Frustrated at PowerApps - Slow speed when using App on Desktop

[d3ell]

I have been creating an App now for a little over 2 months (not full time!). I was new to PowerApps prior to this have enjoyed working things out and have become pretty decent at working out and inputting the basic functions and creating videos watching nearly all Shanes videos from Powerapp911 / Bold Zebras in order to use a lot of his tips in order to build an app that is just about done and ready to put out to our customer care team for daily use. I have always worked on this app on my desktop PC in power apps studio web editor and always tested it on my mobile phone, which works great. (clearly this might of been a dumb move)

I have for the first time in a long time opened the app on the desktop using the web link and the app is painfully slow!! its so frustrating as when you type in any of the boxes key strokes seem to take ages to catch up with what you have previously typed and the screens take a long time to load. I have tried this on several PC's and the performance is the same on them all so I am assuming there is some issue with the app running on a PC? - The app isn't massive and I wouldn't say its very complex either. It only currently has about 20 records.


I do have 2 global variables and 3 screen variables on the main form. The main form connects data from 11 data sources - all sharepoint lists located in the same folder in a sharepoint directory.


Does anybody have any thoughts on what could be the reason for this. I am by default using edge browser, which we use on a day-to-day basis. the app does actually run a bit better in google chrome, just tested this and it is a bit less painful to use. Is there other known browsers that make the app run better?

I have googled this already and seen a few people post something similar and a link has come up several times (below) - I don't understand all of this, but most of the items don't apply to things in my app.

https://baizini-it.com/blog/index.php/2017/09/13/powerapps-improving-app-performance/

Thoughts please

[NigelP]

Hi @d3ell

Although it pains me greatly to say this (I am a Microsoft fanatic), Google Chrome is faster at PowerApps that Microsoft Edge.  I used to get lots of timeouts with Microsoft Edge, but they have gone away since I have been using Google Chrome.

I would much rather use Edge, rather than Chrome, but at the moment Microsoft Edge is not fast enough.

REgards

Nigel

[Drrickryp]

If you can, try a 64bit version of the browser.

[_Corey_ · Accepted solution]

@d3ell  You may trying enabling DelayOutput on all TextInput fields in your form.  This will only send the value of the text field to the form after a short pause in typing (versus on every keystroke) and you should notice an immediate improvement when typing as a result.

This will become the default behaviour when creating new forms in an upcoming release.

[seadude · Accepted solution]

If this is one of your first PowerApps, I'm guessing you have MANY controls and perhaps have not yet identified performance tricks such as:

* Use a Gallery with 1-3 Controls instead of 10-30 individual Controls

    * Remember, each Control has to be drawn, placed, filled, etc.

    * If you use a Gallery, formatting is applied to one Control and rendered to all

* Use Concurrent() for all possible Functions

* Collect smaller tables of your (11) Data Sources based on your business logic

    * Example: Rather than pull in all 790 records in a certain table, Filter/Sort/etc the table and only pull in what is needed.

* Use SaveData/LoadData to cache some of your data

    * BIG NEWS recently on this!

RESOURCES:

* Performance: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/performance-considerations-with-powerapps/

* New SaveData/LoadData news: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/savedata-and-loaddata-unleashed/

We've all been there. You're not alone. Just like all applications, there is a performance tuning phase/best practices that have to be incorporated.

Best of luck!

[d3ell]

This is a great tip. Thank you.

Whilst my app still needs some tweaking to improve performance this little tip has made using the app a lot quicker and a lot less painful!

Thank you! 🙂

[seadude]

Happy to help. An "Accept as Solution" will help others find this post too!

Take care!

[ChinoDoesStuff]

In most occasions, slowness will be perceived by the amount of time an action takes to return control to the user. You could try and use the concurrent function wherever possible to speed loading times. I recently posted a video that covers its usage in more detail - 

https://youtu.be/kolRz8u2_Y0

[PowerAddict]

I would strongly discourage using the Desktop app. I had a support ticket with Microsoft for many months and the outcome was that they are not updating or supporting the desktop app anymore. A new version is expected to come out (hopefully some time in 2020) but until then, it is strongly advised to stay away from the desktop app.

Thanks,
Hardit Bhatia
https://thepoweraddict.com

[d3ell]

Thanks for your input, we seemed to of found that  randomly PowerApps works the best and quickest in google chrome rather than in their own browser as well! - Whats going on there! 🙈🙈