topic Re: Experience Builder maps loading/ running very slow??? in ArcGIS Online Questions

Experience Builder maps loading/ running very slow???

T_R — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 19:28:51 GMT

Hello everyone,

Working on creating maps through Experience Builder for the counties in my state (USA). A whole lot of people use these maps, a whole lot of people depend on these maps.

As we started releasing the maps to the public, a steady stream of emails trickled in asking why the maps were running so slow, asking if this is the new 'norm', if it will be any faster soon.

I currently have a ticket open with ESRI- we have tried optimizing layers as well as a few other troubleshooting steps.

At this point we're looking for workarounds the community may have found to increase the speed of these maps. We are trying to get an idea if others are experiencing this issue as well.

Any and all input greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Re: Experience Builder maps loading/ running very slow???

BrianBaldwin — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 19:43:36 GMT

Can you share the app/maps? I'd be curious to see the complexity of the layers and how they are performing. Have you played around with the 'Developer Tools' in Chrome or Firefox - they are great for looking at loading times of various layers/features to pinpoint what might be the issue.

Re: Experience Builder maps loading/ running very slow???

T_R — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 19:54:15 GMT

Hey there, thank you for the suggestion, we have not played around with the developer tools in Chrome or Firefox yet. That would be a great start. Do you have specific tools you could suggest? Is it a plugin of some kind?

Here is the link to the last map we received input on. I want to say that it's a user issue- bandwidth, location, platform- but this slowness issue sounds like it's a fairly common thing amongst Experience Builder maps.

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/cb4ec83c40fd41bea57344fd1ded4f1e/

Thanks!

Re: Experience Builder maps loading/ running very slow???

BrianBaldwin — Sat, 12 Aug 2023 01:16:56 GMT

So - it's a great feature - definitely worth looking at if you are trying to boost performance... and it's just included in Chrome and Firefox - the video here shows Chrome (but same premise in FF).

So - here is a basic video of me loading the website in Chrome - you can follow along and do the same thing (which I would recommend). The biggest issue I am seeing - is that fact that there are ALOT of layers... and even though they are 'hidden'... they are still getting cached/loaded up...

A way you can prevent this... is to adjust visibility for the layers at varying zoom scales (you can do this right in the web map). So - if you don't need the 'Water Right' layer to be visible to your users right away - at the main app load - set that layer to only be visible when zoomed in to 'X' scale (a scale different than your initial map load scale) - then it will help lighten the initial map load.

Then... you can test your app with the Dev tools again! Right now - I had a '368 MS' load time - the red number down at the bottom of the frame... pretty slow... So, try and see if you can bring that down a bit with the layer visibility settings.

(view in My Videos)

Re: Experience Builder maps loading/ running very slow???

AdrianMarsden — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 14:07:07 GMT

See my post here regarding hardware acceleration on browsers, without this Experience apps are so slow as to be unable. It may be those complaining have low spec devices with no GPU

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-questions/too-slow-to-load/td-p/763092

Re: Experience Builder maps loading/ running very slow???

L77 — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 15:01:20 GMT

My experience builder apps are very slow compared to the web app builder apps I have. Even the apps that have very little date in them tile slowly.

Re: Experience Builder maps loading/ running very slow???

SteveMarkovick — Tue, 06 May 2025 09:50:57 GMT

I’ve faced similar slow loading issues with Experience Builder when maps had too many layers or custom widgets. What helped was simplifying data sources and caching where possible. At Phonexa, we’ve seen firsthand how front-end optimization can drastically improve performance—especially with real-time data apps. Curious if Esri plans any builder-side improvements for heavier dashboards?

Re: Experience Builder maps loading/ running very slow???

JunshanLiu — Wed, 14 May 2025 08:23:48 GMT

@T_R The app loads much faster than the video, do you still see the slowness?

(view in My Videos)