Calc: Simple .ODS file loads slowly under LO 7, .XLSX fast

djc · February 19, 2021, 1:12pm

As Calc opens the ODS file it tries to verify the availability of a printer, and calls on the print spooler spoolsv.exe to do it. spoolsv.exe goes looking for the printers it knows about, and in my household one of those is a recently installed wireless printer. spoolsv.exe blocks while making a network inquiry for the printer, and if that isn’t operating – if it’s not turned on – the process can take a long time.

If I save that ODS file as XLSX, the XLSX file opens immediately, but the ODS file still takes a long time. Can anyone explain that?

And is there some way to prevent soffice.bin from blocking while waiting for spoolsv.exe to do whatever it’s doing?

ajlittoz · February 19, 2021, 1:35pm

I seem to remember there is a setting to constraint page size to those accepted by the printer. This is what may cause the delay: query the printer to get the installed tray sizes, wait for answer and possibly time-out.

For Writer, it is located in Tools>Options, LibreOffice Writer>Print but I can’t find an equivalent for Calc.

Since I seldom print, my network printer is nearly always offline but I never incur your nuisance.

EarnestAl · February 20, 2021, 9:25pm

Maybe see if in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Calc > General, under Input Setting if Use printer metrics for text formatting is ticked and untick it if it is.

djc · February 20, 2021, 9:45pm

The setting @EarnestAl suggests was already ticked off. I tried @ajlittoz’s suggestion, specifically Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Print > Paper tray from printer settings. It was on, and I clicked it off. Since then, with the printer off, every spreadsheet I try opens immediately. I’ll try this for a while, and if it seems solid, then that would look like the answer.

EarnestAl · February 21, 2021, 1:16am

Neither of those options would have been ticked in Safe Mode…

djc · February 21, 2021, 9:38am

But I wasn’t clever enough to try that. Instead I slogged through analyzing Procmon output.

mariosv · February 21, 2021, 4:01pm

Please test if the issue had any relation with the Menu/Tools/Options/Load&Save/General - Load printer setting with the document.

djc · February 21, 2021, 9:50pm

That setting is off.

djc · March 25, 2021, 8:05am

[Stuff happens. Then…] I haven’t been able to fix this systematically. It really appears to me that the delayed opening is because LO is searching for a printer that’s offline; that appears to be a good tip. But I can’t find (all) the places to tell LO not to bother with that, so it’s still slow unless that printer is online. Can someone help me find all those places and forcibly tell LO not to block while waiting to gather all the parameters for an offline printer?