Why is Calc v4.2 performance worse than v4.1 for my files?

[craig100]

I’ve used Open and LibreOffice for 4 years for my personal and business accounts. Only in the last year has the Calc spreadsheet become almost unusable. This is because it has become REALLY slow. Using arrow keys to move the cursor past the end of visible screen, so the sheet has to scroll, takes ages to catch up (sometimes a minute). Inserting a new row (Ctrl +) can take 10 seconds. Saving can take a minute. These aren’t massive spreadsheets, there is minimal formatting. Nothing complex. The performance really is unacceptable.

I waited for the latest version to come out before complaining. Have just installed Linux Mint 17 (x64) with LibreOffice 4.2.4.2 (UK English) and it’s the same, so very disappointed. Can we forget about any fancy new facilities and just get the basics right please?

Using it on an i7 with 12GB RAM and a Tosh Portege laptop with 8GB RAM.

[mariosv]

If reset user profile doesn’t work, please can you share a file with the problem?, (remember delete any personal/confidential information)

[oweng]

As @mariosv indicates you either need to provide an example file or greater detail about the metrics of the file experiencing problems. V4.2 saw a number of performance improvements (such as OpenCL support), but the problem is most likely either formatting or formulas. Presumably the file format is ODS.

[craig100]

Unfortunately I can’t send a copy of this file as it’s full of private information. I need to use it in .xls mode as my accountants use MS, there is necessary conditional formatting (just to colour cells red with negative amounts). As so many others are having issues with this I find it hard to see why the developers don’t see this or at least have an idea of where to look. My whole personal and business workflow is on Linux Mint using LibreOffice so for me (and others) this is quite serious.

[mariosv]

There is performance regression with some functions with regular expression, like SUMIF() or VLOOKUP() if you are using it, you can get some improvement adding at the beginning of the criteria “^”, e.g. SUMIF($A$1:$A$10;"^"&H1;$B$1:$B$10)

[rautamiekka]

@mariosv, better let the guys know, any problem is bad.

[oweng]

@craig100 there are instructions here for redacting the content of files to help prevent disclosure of sensitive information. Obviously the degree to which this is taken varies from file to file. The balance is in redacting enough content to prevent disclosure and yet retain enough to exhibit the problem.

[ROSt53]

When will Calc be useable?

It is already usable since the beginning!

If it is caused by LibO itself, then it can be cured by reseting your user profile. Here is the guideline: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/UserProfile

As for speed: I am using LibO on an 2 year old Thinkpad x230 under Windows XP and an more than 10 year ol Thinkpad x40 running Linux Mint Debian and moving the cursor I cannot see a difference, though I might be able to measure one. Your values is far to slow.

[craig100]

Renaming the user directory didn’t work for me Calc still VERY slow.

[Pedro1]

Can you try version 4.1.6.2 (the final version in the 4.1 branch)? In my experience, under Windows this version is the best performer (I removed LibreOffice in Ubuntu so I have no idea if the same applies under Linux). I also see some very slow scrolling using 4.2 and 4.3 releases, especially if the document has images.