Sigil 1.4.x GUI locking
 

I'm having an issue with all the version of Sigil 1.4.x on Windows 10 Professional.

Whenever I load an epub the GUI locks/hangs on every mouse click and takes around 15-20 second util another mouse click can be made. This has made using the app almost impossible and I've been forced to downgrade to v1.3.

Can anyone suggest any steps I can take to debug this problem, as I'd prefer to find a solution rather than simply complain.

Thanks :)

There really are very few things different about 1.3 vs 1.4.x that I would expect to cause problems like you are experiencing. They all use the exact same build of Qt5.12.9 and Python 3.8.3, for instance.

And we know it's nothing inherent to either Sigil 1.4.3 (don't bother trying to install 1.4.0-2) or Windows 10. I compile and test Sigil on Win10 Pro (latest updates) and experience no such issues. As do countless others using the same formula.

Please verify the following:
1) You're opening Sigil as a standalone app and not via calibre's Open With (built-in feature or plugin)

2) the issue presented itself with every single epub you opened.

3) the issue presented itself when launching Sigil without an epub (the default empty epub you get when double-clicking the Sigil desktop icon).

Something you could try would be to back-up your Sigil preferences folder somewhere else, then delete it from its regular location and then install Sigil 1.4.3 and let it recreate the default preferences (just like a fresh install) when it's launched the first time.

Or is this another example of opening a single huge html file?

BTW: Where are all of these single huge html files coming from? The only thing that generates them from my understanding is unpacking an old old mobi6. Is there something else that seems to think a single huge html file is some sort of format?

It's possible. That's why I asked about "every single epub" and the default empty epub above. But even if it IS down to epubs comprised of single huge html files, what is it about 1.4.x that seems to exacerbate the problem (since rolling back to 1.3.0 seemed to "fix" the OP's problem)?

I've tested with large novels comprised of single html files on Windows 10 and while Sigil 1.4.3's performance definitely starts getting sluggish (with Preview Open), I don't experience anywhere near the 15-20 (and even 30-60) "hangs" others have described. The performance hit I experience with the single huge html files in 1.4.3 are comparable to the performance hit those kinds of epubs have always caused Sigil. No Sigil version since the switch to QtWebEngine has been any worse in that regard on any of my own Windows machines (real or virtual).

Not sure. Conversions from giant Word documents could also result in one giant html file. My own DOCXImport plugin leaves it up to the user to properly split the html. Many neophytes might not see the need to split up the result of using Export to HTML from a Word novel. *shrug*

I've found quite a few indie published KF8 format ebooks that unpack to a single HTML file. I've developed the habit of running the Quality Check plugin's oversized html file check on newly imported books before I start my metadata update/cleanup/etc. work flow.

Same here: Amazon books from some Indies. One huge main content file with a tiny frontmatter file (and maybe a backmatter one).

Just read here at MR and you will see all the posts by those who think you can only do a decent 'book edit' if you work on a single file. :rolleyes:

I am also having slow response time when I click to edit text after finding what I want in the Preview panel/window.

The file size is only 875kb, however I do use Open Office to do most of my major typing. I then either save then file as an HTML and add that file into an existing sigil epub. or if I'm doing a major edit in an existing file I use PageEdit to open the file, cut and paste the text into OO then cut and paste it back into PageEdit, (please add popup to paste as plain text when using CtrlV) I then save PageEdit into Sigil.

I have read that Quality Check can look at file size. So I have downloaded Quality Check, however I can not get it to load into Sigil. I'm hoping you won't tell me I have to download additional software in order to get it to work.

Thank you
Brent

On Windows, Linux, Or Mac?
What happens if you run Mend and Prettify on the CodeView? Does editing speed improve?

And for what it is worth, copying and pasting large amounts of text from OpenOffice or Word into PageEdit just to get it into Sigil is probably not a very good idea. There are plugins that can help you import Word/OpenOffice files directly into Sigil and Calibre is said to do a good job at that as well.

Windows 10.

It cut the delay time down significantly.

I do run that command a lot as some edits come in not 'double spaced' or 'first line indented'. I have also seen it pop up when I save a file if it is not formatted correctly.

Is it automatically run when a file is first opened?

Thank you
Brent

No. Prettify is a strictly manual process. In your case, I'd wager to say the the file size isn't all that relevant to the slowdowns you're experiencing. It sounds to me like the html you're pasting into Sigil has no (or very, very few) line endings in it. One giant line of html code with no line endings is the number one thing that can cause severe slowdowns when editing within Sigil. If whatever you use to create/export your html creates a file with no line endings, that would explain the slowness.

I'm sorry, but ran it on wrong file.

I'm using Windows 10 and still having long delays, it even happens when I try to minimize the Sigil window.

I have run the Well Formed Check EPUB; and I have no errors.

I also ran the Validate Stylesheets; and have no errors

There are no Unused Media files or Stylesheet classes.

Thanks
Brent

Run Mend and Prettify on all html files. Prettify will add the line endings.

When you speak of line endings, are you talking about "/p"?

No. Line endings are invisible characters. I'm talking about line-feeds and carriage returns.

As I do not see them in the editor, how do I go about removing them?

We are wanting to add them not remove them. Under the Tools menu, hover on Reformat HTML and then click on Mend and Prettify All HTML files.




If your file looks like the above sample with all the lines munged together, that is what mend and prettify will help with giving you something like the code below.

If it's the specifics you need: right click on any html code in Code View and highlight the "Reformat HTML" context menu item, and then select the "Mend and Prettify Code - All HTML Files" submenu entry. Whoops. missed that @DNSB has already included the specifics.

You might also want to close the Preview window while you perform the task. Not because it's required, but because it will keep Preview from constantly trying to re-render everything all the time. Once the code has been Prettified, you can reopen Preview

And if that is not the case, please post a couple of random screen shots taken with CodeView of the offending file and post them here just to give us a taste of what the code looks like that is giving Sigil fits.

See the attached two screen shots.

h6 are changes I'm adding but haven't added yet and will be removed.

All other text and formatting to remain.

Thanks
Brent

That looks like quite clean xhtml to me with lots of line breaks. I saw nothing that should slow Sigil down at all.

What happens if you use the View menu to hide Preview and try editing in CodeView. Is it still slow?

Also try removing the empty title tag at the top of the body tag. Technically the title tag should only be inside the head tag and not in a body tag. And technically only one title tag is allowed per HTML document. Does removing it from the body tag impact anything when Preview is visible.

It looks like Preview is scrolled all the way to the top of the page, but I'm not seeing the first two lines of code in Code View (h1 and h3) being displayed. Is that just because the file is so big that I can't see any space above the top of the Preview scrollbar, or are they being hidden by css? Not that that should cause any slowdowns, I'm just trying to get a feel for the content/css in order to try and recreate the behavior.

Side Note: You may also want to consider upgrading to LibreOffice:

https://www.libreoffice.org/

LibreOffice is a continuation of OpenOffice created in ~2010.

OpenOffice has been effectively abandoned since ~2014 (only a handful of minor bugs fixed since)!

I don't think you should be removing them - more likely you need to add them.

Have a look at the html is something like Notepad++ and they will show as black reversed text at the end of lines.

like this - https://www.mobileread.com/forums/at...1&d=1614157684

If you see just one long line of text that is probably what is causing the slow down.

To all that have replied see attached.

Also I closed the preview window and selecting text in the editor area is faster. however I like using the preview to see what the file will look like and scroll through the file.

Even with the preview window closed selecting the January and July files take some time to load in the editor window.

That makes no sense. Loading a file of 160kb or so like your January file in CodeView should be quite fast.

So my guess is you have some anti-virus software that is scanning and watching files that are created in tmp on your machine. This locks the file until the scan is done. All of Sigil's files are created in the tmp folder.

Try telling your anti-virus software to either stop scanning files in tmp or to leave Sigil alone in some fashion. To test if that is the case, try temporarily turning off your access to the internet on your machine (for safety) and then restarting in safe mode with the anti-virus disabled and check the speed.

If still slow we can rule out interference from anti-virus software, if fast, then you have the culprit.

Also how much memory do you have on this machine? QWebEngine is a memory hog so if you do not have much, Sigil will slow down.

If none of that helps, then please post that epub someplace private and PM "KevinH" here on Mobileread (me) with a link and I will take a look at it and delete it once we understand why it is slowing Sigil down so much.

If you only want to include the one or two slowest chapters that is fine to.

I did notice that your January file had 22 images linked in. Would you look at your Images Report or All Files report to see how large those image files are, just in case.

The original screenshots for the same book shows way less than 22 images in the entire book. Are there multiple img tags pointing to the same images in those two problematic chapter files?

Hello again,
I've recently downgraded from 1.5.1 to 1.3 because of the issue I reported earlier, it was just making using Sigil unfeasable to use.

I'll experiment with some publically available epubs to see if I can replicate the circumstances triggering the hanging. I previously looked at Sigil while it was hanging with Process Explorer and it said a thread was running "free memory" continuously.

I'll post a informative update soon 👍

Please also check this post related to slowdowns seem,y related to Sigil 1.5.1 but was not ...

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...&postcount=102

It turns out their back-up software was causing the problems. Please verify that neither AV nor backup software like that case is causing your issues.

Fortunatly when I upgraded from 1.3.x to 1.6.0 the problem has disappeared. No closer to a solution but at least it's fixed.

Yes it would probably be best to test with the latest Sigil-1.6.0.

So far slowdowns have been tracked back to:
- AV software
- Third party utilities that scan files as part of its "security" just like AV (some back-up software)
- Setting lower power consumption settings on computer
- a recent Windows 10 update that impacted video drivers
- old video drivers or missing opengl implementations
- conflicts with Qt based system level utilities.