[GIS] QGIS 2.14 hangs at “Starting up the GUI” and fetching plugin repositories

qgis

All of a sudden, QGIS 2.14.4 hangs on startup on Win7 for at least 2 min. Eventually it starts without error. Hardware is not the issue (Core i7, 8GB ram, etc.). I tried reinstalling with OS4Geo installer and with standalone installer, but no change. I even cleared registry entries and .qgis2 folder. This error began after trying to connect/use a bluetooth GPS with the GPS Tools plugin. QGIS also freezes for a minute when clicking the GPS Tools button, so I suspect that this performance issue relates to the plugin in some way.

Any idea how to improve startup time?

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UPDATE: Having uninstalled/reinstalled multiple times, deleted .qgis2 folder, and cleared registry, QGIS 2.14.4 still takes several minutes to start. I may try 2.16.1. Any insight into the processes running during the "Setting up the GUI" stage might be helpful.

UPDATE 2: Version 2.16 has been installed with the same result. For some reason, when my computer is connected to the network via an ethernet connection, QGIS takes 4-5min (as detailed above). However, when connected to my network via wifi, QGIS opens in about 20 seconds.

Best Answer

I started experiencing this issue today with QGIS 2.18.12 (Las Palmas) on WinServer 2008r2 in mid-session (for which I have no explanation, although Firefox also hung, whilst a number of other applications continued to run happily).

Thereafter, QGIS start-up hung at 'setting up the GUI'

The issue appears to be that the path to %OSGEO4W_ROOT%\apps\qgis\bin gets lost (which is where the GUI library qgis_gui.dll is stored). I managed to get QGIS to run by:

  1. Run OSGeo4W Shell (as described above), either from start menu, or by running [QGIS-installation-folder]\OSGeo4W.bat

  2. extend the PATH environment variable for the shell:

    path %OSGEO4W_ROOT%\apps\qgis\bin;%PATH%

  3. Run QGIS from command prompt in OSGeo4W Shell (again as above):

    qgis

  4. (and now for the weird bit) try running it from the normal shortcut - for me QGIS has started working again.

Good luck!

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