BUG: New Post and Edit Post - categories and tags in sidebar take 30s+ to appear with EP enabled

[neilb400]

Describe the bug

Since the update to 5.0.x, whenever the ElasticPress plugin is enabled, when creating a new post or editing an existing one, the categories and tags sections in the right-hand sidebar take over 30 seconds to appear. The rest of the page does not render properly (e.g. SEO fields) until these have loaded.

Developer Tools in the browser shows that the relevant queries are taking 15-20s to be proceesed.

If the plugin is disabled, these boxes appear in the usual less than 1s.

The same combination of plugins was in use before the update of EP, so we are wondering what might be new that would impact on performance specifically in that area.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Enable the ElasticPress plugin
2. Go to wp-admin/post-new.php or wp-admin/post.php?post=[post ID]&action=edit
3. Wait for categories and tags to load in sidebar

Screenshots, screen recording, code snippet

No response

Environment information

No response

WordPress and ElasticPress information

No response

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[felipeelia]

@neilb400 we'll need you to share your Status Report so we know at least which plugins and features you are using. Thanks

[neilb400]

@neilb400 we'll need you to share your Status Report so we know at least which plugins and features you are using. Thanks

@felipeelia Thank you for replying. Sure, here you go:

ElasticPress.io

WordPress

WordPress Environment

wp_version: 6.3.2
home_url: [...]
site_url: [...]
is_multisite: false
theme: [...]
plugins: Advanced Custom Fields PRO (6.2.4), Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection (5.3), Align RSS Images (1.3.4), Announcer - Pro (6.0), bbPress (2.6.9), bbPress - Report Content (1.0.5), bbPress Moderation (1.8.3), Better Notifications for WP (1.9.3), CAPTCHA 4WP (Premium) (7.3.1), Classic Widgets (0.3), ElasticPress (5.0.1), GD bbPress Tools (3.4.1), Gleam (1.0), Gravity Forms (2.8.0), Gravity Forms Mailchimp Add-On (5.2.0), Jetpack (12.9), Perfmatters (2.2.0), Publish to Apple News (2.4.0), Safe SVG (2.2.2), SEOPress (7.2), SEOPress PRO (7.2), Show Parent Comment (0.2.1), ThirstyAffiliates (3.10.21), ThirstyAffiliates Pro (1.7.8), VaultPress (2.2.4), WP Crontrol (1.16.1), WP Mail SMTP (3.10.0) and Yoast Duplicate Post (4.5)
revisions: 4

Server Environment

php_version: 8.1.18
memory_limit: 40M
timeout: 300

Indexable Content

[...]
post_count: 15,736
page_count: 27
creditcards_count: 0
post_meta_keys: 1
page_meta_keys: 1
creditcards_meta_keys: 0
total-all-post-types: 1
distinct-meta-keys: ep_exclude_from_search

ElasticPress

Settings

host: [...]clients.hosted-elasticpress.io
index_prefix: [...]
language: en_GB
per_page: 20
network_active: false

Timeouts

request_timeout: 5
index_document_timeout: 15
bulk_request_timeout: 30

Elasticsearch Indices

[...]

health: green
status: open
index: [...]
uuid: [...]
pri: 1
rep: 1
docs.count: 12693
docs.deleted: 20
store.size: 202.3mb
pri.store.size: 100.9mb
total_fields_limit: 5000
analyzer_language: english
stop_language: english
snowball_language: English

Last Sync

2023/12/13 7:21:39 pm

method: WP Dashboard
is_full_sync: Yes
end_date_time: 2023/12/13 7:47:26 pm
total_time: 0 hours, 25 minutes, 48 seconds
total: 12692
synced: 12692
skipped: 0
failed: 0
errors: array (
)
trigger: manual
final_status: success

Feature Settings

Post Search

active: true
decaying_enabled: 1
force_inactive: false
highlight_enabled: 0
highlight_excerpt: 0
highlight_tag: mark
synonyms_editor_mode: simple
synonyms:

# Defined sets ( equivalent synonyms).

[...]

Defined alternatives (explicit mappings).
shoes => sneaker, sandal, boots, high heels

weighting: array (
'post' =>
array (
'post_title' =>
array (
'weight' => 20,
'enabled' => true,
),
'post_content' =>
array (
'weight' => 5,
'enabled' => true,
),
'post_excerpt' =>
array (
'weight' => 1,
'enabled' => true,
),
'author_name' =>
array (
'enabled' => true,
'weight' => 1,
),
'terms.post_tag.name' =>
array (
'weight' => 1,
'enabled' => true,
),
'terms.category.name' =>
array (
'weight' => 1,
'enabled' => true,
),
),
'page' =>
array (
'post_title' =>
array (
'weight' => 20,
'enabled' => true,
),
'post_content' =>
array (
'weight' => 5,
'enabled' => true,
),
'post_excerpt' =>
array (
'weight' => 1,
'enabled' => true,
),
'author_name' =>
array (
'enabled' => true,
'weight' => 1,
),
),
)

[felipeelia]

Hi @neilb400, thank you very much for sharing the report. I see you are an ElasticPress.io customer, is that right? If so, can you please open a ticket through your account's page on the elasticpress.io website? Through that we can fast-track your issue and also check our logs for queries. Thanks!

[felipeelia]

This was fixed in 5.0.2 via #3809.