Jira Cloud for Excel updates are very slow and excel prints download slow with many events

[Paul M_ Brunner]

Jira Cloud for Excel is working very slow as possible. I am connecting to the same filter and excel file for over the last year.

When I initiate the update it indicates it is downloading and has downloaded the issues and is saving in the plugin. Excel does not show it is updating in the top bar nor that it had been updated. When I watch the file update it prints the data very slow. When I move the cursor over the data area (during the update) the excel hour glass appears and is flashing.

The closest thing this reminds me of is when using VBA or a lot of macros in excel and events are firing to the point where the update is slowed down due to the event notifications in excel.

[Simon Zweifel]

had the same issue with 170 records. download seemed to take less than a second, but Excel then remained stuck in "Saving..." for a minute or two. 

-> went into "Settings" and turned off "Allow hyperlinks"

It now works like a charm.

[brandi.kidd]

You're a lifesaver... I've been dealing with this slowness for months before I found your reply!!

[caglad]

having the same issue - however, I dont think its query or load related. if you click back on the query page (vs the page that is waiting to pop-up which version to download), the query page says "validating". Since its intermittent, and since they just added a default, created tickets in the last 4 week vs all, I think this is a bug or a performance issue with Jira.

[Jack Brickey]

That is rather odd. How many records are you pulling? Have you tried a simple query on a small Number of issues?

[Paul M_ Brunner]

I am reading ~12,000 issues. It was fast about 2 weeks ago and has slowed down drastically.

[Jack Brickey]

That is a sizable query but doable. I have to wonder if it is on the Jira side or the client side 

• restart excel
• restart PC
• ask colleague to try it
• try other smaller queries

[Paul M_ Brunner]

Hello Jack,

I have done all but ask someone else to do it. The smaller queries are faster, but not what they used to be. I see no other issues in the browser when working with Jira.

I suspect it is in the plug-in. I can ask a colleague to try this week.

Thank You.

[Paul M_ Brunner]

This is what I have done with no change.

BEHAVOIR DETAIL:

The plug-in responds within a minute that all 12K issues have been downloaded. The message at the bottom indicates it is saving, but the top of excel shows nothing. This is when I get the hour glass and cursor flashing. I have had occasions where it saves after 15-20 minutes. To manually save the file it takes < 30 seconds.

I have a smaller query, about 2.8K and it runs faster (about 4 minutes), but the behavior is the same.

When the plugin indicates it is saving, the excel worksheet is updating very slowly.

My best guess is it is when "Jira Cloud for Excel" saves the file. It seems to struggle with this.

ACTIONS TAKEN:

1) Disabled add-ins.

2) Re-installed office.

3) Re-installed Jira Cloud for excel into excel.

4) I run the same import (using the same filter) in a separate excel workbook. The results were the same.

5) On the smaller queries, < 1K, if I force the save of the workbook when the plug-in indicates its saving it responds with saved. 

[Jack Brickey]

An interesting test might be to use Google sheets and the associated addon for that. This would help identify if it’s something that’s running Jira itself that is slow or if it’s Excel and its associated addon.

[Paul M_ Brunner]

I am unable to use google sheets due to internal security limitations.

[Jack Brickey]

I guess I would recommend Atlassian support at this point. As I am unable to reproduce the problem myself.

[Paul M_ Brunner]

@Rahul Patil can you help with this please. You have previously provided help with this tool for me. Thanks.

[Rahul Patil]

@Paul M_ Brunner I am sorry to hear about issue with Excel add-on, can you please raise a support request with us either through the support site or the in-app support menu? That way we can also easily identify your user details and take a look at your logs to see if the problem occurs at our end or on Excel's end. Based on what you are seeing I would also recommend an additional test, try importing your issues in a completely NEW excel document, does that make things faster?

[Blake Bartok]

Hi Paul,

Do you have any updates on this?  I have been experiencing the same slowdowns starting around the same time as your original message.

Thanks,

[Paul M_ Brunner]

I raised the issue to the support team through the app. They contacted me and I provided information. I would suggest you also enter a ticket so they are aware it is not unique to me.

BTW, I did reference this posting in my response as part of my information.

[Blake Bartok]

any luck?  they have been working on this issue with me but no success yet.

[Levente Szabo _Midori_]

@Blake Bartok have you received any reply to your issue? Did they solve this eventually?

[Paul M_ Brunner]

@Blake Bartok I have received no updates to this issue. How about your.

[Levente Szabo _Midori_]

@Paul M_ Brunner @Blake Bartok Have your issues already been addressed and solved by Atlassian?

[Blake Bartok]

@Levente Szabo _Midori_  seems to be working well for me now

[Paul M_ Brunner]

@Levente Szabo _Midori_  I raised a support question with Atlassian and have had no response. Very disapointed.

[Jason Powell]

I'm having this issue now as well... Takes 3 minutes to run a query that returns 127 records with only 18 fields selected. It used to run in seconds.

It seems like the issue is mostly in excel – the little status on the bottom says "x of x records imported. Saving..." and it hangs excel while it's processing the result set.

I'm using Excel on Mac OS.

[Levente Szabo _Midori_]

It's hard to say confidently, as I met Excel users who were able to overcome this issue, but others are still having this and there are no clear indicators of why this is happening. 

During our work on a native Jira Cloud Excel exporter solution, we talked to affected users to investigate issues that typically arise to identify a source problem without any luck. Based on their reports, opening a ticket with Atlassian doesn't always yield a solution, either.

Some users are satisfied with Jira Cloud for Excel but if you are not in that group, I would suggest switching from a Microsoft Excel add-in to a native Jira Cloud app like Better Excel Exporter. 

If Jira Cloud Excel reporting and exporting is important to your work, it's worth giving a try.

(Please note that Better Excel Exporter for Jira Cloud is a paid and supported app and I'm part of the team developing it.)

[Jason Powell]

Update on my workaround. I've discovered that if I set the three JQL queries up in their own file, then close every other Excel file except the one with the JQL queries, that now all my queries run in 30-90 seconds, even the one returning over 4000 records.

I then re-open the file I'm doing all my other calculations, etc. in and copy/paste the result set over from the query-only file.

There seems to be some issue with Excel parsing the results if there is a lot of other Excel memory usage or large files open. Super frustrating, but at least this workaround is working for me and is a big net savings in time. Running those queries in my regular analysis sheet was literally taking 20-40 minutes to parse/process the bigger result sets.

[David Leal]

As of today, Sept 4, 2023, I having the same issue @Paul M_ Brunner. It looks like it hasn't been resolved yet. I have been dealing with this issue for more than a year. I found that using Excel online is more robust than using Excel Desktop. Excel Desktop crashes quite often, and I have been in situations where I cannot read the file in Excel Desktop, and I can read it in Excel online. 

Now I am starting to have this issue again with Excel online too. 

Has the plugin owner/Atlassian created some documentation about this issue? @Levente Szabo _Midori_, @Rahul Patil

I am trying to return 130 issues. Reading the comments here, there is no effective workaround to this issue.

Thanks,

David

[Levente Szabo _Midori_]

Hi @David Leal 

I'm chiming in since you mentioned me. As I wrote above I'm not affiliated with Atlassian and not the owner of the Jira Cloud for Excel Add-in (not a Jira app!). I still think that Atlassian is not in the business of exporting data out of Jira. While they have features and support for this use case, there are still users who are not satisfied, as releasing patches is not a top priority for them.

For Midori, it is a top priority to provide excellent-quality Excel exports and reports whether it's 130 or 1300 issues. I suggest trying Better Excel Exporter if Jira Excel exporting is business-critical.

[Jack Brickey]

@David Leal , did you open support ticket? If not I certainly recommend. 130 issues is very small and I have been successful with much larger queries. You might try Google sheets as a test if that is an option.

[David Leal]

@Jack Brickey Now it is working reasonable for Excel online, but I didn't do any change. I opened the file several times and also tried to open from the desktop and at some point it worked.  If the problem continues I will open a support ticket for sure.

The reason I am asking is because this question is from Sept, 2021, I would assume as a result of the original issue a support ticket was created and I hoped it was documented some where the solution, but I don't see it.

For Desktop excel, what worked for me in the pass was the following:

File -> Options -> Trust Center -> Trust Center Settings -> Trusted Add-ins Catalogs and mark the following option:

Then then close Excel and open the file again.

The above worked for me most of the time, BUT after a while it doesn't remediate the issue, so it is a temporary workaround, I am sharing it here in case it helps.

@Levente Szabo _Midori_ I see you are related to another similar market place solution, definitely probably a good solution too, but it is paid one, I am trying to make it works with the Atlassian product.

Thanks,

David