Files utility very slow to load

Ask Fedora
1

I’m running Fedora 43 workstation on a Lenovo Ideapad Slim 5. The installation is fully up to date. I find that after the first couple of uses in most sessions, the files utilty becomes extremely slow. When I say “slow,” I mean like 5 minutes to respond. This happens regardless of whether I open the utility directly or, for example, when attaching a file to an outgoing message in Thunderbird.

This has been going on for the last month or so.

Any ideas?

Here are the first few lines of output from journalctl -f immediately after I try to start the files app:

Mar 22 16:00:21 fedora org.mozilla.firefox.desktop[59068]: (as)
Mar 22 16:00:21 fedora gnome-shell[3783]: Received error from D-Bus search provider org.gnome.Boxes.desktop: Gio.IOErrorEnum: Cannot invoke method; proxy is for the well-known name org.gnome.Boxes.SearchProvider without an owner, and proxy was constructed with the G_DBUS_PROXY_FLAGS_DO_NOT_AUTO_START flag
Mar 22 16:00:21 fedora systemd[3463]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.Calculator.SearchProvider@19.service.
Mar 22 16:00:21 fedora systemd[3463]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.Characters@19.service.
Mar 22 16:00:21 fedora systemd[3463]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.Contacts.SearchProvider@19.service.
Mar 22 16:00:21 fedora systemd[3463]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.Nautilus@12.service.
Mar 22 16:00:21 fedora systemd[3463]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.Settings.SearchProvider@15.service.
Mar 22 16:00:21 fedora org.gnome.Nautilus[75572]: Connecting to org.freedesktop.Tracker3.Miner.Files
Mar 22 16:00:21 fedora systemd[3463]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.NautilusPreviewer@12.service.
Mar 22 16:00:21 fedora org.gnome.Characters[75570]: JS LOG: Characters Application started
Mar 22 16:00:21 fedora org.mozilla.firefox.desktop[59068]: (asas)
Mar 22 16:00:21 fedora gnome-shell[3783]: Received error from D-Bus search provider org.gnome.Boxes.desktop: Gio.IOErrorEnum: Cannot invoke method; proxy is for the well-known name org.gnome.Boxes.SearchProvider without an owner, and proxy was constructed with the G_DBUS_PROXY_FLAGS_DO_NOT_AUTO_START flag
Mar 22 16:00:21 fedora org.mozilla.firefox.desktop[59068]: (asas)
Mar 22 16:00:21 fedora gnome-shell[3783]: Received error from D-Bus search provider org.gnome.Boxes.desktop: Gio.IOErrorEnum: Cannot invoke method; proxy is for the well-known name org.gnome.Boxes.SearchProvider without an owner, and proxy was constructed with the G_DBUS_PROXY_FLAGS_DO_NOT_AUTO_START flag
Mar 22 16:00:22 fedora org.mozilla.firefox.desktop[59068]: (asas)
Mar 22 16:00:22 fedora gnome-shell[3783]: Received error from D-Bus search provider org.gnome.Boxes.desktop: Gio.IOErrorEnum: Cannot invoke method; proxy is for the well-known name org.gnome.Boxes.SearchProvider without an owner, and proxy was constructed with the G_DBUS_PROXY_FLAGS_DO_NOT_AUTO_START flag
Mar 22 16:00:32 fedora org.gnome.Characters[75570]: JS LOG: Characters Application exiting

Output from inxi -Fzxx:

System:
Kernel: 6.19.8-200.fc43.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.2.1
Desktop: GNOME v: 49.5 tk: GTK v: 3.24.51 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM
Distro: Fedora Linux 43 (Workstation Edition)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 83HY v: IdeaPad Slim 5 16AKP10
serial: Chassis: type: 10 v: IdeaPad Slim 5 16AKP10
serial:
Mobo: LENOVO model: LNVNB161216 v: SDK0T76574 WIN
serial: part-nu: LENOVO_MT_83HY_BU_idea_FM_IdeaPad
Slim 5 16AKP10 Firmware: UEFI vendor: LENOVO v: R0CN26WW date: 11/04/2025
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 49.4 Wh (79.5%) condition: 62.1/60 Wh (103.5%)
volts: 12.24 min: 11.31 model: SMP L24M3PK2 serial: charging:
status: not charging cycles: 15
CPU:
Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 w/ Radeon 860M bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Zen 5 rev: 0 cache: L1: 640 KiB L2: 8 MiB L3: 16 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 623 min/max: 623/5091:3506 boost: enabled cores: 1: 623
2: 623 3: 623 4: 623 5: 623 6: 623 7: 623 8: 623 9: 623 10: 623 11: 623
12: 623 13: 623 14: 623 15: 623 16: 623 bogomips: 63873
Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a
ssse3 svm
Graphics:
Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Krackan [Radeon 840M / 860M
Graphics] vendor: Lenovo driver: amdgpu v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s
lanes: 16 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, DP-4, DP-5, DP-6,
DP-7, HDMI-A-1, Writeback-1 bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:1114
temp: 39.0 C
Device-2: Chicony Integrated Camera driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-1:2 chip-ID: 04f2:b829
Display: wayland server: Xwayland v: 24.1.9 compositor: gnome-shell
driver: gpu: amdgpu display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: BOE Display NV160WUM-K03 res: 1920x1200 dpi: 141
diag: 407mm (16")
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.3.6 glx-v: 1.4 es-v: 3.2
direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon 860M Graphics (radeonsi gfx1152
LLVM 21.1.8 DRM 3.64 6.19.8-200.fc43.x86_64) device-ID: 1002:1114
display-ID: :0.0
API: EGL Message: EGL data requires eglinfo. Check --recommends.
Info: Tools: api: glxinfo x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Radeon High Definition Audio
vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s
lanes: 16 bus-ID: 05:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1640
Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Audio Coprocessor vendor: Lenovo
driver: snd_acp_pci v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 05:00.5
chip-ID: 1022:15e2
Device-3: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Ryzen HD Audio vendor: Lenovo
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
bus-ID: 05:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3
API: ALSA v: k6.19.8-200.fc43.x86_64 status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.11 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8922AE 802.11be PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: Lenovo driver: rtw89_8922ae v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1
port: 2000 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8922
IF: wlo1 state: up mac:
IF-ID-1: ipv6leakintrf0 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A
mac:
IF-ID-2: proton0 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Realtek Bluetooth Radio driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 1.0
speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-5:3 chip-ID: 0bda:d922
Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: down bt-service: enabled,running
rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes address: bt-v: 5.3 lmp-v: 12
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.84 TiB used: 235.64 GiB (12.5%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Micron model: MTFDKCD1T0QGN-1BN1AABLA
size: 953.87 GiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: temp: 33.9 C
ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WD Green SN350 1TB 2G0C
size: 931.51 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: temp: 31.9 C
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 794.82 GiB used: 235.01 GiB (29.6%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/dm-0
mapped: luks-fef23844-e65a-4f7f-9bd5-fc2f259181ac
ID-2: /boot size: 1.9 GiB used: 568.6 MiB (29.2%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5
ID-3: /boot/efi size: 196 MiB used: 82.4 MiB (42.0%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
ID-4: /home size: 794.82 GiB used: 235.01 GiB (29.6%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/dm-0 mapped: luks-fef23844-e65a-4f7f-9bd5-fc2f259181ac
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 40.2 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
Memory: total: 64 GiB available: 62.08 GiB used: 4.11 GiB (6.6%)
Processes: 534 Power: uptime: 2h 15m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 258
default: graphical
Packages: pm: rpm pkgs: N/A note: see --rpm pm: flatpak pkgs: 16
Compilers: gcc: 15.2.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.3.0 running-in: ptyxis-agent
inxi: 3.3.40

3

Do you have any external mounts? SMB, NFS, remote filesystems, that kind of thing?

Additionally, what’s the status of tracker3? Is it appearing in top and performing a lot of work? (I assume it’s called tracker3, as that what it appears as in this log - not a Gnome user thankfully, so it may have a different name)

4

I see in the jounal some issues with Gnome Boxes - could Files be trying to access something there that it can’t resolve?

I use Thunar, I’m not sure what Gnome Files is actually called (maybe it’s Files!)

So you could try other file browsers.

5

Try creating a new “test” user login to see if the issue is some configuration problem with your login.

6

I’ve concluded that Gnome files is nautilus.

7

Thanks, Steve, MatH and George for your replies.

The files utility (nautilus) now appears to be working if in Settings|Search I disable Boxes. I don’t know what Boxes does, but so far I’m not noticing any lost functionality.

1 Like
8

Please, when trying to post as preformatted text, paste the text then highlight it before clicking the </> button.

This is what the output of inxi should look like

$ inxi -Fzxx
System:
  Kernel: 6.19.8-200.fc43.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.2.1
  Desktop: GNOME v: 49.4 tk: GTK v: 3.24.51 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM
    Distro: Fedora Linux 43 (Workstation Edition)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: B550M Pro4 serial: <superuser required>
    Firmware: UEFI vendor: American Megatrends LLC. v: L2.71 date: 04/14/2023
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_122 model: Logitech MX Ergo Multi-Device Trackball
    serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: discharging
  Device-2: hidpp_battery_123 model: Logitech K350 serial: <filter>
    charge: 70% (should be ignored) status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 3+
    rev: 2 cache: L1: 512 KiB L2: 4 MiB L3: 32 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3604 min/max: 562/4666 boost: enabled cores: 1: 3604
    2: 3604 3: 3604 4: 3604 5: 3604 6: 3604 7: 3604 8: 3604 9: 3604 10: 3604
    11: 3604 12: 3604 13: 3604 14: 3604 15: 3604 16: 3604 bogomips: 108599
  Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a
    ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GA106 [Geforce RTX 3050] vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: nvidia v: 580.126.18 arch: Ampere pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 8
    ports: active: DP-1 empty: DP-2,DP-3,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 06:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:2507
  Device-2: ARC Camera driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-2.3:5 chip-ID: 05a3:9331
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.21 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia
    alternate: fbdev,nouveau,nv,vesa gpu: nv_platform,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch
    display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: DP-1 model: LG (GoldStar) TV SSCR2 res: 3840x2160 hz: 30
    dpi: 61 diag: 1836mm (72.3")
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia device: 2 drv: swrast
    gbm: drv: nvidia surfaceless: drv: nvidia wayland: drv: nvidia x11:
    drv: nvidia inactive: device-1
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 580.126.18
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050/PCIe/SSE2
    display-ID: :0.0
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.341 surfaces: N/A device: 0 type: discrete-gpu
    driver: nvidia device-ID: 10de:2507 device: 1 type: cpu
    driver: mesa llvmpipe device-ID: 10005:0000
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo de: gnome-monitor-config
    gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi wl: wayland-info,wlr-randr x11: xdriinfo,
    xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GA106 High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 8
    bus-ID: 06:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:228e
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio
    vendor: ASRock driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s
    lanes: 16 bus-ID: 08:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487
  Device-3: C-Media USB Audio Device
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-5.2:8 chip-ID: 0d8c:0012
  Device-4: ARC Camera driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-2.3:5 chip-ID: 05a3:9331
  Device-5: Turtle Beach Stealth 600PC Gen 3
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-3:3 chip-ID: 10f5:224c
  API: ALSA v: k6.19.8-200.fc43.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.4.10 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: ASRock driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    port: f000 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
  IF: enp4s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210/AX1675 2x2 [Typhoon Peak] driver: iwlwifi
    v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2725
  IF: wlp5s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX210 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-9:7 chip-ID: 8087:0032
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 5.4
    lmp-v: 13
RAID:
  Device-1: md127 type: mdraid level: raid-5 status: active size: 7.28 TiB
  Info: report: 3/3 UUU blocks: 7813772288 chunk-size: 512k
    super-blocks: 1.2 algorithm: 2
  Components: Online: 0: sda 1: sdc 3: sdd
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: raw: 20.07 TiB usable: 16.43 TiB
    used: 6.35 TiB (38.6%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Crucial model: CT2000P5PSSD8 size: 1.82 TiB
    speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> temp: 50.9 C
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST4000VN008-2DR166 size: 3.64 TiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> temp: 36 C
  ID-3: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST8000VN004-2M2101 size: 7.28 TiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
  ID-4: /dev/sdc vendor: Seagate model: ST4000VN008-2DR166 size: 3.64 TiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> temp: 34 C
  ID-5: /dev/sdd vendor: Seagate model: ST4000VN008-2DR166 size: 3.64 TiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> temp: 36 C
  ID-6: /dev/sde model: Mass Storage Device size: 59.48 GiB type: USB
    rev: 2.0 spd: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 392.65 GiB used: 135.64 GiB (34.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0
    mapped: fedora_root-root
  ID-2: /boot size: 1.14 GiB used: 513.1 MiB (44.1%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-3: /boot/efi size: 490 MiB used: 19.3 MiB (3.9%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-4: /home size: 7.22 TiB used: 6.22 TiB (86.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-1
    mapped: fedora_raid1-home
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 48.1 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.25 GiB used: 5.58 GiB (17.9%)
  Processes: 448 Power: uptime: 3d 17h 46m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 258
    default: graphical
  Packages: pm: rpm pkgs: N/A note: see --rpm pm: flatpak pkgs: 30
    Compilers: gcc: 15.2.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.3.0 running-in: ptyxis-agent
    inxi: 3.3.40
1 Like
9

Noted. Thank you.

10

I’ve been having the sam issue with File.
Also affected VSCode for file/fo;der open, as I assume using the same app.
This fix has resolved it for me as well