Hi @lainyrache!
I’d be happy to help ??
I’m very sorry to hear about the slow load times ?? A few things to keep in mind and try:
1) Check your image sizes: *Recognize when you deactivate NextGEN, all your image/galleries are not loading, so loading time will be faster. The larger your images, the more dramatic the difference. We would suggest optimizing your images for the web by resizing them to 960px on the longest side before uploading to your site or through the Manage Gallery. Or to keep them at a larger dimension, but smaller file size, run them through one of these apps before uploading: https://www.imagely.com/image-optimization-plugin-comparison/ . Another thing to consider is the total number of images in a gallery. Upwards to 1,000 images will take longer than a gallery with only 100 images. So in the case of a much larger gallery, the load time will depend on the type of server you’re on (shared will be slower than VIP) and the internet connection. So you might consider breaking the gallery into two smaller galleries.
2) Check the first load vs subsequent load. *We use displayed gallery caching so that subsequent loads after the first-page load (for all users) are faster. Could you confirm whether or not after reloading your page with your gallery, if opening it up again in a different browser helps?
3) Remove any plugins you don’t need. A good plugin I would suggest to install to help you identify the larger plugins that use a lot of server resources: P3 Plugin Profiler (NextGEN will be one of them, because it is a large plugin, but it will help you identify others that you might consider deactivating and removing if you aren’t using them).
4) Optimize Your Database & Remove ‘Bloat’. Install and use WP-Optimize to help optimize your database tables and remove ‘bloat’ from your site (i.e. page & post revisions, spam comments).
5) Install an alternative caching plugin. Some highly rated ones are: Breeze or WP Super Cache
NextGEN includes a lot of dynamic code. We’ve found that for websites that already suffer from some performance issues, usually due to hosting (most shared hosting platforms throttle sites -if other sites on the server are getting a lot of traffic or using a lot of resources, your site will be slower) or due to the performance of other plugins. It sounds like that’s what may be happening here. Our first suggestion would be to consider installing an alternative caching plugin. We’ve found that for those experiencing this, a caching plugin can have a major positive impact. Beyond that, the other solution we’ve found is to consider deactivating other intensive plugins we’ve seen the compound performance when used in conjunction with NextGEN.
Hope this helps!
-Becky
