Applies to: Player 4.5, 5.1/5.2/5.3 installed as part of ArcGIS Pro. This article does not apply to Player software installed as solely part of ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap).


Player 5.x is an Add-In for ArcGIS Pro. Performance issue with Player software, in may instances, are related to the ArcGIS Pro performance in general. The most common issues are:

  • ArcGIS Pros does not have access to a dedicate graphics card (check system requirements below)
  • The Player project is located on a network share and network performance is slow - Diagnostics step: Copy the project to a local drive. If this resolves the issue, various tools are available below, to assess the network performance.


ArcGIS Pro System Requirements

ArcGIS Pro has system requirements which exceed those of ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap). In particular a dedicated graphics card with sufficient Video RAM (Dedicated memory) is required.


The following ESRI article contains tools about ArcGIS Pro system requirements as well as diagnostics tool. tp check the system requirements.


ArcGIS Pro 2.8 system requirements—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation


ArcGIS Pro 2.9 system requirements—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation 


ArcGIS Pro 3.2 system requirements—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation


ArcGIS Pro 3.4 system requirements—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation


Special Case: ArcGIS Pro/Player in a Virtualised Environment / Cloud? 

Please make sure the virtualised environment has access to dedicated graphics resources. Here is an ESRI article on the topic.


https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/2.8/get-started/virtualization-overview.htm


ArcGIS Pro in a virtualized environment—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation


Graphics Card?
A dedicate Graphics Card (GPU) is essential for ArcGIS Pro performance. The link below is an old article and focuses on 3D graphics performance but is still relevant.


https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/3d-gis/3d-gis/troubleshooting-performance-issues-in-arcgis-pro/


ArcMon - ESRI Tool to Monitor performance for ArcGIS Pro 2.8

ArcMon becomes the Diagnostic Monitor at 2.9 (with less features), but this discussion is still relevant: 

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/get-started/arcgis-diagnostic-monitor.htm.


ArcGIS Diagnostic - ESRI Tool to monitor performance for ArcGIS Pro 2.9 onwards
https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/get-started/arcgis-diagnostic-monitor.htm


File Share Performance 

File share performance is crucial for Player performance. A Microsoft tool called Procmon is useful to monitor the file system activity. You can download the tool here:

Process Monitor - Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs 

It does not need installation and runs as a standalone executable but will need elevated privileges. 

In the picture below we are capturing just File System Activity


You can setup a filter to only capture activity from ArcGISPro.exe and PlayerEngine.exe as well as only file system access for geodatabases.


Stop the capture and save the Procmon captures to a log file after the test


Miscellaneous Issues 

ArcGIS Pro creates a backup copy of the ArcGIS Pro project (as opposed to the Player project) every 5 minutes. This is important and useful but can affect performance if the project is located on a network share. We recommend you reduce the interval, for example 60 minutes.



Player Specific Issues

A lot of Data? Is this a large Player project with a lot of data. This could affect performance of Player specific tools such as the opening forms.


Please contact [email protected] if you would like advice.


Additional Resources


ArcGIS Pro Performance Assessment Tool 

This an ESRI tool which will automatic ally run typical ArcGIS Pro workflows such as pan/zoom/select and generate statistics. Use the ArcGIS Pro Performance Assessment Tool to evaluate a machine's ability to run workflows in ArcGIS Pro. 

https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=68226a068162421bac71adc830fd6784


Probably most useful if you want to compare the relative performance of different environments such as local machines versus virtualised environments (VMS/Cloud etc.)


ESRI Doco - Troubleshooting Performance Issues in ArcGIS Pro

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-pro-documents/troubleshooting-performance-issues-in-arcgis-pro/ta-p/1025516


Developer's Perspective - Advanced Topic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pihhhTkxAxo

Developer’s Perspective: Diagnosing Issues with Performance and Responsiveness in ArcGIS Pro.

Discussed ArcMon as a diagnostic tool contained in ArcGIS Pro. ArcMon can help determine GUI Hang, application busy state, foreground and background tasks, memory usage...