Slow navigation in settings

Environment:

  • Windows 11
  • Obsidian 1.13.4

Problem:

After updating to Obsidian 1.13.x, some UI interactions became noticeably slower.

The issue is not limited to Settings.

Affected areas:

  1. Settings window:

Switching between:

  • General
  • Editor
  • Appearance
  • Hotkeys
  • Properties

has a noticeable delay (approximately 100–300 ms).

  1. Storage management menu:

When clicking the three-dot menu next to a vault/storage and opening options such as:

  • Copy vault ID
  • Rename vault
  • Manage storage options

menu items/icons are not highlighted when the mouse cursor is hovered over.

Not affected:

  • Editor performance is normal.
  • Command palette works normally.
  • Search works normally.
  • Other Electron applications (VS Code) work normally.

Tests performed:

  • New vault tested
  • Clean installation tested
  • Community plugins disabled
  • Default theme
  • Deleted .obsidian folder
  • Hardware acceleration enabled/disabled

Important finding:

Downgrading to Obsidian 1.12.7 completely fixes the issue.

The Settings UI and other interactive menus become responsive again.

Performance observations:

Chrome DevTools shows long interaction processing times:

  • Processing duration: ~300 ms
  • Recalculate Style: ~5–10 ms
  • Layout: ~5–10 ms

The delay seems to happen during UI event processing rather than CSS rendering.

This appears to be a regression introduced in the new UI changes of Obsidian 1.13.x.

Please add the full output of the Show debug info command as asked for in the template. Thanks.

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: 1.13.4
Installer version: 1.12.7
Operating system: Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26200
Login status: not logged in
Language: ru
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: on
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: on

RECOMMENDATIONS:
none

Is this the version & installer with or without the issue? Just want to be clear when the team has a look.

yes it is

because v1.12.7 has

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: 1.12.7
Installer version: 1.12.7

and for some reason, version 1.13.4, when running DevToo - perfomance - Record, does not show a screenshot of the exact moment of the action change. For example, I opened the Settings - Editor. Close record. and in version 1.12.7 it shows.

and INP - 108ms

Additional observation:

  • In version 1.13.4 every click on Settings categories causes 300–500ms processing delay. Downgrading to 1.12.7 removes the issue; the same interactions take ~30–60ms.

- In Obsidian 1.13.x DevTools Performance recording does not capture screenshots during interactions, while the same recording in Obsidian 1.12.7 shows screenshots correctly.

- Also hover states in Settings navigation feel delayed: moving the mouse over items does not immediately update highlighting; it updates only after click.

I can’t reproduce.

  1. Download and reinstall Obsidian
  2. Post a screen recording of this happening in the sandbox vault
  3. What are your computer specs exactly?