X2 hanging on unavailable network share

[appyface]

Win11 pro 23H2 , x2 pro 5.4.0.2

Somehow, somewhere...? X2 has been fine for some time.

Today, I launch X2, and it hangs for some time, then eventually loads to C:\ root directory.

I was able to determine it is trying to open to a network unc share which is not available right now (\\192.168.2.181). Fine, it times out and then the C:\ drive comes up.

I close X2. Then relaunch. Every time, it tries to find the network share fits, and hangs awhile, then opens to C:\ drive.

In the past, when that happened, I closed X2 and when I relaunched it came right up to the C:\ drive without delay and forgot about the network share.

How do I get X2 to forget about trying to open that non-available network share so it doesn't hang anymore?

Thank you.

[appyface]

Found an old post to try a launch with these parameters:

xplorer2_UC.exe /2 c:\ c:\

Didn't work, still hangs.

X2's title bar comes up with what I expect it to have (with the above parameters it opens in dual mode and both panes are Drive C), the title bar never shows any other reference. Windows event log still shows an attempt to reach the unavailable network UNC path every time I launch X2. Then it times out and goes to where it is supposed to, in this case dual pane both to root of C:.

[nikos]

the delay could be also from tabs you may have, or from items in the miniscrap, or even bookmark icons, see here for possibilities
www.zabkat.com/blog/why-is-xplorer2-slow.htm

[appyface]

I guess the cause may have been due to that UNC path was added to Quick Access area at top of folder tree. Not positive as the share is available again and X2 is opening per usual now. I removed it and will look for that next time it happens.

Can you elaborate why a bookmark could also slow X2 down? I do have dozens of UNC paths to different machines bookmarked.

[appyface]

Hmm I used right click 'remove from pane' and closed X2. Reopened and the UNC path is still there. Right click again and 'remove from pane' is greyed out.

How can I remove this reference permanently from the Quick Access pane?

Also, in advanced options I saw I can disable drag n drop to quick access area. I like to keep drag and drop to quick access but disable automatic adding. Is this possible?

[nikos]

QAL is not liable for startup delays, so that's not your problem
are you using tabs? that's your number 1 culprit

as for removing stuff from QAL, just press DEL key on them

[appyface]

I don't use tabs. Double-checked and there are none.

Tried the DEL key on the quick access, disappears.

Closed X2 and relaunched, it's back.

[nikos]

for QAL, use TOOLS > ADVANCED OPTIONS menu, find option Frequent items in tree and set it to 0
for your slow starts, post a pic of your xplore2 window and I'll see if I can guess what's the reason

[appyface]

Setting the option Frequent items in tree to 0 fixed the slow start as expected. X2 came right up. The Quick Access reference to the network UNC is gone as well.

Now I set the option back to 5, and the slow start has returned. However the Quick Access reference is still gone.

Slow launch screenshots:

[appyface]

Dunno why the images didn't load. Try this:

https://ibb.co/L91n4hq
https://ibb.co/sFCdnt4
https://ibb.co/p1MhPnx

[nikos]

so i don't think that the hypothesis about that network share in QAL stands... qal is designed to be network happy
on the other hand I don't know what else to suggest

[appyface]

Yeah I think so. The share is back in QAL but I think that's because I left the recent items property at 5 and I visited the share (it was available). So it's back in the tree now. It also won't stay deleted yet again, keeps coming back.

At least I can work around the delay by setting recent items to 0, but strange that as soon as I set it to 5 the hang reappears. So it is getting the share from somewhere related to 'recent items' (?) even though my last browsed local folder is what X2 shows it is supposedly trying to open.

I am launching X2 with the installed .exe in "program files" directly, no shortcut so no additional path, switches, etc.

[appyface]

Well, I think it is something to do with the QAL after all.

I turned QAL off in options while the share was still available. X2 continued to launch without hanging when that share became unavailable.

So, I turned QAL back on while the share was unavailable, the new window that opened hangs waiting for the share.

It has to be stuck on that share somewhere...

[nikos]

i'll try to see if i can reproduce it my side

[nikos]

so there could be a problem with unavailable drives, however once the QAL has a problem with a folder, it will mark it as "troublesome" and it's going to be much faster next time

ps. these \\192.168.2.181 network paths you are using, don't they come with a share name or something? how do subfolders look like in full path?