# Jabref is extremely slow on MacBook Air with macOS 10.14.5 (18F132)

**URL:** <https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [May 22, 2019, 4:41pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659 "2019-05-22T16:41:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 16\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![vrizz](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/vrizz/32/577_2.png) [@vrizz](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/vrizz)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2019, 4:41pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/1 "2019-05-22T16:41:06Z")

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Hello, I’ve downloaded Jabref for macOS but I can’t use it because it’s extremely slow.  
I thought that this was a Java problem, but I tried with both Java SE 12 and Java SE 8 without any success.

How can I solve this problem?

Thank you in advance.

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**Author:** ![tobiasdiez](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/tobiasdiez/32/340_2.png) [@tobiasdiez](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/tobiasdiez)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2019, 10:32am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/2 "2019-05-26T10:32:20Z")

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Which version of JabRef do you use? The [latest development version](https://builds.jabref.org/master/) includes a few huge performance improvements.

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**Author:** ![vrizz](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/vrizz/32/577_2.png) [@vrizz](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/vrizz)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 8:10am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/3 "2019-05-31T08:10:41Z")

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Hi, I’ve downloaded the latest version, but the problem still persists…

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**Author:** ![Vasileios\_Gkinis](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/vasileios_gkinis/32/785_2.png) [@Vasileios\_Gkinis](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Vasileios_Gkinis)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2020, 2:33pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/4 "2020-10-24T14:33:09Z")

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I second that.  
Since Jabref 5.0 nothing seems to be right for Jabref on Mac. It has been a workhorse for 10+ years for me and I am close to giving up. Any news if some sort of improvement can be expected?

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**Author:** ![Siedlerchr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/siedlerchr/32/216_2.png) [@Siedlerchr](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Siedlerchr)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 5:15pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/5 "2020-10-25T17:15:21Z")

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@Vasileios_Gkinis Have you tried the latest development version 5.2.x?  
(It’s recommneded to make a backup before trying out the new version)  
And maybe can you give some more details when or where the performance is down. Do you use many groups? How large is your library? The more concrete the better.  
We are constantly working on JabRef and also have been focusing on performance especially in 5.1.  
However, keep in mind that all developers only work in their spare time for JabRef.

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**Author:** ![Vasileios\_Gkinis](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/vasileios_gkinis/32/785_2.png) [@Vasileios\_Gkinis](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Vasileios_Gkinis)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/6 "2020-10-25T18:13:01Z")

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Hi Christoph  
I am on 5.1. Have not tried the dev version you are referring to  
Switched back to 4.9 (ish) at some point but decided to give it one more try with 5.2 …bad luck so far.

I have about 900 entries - most of them with a pdf linked to them  
8-10 groups.  
I am on osx 10.15.7  
I love the way jabref works together with anything latex/bibtex and the simplicity is key for me.  
Hope things will get better with performance. Right now it is unfortunately a struggle  
Good luck and thanks for all the great work until now.

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**Author:** ![k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/k3kaw8pnf7mkmdsmphz2/32/1116_2.png) [@k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 2:16pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/7 "2020-10-26T14:16:22Z")

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@Vasileios_Gkinis is every action slow? I have never used JabRef with a library of that size, the [largest one I can try is 210 entries](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/blob/master/src/test/resources/testbib/jabref-authors.bib) (and no linked pdfs) and everything except opening and scrolling is smooth (JabRef 5.1, Mac OS X 10.15.7)

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**Author:** ![Vasileios\_Gkinis](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/vasileios_gkinis/32/785_2.png) [@Vasileios\_Gkinis](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Vasileios_Gkinis)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 3:29pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/8 "2020-10-26T15:29:18Z")

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pretty much yes. clicking simply on an entry results in a waiting time of 4-5 sec

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**Author:** ![k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/k3kaw8pnf7mkmdsmphz2/32/1116_2.png) [@k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 6:07pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/9 "2020-10-26T18:07:06Z")

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Unfortunately, this isn’t enough information for me to help out. I wouldn’t mind taking a closer look at it but I can’t recreate the issue on my current setup

```auto
JabRef 5.1--2020-08-30--e023aa0
Mac OS X 10.15.7 x86_64 
Java 15

```

using the unmodified [https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/blob/master/src/test/resources/testbib/jabref-authors.bib](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/blob/master/src/test/resources/testbib/jabref-authors.bib) nor duplicating it to get 2520 entries.

Do you have the same performance issues on the `jabref-authors.bib` database?

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**Author:** ![Siedlerchr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/siedlerchr/32/216_2.png) [@Siedlerchr](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Siedlerchr)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 6:42pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/10 "2020-10-26T18:42:49Z")

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I have a huge library here to test with thousands of entries and many groups (friendly provided by a user) and it’s not a problem.  
It might help if you create a new library and copy over some entries.  
There have been reports that when you open a file created by an older version of JabRef that this is slower than a library created by the new version.

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**Author:** ![Vasileios\_Gkinis](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/vasileios_gkinis/32/785_2.png) [@Vasileios\_Gkinis](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Vasileios_Gkinis)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 5:04pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/11 "2020-11-03T17:04:16Z")

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Now on 5.2  
Unfortunately no change. Still very slow  
on top of that it looks like impossible to open a pdf from inside Jabref. All the references in my library are recognised but I still cannot find a way to get the pdf’s to open from inside JabRef.  
I would like to help with more feedback if this is useful so please do let me know

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Siedlerchr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/siedlerchr/32/216_2.png) [@Siedlerchr](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Siedlerchr)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 5:19pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/12 "2020-11-03T17:19:45Z")

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@Vasileios_Gkinis Regarding the PDFs, please check the preferences (General file directory), there was an issue where the file directory setting was not set correctly after an ugprade.

Regarding the performance: Are you doing a search?

> <https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/6967>
>
> JabRef version JabRef 5.2--2020-09-29--2d92025 on Mac OS X 10.15.7
> 
> \[x \] Mandatory: I have tested the latest development version from http://builds.jabref.org/master/ and...

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Siedlerchr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/siedlerchr/32/216_2.png) [@Siedlerchr](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Siedlerchr)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2020, 11:11am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/13 "2020-11-05T11:11:52Z")

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Please try to disable the Autocompletion

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**Author:** ![Chris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@Chris](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Chris)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 1:03pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/14 "2020-11-16T13:03:26Z")

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Hello everyone,

i can confirm the above mentioned problems. After updating to a current version of japref yesterday, all input clicks and reactions are very very slow, 3-4 sec. delay until an action is executed. I have two bib libraries. One with only a few entries (11) for a current project and a longer one with more entries (about 150). both show this behavior

JabRef 5.1–2020-08-30–e023aa0  
Mac OS X 10.15.7 x86\_64  
Java 15

Best regards

Chris

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/k3kaw8pnf7mkmdsmphz2/32/1116_2.png) [@k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2021, 4:36pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/15 "2021-03-10T16:36:18Z")

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In regards to occasional freezes on Mac OS X, there’s been an improvement with

> <https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/pull/7482>

Remember to save a copy of your database before trying out the changes in [the latest development release](https://builds.jabref.org/master/),

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**Author:** ![ali\_zhagparov](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/ali_zhagparov/32/913_2.png) [@ali\_zhagparov](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/ali_zhagparov)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2021, 10:15am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-is-extremely-slow-on-macbook-air-with-macos-10-14-5-18f132/1659/16 "2021-03-31T10:15:49Z")

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@Vasileios_Gkinis @Chris @vrizz does the problem still exists?