Slow start, even with all plugins disabled

[antobisdian]

Steps to reproduce

1. Start Obsidian in restricted mode, all core plug-in disabled

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide?

Yes

Expected result

Starts fast and shows 0 core plugin active

Actual result

Starts slow and shows 1 core plugin active

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: v1.7.7
Installer version: v1.5.11
Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 23.6.0: Mon Jul 29 21:14:04 PDT 2024; root:xnu-10063.141.2~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8122 23.6.0
Login status: not logged in
Language: en
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: on
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: on

RECOMMENDATIONS:
none

---

Additional information

[WhiteNoise]

Thanks.

Is the sandbox vault slow to start?

Where is your vault stored exactly? Do you use iCloud or any other third party service?

[antobisdian]

Sorry for the late reply @WhiteNoise , I hadn’t received the notification

• The sandbox vault starts instantly.
• My vault is stored in /Users/MyName/MyVault

[Sigrunixia]

The first start I imagine is the slowest.

How are the subsequent ones, where you come back 5-10 minutes later. Any different?

[WhiteNoise]

Are you using multiple accounts on your Mac?

[Sigrunixia]

Just noticed that the installer version in the info is 1.5.11., the minimum we now recommend is 1.5.12. Are you able to update to the latest 1.8.3?

Download - Obsidian

[antobisdian]

Thanks for your follow up guys !

I am not using multiple accounts, but I’ll download this new installer and keep you updated.

[antobisdian]

Still no luck… a mysterious core plugin seems to be slowing down the workspace load

How are the subsequent ones, where you come back 5-10 minutes later. Any different?

If you mean loading the workspace, closing it, opening it up again, no difference.

[WhiteNoise]

It’s not mysterious and it’s likely not that plugin. Something is wrong at startup time.

[antobisdian]

What are your thoughts on what can be wrong at startup time?

[TheEndernaut]

I’m also getting this problem, but mine takes 30 seconds to load over just 10. Any help would be appreciated!

[WhiteNoise]

@antobisdian Sorry for the short reply earlier. The one plugin that you see a non-user selectable plugin that implements an editor feature. We believe the slowdown to be caused during the startup process by the filesystem read operation or data processing.

@TheEndernaut How are your results if you enable restricted mode and restart Obsidian?

What is your OS version, exact make and model of the device, and where is your vault stored. Thanks

I am quite interested in this bug report, so please let me know!

[WhiteNoise]

If anybody is experiencing this problem, it would be really helpful if you responded to the above questions and provided us a performance profile:

0. Enable restricted mode and restart obsidian.
1. Cmd-Opt-i
2. Go to performance tab
3. Press the record button (top right)
4. Run the obsidian command (found in command palette) “Reload app without saving”
5. Wait 20 seconds
6. Stop recording
7. Export to file
8. Zip it and upload it here or upload it somewhere and dm us a link to it.

Thanks

[antobisdian]

Trace-20250221T013804.json.zip (3.6 MB)

There you go

[WhiteNoise]

We have detected a possibile cause for this and will make a change in 1.8.8. Let me know if the problem is still present when you get it.

[WhiteNoise]

Hello Again!

We believe that at least a fraction of the users who are experiencing this bug
are affected by recent bugs/regression introduced by the upstream framework we use (Electron 33+).

You can try to download and install version 1.7.7 (which is based on electron 32) and rely on the internal update mechanism to update only the app to 1.8.7. Please, let me know if this solves your problem.

[mnaoumov]

I confirm. The suggestion improved the performance heavily. Sandbox vault opens in a second, not in 20 minutes as it was on 1.8.7 Installer version. Tested on Windows 11

[antobisdian]

I confirm too that works

[hula-curtsy-jeep]

Hi all, I can also confirm that this works on my Windows 11 machine.

side notes (maybe useful for debugging):

Firstly I have noticed that the issue OP described only occurs for me after a reboot of my machine or reinstallation of obsidian, and then every 2nd time
→ i.e. it starts up normally every 2nd time (yes this is weird, but it’s consistant, I documented 14 tries in a reproducible environment)

Secondly I have also observed that then during the (fast) 2nd-time startup, the startup time for “Vault” is way longer then before (for me that was from ~2’000 to ~8’000 ms)

I hope this information can be useful for someone, feel free to ask for more informationen when needed

[WhiteNoise]

We understood where the source of the problem is, and it’s within electron/chrome. We will try to work around it if possible.