I’ve dug about a bit and thought there are some references to this issue there is not direct one dealing with it.
I have a site which I have made minor modifications to. When I go to publish and then upload it to the same server without any changes to structure or directory, then the upload includes files which have not been changed or added at all thus adding significantly to the upload time.
Is there any reason why this might happen?
I have noted this problem for many months as I developed a new photography site. One day I changed a single text character on one page and watched in horror as the upload took over an hour and twenty minutes. When asked, support acknowledged the problem but offered no solutions.
I have also installed the latest update which purported to address some aspect of the problem. I noticed no changes to upload times.
Today, I found this old Knowledge Base article:
As suggested, I changed my Output setting to Single Resource and then suffered through an almost two-hour upload of my entire site. This was expected.
Then I added an action to two photos on two different pages and re-uploaded to test. It isn’t what is should be, but instead of the usual 1hr and 20 minute-or-so transfer time, it was done in a bit over 2 minutes and I happily watched the progress thermometer lurch ahead or skim over large number of files.
My blood pressure has dropped significantly and my liver is thanking me for not self-medicating nearly as much as I had been when working my site.
There has also been a recent update to the Scripty suite of actions - and if you are using any of them on your pages the update addresses similar issues.
Always good to see Delta Dave weigh in—big fan…came up with a free action based on a question I asked and he answered, in spades.
The problems I was having, demonstrated mostly horribly on a single character spelling correction for a caption in a Showcase gallery, had nothing to do with any Scripty action (I don’t use any Scripty actions). Is there some commonality between them??? Tech support wrote me that the problem had to do with the interconnectedness of the Freeway file structure so that even a single character alteration could result in changes across many pages. I am not a programmer so I tread lightly… But I I have been looking into alternatives to Freeway primarily, but far from exclusively, because of this issue. Other problems, also acknowledged, are killing me from an SEO perspective to the point that I am obviously being punished by Google with no relief in sight.