FFS/RTS really slows down mouse movement

Posts: 3 · joelshort 26 Aug 2015, 20:53

This is a strange one. When FFS or RTS is actively syncing files, I've noticed that the movement of my mouse really becomes laggy and jittery and the mouse response slows way down. At first I thougth that FFS was slowing the whole computer down, but that isn't the case looking at the task manager. The mouse is a bluetooth connected mouse, and the laggy movement immediately disappears after the files are synced. It's only when FFS is actively syncing that the mouse slows way down. Is there anything I can do about this? I'm assuming that somehow the bandwidth of syncing files is slowing down the bluetooth communication, but I don't know.

Posts: 7282 · Zenju 27 Aug 2015, 10:29

Some Google results indicate this could be due to radio-interference. Maybe you're accessing files through wlan?

Posts: 3 · joelshort 28 Aug 2015, 15:46

Yes, I'm sycing files across a wireless network from one computer to another.

Posts: 6 · martin13pc 10 Sep 2015, 21:05

This is a strange one. When FFS or RTS is actively syncing files, I've noticed that the movement of my mouse really becomes laggy and jittery and the mouse response slows way down. At first I thougth that FFS was slowing the whole computer down, but that isn't the case looking at the task manager. The mouse is a bluetooth connected mouse, and the laggy movement immediately disappears after the files are synced. It's only when FFS is actively syncing that the mouse slows way down. Is there anything I can do about this? I'm assuming that somehow the bandwidth of syncing files is slowing down the bluetooth communication, but I don't know.joelshort

I have also experienced this problem using the the pointing stock (TrackPoint "mouse") on an 8-year-old ThinkPad with a Core2 Duo processor, where WiFi-Bluetooth conflicts are not an issue. I traced it to spikes in CPU usage by FreeFileSync whenever real-time jobs were triggered, especially during the folder comparison stage of the run. I mitigated the problem by permanently setting all of my RealTimeSync and FreeFileSync executables -- at least the six non-XP ones that applied to me -- to run at "Below Normal" priority. (I don't think you can do this natively in Windows 7, at least not easily, but there are utilities that allow you to. I use System Explorer for this, among other things.) Foreground tasks still bog down a little when a RealTimeSync/FreeFileSync task is launched and while it runs through the comparison stage, but's it's no longer the barely tolerable annoyance it used to be.

Posts: 7282 · Zenju 11 Sep 2015, 11:04

I have also experienced this problem using the the pointing stock (TrackPoint "mouse") on an 8-year-old ThinkPad with a Core2 Duo processor, where WiFi-Bluetooth conflicts are not an issue. I traced it to spikes in CPU usage by FreeFileSync whenever real-time jobs were triggered, especially during the folder comparison stage of the run. I mitigated the problem by permanently setting all of my RealTimeSync and FreeFileSync executables -- at least the six non-XP ones that applied to me -- to run at "Below Normal" priority. (I don't think you can do this natively in Windows 7, at least not easily, but there are utilities that allow you to. I use System Explorer for this, among other things.) Foreground tasks still bog down a little when a RealTimeSync/FreeFileSync task is launched and while it runs through the comparison stage, but's it's no longer the barely tolerable annoyance it used to be.martin13pc

FreeFileSync also has the option RunWithBackgroundPriority to get this effect.

Posts: 3 · pritchie 27 Aug 2020, 11:26

I have recently started using a Wireless Mouse and have just noticed this issue - windows stops responding to the wireless mouse almost entirely when FFS is running. 'RunWithBackgroundPriority' option does not seem to make a difference. Is there a way to verify that the 'RunWithBackgroundPriority' option HAS successfully implemented? I made the edit in the .xml, but am not sure how to verify it is functional.

Is there any further insight/fix to this issue since the last post in 2015? Thanks.

Posts: 3 · pritchie 27 Aug 2020, 15:20

Update: I've discovered that even just doing a large copy via Windows Explorer stops the mouse working - so it is clearly a mouse/windows problem and not anything to do with FFS.

Posts: 4196 · xCSxXenon 28 Aug 2020, 19:26

Correct. Either plain interference, or sometimes a USB hub with a mouse and storage device can cause it too

Posts: 3 · pritchie 1 Sep 2020, 11:20

Solved it; turns out the new portable HDD I was using to Sync to was plugged into the USB port immediately below the USB dongle for my wireless mouse. I moved the wireless dongle to a port at the rear of the laptop, and the problem went away - clearly the USB link to the HDD was interfering with the Wireless dongle.