Title: Performance Issues with GROUPS plugin
Last modified: August 30, 2016

---

# Performance Issues with GROUPS plugin

 *  Resolved [deltaray](https://wordpress.org/support/users/deltaray/)
 * (@deltaray)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/performance-issues-with-groups-plugin/)
 * Hi,
 * I have found a performance issue when groups plugin is enabled and “SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS”
   in statements like this:
 *     ```
       SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wp_posts.ID
       FROM wp_posts
       WHERE 1 =1
       AND wp_posts.post_type =  'post'
       AND (
       (
       wp_posts.post_status =  'publish'
       )
       )
       AND wp_posts.ID
       IN (
   
       SELECT ID
       FROM wp_posts
       WHERE ID NOT
       IN (
   
       SELECT post_id
       FROM wp_postmeta
       WHERE wp_postmeta.meta_key =  'groups-groups_read_post'
       )
       UNION ALL SELECT post_id AS ID
       FROM wp_postmeta
       WHERE wp_postmeta.meta_key =  'groups-groups_read_post'
       AND wp_postmeta.meta_value
       IN (
       ''
       )
       )
       ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC
       LIMIT 0 , 16
       ```
   
 * Each of these queries take more than a second on a high performance server.
    
   When I disable the Groups, the problem disappears.
 * My database has grown over the last few years, so it might be a following problem
   of a large database.
 * Anybody else expirienced such performance problems?
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/groups/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/groups/)

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  [cmmmc](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cmmmc/)
 * (@cmmmc)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/performance-issues-with-groups-plugin/#post-6599728)
 * Yes, I am experiencing about 1.5 seconds extra load time with Groups enabled.
   Latest WP version, all plugins up to date.
 * I think it must have grown to become slower as a result of a much larger database
   over time. That’s not good news if you rapidly want to expand your business…
 * When Groups is disabled, 3.0 seconds admin load speed with >30 plugins. When 
   enabled, 4.5 seconds (query monitor info). When enabling three more paid Groups
   add-ons, it goes to 4.6 seconds but the main issue is Groups.
 * This plugin is definitely in need of some serious performance optimization.
 * As a workaround, you can try and reduce the front-end impact by selective plugin
   loading (Plugin Organizer by Jeff Sterup). However, in the back end you can’t
   help but feel the increasing drag.
 * Itthinx, I hope you’ll review the performance aspect of the plugin!
 *  Thread Starter [deltaray](https://wordpress.org/support/users/deltaray/)
 * (@deltaray)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/performance-issues-with-groups-plugin/#post-6599768)
 * I think getting “SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS” removed from the statement would solve 
   the problem. Because whenever you have “SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS” the FULL table will
   be processed for a statement regardless how many results you want to show.
 * I have added some more indexes into my database which got the time for such statements
   from about 1,5 seconds to 0,5 seconds. Not a final solutiuon but makes thinks
   better.
 *  Plugin Author [Kento](https://wordpress.org/support/users/proaktion/)
 * (@proaktion)
 * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/performance-issues-with-groups-plugin/#post-6599790)
 * SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS is added in WP_Query->get_posts() and Groups shouldn’t be
   removing it, it can’t and really shouldn’t do anything about its presence. If
   there are any performance issues, then this is usually due to a lack of working
   cache. There are several previous discussions about this, where an outdated signature
   of wp_cache_get() is used and the $found disambiguation return parameter cannot
   be taken advantage of.
 * I’ll be looking into actually changing the values stored in cache when an empty
   result is stored, as there hasn’t been any sign of any improvement coming soon
   to where that happens. See for example this related topic where I’ve provided
   an explanation and references [http://www.itthinx.com/topic/upgrade-wordpress-core-4-3-2/comment-page-1/#comment-669054](http://www.itthinx.com/topic/upgrade-wordpress-core-4-3-2/comment-page-1/#comment-669054)
 *  Plugin Author [Kento](https://wordpress.org/support/users/proaktion/)
 * (@proaktion)
 * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/performance-issues-with-groups-plugin/#post-6599797)
 * The changes I’ve mentioned are now in version 1.9.0 and the issues with caching
   mechanisms that do not support the disambiguation parameter $found should now
   all be resolved. Please let me know if you see any further issues.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Performance Issues with GROUPS plugin’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/groups/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=983146)
 * [Groups - Memberships and Access Control](https://wordpress.org/plugins/groups/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/groups/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/groups/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/groups/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/groups/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/groups/reviews/)

 * 4 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Kento](https://wordpress.org/support/users/proaktion/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/performance-issues-with-groups-plugin/#post-6599797)
 * Status: resolved