once I reinstall cloud storage apps. So it’s rarely used now.

(It could do with a SSD and another 4GB RAM but it’s not worth the hassle.)

[Lloyd777]

04/22/2023

 

ONE SOLUTION: I have always used only Windows computers and Android phones.  But I timed it and JW Library now takes 60 seconds to load on my Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G 500 GB phone.  And all my JW Library files on that phone are on the internal storage, NOT on the SD card  On my Windows 10 computers, all with SSD's, the app opens pretty quickly, but switching between, for instance, a Watchtower and Insight my take 15-20 seconds.  I should admit that I download virtually everything that is downloadable in JW Library, certainly all the Publications and Audio, but I'm well on my way to downloading the all the video as well, and there is plenty of room on the 500 GB internal storage.  So far, I've used only 135 GB.

So, searching for a solution to the lag, I bought an M2 iPad Pro to see how things might work with Apple products.  I again downloaded almost everything that can be downloaded into the JW Library app.  And guess what.  No lag on the iPad!!!  The app opened immediately and there was no lag when switching between this and that within the app.

I'm going to guess that the app was initially designed with the iPad in mind. At the 6:30 mark on this video, check out an initial use of the "JW Library app with Notes" using iPads:

https://www.jw.org/finder?srcid=share&wtlocale=E&lank=pub-jwb_201705_15_VIDEO

 

I suspect that future coding improvements will help eliminate the lag with Windows and Android, but until then, if you have the funds, you might want to switch to one of the latest Apple releases, like the M2 iPad Pro (I chose the 12.9 inch), which is also great for use in the field, and is one of the loudest tablets, most helpful when showing a video in laundromats and bus stops and high traffic areas, and to those with hearing problems, though I always try to turn on subtitles if they are available.

My best,

Lloyd

[Witness1970]

I have wallpaper backgrounds on my computer.  I had it set to change the background every minute.  I have 2 monitors and they alternate between changing backgrounds on each monitor.  All my programs operate slowly.  I set the wallpaper to change each day and everything runs faster.  Sometimes I forget and change the background to change every minute and then everything slows down again.

[Lloyd777]

04/29/2023

 

Interesting Witness 1970.  I wonder what's happening within your computer causing the slowdown??

 

In my comment above, I should have noted that my M2 iPad Pro has 2TB of storage and 16GB of RAM (Currently one has to buy either 1 or 2 TB of storage to get 16GB of RAM. Otherwise one is limited to 8GB of RAM on the M2 iPad Pro).  Not sure if that might be significant for the lack of lag on this particular iPad, but I thought I should mention it. 

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the iPad vs Samsung tablets or even regular Windows desktops and laptops to know exactly why I get so much lag with Windows and none on my iPad. 

I know that there is speculation on the topic.  But if someone does actually know the real reason for the difference, I'd sure be grateful to know what is really going on.  (No speculation though please)

Also, if anyone has a newish Samsung tablet that is seriously loaded with most everything that is in the JW Library app (Watchtowers back to 1950, all the publications, and lots of the Audio and Video), I'd be most curious to know both the main specs on that Samsung tablet and then, most importantly, whether there is any lag when opening JW Library or when switching for one thing to another within the app.     

Same goes for someone who might own a current version of the Apple iPhone.  I'm wondering if there lag on that??  I ask because if there is no lag, I'll certainly be considering switching from my Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, though losing the S Pen would be a big give up for me.

Thanks folks!

-Lloyd

[Dhanyel]

Here it is slow at the beginning as soon as the application is opened and a message appears checking if there are new publications, this period is slow, then it returns to normal 

[Witness1970]

On 4/29/2023 at 11:30 AM, Lloyd777 said:

Interesting Witness 1970.  I wonder what's happening within your computer causing the slowdown??

It is just having the wallpaper changing every minute that slows it down.  Maybe if I had more internal memory it would not be so bad.  Or maybe a faster CPU?

Edited May 1, 2023 by Witness1970

[Fiona]

I only use my Android phone JW app. I find it works with everything except the bible. It takes forever to load a scripture that it's unusable. I just updated it hoping that would fix it. But nope still unusable. All software up to date. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling. Nothing fixes the slow bible.

Sent from my SM-A336E using Tapatalk

[Korotkiy]

2 hours ago, Fiona said:

I only use my Android phone JW app. I find it works with everything except the bible. It takes forever to load a scripture that it's unusable. I just updated it hoping that would fix it. But nope still unusable. All software up to date. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling. Nothing fixes the slow bible.

Sent from my SM-A336E using Tapatalk
 

 

Hi Fiona,

I can suggest to try install the earlier version of JW Library (latest versions always have more bugs for Android, as brothers cannot test it on all the possible devices)

You might download e.g. 13.0 version here:

https://www.apkmirror.com/?post_type=app_release&searchtype=apk&s=jw+library

please agree phone to install from unknown sources.

 

If this not helps I would tell you to reset your phone to factory settings (dont forget to copy somewhere photos and user data from JWlibrary (notes, etc)

 

[Lloyd777]

I usually do the "new cell phone every two years" thing and I'm switching from Android to the newest iPhone whenever that comes out.  And I've never been an Apple proponent till now, but I have to admit that the M2 2022 iPad Pro has impressed me and made me a believer, what with being able to download virtually everything that is available in JW Library, and then open it instantaneously, and also being able to switch from one thing to another within the app with no delay.  Neither Android nor Windows computers can do that that I am aware of, though admittedly I have not tested the latest tablets.  But I have indeed tested one of the latest Samsung phones with disappointing results, that is to say, excessive delays and slowdown as more and more is downloaded into JW Library in that device. 

Seems like the better deals are around Black Friday, so that's when I hope to get the iPhone 15 or whatever they're gonna call it, and then you can bet your boots that I'll put it to the test, downloading as much as I can into the JW Library app onto that device and then checking to see if it all opens instantly, or if the app begins to run slowly the more is added to it.

Watch this space! 

[Lloyd777]

Warning!!!!  I ran into a snag with my new iPad M2 Pro 2022 that has 2 TB of storage and thus 16 GB of RAM.  

In an attempt to download absolutely everything that can be downloaded into JW Library, while trying to download probably the last 20% of the remaining videos, I foolishly tried to download them all at once by clicking on the "cloud" for each video, for probably 50-60 of the videos, one after another without allowing each video to download before going to the next.  So when I woke up the next morning and opened JW Library, the app, like always, opened instantly.  However, when I clicked on "Library," the app would crash and continues to crash.  As I've spent hours and hours downloading so much data into JW Library, you can imagine the frustration.  Serves me right for being so greedy as to want everything, right?

But I didn't really know why the app was crashing, so I asked BARD (Google's version of AI), and here's a possible reason/warning BARD gave:

"Avoid downloading large amounts of data at once. If you need to download a lot of data, try to do it in smaller batches. This will help to prevent the app from overloading."

Well, "downloading large amounts of data all at once" is exactly what I did.

So, I'm pretty much back to square one, needing to delete not only the app, but apparently all the data as well, then reinstall the app and then start downloading data again.

Well, as Homer Simpson says, "What are ya gonna do?"

Anyway, if anyone else is crazy enough to want to download everything that is downloadable in JW Library, as BARD says, "Do it in smaller batches!!!"

 

 

[Lloyd777]

Especially for those limited few of us who want to download absolutely everything in JW Library onto our iPads:

After trying to download everything in JW Library onto my "2022 iPad M2 that has 2 TB of storage and 16 GB of memory", I ran into another wall that caused JW Library to crash repeatedly, forcing me to delete the app and all the files I had downloaded.....for the second time.  My much more computer literate son compared the wall I'm running into to limitations that had been present in Java and the old CS6 version of Adobe "After Effects."  He wrote,

"In Java there is or was a limitation that required you to have all of your application in adjacent areas of memory.  If you didn't have that continuity, the app would run out of memory, even if you had plenty of free physical RAM available.

After Effects, the old CS6 version could only address 16 GB of memory per thread, and then it would effectively run out of memory.

So I wonder if the JW Library app is hitting a useable memory limit, something like the two cases above."


Wait, wait, wait!!!!  I think I've found the problem....that could be associated with the limitations my son wrote about above! 

There is a 2.9 GB 4:07:05 "2014 Annual Meeting Program" video (in 720p) available in JW Library that crashes the app when you try and download that video alone.  That is, by far, the longest video in the JW Library app.  So I tried downloading that incredibly long video in 480p, which amounts to 1.9GB, and I was successful!

Therefore , I strongly suspect that there is a 2GB limit to any video or file that one might want to download into JW Library.  Go over that limit and the app will experience an unrecoverable crash.

For the final test, I'm again going to, for the third time, try and download everything that is available in the JW Library app into my 2022 iPad M2 (especially since now I've already successfully downloaded that 1 extremely long video, albeit in 480p)

I'll be back here, probably in a couple of weeks to post whether I was successful or not. 

By the way, in the "Ever Loyal" kids video that was recently posted in JW Library, how many squirrels did you count?

-Lloyd Stewart, 71 years old, but never fully grown up

Edited July 12, 2023 by Lloyd777
thought of something else

[Lloyd777]

I had hoped to be able to report that I had been able to download virtually everything that JW Library has available onto my iPad so that I would be crowned "King Downloader," and thus be allowed to plunder and pillage neighboring towns. 

Well, I have been mostly successful!  Further, with virtually everything downloaded, including all videos, there is zero lag in opening up JW Library or switching from one thing to another, like going from a Watchtower to the Bible, or book, or to anything.  It's all seamless on this iPad Pro M2 2022.

 

I asked Bard, "Why is the Apple iPad so much faster than Samsung tablets?"  BARD gave a darn good answer that you may want to check out.  (BARD is free of course)  And I'm not an Apple fan boy, but "facts is facts," and I've certainly been impressed by how fast this iPad is, especially as opposed to the lagging one encounters with Android and Windows offerings....that I have used.  (Next up is a test of the latest Apple iPhone.....when it is released)

But what kept me from shooting off fireworks was the fact that now, some of my notes, or at least, parts of some of them seem to have disappeared.  For instance, in the May 22, 2005 Awake!, there is an article about "libraries," which is a favorite topic of mine. (I should have been a librarian)  Anyway, on page 20 of that Awake!, I had highlighted the name of a book, "A History Of Libraries In The Western Wold," and added a note with the tag, "Lloyd's Library."  But when I click on the square of the left hand side of the JW Library page for that Awake!, no note appears on the right hand side of the page like it used to.  Odd hunh?  And I tested that out on both Windows JW Library, and IOS JW Library.

Anyway, I thought that might have been caused by the amount of material that I had downloaded.  However, now I am convinced that that anomaly has been as a result of the addition of "playlists" to the app, likely to be fixed in future releases.

So grab your pitchforks and let's go a-pillaging!  Wait, no.  Better not.  We all got friends in neighboring towns, right!?    

Edited July 17, 2023 by Lloyd777
Better word choice

[jrnievas]

22 hours ago, Lloyd777 said:

I had hoped to be able to report that I had been able to download virtually everything that JW Library has available onto my iPad so that I would be crowned "King Downloader," and thus be allowed to plunder and pillage neighboring towns. 

Well, I have been mostly successful!  Further, with virtually everything downloaded, including all videos, there is zero lag in opening up JW Library or switching from one thing to another, like going from a Watchtower to the Bible, or book, or to anything.  It's all seamless on this iPad Pro M2 2022.

 

I asked Bard, "Why is the Apple iPad so much faster than Samsung tablets?"  BARD gave a darn good answer that you may want to check out.  (BARD is free of course)  And I'm not an Apple fan boy, but "facts is facts," and I've certainly been impressed by how fast this iPad is, especially as opposed to the lagging one encounters with Android and Windows offerings....that I have used.  (Next up is a test of the latest Apple iPhone.....when it is released)

But what kept me from shooting off fireworks was the fact that now, some of my notes, or at least, parts of some of them seem to have disappeared.  For instance, in the May 22, 2005 Awake!, there is an article about "libraries," which is a favorite topic of mine. (I should have been a librarian)  Anyway, on page 20 of that Awake!, I had highlighted the name of a book, "A History Of Libraries In The Western Wold," and added a note with the tag, "Lloyd's Library."  But when I click on the square of the left hand side of the JW Library page for that Awake!, no note appears on the right hand side of the page like it used to.  Odd hunh?  And I tested that out on both Windows JW Library, and IOS JW Library.

Anyway, I thought that might have been caused by the amount of material that I had downloaded.  However, now I am convinced that that anomaly has been as a result of the addition of "playlists" to the app, likely to be fixed in future releases.

So grab your pitchforks and let's go a-pillaging!  Wait, no.  Better not.  We all got friends in neighboring towns, right!?    

Hey brother King Downloader .. Hopefully, soon after Armageddon, we could meet each other and talk about your downloading stuffs 😆😄😆

[Dustparticle]

Who knows it might be good running slow so we would not get all the information so fast and put it into our brains and will not explode.

[Lloyd777]

9 hours ago, jrnievas said:

Hey brother King Downloader .. Hopefully, soon after Armageddon, we could meet each other and talk about your downloading stuffs 😆😄😆

I hope so!

 

-Lloyd