Why is Eclipse so slow at saving individual JavaScript, HTML and CSS files only?

Question

I am using Spring's bundle of Eclipse, STS version 3.6.0 which is based on Eclipse Kepler SR2 (4.3.2). Eclipse performance is generally very good and if I save a Java file, it is instantaneous. However, when I try to save a JavaScript file it can take up to 3 seconds to save and the entire IDE is frozen during the process, which is very annoying and it actually impacts productivity. I have done some digging and apparently, there are validators and such that cause slow down so I have tried turning these off but it doesn't make a difference.

The problem also occurs with CSS and HTML file types so I'm sure it's specifically with the web-development plugins. Can anyone suggest a way of fixing this? I am willing to disable features to improve the save times if necessary.

Note: I am using stock version of STS - no extra plugins.

Backer

Answer 1

At first I thought this was something to do with git, and disabling it did help a bit (see old answer below), but after some further use, the problem persisted. Eventually, I realised that the problem is with the Package Explorer! If I have the Link with Editor button selected and the package explorer tree is expanded, then Eclipse is eclipse is extremely slow at saving anything but Java source code. If I unselect Link with Editor and ensure the tree is collapsed, it all works fine.

Old Answer:

Turns out this was related to egit somehow. I don't use the git integration in Eclipse so I just disabled git support for the project using the Team->Disconnect command.

Backer

Link with Editor made me also extremely slow saves in xhtml files, unfortunately i'm using quite new Oxygen version of Eclipse. This means you can't have link with editor and acceptable file saving times at the same time?! :) – Iridosmine

Answer 2

One possibility is corrupted eclipse .project and/or .settings. I experienced up to 25 seconds delay. Try deleting those file/folder and recreate the project again.

Lisandra