FAQ: Why is Picnik so SLOW?

[Why is Picnik so slow?]

Why is Picnik so slow?

There are a few good tips and tricks to speed Picnik up if you are seeing slowness. Here are some things to consider:

Sometimes Picnik drags if you're on a slow/spotty network connection or if you have a number of other applications open and running. The first step is to close unnecessary tabs, windows, programs, and applications.  We do require a broadband connection... although we've heard some great stories of folks on (OMG) dialup!  Also, we recommend that you have Microsoft Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS X or Linux, with a 1GHz processor or better, and at least 512 MB of RAM.

If you haven't yet we recommend updating to Adobe flash player v.10 for speedy uploads and saves!
See the details on this Speedy Uploads forum post.

If you have flash v.10 and you are still seeing slowness, perhaps your photos are quite large which can also slow us down. If this might be that case, and you don't need to print your photo, go to Edit: Resize and scale the photo down to something in the range of 1200x1200.

A couple things that will badly affect your connection speed are virus detectors and running on a wireless network connection.  We've seen both drop connection speeds by as much as 50% each.  You may not be able to do without either of these, but it is worth experimenting with temporarily disabling your virus detector and\or using a direct network cable connection to see if that improves your experience.

Some users have reported a faster overall experience with Google Chrome, http://www.google.com/chrome. 

If you're still having trouble you can post more details here or try going back to the General Discussion and searching in the search bar!

Thank you!
-Team Picnik

Hey goldlovingirl,

Thats great! Thanks for sharing

Cheers - Chelsea, Team Picnik

I took your suggestion and cleared the internet files and I am still unable to get my photos to load even though the photo uploads are very quick .  IF the photo loads at all it takes a minimum of 5 minutes!  I have been attempting to do editing for several hours and have only been able to edit 5 photos!  Am I doing something wrong???

Oh thank you, thank you!!!

All I did was refresh Picnik and Voila...  Speed's up to max...

Suanough   

Hey dbegany,

Sorry for the slowness! Have you tried some of our suggestions posted in this thread? It looks like a simple refresh or an upgrade of a browser has helped users in your same situation. Try a few of these suggestions and if you are still having trouble go ahead and shoot us an email here at feedback@picnik.com .

Thanks!

Chelsea - Team Picnik

What type of web browser are you using?  I used Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and things were pretty slow.  When I switched to Google Chrome, it sped things up a TON for me.  (I blog too, so this was way helpful) I would say try Google Chrome and see if that helps.  The other thing that I noticed is sometimes it's faster in the morning or way late at night when other people aren't using the internet at the same time as you... sounds strange I know, but it's all about bandwidth.

Hi there dietmem,

Thanks for the report. Often times switching or upgrading your browser can change the status of problems that occur on Picnik, including slowness. We suggest you stick with the browser that gives you the best results

Cheers,

Chelsea - Team Picnik

Thanks for the awesome tips.

[I'm continuing to have issues even with trying what you all say. We get a resizing error thing when the picture's small. Help!]

I'm continuing to have issues even with trying what you all say. We get a resizing error thing when the picture's small. Help!

[very]

Hello,

Well, I've looked in the help section, tried everything here and Picnik is still very slow. I have Abode flash player v 10, my pics are not too large, I'm on a cable dsl connection, I use Windows XP, no anti virus programs are running, etc. etc. I've been using Picnik for quite a while now and really like it, but these issues are really beginning to become a problem. I've actually had to close out the program and walk away, partly out of frustration, but mainly because I don't have time to wait. Another thing I've also noticed that when I click on a picture to edit (and also as I'm editing) the picture zooms in and out. This has all started happening in the last week or so. Anything to do with Google? VERY frustrating!

Thanks,
Christina

 I am glad to catch idea from your article. It has information I have been searching for a  long time. This looks absolutely perfect. All these tinny details are made with lot of background  knowledge. I like it a lot.

Keep on taking action!

I have been so frustrated the last few weeks.  Picnik is dragging!  It has been slow, freezing, not responding without multiple tries.  Have read through the post of what may be the issue, however they don't apply.  Whats up?  Has Picnik changed something?  I decided to pay for Picnik to be able to use and see all it can do, but this is so frustrating with lag I can't take it.

I have used picnik for a month or so and it was going just fine.  Just in this past week EVERYTHING started to run slow.  Sometimes when I close out and come back, it is ok...but just for a short while.  I think it is a Picnik problem, because all these people that has posted already met the requirements, as do I.  And don't you think it is now ironic there is a new topic of "why is picnik so slow?"....If this is indeed a Picnik problem, please correct it.  Thanks