Input tool Configuration Pane takes forever to load

Question

Is it possible to prevent Alteryx from reading an input file whenever I click the input tool to change a setting in the configuration pane? I have some very large excel files that I am unioning together. All that I need to do is change the setting to include the filename as a field. But every time I click on any of the files, it takes 5+ minutes for the configuration pane to load. This is incredibly inefficient for my productivity for a change that really should not require the file to load. Can this load time be prevented by disabling the input file from loading each time the tool is selected?

For clarification, I am not trying to run anything at this point - just building out a workflow that unions multiple massive files together.

Thanks in advance!

alexnajm · Accepted Answer

You can disable auto configure in your user settings - that may help!

jrlindem · Accepted Answer

I have also experienced this issue.  While I agree with alexnajm, the disabling of auto configure can have some unintended consequences:

Yes, it will stop the tools from refreshing in the background- performing reconfiguration each time, or propagating metadata...  The downside is it will prevent Pre-SQL, for example, from running at all.  You can always manually refresh and force the configurations on demand, but this may not be ideal.

If you do choose to disable the auto configure option, I would recommend doing so only during workflow development, but once completed, re-enabling the option to ensure all the functionality of Alteryx is working.