Facebook is known to load slowly from time to time and the article below will help you troubleshoot the reasons as to why.
The slowness often occurs when trying to load any page or widget associated with the facebook.com domain.
At times, the problem can occur by using Facebook itself or by accessing a site that interfaces with Facebook’s API – any site on the web with a Facebook like button.
When this happens a message is usually displayed in the page load status indicator at the bottom of the browser that says “waiting for www.facebook.com” .
It is one thing for Facebook to be slow or have issues when a user is actually using the Facebook.com domain. It is another thing when almost every page on the internet is having trouble loading completely because it is hooked up to the Facebook API.
Users have reported that the Facebook slowness is happening regardless of what browser they use and / or what type of network connection they’re using.
Generally, when Facebook or another web-based service incurs problems such as this, it is because of an update or modification to the service.
Why is Facebook Loading Slow?
1. Poor Internet Connection
This goes without saying, but, it’s possible that your internet connection is the problem. Try using a different internet connection or your data connection to see if the problem continues. The rest of this post will focus on potential issues that are widespread and not isolated to your device or your internet connection.
2. Bulk Updates
Years ago, Irish regulators forced Facebook to tighten up their privacy, specifically with their facial recognition feature to avoid legal penalties by Irish regulators.
At the same time, there were concerns that private messages from some Facebook users were appearing publicly on their Facebook walls. It turns out that the reports were false but that did not stop Facebook engineers from investigating the reports.
Based on these two events, Facebook engineers started updating some privacy features which, in turn, likely caused some of the slow loading problems reported by users.
Years ago, Facebook also rolled out a new photo viewer and that also seemed to contribute to the “slowness” of Facebook.
3. Traffic Spikes
Although rare, it is possible for so many people to use Facebook at the same time that the Facebook servers have trouble keeping up. This has become less of a problem as time has gone on.
Also, there may be an increased number of automated scans being performed on Facebook’s servers by national and international government agencies which could – depending on the quantity of scans – cause a spike in traffic enough for Facebook users to notice slowness.
4. Plugins and Extensions
One of my readers also reported that a Google Chrome plugin was causing her Facebook to be slow.
The plugin is called SocialReviver 3.15 and it reverts the Facebook interface and chat back to an older version of Facebook. After disabling the plugin, Facebook began loading at a normal speed. It may be a good idea to restart your browser after disabling the plugin – just to be safe.
This is the second time that I’ve reported on a Google Chrome plugin causing problems in Facebook. I previously reported on the “ads not by Facebook problem” caused by a Google Chrome plugin that ads additional advertisements to Facebook profiles.
I will be keeping an eye on this issue updating this post when more information is available.
If you have any details on the issue, please reach out to me on Twitter so I can further diagnose the problem.
