Hi everyone. I am having some serious issues with the Glowforge app lagging when trying to upload/move around a design. I am using Microsoft Edge and have used several different wifi networks, designs, and cleared all my cookies on my computer. When I upload a SVG File (I have tried multiples including the gift of good measure) it takes roughly 10 seconds for the designs to respond to the curser dragging. If I utilize the arrows, it can take up to a full minute for the image to move. When it comes to re-sizing the image, well I can forget about that! I have been having this issue for about 30 days morning and night. it is very frustrating and making it difficult to complete a successful project. Does anyone have any suggestions or experiencing the same problems?
No, but you’re not alone. One other member has posted about this here (on two different computers) and despite suggestions of changing browser, clearing cache, etc., it has yet to be resolved.
It’s not a Glowforge cloud or wifi issue. The UI works independently on your computer - you can even disconnect from wifi and it works fine (just changes won’t be saved in real-time and, of course, you can’t initiate a print)…
Huh. I just moved 'way out into the country, where we have crappy Internet and semi-crappy WiFi, so I’m having lots of intermittent connectivity issues, but the Glowforge interface works like a champ. So I kinda think it has to be a local or browser issue, and not server-side or network.
Have you tried a different browser? Chrome would be a good one to try.
Thank you for the tip. I downloaded chrome and tried again. While my SVG moves a bit faster in Chrome, its still lagging and I cannot re-size at all. I am able to initiate a print, but it just takes forever to actually get my design in place. Thankfully the glowforge itself has been working flawlessly.
I’ve been struggling with the lagging for quite some time and thought it was simply the glowforge app. Today I finally was able to get around the problem but do not know the root cause.
I logged off from my chrome session.
I logged into the app from another computer
I chose the same file that I’ve been using and it came up empty (no steps at all).
I logged off that computer and logged back on my original computer
Started the app and reloaded the same file and all the steps were there but the app was still slow.
I deleted all the information in the file and loaded another svg.
I did all the above with the same results, (not showing up on the other computer and slow on the original computer)
I then deleted the full file from the main screen and created a new one. To my absolute surprise all my lagging disappeared and both computers showed the new file.
Go figure! But at least I am no longer running slow in the app.
What I did not mention above is that all my files were slow originally and now everything is normal. I can only assume that the issue is related to the way the files are stored on the glowforge server. I previously tried different browsers, cache cleaning, etc with no improvement.
So reloading a new copy of the file fresh from your computer took care of the problem? Good to know…thanks!
The main thing was to delete the file from the main library. After I deleted that one library file, any other file I opened up worked perfectly fine.
Since I do not recut many designs, I keep all my original SVG’s and reload what I need instead of using the Glowforge library function to save many individual files. So I typically re-use the same library file over and over, simply deleting the individual components and loading new svg’s.
The really odd thing was that deleting the one file I was actively using fixed all the lagging from all the other files I was looking at while trying to figure this out.
So the one file had gotten corrupted, and the system got locked up trying to interpret it. Makes sense.
I wonder if that one file may have gotten corrupted somehow in the original upload, and that was what was slowing everything else down. I don’t know enough about how the app works to really know, though.
Please forgive me for my ignorance, can you explain to me the “main library”? I have created files in Silhouette studio and inkscape and saved them to my desktop. That is the only place I save files. Once I am done cutting or engraving, I delete the files from the glowforge app. and re-load them at a later date if needed. Should I try to delete them from my computer completely?
The “main library” is your home screen at app.glowforge.com. That has a list of all the files (projects) you’ve uploaded over time. If you’re using the same project over and over again for different files, you’re not really using it to full advantage. 
(I’m not sure whether that could be the reason for the slowness, but I suppose it’s possible!)
Holy Crap!!! That immediately fixed it!!! I have always uploaded from the bed image screen and none of my designs have ever saved. I only had the “glowforge provided” projects on that screen. I uploaded an old design that way and just like magic!!! No lagging at all. Thank you sooooo much!
It’s actually called the “Design Library” but it’s linked at the top of the forum here as “Dashboard” so the terms are used interchangeably.
You’re doing it right, saving on your local machine, you don’t need to keep them in the Design Library unless you’re cutting the same file frequently.
I would qualify that a bit – keeping copies of your file on your hard drive is doing it right, but uploading to the same project every time is not how it’s meant to be used. Upload them to the main library (or design library; there are lots of names for it!) and then if you aren’t going to need them again, you can delete them from there.
That’s what “unless you’re cutting the same file frequently” is for.
Thank you so much for your help!!! uploading to the design library seems to have fixed the issue of lagging and re-sizing the issues! You guys are the best!
Thanks for the answer @ruthsolomon, that’s right. I’m going to close this thread - if you occur any other issues, go ahead and post a new topic, or reach out to us directly at support@glowforge.com. Thanks for letting us know about this!