System performance depends a lot on your network, your devices, and how you maintain them. We rarely get reports that Meadow itself is slow across the board — so when things feel sluggish, it's almost always a local issue we can help you track down.
Is it Meadow, or is it your setup?
In our experience, the cause is almost always related to network, hardware, or maintenance on your side. The steps below are the fastest way to figure out which.
You can always double-check with us. If you write in, we can run the same action on our machines and confirm whether the issue is reproducing on our end or if it looks local to you.
Anytime the system is not behaving as it should, let us know. A quick note on Meadow's reliability. Meadow is built for 99%+ uptime and has been trusted by dispensaries for over a decade. System-wide issues are rare.
Quick POS indicator: red budtender names
On Meadow POS, if budtender sign-in names appear in red, that's the system telling you the device is having trouble staying connected. Fix the Wi-Fi connection first (see below) — most of the time, that clears up any related slowness at the register.
Step 1: Check your Wi-Fi and network
Most "Meadow is slow" reports turn out to be a network hiccup.
Run a speed test. Go to fast.com or speedtest.net on the same device that's feeling slow. If download speeds are under a few Mbps or latency is high, that's your answer.
Test on another device. If your phone is also slow on the same Wi-Fi, it's a network issue, not Meadow.
Try a wired connection. If you can plug directly into your router with Ethernet, do it — it removes Wi-Fi interference from the equation.
Restart your router and modem. Unplug both, wait 30 seconds, plug the modem back in first, then the router. Give it a minute to fully reconnect.
Move closer to the router if you're on Wi-Fi, or restart the device.
Step 2: Try a different browser (or incognito)
A single flaky browser, tab, or extension can make Meadow feel slow on one machine while working fine everywhere else.
Open an incognito / private window in your current browser and load Meadow there. Incognito disables extensions and uses a clean cache, so it's the fastest way to rule out browser clutter.
Chrome: ⌘+Shift+N (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+N (Windows).
Safari: File → New Private Window, or ⌘+Shift+N.
Firefox: File → New Private Window, or ⌘/Ctrl+Shift+P.
Try a different browser entirely. If you're usually on Safari or Firefox, try Google Chrome and vise versa.
If incognito is faster, a browser extension is most likely the culprit. Disable extensions one at a time until you find the one causing trouble.
Step 3: Clear your cookies and cache
Over time, stale cached data can cause pages to load slowly or behave oddly. Clearing it is safe, but you'll be signed out of any sites you're logged into, so plan accordingly.
Google Chrome (Recommended)
Open the three-dot menu in the top right → Settings.
Go to Privacy and security → Delete browsing data.
Set Time range to All time.
Check Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files.
Click Delete data.
Close and reopen Chrome, then load Meadow again.
Safari
Safari menu → Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data → Remove All.
To clear cache specifically: turn on the Develop menu (Settings → Advanced → "Show Develop menu in menu bar"), then Develop → Empty Caches.
Firefox
Three-line menu → Settings → Privacy & Security.
Under Cookies and Site Data, click Clear Data, check both boxes, and confirm.
Step 4: Restart the device
If the above didn't help, a full restart of the computer or iPad is worth a try. Long uptime causes memory and resource issues that show up as general slowness in any web app, including Meadow. Restarting at the end of each shift (or at least weekly) is a good habit.
Step 5: Keep your computer or iPad healthy
Most creeping slowness comes down to ongoing housekeeping. A few easy wins:
Computers (Mac and Windows)
Free up disk space. Computers slow down noticeably once the drive is more than ~85–90% full. Empty the Trash / Recycle Bin, clean out Downloads, delete old installers. Aim for at least 15–20% free.
Close tabs you're not using. Every browser tab eats memory. Getting down to just what you're actively working on is often the single biggest speed boost.
Quit apps you're not using. Check Activity Monitor (Mac) or Task Manager (Windows) to see what's hogging CPU or memory, and quit what you don't need.
Keep the browser and OS updated. Performance fixes ship with updates. Keep Chrome and your operating system current.
Pause background cloud sync. Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive, or Google Drive actively uploading large files can choke both disk and network.
Clean the vents. Dusty laptop vents cause the CPU to overheat, which makes the machine throttle itself to stay cool. A quick blast of compressed air once in a while helps more than people expect.
iPads (POS)
Restart the iPad often. iPads degrade fast with long uptime. Hold the power + volume button and slide to power off.
Keep iPadOS updated within what the device supports but do not enable automatic updates.
Close backgrounded Safari tabs. Swipe up from the bottom (or double-tap Home on older iPads), then swipe unused tabs away.
Check storage. Go to Settings → General → iPad Storage. iPads choke badly when they're close to full.
Keep it out of direct sun / heat at the register. iPads throttle aggressively when they get warm.
Old hardware can be the real answer
If a device has been in service for many years, it may simply be at the end of its useful life for this kind of workload.
iPads: iPads older than about 5–6 years are going to feel slow on any modern web app, including POS. A good rough test — if your iPad can no longer run the latest supported iPadOS, it's probably time to plan a replacement for register duty.
Computers: machines with 4GB of RAM will struggle with modern browser-based apps. 8GB is a practical minimum, 16GB is comfortable. If you're still on a pre-2017-ish machine with a spinning hard drive, swapping to an SSD (or a newer computer) is night and day.
If you've worked through the steps above and a device still feels slow, hardware age is often the answer — and no amount of browser settings will fix it.
When to write in
If you've worked through the steps above and Meadow is still slow, we want to know. Please write in with:
The specific screen or action that's slow (e.g., "the Products page spins for 30+ seconds before loading").
A screenshot, especially if there's a persistent spinning wheel.
What you've already tried from the list above.
We'll run the same action on our own machines and, if we can reproduce it, escalate from there.