Slow Object Recognition

This article addresses performance delays during object identification, such as when Ranorex Spy takes a long time to populate the tree or repository items validate slowly.

Important: Make sure you’re running Ranorex Studio 11.6.1 or later. It is recommended to install the latest version of Ranorex Studio, as it can include recognition and plugin performance improvements that reduce delays.

General performance fixes

Broad recognition scopes often cause lag as Ranorex scans unnecessary parts of the UI.

Reduce the recognition scope (whitelisting)

If Ranorex scans too much UI content, recognition becomes slower.

Solution: Use the Whitelisting feature to limit Ranorex to specific processes. This prevents the tool from scanning every open application on your system.

1. In Ranorex Studio, go to View > Whitelist
   
2. Select the AUT from the Running processes list and click Add.
   
3. Click Apply whitelist.

Review plugin settings

Certain settings expand the amount of data Ranorex must process.

Solution: Disable options in your plugin settings that might expand scope.

1. Track an element and open it in Spy.
2. Go to Advanced Settings and search for FlavorName to identify the plugin you are using.
   
3. In Ranorex Studio, go to Settings > Plugins.
4. Review any options that expand recognition scope for your specific plugin and consider disabling them. For example, you can disable the Show all elements option if you don’t need all elements in your workflow. 
   

.NET WPF performance issues

Recognition is often slow specifically with WPF applications running on modern .NET (for example, .NET 6+).

Adjust serialization mechanism

If you experience delays in WPF object tracking:

1. Navigate to Settings > Plugins > WPF and WPF.Core and verify that the WPF Plugin is being used and that the WPF.Core plugin is enabled
2. In the WPF.Core section, set Use a legacy serialization mechanism to True and click OK.
   
3. Restart your application under test (AUT) and run the tests again.

Enable tracing logs for troubleshooting

If performance does not improve, collect logs to share with the support team:

1. Go to Settings > Plugins > WPF.Core
2. Set the Enable tracing logs for the new serialization setting to True.
   
3. Click Apply or OK.
4. Restart your AUT and reproduce the delay.
5. Collect the log files from:
   • C:\Temp\Ranorex\RanorexLogs_Server.txt 
   • C:\Temp\Ranorex\RanorexLogs_Client.txt.
6. Compress the files and include them in the support request.

Note: The tracing logs feature was introduced with 11.6.1+.