Reducing initial load time for PHPStorm

I was just about to post this issue when I noticed yours. I don't understand this.. It wasn't that long ago this wasn't an issue and for me I know it took less than 10 seconds for the splash screen to appear, its now 25 seconds and that's before loading the actual project.

Do you know why this is suddenly a problem?

Hi, I have no idea why there has been a change.  I'm new to PHPStorm and just noticed the initial startup time was unacceptably high (before splash screen).

Once I knew it was likely to be defender, I excluded it and all is fine.

If you have experienced a change, then perhaps Defender has changed and is now using new longer algorithms to check the executable?

All the best,

Paul.

We were investigating this in https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/JBR-781. The issues seems to be caused by PhpStorm trying to access & load system fonts (typically located in Windows directory). We're planning to redesign this by trying to move the action after the splash screen appear.

You might want to share your findings in comments to https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/JBR-781.

I am using Linux and boot PHPStorm from my main SSD. I takes around 22 seconds. For a proprietary software, this is poor. Since I'm paying, I don't really want to browse through issue reports, I just want it to work. In comparison: Visual Studio Code, a free software, takes around 2 seconds.

We're working on improving the situation.

After six months, the problem still exists.

I don't know the real reason but could be the problem originated with the Toolbox application. That might be sending and communicating to the server for the license request, and this might take initial time to create a session or something similar.

I have the same problem: PHPstorm very slo loading. 

The problem (https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/JBR-781) was addressed in April. If you're encounter a similar issue on 2019.2.2 - please contact us via Help | Contact Support or share your logs somewhere by running Help > Compress Logs and Show in ....

I don't understand how this can be fixed. I'm running Windows 10 with an i7 7700 and 16GB and latest version of PHPStorm 2019.2.2, its still take around 25 seconds for the IDE to load to the point of first interaction. Certainly the splash screen is displayed much sooner now but overall it still takes the same amount of time. I'm guess that (like a lot of people) as we only do this once a day, we just accept it, doesn't make it fixed though.

Did you try troubleshooting the problem with us?

Hi, I commented above in March to say I had the same problem, its the response from you last week that says it was addressed in April that sparked my response. I thought that I did go through troubleshooting but its 6+ months ago I can't remember, I have a vague memory of someone saying it was to do with Windows 10 and fonts, but I'm not sure.

Yesterday my PHPStorm license expired, and I don't think I am going to renew it, because overall I feel PHPStorm is slow and somewhat bloated with features that most people might not even use. Saying the slow loading times have been addressed gives me the feeling that I'm not being taken seriously. The loading times have not improved at all (2019.2), so I'm not exactly sure anymore what the great benefits of this software are compared to certain competitors. And it's not a particular Windows issue, since I'm on Ubuntu.

Excluding the process phpstorm64.exe in Windows Defender seems to hwave solved the slow-loading problem for me. I had excluded the file, the directory en my development directies, but not the proces itself. 

@Guilty B, yeah, there was an issue with IDE trying to access system fonts at startup. This was causing the slowness. 

We can still check the problem if you're on 2019.2.2. Run Help > Compress Logs and Show in ... and share the archive or send it to me over dmitry.tronin at jetbrains dot com.

@Michael, if possible, please also share your logs collected via Help > Compress Logs and Show in ...

Logs sent.

Well, I guess I should have looked at the logs a while back, but in my defence I didn't know they existed. My logs contain a bunch of warnings relating to themes that can't be found and a whole bunch of fonts being loaded. I remember earlier on in the year switching from light to dark themes and trying a whole bunch of themes from http://www.phpstorm-themes.com/.

So I guess this is probably my problem.

@Dmitry is there a way to restore PHPStorm back to its original set of themes, fonts and colors without reinstalling?

@GuiltyB: easiest way is to delete a default IDE config directory, but that would wipe other settings also.

Longer way is to manually remove config files doing the opposite of what's said in http://www.phpstorm-themes.com/content/help and then manually looking for code style files in IDE config directory.

@Dmitry Is there any resolution for the issue? Even after I have reported there were three or four updates but it seems the same. I love PhpStorm and there is not such a great alternative to this IDE so I am not going to change it, at least till I found better than this one. So please do not force us to look for alternative and fix this issue as soon as possible.

@Jatin Soni: the most common case of the problem was addressed with the release on PhpStorm ver.2019.2.2.

What version are you using? What OS are you on? I would firstly suggest to check the logs with us: either here or on our portal via Help > Contact Support.

I just wanted to follow up on my initial critique of very slow loading time. I have been evaluating 2020.2 on a NVMe and the loading times are considerably faster than 2018.2/2019.2. I'm glad that things are being improved and will renew my license.

Michael