Troubleshooting: Yapi Is Slow or Crashes
During any given day, Yapi handles a lot of data. Forms are being completed and filed, Yapi is constantly interacting with your practice management software (Dentrix, Open Dental, or Eaglesoft), and each Yapi workstation is getting regular updates from your server so your team can stay in sync. Because of this, Yapi needs enough CPU, hard drive, and RAM resources to function smoothly. If you see major slowdowns or loss of data in Yapi, this could mean your system doesn't have enough of these resources or is running low. To learn more about the computing resources Yapi needs, how to recognize when they aren't enough, and what next steps to take, read our guide below.
Tip: We also recommend forwarding this article to your IT professional.
Table of Contents
- Step 1: Identifying Symptoms
- Step 2: Diagnosing the Problem
- Additional Resources for IT Professionals
- Related Articles
Step 1: Identifying Symptoms
If you notice that Yapi is doing any of the following things, this could mean there's some strain on your system's resources - in other words, your server may be overworked or you may be running out of available memory (RAM) or hard drive space.
- Yapi has difficulty starting or gets stuck on "updating cache"
- Simple operations within Yapi take unusual amounts of time to complete
- Forms seem to go missing or iPad forms won't save (though this may also be a networking-related issue)
- It takes a long time to open forms on the iPad app (which also may be a networking-related issue)
Bear in mind, that these symptoms aren't always related to resource strain, but investigating further is often a good place to start.
Step 2: Diagnosing the Problem
Yapi's dependency on resources varies on a case-by-case basis. The practice management software (PMS) you're using, the size of your patient database, the version of Yapi you're on, and the volume of forms you process can all impact Yapi's strain on your server. But first and foremost, you should check to make sure your system meets Yapi System & Network Requirements.
If you suspect that your system's resources are low, you can use Windows' built-in Task Manager and Disk Management tools to see how much of your resources are being used in real time. Check out these sections below to learn how:
Recognizing CPU Strain
It's not unusual for CPU usage to peak occasionally but if CPU usage tends to hover at or around 100% (even if it's only during a busy part of the day), your practice will likely encounter issues with all software on your server: simple operations will seem to take a long time and applications will stall. This includes Yapi. While Yapi isn't particularly CPU dependent by itself, it still needs some room to breathe and if it's competing with other processes on your server for that 100%, it (and other programs) won't be able to work smoothly.
To investigate whether there's strain on your server's CPU:
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Right-click the Windows taskbar at the bottom of your screen and select Task Manager:
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Check out the % CPU usage at the top of the first column. If this percentage lingers at or around 100%, it's time to consult your IT professional.
Potential Solutions
If you see that your server's CPU usage hovers around 100%, here are some solutions your IT professional should be able to help with:
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Moving the server to a properly ventilated location or investigating the thermal management status of the machine itself
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Investigating malware on the server that may be bottlenecking or exhausting the CPU
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Restricting unusually processor-intensive applications to single cores or lowering their priority via the Windows Task Manager
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Upgrading your practice's server
Recognizing Memory (RAM) Strain
The effects of memory usage are even more significant to Yapi's performance; Yapi constantly needs to access and modify data while interfacing with heavily RAM-dependent databases on your server. In short, it's doing a lot for you all at once, so it takes a lot of your server's thinking power.
Because RAM usage can fluctuate quickly, you need enough to handle everything your practice does all at once. Otherwise, your system's available RAM can diminish quickly, causing Yapi and other programs to slow down or stop working altogether.
To investigate whether there's strain on your server's RAM:
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Right-click the Windows taskbar at the bottom of your screen and select Task Manager:
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Check out the % Memory usage at the top of the second column:
This shows how much of your RAM is being used at this very moment. If this number is 80% or higher, this can cause major issues with Yapi because it doesn't have enough processing space to do what it needs to. Other programs that take a lot of processing power could be taking up all the RAM or your server may not have enough to run what your practice needs.
Potential Solutions
If you see that the percentage of memory (RAM) being used on your server exceeds 80%, here are some solutions your IT professional should be able to help with:
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Identifying and diagnosing potential memory leaks
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Closing or disabling memory-intensive applications and services
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Deploying tools like RAMMap (free from Microsoft) to clear the Standby memory cache and reallocate portions of free memory
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Physically upgrading your server's RAM
Recognizing Hard Disk Strain
Since Yapi needs space to store data and files (like incoming patient forms), you need enough hard drive space to accommodate Yapi's files plus all your other programs and your patient database. That's a lot! Without this space, Yapi can't save and hold patient forms and Yapi's service modules and configuration files can become corrupted.
The amount of space you need varies from practice to practice and depends on how big your patient base is, what practice management software you use, what other software is on your server, and how much data you save to the server on a daily basis. There's really no fixed amount of space we can recommend, but if your server's free space dips below 10GB, that's where we've often seen problems occur.
To investigate whether your server's hard drive is running out of space:
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Click the File Explorer icon
in your Windows taskbar:
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Select This PC and under Devices and Drives, you'll see all the drives on your server. You may only see one - the C: drive (DVD drives don't count). The C: Drive is traditionally where our Technical Support team installs Yapi, but if you see multiple drives, your Yapi service may be stored on a different one.
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If you only see one drive: Check to make sure there is at least 10GB of free space available. If there's not, we recommend reaching out to your IT professional to discuss options for upgrading your hard drive or freeing up space.
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If you see more than one drive: Check each drive to make sure there is at least 10GB of free space available on each. If there's not enough space on a drive and you're experiencing issues with Yapi, we recommend reaching out to your IT professional so they can determine which drive houses your Yapi service and whether they need to take additional steps to help.
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Potential Solutions
If you see that a hard drive on your server has less than 10GB free space, here are some solutions your IT professional should be able to help with:
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Investigating whether a process, application, or location is reserving unwarranted amounts of disk space
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Removing or relocating redundant files
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Defragmenting and cleaning up the drive via tools within Windows
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Using a tool to identify large blocks of files and where that data lies in the folder hierarchy, so they can manage it accordingly
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Upgrading the existing hard drive, installing an external or secondary hard drive, or identifying an additional drive with more space*
*Note to IT professionals: If you need Yapi moved to another drive, please schedule a server migration appointment with a Yapi team member. Also, keep in mind that the practice's PMS database and Yapi need to be housed on the same drive, so you'll need to move the PMS database there as well, prior to your migration appointment.
Additional Resources for IT Professionals
If you're unsure whether a strain on system resources is causing issues with Yapi, two tools within Windows can help you garner more information about the state of the system at the time of Yapi's failure: the Resource Monitor and the Event Viewer.
Resource Monitor
While the Task Manager and File Explorer discussed above show basic information about CPU, RAM, and hard disk usage, Windows' Resource Monitor shows much more detail about how these system resources are being used by individual applications and files.
To access the Resource Manager:
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Right-click the Windows taskbar at the bottom of your screen and select Task Manager:
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When the Task Manager opens, click the Performance tab, then click Open Resources Monitor at the bottom of the window:
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The CPU, Memory, and Disk tabs show detailed information about each resource's usage so you can determine how resources are being used and what might be causing system strain.
Event Viewer
The Event Viewer logs errors, information messages, and warnings for the applications running on Windows and this can help you narrow down what exactly might be causing resource strain. To access it, just search for "Event Viewer" within Windows' Start Menu.
Under Windows Logs on the left, you'll find 5 logs, but the Application and System logs provide the most relevant information regarding Yapi:
- Application: Records software-specific occurrences
- Security: Notes audits, password entering, and security changes
- Setup: Logs installations and updates
- System: Delineates software and hardware incidents related to system processes and services controlled by Windows
- Forwarded Events: Are events stored from another host
To learn more about using the Event Viewer, check out this Event Viewer resource within Microsoft's help materials.
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