Media Library is slow, lagging, constantly spinning or crashes

Hello friends,

As people are starting to switch over to PHP7, it has become apparent that some server/hosting environments do not have simplexml_load_file() installed with PHP7 by default like PHP5 did.

simplexml_load_file() is a requirement for SVG Support to work correctly in the media library and making sure this is installed will avoid the slow media library issues.

SVG Support uses this function as SVG is actually XML code and it’s called when you go to grid view in the media library.

You can contact your host or install it yourself.

Here’s a general idea of how to install it, though it may be somewhat different depending on your environment. Definitely contact someone who can hel pif you don’t know what you’re doing.
Run apt-get install php7.0-xml, then reboot your server. That’s it! Now SVG Support will run in your new PHP7 environment.