P3Dv5.4 - autosave causing 7-9 sec pause.

[Ray Proudfoot]

Hi John / Pete,

P3Dv5.4 flying the PMDG737-800 with FSUIPC 6.2.0.

I have used Autosave for years and never had a problem but having enabled it yesterday I'm experiencing pauses of 7-9 secs when autosave is called. I thought it might have been settings I changed in Prepar3d.cfg but by timing the frequency of the pauses they occur at 1m 45s intervals. I have FSUIPC set to 120 secs with a max of 10 saves.

I turned off autosave and the pauses stopped so there does appear to be a link. I have a new fast computer so I'm stuggling to work out the problem. Screenshot of saved files attached. I also have FSUIPC set to keep the clock synced. Is that a factor?

[Ray Proudfoot]

Having done some searching I've found your post here which explains the problem and a solution. I'm in the process of excluding as much as I can for the PMDG in particular.

Windows 11 is the culprit. Too much protection for those who are sensible in how they use their computers.

[John Dowson]

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Having done some searching I've found your post here which explains the problem and a solution.

Yes, this is a well know issue with auto-save and complex aircraft, such as the PMDG 737. The only thing that can be done to reduce pause times is to exclude the folder where the files are saved from any anti-virus software, but you may still get pauses lasting several seconds.

There is also an autosave enable/disable control, which can be used to enable/disable autosave when it has been activated. Some folks use this to disable autosave on take-off and landing to prevent such pauses during critical moments. You could even have a lua script that enables/disables autosave automatically, maybe using the aircraft altitude above ground.

Cheers,

John

[Ray Proudfoot]

Thanks John. I found a topic where the chap had excluded lots of files, folders and file extensions and that appears to have done the trick. I was watching very closely when an autosave was due and there was barely a stutter.

I'm trying to find his post as it proved very useful. Maybe a sticky if you think it worthwhile.

I don't engage it when on the ground. Does the same happen in MSFS?

[John Dowson]

14 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Thanks John. I found a topic where the chap had excluded lots of files, folders and file extensions and that appears to have done the trick. I was watching very closely when an autosave was due and there was barely a stutter.

Thats good - if I remember correctly, most folks seem to still get a pause of a second or more, even after excluding files/folders from anti-virus scanning...

16 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I'm trying to find his post as it proved very useful. Maybe a sticky if you think it worthwhile.

Can you post the link here please - I may create a FAQ entry for this....

17 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Does the same happen in MSFS?

Yes, but it is even worse...and the flight save function is still not documented as working (although flight load is!) and so the auto-save is still noy 100% reliable. Some folks seem to have more luck with this than others....no idea why!

Cheers Ray,

John

[Ray Proudfoot]

Hi John. After some searching I found the post that helped. It was posted back in 2015 by Yakpilot but is just as relevant today. You had linked to it already. It’s possible Win 11 is even more protective / aggressive than earlier OSs.

https://forum.simflight.com/topic/80097-problems-with-windows-10-autosave-the-answers/

The extra bits I added were the file extensions and the PMDG folder where its panel state is saved. Given the complexity of the PMDG aircraft it seems logical a save would take longer and if the protection system of 11 is checking it that probably explains the delay. I didn’t modify the save folders mentioned in that post.

So P3D can do something better than MSFS. 😄 That’s a refreshing change. Take care and my best to all the Dowsons. 👋

 

[John Dowson]

Ah, so it is a FAQ entry already!

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

The extra bits I added were the file extensions and the PMDG folder where its panel state is saved.

Maybe you could add those details to the FAQ entry for others?

Cheers Ray - take care,

John

[Ray Proudfoot]

Hi John,

For the sake of ease I'll include all the actions I've taken including those from Yakpilot. Feel free to cut and paste this into a pinned FAQ topic.

Settings required to minimise / eliminate the delay when Autosave is enabled for the PMDG aircraft in Prepar3D all versions.

• In Windows 11 select Start - Settings. On the left menu select Privacy and security.
• At the top of the list select Windows Security.
• Select Virus and threat protection.
• Under Virus and threat protection settings select Manage settings.
• Scroll down to Exclusions. Select Add or remove exclusions
• Click "+ Add an exclusion"

Add the following choosing File from the drop-down.

• Prepar3d.exe

Add the following choosing Folder from the drop-down

• The folder containing FSUIPC6.dll
• The following folder. Your initial path may differ. C:\P3Dv5\PMDG\PMDG737NGXu\PanelState
• C:\Users\[username]\Documents\Prepar3D v5 Files

Add the following choosing File Type from the drop-down.

• FXML
• PLN
• WX

After adding those and with Autosave enabled I looked very closely for the autosave action. I barely noticed the save routine and there was no noticeable pause or stutter in P3D. My thanks to @Yakpilot for his post giving this extra info.