Please help us help you and fill where relevant:
Your LimeSurvey version: 6.1.8+230717
Own server or LimeSurvey hosting: Own server (AWS)
DB server: MySQL 8.x
Survey theme/template: bootswatch
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Hello Folks,
Recently upgraded to this newer version from 3.X. We are finding that it is very slow when launching a survey that has around 135 questions, going from page to page and after clicking the submit button. Anyone having this same issue and figured out how to resolve this?

Thanks in advance!

6.1.8+230717

I haven't heard from slowness of surveys for LS 6.x in the forum yet. One user complained about the backend being slow, but haven't heard from them since.

Before you do anything else, I would suggest to upgrade to the latest version, which is 6.2.6+230904.

This might not be the solution to your problem, but before starting any troubleshooting I would always update to the latest version, because the issue that is causing this might have already been solved. 2 months between releases can make a lot of difference.

If the slowness continues, I would test with a new survey, just a little sample and check if there is any issue there.

Of course, Amazon AWS could also be an issue, as they do some things differently, afaik. So the issue might not appear in other server environments, but be specific to Amazon AWS, so that could be a reason why we don't see more in the forum.

Regarding the survey: Does it have a lot of equations, conditions, etc?

Hello holch,

Thank you for your quick response and suggestion. I will upgrade the version and see if it resolves the issue. I don't think it's a AWS issue as other areas of the LimeSurvey admin panel that I browse through are not slow.

The survey does not have a lot of equations or conditions - maybe 4 or 5.

I am not saying it is an AWS issue, but it can be a Limesurvey issue that only occurs due to the unique setup of AWS.

other areas of the LimeSurvey admin panel that I browse through are not slow.

And that is what we are trying to find out here. Which areas are quick / normal, which areas are slow?

From what I understand, it is one specific survey that is causing trouble. How do other surveys behave? If we know that it is specifically one survey that is slow, we can probably exclude a server issue, as well as a general Limesurvey issue and can focus on this specific survey and its settings and structure.

Are sessions file based or via the database?

Did you run a consistency check of the survey?

You can try to copy the survey and see if the slowness persists. Sometimes there is a glitch in a survey and a copy might get rid of these issues. Or export and reimport it.

Sorry for the late response due to upgrading LimeSurvey to the lastest version (x6.3), which did not help with the survey slow loading. Here are the answers to your questions:

Are sessions file based or via the database? Default file based

Did you run a consistency check of the survey? Yes, and it did not find any issue.

I also created a new version of the survey using the import functionality and this one also is loading slowly.

lintu wrote:

I also created a new version of the survey using the import functionality and this one also is loading slowly.
 

Are all surveys slow or only one survey? 
Is the slowness from the beginning to the end? Or just the launching of the survey as a respondent?
What PHP version is used?
 

Please see my responses below:

Are all surveys slow or only one survey? The surveys that I had before the upgrade are all slow. These surveys have around 150 questions. I created a new survey of 9 questions and this one is not slow. I have to use the existing surveys as I created extensive reports off them.

Is the slowness from the beginning to the end? Or just the launching of the survey as a respondent? The slowness is from the beginning to the end of the survey.

What PHP version is used? PHP 8.2, MySQL: 8.0, LimeSurvey: 6.3

I am trying find a way to debug where the survey response time is long.

Thanks

According to the manual, PHP 8.2 is not supported.

- www.limesurvey.org/manual/Installation_-...rvey_on_your_website

While you can give a downgrade to PHP 8.1. a try, I would focus on the fact that old surveys are slow and new surveys are not. You could copy an old survey and check again. If the slowness is still there start to remove parts of the survey to see if something changes. Or create a new survey and import surveygroups of the old survey into the new one. The issue looks like a an LS6 bug with certain survey settings or questionstypes.

I have the production version on PHP 8.1 but the QA server is on PHP 8.2, just to see if it improves the survey load time or not.

P.S. Recreating these surveys and the associated reports will be huge effort, which I am trying to avoid.

holch wrote:

6.1.8+230717

I haven't heard from slowness of surveys for LS 6.x in the forum yet. One user complained about the backend being slow, but haven't heard from them since.

 

To use 3+5and 6 on same server : 5 and 6 are slower on admin part than 3, but not exceptionally.

Don't see big difference on public part (participant) …

I have to say, I'm working on my survey on v6.4.1, and it's incredibly slow at loading. I mean, it's taking upwards of five minutes to register one command or click. My survey is quite complicated and it's also fairly big, but I was wondering if you had found any solutions to your issue? I've tried all the things like restarting the machine, checking the wifi connection, using alternative/incognito browsers etc... but its' still taking multiple hours to make a few minor changes which is making progress unbearably slow.