Audacity startup slows down dramatically after 2nd opening

[Sleepycoaster]

Heya

I've had an issue on both Audacity 2.0.0 and now Audacity 2.1.2 for my Windows 8.1 operating system. When starting Audacity, it takes a good minute or two to boot up. Until then, there is no indication that Audacity is starting until Audacity just appears. The thing is, Audacity starts relatively quickly (5-10 seconds) the first two times I boot it up after installing. I wonder if there's a problem with Audacity finding certain files.

I've taken the advice of some other threads on this forum and disabled all the VST effects I don't need. (That is, I disabled all five sets of VST effects.) No dice.

My audacity folder for 2.1.2 is in Program Files (x86), and I haven't moved anything around inside it.

Please help.

[Sleepycoaster]

OP here. I disabled all the non built-in plugins and Audacity now starts up much faster (5 seconds) except on the first startup per Windows reboot. The first startup after a Windows reboot needs ~3 minutes.

[steve]

The first startup after a Windows reboot needs ~3 minutes.

Wow that is very slow. (about 5 seconds on my machine)
When the problem occurs, if you could copy and paste the contents of "Help > Show Log" into your reply, it may give us an indication of what the problem is.

[Gale Andrews]

I disabled all the non built-in plugins and Audacity now starts up much faster (5 seconds) except on the first startup per Windows reboot. The first startup after a Windows reboot needs ~3 minutes.

I expect something else is going on, now you find that the behaviour has changed. Perhaps there is scanning by security applications.

2.1.2 caches registered third-party plugins so they should not cause excessive startup delay.

Do you have Audacity in your startup group? It may be slow launching if it is juggling for resources while Windows is loading.

You said there is no indication that Audacity is launching, but there should be a splash screen before the Audacity application window appears.


Gale

[Sleepycoaster]

You said there is no indication that Audacity is launching, but there should be a splash screen before the Audacity application window appears.

Actually, the splash screen is there the whole time. When I had the portable version 2.0.0, there was no splash screen and thus no indication of anything happening, by which I primarily mean that my mouse cursor doesn't have the "loading" circle. Since I'm now probably having the same problem in 2.1.2, I thought it worth mentioning.

2.1.2 caches registered third-party plugins so they should not cause excessive startup delay.

I should mention that a plugin called SC4 keeps Enabling itself when I start up Audacity even though I Disable it each time. Weird.

Do you have Audacity in your startup group? It may be slow launching if it is juggling for resources while Windows is loading.

You know, when I measured the 3 minute startup, it was pretty early after a Windows reboot, though not as part of my startup group. I just measured the startup time twice more, both after a solid chunk of time after a Windows reboot. They both clocked in at a little over a minute. Here's a log from one of these measurements:

Code: Select all

13:39:41: Audacity 2.1.2
13:39:41: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries...
13:39:41: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from system paths. File name is 'avformat-55.dll'.
13:39:41: Looking up PATH environment variable...
13:39:41: PATH = 'C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\iCLS Client\;C:\Program Files\Intel\iCLS Client\;C:\windows\system32;C:\windows;C:\windows\System32\Wbem;C:\windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\OpenCL SDK\2.0\bin\x86;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\OpenCL SDK\2.0\bin\x64;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\IPT;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\IPT;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin\x64\;C:\Program Files\Intel\WiFi\bin\;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Intel\WirelessCommon\;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Python27;C:\Python27\Scripts;C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTSystem\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_79\bin'
13:39:41: Checking that '' is in PATH...
13:39:41: FFmpeg directory is in PATH.
13:39:41: Checking for monolithic avformat from 'avformat-55.dll'.
13:39:41: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avformat-55.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
13:39:41: Loading avutil from ''.
13:39:41: Error: Failed to load shared library '.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
13:39:41: Loading avcodec from ''.
13:39:41: Error: Failed to load shared library '.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
13:39:41: Loading avformat from 'avformat-55.dll'.
13:39:41: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avformat-55.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
13:39:41: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
13:39:41: Error: Failed to find compatible FFmpeg libraries.

Usually after the first startup, all other startups clock in at ~5 seconds. Here's a log of one of those.

Code: Select all

13:47:54: Audacity 2.1.2
13:47:54: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries...
13:47:54: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from system paths. File name is 'avformat-55.dll'.
13:47:54: Looking up PATH environment variable...
13:47:54: PATH = 'C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\iCLS Client\;C:\Program Files\Intel\iCLS Client\;C:\windows\system32;C:\windows;C:\windows\System32\Wbem;C:\windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\OpenCL SDK\2.0\bin\x86;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\OpenCL SDK\2.0\bin\x64;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\IPT;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\IPT;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin\x64\;C:\Program Files\Intel\WiFi\bin\;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Intel\WirelessCommon\;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Python27;C:\Python27\Scripts;C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTSystem\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_79\bin'
13:47:54: Checking that '' is in PATH...
13:47:54: FFmpeg directory is in PATH.
13:47:54: Checking for monolithic avformat from 'avformat-55.dll'.
13:47:54: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avformat-55.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
13:47:54: Loading avutil from ''.
13:47:54: Error: Failed to load shared library '.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
13:47:54: Loading avcodec from ''.
13:47:54: Error: Failed to load shared library '.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
13:47:54: Loading avformat from 'avformat-55.dll'.
13:47:54: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avformat-55.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
13:47:54: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
13:47:54: Error: Failed to find compatible FFmpeg libraries.

Hope you can help!

[steve]

I should mention that a plugin called SC4 keeps Enabling itself when I start up Audacity even though I Disable it each time. Weird.

Yes that's a bug. I'm not sure what's causing it, but other than being a bit weird, I think it's harmless. We're looking into that.

Nothing jumps out at me about those log messages, they look fairly normal to me, but I don't use Windows.

What anti-virus / security applications do you have on your machine? You could try disconnecting from the Internet (for safety), then temporarily shut down your anti-virus / security application(s), then try launching Audacity. If Audacity then loads without the long delay, the most likely solution would be to white-list Audacity in your security apps. (Don't forget to restart your anti-virus before reconnecting to the Internet).

[steve]

Another possibility: do you have any "computer maintenance" programs installed? Some such products can cause substantial delays during first start-up while they try to see if updates are available.

[Sleepycoaster]

What anti-virus / security applications do you have on your machine? You could try disconnecting from the Internet (for safety), then temporarily shut down your anti-virus / security application(s), then try launching Audacity. If Audacity then loads without the long delay, the most likely solution would be to white-list Audacity in your security apps. (Don't forget to restart your anti-virus before reconnecting to the Internet).

I use Avast. I disabled all the real-time shields and startup up Audacity for the first time since the last reboot, and it still took a minute.

Another possibility: do you have any "computer maintenance" programs installed? Some such products can cause substantial delays during first start-up while they try to see if updates are available.

Funny enough, Avast is the only program I have running in the background that would keep track of outdated software. It never told me if there were new versions of Audacity though, perhaps because I had the portable version.

[steve]

Funny enough, Avast is the only program I have running in the background that would keep track of outdated software. It never told me if there were new versions of Audacity though, perhaps because I had the portable version.

I doubt that they keep version information for Audacity as it is not a commercial product. My thought was that they may be searching their database, and you are waiting for that search to time out.

Are you able to try it with Avast completely shut down?
(by the way, I've used older versions of Avast and never had this problem, but such programs are regularly updated so that may have changed)

[Gale Andrews]

I recall someone else on the Forum found Audacity was very slow to launch first time, then very quick on subsequent launches. I never see so pronounced an effect as that, but I have old-fashioned spinning disks.

It is expected that application prefetching will mean that subsequent launches of an application will be quicker. But you were seeing the opposite to begin with.

The log gets written late in the launch process, so does not indicate how long the launch took.


Gale