Helium offers several settings that can significantly improve performance depending on how you use the application. Work through the sections below that are most relevant to your situation.
Check for Extended Logging
Extended Logging is one of the most overlooked causes of sudden slowdowns. If a warning icon is visible in the Helium title bar, Extended Logging is active and is degrading performance — particularly if the "Queries" sub-option is enabled, which logs every database operation.
To turn it off:
- Go to Options → General → Advanced → Extended logging.
- Uncheck the master toggle and every sub-option beneath it.
- The warning icon in the title bar disappears once Extended Logging is fully off.
Graphics and rendering
Helium uses hardware acceleration for rendering. If you are connected via Remote Desktop (RDP), hardware acceleration is unavailable and Helium falls back to software rendering, which is noticeably slower.
For all other situations, the settings below offer the most impactful visual performance improvements.
Visual performance settings
| Setting | Location | Recommended action |
|---|---|---|
| Background picture mode | Options → Visual → Advanced | Set to None to disable background artwork entirely. |
| Background blur | Options → Visual → Advanced | Set to 0 to disable blur. |
| Hide controls on hover | Options → Visual (Thumbnails section) | Enable to apply a lighter thumbnail template to all grids. |
| Thumbnail size | Options → Visual → Advanced | Set to Small for lower VRAM usage and faster rendering (Premium). |
| Deferred scrolling | Options → Visual → Advanced → System | Enable if scrolling feels choppy — Helium only renders after the scroll stops. |
| Disable rounded image corners | Options → Visual → Advanced → System | Enable for a minor GPU saving. |
| Do not crop and scale pictures | Options → Visual → Advanced | Enable to skip the image resize and crop pass. |
- Keep your GPU drivers up to date for the best rendering performance.
- Helium automatically enables deferred scrolling when it detects a low-capability GPU.
Performance settings in Options → General
Four settings in Options → General → Advanced control how much work Helium does when rendering views. Unchecking any of these reduces the processing performed on every page load or list render.
- "Render artist and album detail page statistics (can make rendering slower)" — When checked, Helium calculates and displays play counts, rating charts, and other statistics on Artist and Album detail pages. Uncheck this if those pages are slow to load.
- "Calculate user columns (disable to increase performance in track lists)" — When checked, Helium calculates user-defined column values for every row in every track list. Uncheck this if track lists are slow to scroll or load and you do not need those column values.
- "Calculate in playlists (slower, but required for column)" — When checked, calculated column values also appear inside playlist track lists. Uncheck this if you do not need column values in playlists.
- "Avoid caching of pictures after database change" — When checked, Helium skips rebuilding the picture cache after a database change, giving a faster response immediately after edits. Enable this if you notice slowdowns after editing track information.
Database and browsing performance
SQLite is the default database and handles most collections well. For collections of 30,000 tracks or more, browsing performance can degrade.
| Database | Best for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SQLite | Collections under 30,000 tracks | Default. No server required. |
| MySQL / MariaDB | Large collections (30,000+ tracks) | Best browsing speed. Recommended for large libraries. |
| PostgreSQL | Large collections (30,000+ tracks) | Solid alternative to MySQL/MariaDB. |
| SQL Server | Large collections (30,000+ tracks) | When SQL Server is a requirement. |
- Connection pool size (default 100, range 100–400) and connection timeout are configurable in Options → Database for all database types.
Known heavy views
Before migrating databases, try the Options → General → Advanced settings above — they often resolve slowness in the heaviest views:
- Artist and Album detail pages — Disable "Render artist and album detail page statistics" to speed up these pages significantly.
- Statistics view — This view runs many queries simultaneously. If you rarely use it, hide it from the navigation bar via Options → Visual → User Interface by unchecking "Statistics".
- Track lists with user-defined columns — Disable "Calculate user columns" if those column values are not needed.
Optimize the database
Over time, adding and removing files leaves wasted space in the database file. This is particularly noticeable with SQLite and can cause Helium to slow down after many library changes.
To optimize the database:
- Open Library Management using its toolbar button (or your configured keyboard shortcut).
- Click More → Optimize....
- Check "Optimize database file". Optionally check other housekeeping options such as "Remove orphaned items".
- Click OK.
Helium restarts automatically after optimization — this is expected and normal. Run this periodically after heavy library changes.
Antivirus and real-time scanning
Real-time antivirus scanning can intercept file reads and writes to the Helium installation folder and database file, causing slowdowns during library operations and at startup.
- Add the Helium installation folder to your antivirus exclusions.
- Add the folder containing your Helium database
.dbfile to your antivirus exclusions.
These exclusions are configured in your antivirus software, not in Helium itself.
Still running slow?
If performance is still poor after working through the steps above, contact support at https://imploded.freshdesk.com. Include the following information to help diagnose the issue:
- Which view or operation is slow.
- Your approximate collection size (number of tracks).
- Which database type you are using (SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB, or PostgreSQL).
- Confirmation that Extended Logging is now turned off.