QuickBooks Online Running Slow?
If you find that QuickBooks Online (QBO) is running slow for you, it most likely isn’t because QuickBooks Online itself is having issues. However, you can check to see if there are any problems via this web page: QuickBooks Status. You can also subscribe to updates so that you are alerted if any products are experiencing outages or issues. If there are no incidents, then there are several steps you can go through to fix the speed of QBO pages loading.
Browser vs. App
Even though there are computer apps for both PC and Apple, QBO runs the fastest in a web browser, and not just any of the several browsers out there. It was designed with Google Chrome in mind, so this should be your browser of choice, no matter what platform you use.
Optimize Chrome
Make sure your Chrome browser is updated. Go to Menu (3 dots in the upper right-hand corner in the PC version) | Help | About Google Chrome.
Check for any Chrome extensions installed in the browser. Go to Menu | More tools | Extensions. You can temporarily turn off any extension to test performance and remove any that are causing problems. I don’t recommend browser extensions that scan for malicious content or Yahoo! toolbars. These are usually loaded with spam that also track your web activity.
Don’t have too many tabs open in Chrome. Since I am primarily cloud-based, I have at least 8 tabs pinned for work. I will surf other sites in additional opened tabs. For QBO, I have a completely separate Chrome profile with at least 3 pinned tabs. Having a separate profile means I can remove cookies (see below) only for QBO and not all my other favorite websites.
Clear cache and cookies
In Chrome
On your computer, open Chrome.
At the top right, click More .
Click More tools Clear browsing data.
At the top, choose a time range. To delete everything, select All time.
Next to "Cookies and other site data" and "Cached images and files," check the boxes. Usually, I don’t select cookies unless things go really bad with bank connections or viewing pages. If you clear your cookies, then you may have to go through the authentication process again when logging back into QBO.
Click Clear data.
Computer Performance
While you don’t have to have the latest and greatest computer, it is important to have at least sufficient RAM for the best Chrome performance. Chrome has been known to eat up a lot of memory, especially with multiples opened with many tabs in each. With recent updates, Chrome runs more efficiently. However, it is still a good idea to have at least 8GM of RAM installed. Having a fast CPU helps but is not a major factor. I still use a Google Chromebook from 5 years ago that runs QBO perfectly fine with 8GB of RAM and only an Intel Core i3 processor. But I only use it when I am outside the office.
Internet Speed or Bandwidth
This is a big one and mostly misunderstood. 20 Mbps is slow and most people have this or slower speeds. I have Cox Gigablast which averages about 800 Mbps. Even with faster speeds, if there is someone on the work network listening to Pandora or watching videos on YouTube, this will lower the bandwidth significantly.
