SourceTree Mac 2.6.3 performance has recently degraded badly
Asked by Rod Barnes:

As of the afternoon PST 12/29, we began experiencing drastic reduction in SourceTree performance. It appears that anytime there is server access, it takes 10-15 seconds for the action to be completed; e.g., select a different file, select a different commit, open a different repository, etc.

There are seven of us all experiencing this, all on Mac SourceTree. I've been using 2.6.3. One associate is using v2.1, another is using 2.3.2, and they both are having the same experience. I tried completely uninstalling and installing 2.5.3 but had the same results so have gone back to 2.6.3.

We have our own bitbucket server. Git command line seems to perform fine. One associate is using Windows SourceTree and says he doesn't see any issues. It seems to be only with the Mac SourceTree GUI. Which doesn't make sense given that we're using the same versions we were using that morning. One minute it was performing great (normal) and only a few minutes later, on the next use, it was doing this slow behavior.

As of the morning of 12/29 and prior, performance was very acceptable. So the community discussions I found (like this one [SourceTree 2.6.3 (2.6.x) for Mac is horribly slow](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Sourcetree-discussions/SourceTree-2-6-3-2-6-x-for-Mac-is-horribly-slow/td-p/645597)) don't seem to apply since performance has previously been fine.

UPDATE: \[I tried adding this as a comment/answer and the site kept telling me I couldn't add HTML.\]

We changed from using the embedded git (2.8.1) to the system git (2.14.3) and the performance is dramatically better. I can't be sure it is as fast as it was before but it seems about that good.


Answers:
author: bgannin
body: Thank you for the notes Rod. We're aware of user reports about performance and have a dedicated update planned for this soon. We'll also be refreshing the embedded Git release to pick up the latest changes.

Brian Ganninger  
Senior Mac Developer, Sourcetree

comments: author: Rod Barnes
body: Good to know. As a follow-up, I can confirm that performance is still not as good as it was before. Though, it is close with the switch to the system Git. It is at least usable. Previously, it was nearly painful and was getting in the way of work.

Why the performance degraded so spontaneously, why it degraded at all, why it appears to still be fine on Windows, why the Git version appears to make a difference in this degradation: I have no answers for these things.


author: bgannin
body: a) not sure

b) we've done a lot of work across all layers

c) Windows is an entirely different codebase

d) we'll have to find out

Fundamentally we are built on the git executables and the machinery from Apple to run them and are subject a bit to any changes they impose upon us.


author: Eric Mestreau
body: Hi Brian,

I would not agree with the statement "usable" mentioned earlier. I am working with fairly heavy C++ projects and switching between branch takes several minutes on MacOS (10.11.6). While the balls is rotating, nothing can be done on any of the other projects that I am dealing with. In my case, is the slowdown due to me having several repositories opened at the same time? It seems that a switch seems to lock up all of my projects. I am therefore assuming that Sourcetree is not multi threaded. Am I Correct?

Thanks


author: Leonardo Jorge Dias Carmo
body: Same is happening with me at SourceTree 2.7, my git version is v2.10.1 could be the file change detection?

Obs: The SourceTree CPU process is floating between 50% \~ 120%.


author: Tim Ahrens
body: SourceTree for Mac v2.7.1(159) is absolutely the most annoyingly slow piece of software I have used in the last 15 years - just changed branches 40 minutes ago, and have had to force quit 4 separate times already! Aargh! I used to recommend it as so much easier than command line, but at this point, I can't do that because by the time I can get sourceTree to do the task, I could have googled how to do it command line 3 times over, and SourceTree would still have a spinning disc.

I had someone come to my desk so we could use it to cherry pick and squash 3 commits into one, and after 10 minutes he left, said he'd come back later. 45 minutes later I still have nothing to work with...


author: Thomas P.
body: I'm having a similar issue. Takes well over 30 seconds to switch to "file status" view


author: Javier Almansa
body: I am having same issue. Just click on another branch takes tooo much time to respond. :/


Tags: performance