Most things in Gumshoe finish in a few minutes. This article covers what is normal for each part of the product, and when a wait has gone on long enough that you should ask us to look at it.
How long should the setup wizard take?
When you are setting up a project, each step of the wizard (personas, topics, and prompts) loads its items for you. This usually takes less than a minute, and can take up to five.
If a step in the wizard has been spinning for more than five minutes, that is not normal. Ask for a human in chat and we will take a look.
How long does a Visibility Audit take to run?
A full Visibility Audit (formerly known as a report) usually finishes in five to thirty minutes. Larger audits take longer, because run time depends on how many conversations the audit covers, which is your prompts multiplied by the number of AI models.
Both Pulse Audits and full Visibility Audits can continue to display as loading for up to sixty minutes, even when most of the work is already done.
Why do my Citation, Content, and Sentiment Audits still look unfinished?
These three audits build on the results of your Visibility Audit, so they cannot finish until it does. They will appear quickly, but the data inside them keeps filling in for roughly twenty minutes after the Visibility Audit completes, and occasionally for as long as an hour.
If you open one of these audits during that window and it looks thin or incomplete, it is still working. Give it time before treating it as a problem.
How long does a Technical Audit take?
A Technical Audit generally finishes in under five minutes. The first run can take up to sixty minutes depending on how many URLs you added at once, since each URL is fetched and analyzed individually.
What should I do if something takes longer than an hour?
Nothing in Gumshoe should take more than sixty minutes. If any audit or setup step is still running past that point, ask for a human in chat and we will check on it directly.
You do not need to start over, re-run anything, or close the page while you wait. Your work is saved.