Power Apps

extreme poor editor performance

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Posted on by HansHeintz

704

Hi,

If in my app I edit the onvisible property of a screen (about 180 lines)

and I change

 
;UpdateContext({lOrderAccount:If(IsBlank(lDierRecord.Account),gDefaultOrderAccount,lDierRecord.Account)})
 
in
 
;UpdateContext({lOrderAccount:If(IsBlank(lDierRecord.Account) Or (lOrderType='Order Type Choices'.A),gDefaultOrderAccount,lDierRecord.Account)})
 
by typing the text in the editor it takes about 5 minutes for error messages to disappear. The error text changes everytime based on each of the letters typed.
I have already turned off new analysis engine.
 
I lately have begun to consider that microsoft is cutting loose projects they deem too large for what they envision appropriate for powerapps.
Pity about all this frustration and loss of time.
I guess this would be porssible to solve by having an option for a delay or suspend evaluation while editing.

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Michael E. Gernaey 53,429 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi

I'm not saying you want to do this but can you try

1) save and publish

2) reload

3) turn off autosave

Just check if that helps. For me its usually the intellisense, but just want to verify which one is causing you the issue

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Ammar Zaied 97 on at

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Hi,

The slow performance you're experiencing when editing the OnVisible property in PowerApps, particularly with long code (such as 180 lines), is a known issue when working with large or complex applications. This problem stems from the live evaluation engine, which constantly analyzes and checks the app for errors as you type, leading to slow response times.

Here are a few approaches that can help mitigate this issue:

1. Disable the Formula Bar's Auto-Evaluation (Delay Formula Evaluation)

Unfortunately, PowerApps does not currently offer a direct way to delay or suspend the formula evaluation while editing. This is a feature that many developers have requested to improve performance in large apps.

You can raise a request on the PowerApps Ideas forum to support this feature, which might help the community prioritize it.

2. Workaround: Use External Editor

Since typing directly in the PowerApps formula bar causes slowdowns, you can copy the formula to an external text editor (such as Notepad++ or Visual Studio Code), make the necessary changes there, and then paste the updated code back into PowerApps. This way, the formula is processed as a whole rather than letter-by-letter, which should reduce the performance hit.

3. Optimize the Formula Logic

Break down large formulas into smaller, manageable pieces. You can split complex logic across multiple functions or context variables. For example, rather than having one massive OnVisible property, you can move parts of the logic to other areas of your app, such as in OnStart or other smaller reusable components.

Consider using global variables for complex conditions that are evaluated often, so they don’t need to be recalculated each time the screen loads.

4. Review Performance Considerations

Microsoft has outlined several performance tips for PowerApps, including limiting complex formula evaluations within certain properties (like OnVisible). You can find some guidance on Microsoft’s documentation.

5. Feedback to Microsoft

Since you’ve already disabled the new analysis engine, this does suggest that performance on larger apps is a concern. It might be worth providing feedback directly to Microsoft via PowerApps support, as they may help diagnose or improve the specific performance bottlenecks in your app.

Your frustration with this issue is understandable, but until Microsoft improves handling large apps or provides an option to delay formula evaluation, these workarounds should help manage the problem to some extent.

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HansHeintz 704 on at

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Thanks for the suggestions, I will look into it.

My project items from 2019 and has been quite large from early on. I think the problem got significantly worse a few months ago. I am hoping the new analysis engine does not become default any time soon as this makes the problem so severe that I would have to abandon the project altogether. And I was hoping be using user defined functions so much :(

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