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How to Fix Slow Dynamics 365 Performance

If your Dynamics 365 system is running slowly, there are many things you can do to help fix the performance problem quickly. Try these ideas before contacting support, whether you’re a regular user, or a Dynamics admin.

This article was written with Dynamics 365 Sales in mind, but many of the tips are valid for other versions

FOR USERS

How to diagnose and fix Dynamics speed problems

Is Dynamics slow across all parts of the system?

Visit a variety of sections and see how fast they are?
For example

  • View all contacts
  • View all accounts and search for an account by name
  • Add a new contact
  • Do a global search for a contact
  • Open a different app and try similar tests – what is the speed like?

Is Dynamics slow for everyone?

  • Try a colleague’s computer – is it equally slow in all areas?
  • Ask a colleague to log in and see if they get different results
  • Try logging in from a different location.

Test your internet connection to Dynamics

  • Visit the Dynamics 365 diagnostics webpage – https://[YOUR SYSTEM ADDRESS]/tools/diagnostics/diag.aspx
  • Replace [YOUR SYSTEM ADDRESS] with the first part of the web address of your CRM. It’s usually something like companyname.crmx.dynamics.com
Dynamics 365 Diagnostics
Dynamics 365 diagnostics results

Look at the Latency Test and Bandwidth Test results

  • Microsoft recommend you should have a latency below 150ms
  • and a bandwidth greater than 50 KB/sec

If your connection is slow
• Try using a wired (not wireless) connection
• Close any other apps or web browser tabs that are using your internet connection
• Restart your device to close any connections which aren’t needed

Is your device up to specification?

(Your PC, laptop or phone)

Your operating systemMicrosoft recommends an up to date operating system

WindowsWindows 10 or later
macOS10.13 or later
iOSiOS 13 or later
Android10 or later

How to improve your device’s speed when connecting to Dynamics
Often you’ll find that your computer’s processing power isn’t sufficient to load Dynamics quickly, particularly whilst many other applications are open.
• Close any applications (or internet browser tabs) that you aren’t using
• Talk to your IT technician
• Can they audit your device and remove unnecessary applications which could be slowing the device down
• Can the device be upgraded?

Are you using a recommended browser?

Recommended browsers

Google ChromeLatest three major releases
Microsoft EdgeLatest three major releases
Mozilla FirefoxLatest three major releases
Apple Safari13 and later

For Mobile apps

iOSLatest version recommended. Previous version is minimum required
AndroidLatest version recommended. Previous three versions are minimum required
WindowsWindows 10 version 17763.0 or later

As of June 2023

To improve your browsing speed to Dynamics
• Make sure your browser is updated – details about how to update your browser are here.
• Try a different browser – Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari are all recommended by Microsoft. You’ll need to log in to Dynamics again.
• Clear your cache

How to speed up Dynamics – by using Dynamics differently

  • If, for example, you are finding it slow to add a new contact, try using a Quick Create form.
  • Quick Create forms are designed to make adding new items as speedy as possible
Dynamics Quick Create Form
Dynamics Quick Create Form
  • If you’re editing a record, look if there is a simpler form for you to use
Form chooser
  • Are you using the best Dynamics app for your needs? Often apps are tailor-made for your work role to simplify your workflow and improve performance. Try a different app
  • You can create and edit personal views. So if you regularly use a view which shows a lot of data fields and is quite slow, you can edit it, simplify it and save it as your own view.
  • Use shortcuts to save clicks. For example, if you have a record which you view regularly:
    • Click on Recent in the left hand menu, find the record you’d like to shortcut. Click the pin which appears alongside the record name. You’ll now have a shortcut to that record in the Pinned section below. Also works for views
Recent Items Shortcut
  • Use Focused View
    • It’s a common task to move between records in a list when using Dynamics. You can do this more efficiently now, thanks to focussed view. Just click the Focused view icon
Focused view icon
  • A new pane will appear
Focused view window Dynamics
Focused view in Dynamics 365

You can quickly click through records and filter or sort them using the icons at the top of the screen. There’s no need to click back to the list page. A big time saver.

FOR DYNAMICS ADMINS OR DEVELOPERS

How to diagnose and improve Dynamics performance issues

  • In addition to the user diagnostics above, look at the Dataverse analytics at https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/. You can discover:
    • Is a user running processes that are slowing down the system?
    • Are plugins failing?
    • How are users accessing the site?
    • Which tables (entities) are most popular?
    • Which workflows and jobs are running regularly?
    • Are there lots of API calls happening?
Dataverse analytics in Power Platform Admin Center
Dataverse analytics in Power Platform Admin Center
  • Check the Microsoft 365 Service Health page which shows any current incidents with Microsoft products
  • If there appears to be a particular view or table which is slow, whilst viewing the page, open the Performance Centre using  Alt + Shift + Q
Dynamics Performance Center
  • In the Performance Centre you can see all the processes running in the browser to output the page
  • Use this to diagnose inefficient JavaScript for example
  • If you need to escalate the issue to Microsoft support, it’s often helpful to produce a detailed output of the elements which load on the page [a HAR file]. To do this
    • In Google Chrome browser click F12 to open the inspector window
    • Choose the Network tab and right click on the download icon and save the HAR file

How to speed up Dynamics – for admins and developers

There are many ways that Dynamics 365 could be slow, but here are some ideas for testing. To get a thorough analysis, think about contacting a Dynamics specialist (like us 😉)

  • Take a look at the workflows for the entity (table) which is performing slowly. Are they all necessary? Try disabling them and see if it makes a difference. If you find a slow workflow, look at its design and look to simplify the logic.
  • Is there a lot of JavaScript making API calls? Take a look at DevTools (in your browser click F12 > Network)
    • Download a HAR file (as above), use https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/har_analyzer/ and send to Microsoft support.
  • Also look at the Performance Centre accessed by pressing Alt + Shift + Q
  • Look out for performance issues caused by duplicate detection rules. Disable it temporarily and see if this improves performance
  • On forms
    • Collapse subgrids, as default so they don’t load on page load
  • On views
    • Limit the number of columns (particularly from other tables) which you display
  • Look at your scheduled reports. Do you have any which pull large amounts of data from Dynamics Can they be simplified?
  • Schedule any database intensive jobs out of hours
    • Bulk record updates
    • Publishing customisations
    • Raise a support ticket with Microsoft support, they can help analyse the problem

As you can see there’s rarely a simple answer to Dynamics 365 running slowly. If you follow these tasks you’ll be able to make improvements and hopefully save support time

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📆 Last update: January 31, 2024

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