With every new Katalon update, browser launch seems to take longer

Hello,
When I originally downloaded and used Katalon Studio (v6.0), I’m finding that every new update, the browser (chrome) launch time seems to increase.

Originally, browser launches would be within seconds. But In the most recent release v6.3.3, I’m finding it intolerable, as it can often take several minutes.

In v6.2.1, the original browser launch time might have been several seconds longer than I’d like, but I had a workaround for this (re-using existing Katalon Chrome Browser instance when running scripts), but this no longer seems to have any beneficial effect.

What could be the cause of this and how do I resolve this?
This is making it harder for our company to have confidence in v7.0, when it’s released.

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I don’t have this problem. Are you sure it isn’t just your internet speed?

The internet speed is perfectly fine. Also, not sure why the speed of internet should affect browser launch? Once it’s launched there’s no problem, but just takes too long to launch when I run from Katalon.

Chrome outside of Katalon is perfectly fine.

How do I go about diagnosing this?
Could it be related to internet security software, but then I never had this issue with the previous versions of Katalon.

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by any chance can we get a glimpse of your code? so we can maybe see if its HOW you are doing it?

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I’ll attempt to change my code and see if that makes a difference. I can’t post the code here.

However, the code hasn’t changed since the last version, so I’m not sure why that should make a difference, unless Katalon has changed the way it handles things?

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by any chance do you have katalon analytics setup? I was having an issue with delay and it seems to have been solved once I removed integration. Just a guess

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Interesting, I’ll try removing Katalon Analytics integration.

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Unfortunately, removing Katalon Analytics made no difference.

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Right!
I tried Katalon Studio under a few different scenarios.

The results are as follows:-

On HP Probook i5 (8th gen) company laptop:
This laptop has Kaspersky Endpoint Software installed by default.

KS launch took several minutes.
Chrome Browser launch took several minutes.
The same is true for my colleague’s laptop, which is exactly the same.
The same is true when I start a new project with a simple 1-line WebUI.openBrowser(‘www.google.com’).
The same is ‘now’ true when installing an earlier version of Katalon Studio (which previously didn’t cause such issues).

On Intel i7 (6th gen) Home PC:
KS Studio launch was quick.
Chrome Browser launched within seconds.

So, given the above information, can someone please help me diagnose this? It might help others too?

This is holding back widespread adoption of KS within our company.

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Hi,
You can try [TIP] How to help reduce memory consumption in Katalon Studio v6.3.0 and above
Or increase memory Slowness Running Script
Or disable Automatically update webdriver Slowness with Katalon Studio 6.2.2

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You can let chromedriver.exe to write log into file by :

In the log, you may find something interesting: what was going on when Katalon Studio waited for Chrome browser to launch.

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That sounds like a good plan, but I did as mentioned in the link and there is no ‘temp’ folder in ‘C:’ and neither is there any log file. Not sure where I find this?

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Please create the C:\temp folder yourself using Windows Explorer before executing Katalon tests.

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Hi @Nitinsen.Bhamvani

Does the same problem appear when you’re executing tests with Firefox, or is this distinctively a Chrome problem ?

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Hello,
I created a C:\temp folder as suggested, but still did not find any log files there. I even created a blank log file in case that was the problem.

Prior to creating the temp folder, I did as suggested in the following link:-

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I’ve tested this with Edge browser and that also takes a long time to start up.

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Can you check the version of Chrome browser and ChromeDriver?

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For some strange reason, since this afternoon, I’m no longer having the issue described in this post (i.e. slow launch of Chrome when running test)! I’d love to know what could have resolve it?

I’m still not getting any logs in the temp folder, so if this occurs again, I have no way of understanding why?

The version of Chrome is now: 77.0.3865.120.
I’m not sure how to check ChromeDriver version?

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I guess the chormedirver.exe has been upgraded automatically while you are not aware of. Have a look at the following article, and check if you have “Auto Upgrade WebDriver” option checked ON.

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In the command line (Windows CMD.exe window), do as follows:

$ cd %KatalonInstalledFolder%\configuration\resources\driver\chromedriver
$ .\chromedriver -v
ChromeDriver 77.0.3865.40 (f484704e052e0b556f8030b65b953dce96503217-refs/branch-heads/3865@{#442})
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