Slow/Laggy scrolling in Library

Question

Level 1

10 points

Slow/Laggy scrolling in Library

I have a library of 24,325 files. When attempting to scroll up and down with my mouse's scroll wheel in the library with all files showing, I get a delay of a half second or so before the list moves. This is absolutely maddening.

Is anyone else experiencing this??? Does anyone have a fix?

I have a serious machine (dual processor, Gig of RAM, XP Operating system, library and files all on RAID 0 partitions). If this machine can't smoothly scroll my library, nothing can.

Apple, please please please please fix.

Posted on Oct 4, 2005 11:45 AM

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Answer 1

MacMuse

Level 7

20,796 points

Oct 5, 2005 10:18 AM in response to refractor

At 25,000 songs, you're pushing the limits of iTunes. Your "iTunes Music Library" file is probably around 30MB, and iTunes basically works through that file as it is scrolling the display. That's a large enough database file to expect some delays as it actually proccesses that much information.

iTunes is database driven, but this isn't Orcale or even SQL for the database engine. While it can handle such large data sets, it will experience performance hits doing so.

By the way, do you have the artwork window open/active (ctrl-g)? Is it set for "selected song"? Close the window (ctrl-g) and iTunes should seem a little quicker. When "Selected Song" is active, iTunes must read the actual music file currently selected as it scrolls through the list. That activity will slow down the scroll significantly.

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Answer 2

refractor Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 5, 2005 12:14 PM in response to MacMuse

If this is the way that iTunes is designed, then the design is flawed. The reason I say this is because the other MP3 manager I use on a regular basis (MediaJukebox) has absolutely no issues at all dealing with the library of this size. Scrolling is instantaneous, searches are very, very quick and the overall experience (at least with respect to the responsiveness of the interface) is much, much nicer. I would boot iTunes altogether if it weren't for its superior iPod support, and of course the Music Store.

And good guessing on the size of the iTunes library files. The .itl file is 22MB and the .xml file is 28MB. That's not that big... iTunes should put those things in RAM and do some intelligent cacheing and I should have no issues.

One other thing, this is new as of version 5. Version 4 handled scrolling fine, even with the large library. Something changed, and changed for the worse.

And no, I don't have the artwork window open.

Frustrated in Denver.....

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Answer 3

refractor Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 6, 2005 3:42 PM in response to refractor

Okay, so no one has a real answer for me. Perhaps I should've changed the title of this thread to "iTunes BLOWS!" (for those with significant music libraries).

Listen, if you have a large number of files, use another program. Every MP3 player/organizer that I've ever used has its fair share of issues, but iTunes is definitely the worst of the bunch. My angst would be much less if I could simply get an answer from someone at Apple to the question "Why can't iTunes manage large libraries?"

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Answer 4

refractor Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 12, 2005 8:30 PM in response to refractor

And lest anyone think that iTunes 6 performs any better with large libraries, well, it doesn't. I think its actually worse from a performance perspective than 5 was. Sigh.

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