SharePoint Online PDF Viewer changed and performs very slowly now

Anonymous
2024-04-11T19:26:20+00:00

Hello,

Our users noticed a change when viewing PDFs in their SharePoint Online document library. Occurred Monday 4/8/24.

They have it set up where when you click on the document from the library, it brings it up with the SharePoint Online PDF Viewer, it does not open in a new tab, and that's the way we prefer. With the viewer, you can click on the info button to bring up the info pane on the right, and you can edit your metadata from there.

They noticed several things.

-The background is now black, like in a dark mode, thats what initially tipped them off that something has changed.

-The info button is no longer available, it is now buried in the ... menu on the top left.

-It is now EXTERMELY slow to load. When they click on the next arrow to view the next PDF, it is very slow to load and also the info pane is very slow to load.

-When they filter or sort the library, and then start viewing the PDFs, it does not bring them up in the same order as the filter/sort. It's completely different.

I as the IT admin, have tried many things to improve performance, here's some notes.

-Not everyone has this new viewer experience. The older experience has a white background, and also the info button. See screenshots to see the difference.

-I am able to reproduce the slowness on other test pcs, though there are a few that seem to load fine.

-I have cleared browser cache, cookies

-Tried with different user accounts

-Tried with private browsers, and tried with Edge Firefox, and Chrome.

-Tried using a hotspot to be on a different network

I have opened up a ticket to Microsoft, but no response yet. I have also not seen any announcement of this change.

Has anyone else noticed this? Any workarounds or suggestions? Any way to roll back to the old viewer? (wishful thinking). I'm wondering if laptop specs are factoring in, which would surprise me because it's basically just web browsing here.

Thanks!
nick

Microsoft 365 and Office | SharePoint | For business | Other

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-05-21T16:40:36+00:00

    To summarize the problems at our organization:

    • You can no longer move between files with the arrows previously at the top right
    • thus, you have to click out of preview to move to next file, adding time.
    • when you click out to find another file, it does not remember where you were - it drags you to the top of the list
    • filtering getting reset when you exit preview
    • info button is now buried in the ... menu
    • loading the details pane is SLOW

    This makes document processing very tedious. We can't see any significant "upgrade" in this new system - what gives?!

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-05-20T22:13:34+00:00

    This happens to use too. The reason is, the viewer is no longer caching the list view data in the browser as it was before. Functionally, this is like having the list page/view refreshed. However you have your view configured is removed and it returns to its original state. This will also occur unexpectedly when the list does its ajax refresh to get the newest data. I think that is where they are getting the "50%" faster from but this is insane compromise.

    Its like saying we did a weight reduction on a sports car by removing the wheels.....

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-05-20T22:02:11+00:00

    We have also noticed while viewing a document the screen will suddenly jump to another document completely at random. No who else on this chat has mentioned it so just wondering if it's just us.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-05-20T19:59:30+00:00

    @Daniel_H_941 - For clarification, there are no arrows on the sides of the doc view to move from one file to the next. I tried in both Chrome and Firefox. I do see arrows that move to the next page of the one file.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-05-20T19:46:00+00:00

    This issue just started happening today at my organization. I especially need the navigation arrows back, so I can easily move to the next doc. Is there a way to vote for the entire change, not just the filtering?

    They moved the navigation arrows from the top right down on both sides of the document in view. Are these buttons not working for you?

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