I’ve noticed that the desktop tool has been using an excessive amount of energy/battery. I checked the Console logs you can see the errors flooding in reporting it’s unable to connect to a remote host. I use a pi-hole to block, among other things, stuff like analytics, as I pay for this service, I have zero desire to share any data. But the problem is, your app doesn’t seem to like that I do that.
As soon as I white-listed analytics.languagetoolplus.com, the errors stopped and the energy usage dropped to damn near 0. Once I blocked it again, it shot right back up.
Guys, I pay for your service, I LOVE your service, but my data should be controlled by me and I choose what to share. At least make a toggle in the app to share or not. Because I don’t want to share, your app is killing my battery.
I will let the dev team know about this… but you’re hopefully aware that LT is a remote service that checks your text on the LT servers? It doesn’t seem to make much sense to block anonymous analytics data (which we need to improve the app) while your text is sent anyway.
It doesn’t seem to make much sense to block anonymous analytics data (which we need to improve the app) while your text is sent anyway.
So, your take is, “Since you send everything to us anyway, why not just send analytics too?”.
I’m aware that the service operates by sending data to LT servers for processing, there is a distinction between sending text for the functionality of the service and sending additional analytics data. When I send my text to your servers, it is with the specific purpose of utilizing the service’s core functions. However, the analytics data—while used for improving the service—goes beyond what is strictly necessary for functionality.
I believe that users should have the choice to opt out of sending this additional data, especially when the service is paid for. Providing an option to opt out respects user preferences and privacy, without significantly impacting the functionality of the service. This would not only align with best practices for data privacy but also enhance trust among users who are particularly sensitive about how their data is managed and utilized.
If you want to keep attempting to send analyics, that’s fine, but please don’t let your application impact the customer by chewing through the battery.
Please excuse the delayed reply and any inconvenience caused. I have been running the app with the mentioned domain blocked but have not observed the same behavior as you.
Does this high-energy impact also result in short-term increased CPU usage and slowdowns of the app and the machine in general?
What version of the app are you currently running?
Are there any other system modifications on your side that might affect the app’s performance?
Edit: By the way, this issue is happening on three different laptops and after a fresh reinstallation on my main laptop, it’s still happening. As soon as I turn off the block, it instantly jumps down to minimal energy usage and the errors in the logs stop.
Does this high-energy impact also result in short-term increased CPU usage and slowdowns of the app and the machine in general?
Yes, CPU spikes and causes slowness. It’s not always short-term, it will stay spiked for a good bit. But this is a M1 Max Macbook, so even with the spike it’s still pretty responsive.
What version of the app are you currently running?
1.8.0
Are there any other system modifications on your side that might affect the app’s performance?
No. There is no application on my system blocking analvtics.languagetoolplus.com. The blocking is happening on my pi-hole which is acting as my DNS server. Today alone there were over, 3101 blocked requests to analvtics.languagetoolplus.com
I’m sitting here using Firefox to stream a YT video, while on battery, and LanguageTool for Desktop is using magnitudes of more energy than Firefox is.
Check this out. I opened the Console to get error logs from LanguageTool for Desktop. I started a live tail at 09:36:13 and stopped it at 09:36:33, that’s just 20 seconds. There are 6,137 error events from LanguageTool for Desktop. I would attach that .log file but for some reason you don’t allow .log files and when I try to zip it up I get “Sorry, new users can not upload attachments.”
