Over the holidays, many users noticed the site's performance drastically plummeted, making closed captions unbearably slow and unresponsive. The issue emerged after implementing updates to support an alternative database meant to reduce costs. I tried various optimizations to improve database communications, but performance remained terrible. After spending considerable time convinced it was a database issue, this proved to be a red herring. I only realized this after reaching my breaking point and taking drastic action—reverting all changes made before September 2024. Surprisingly, this fixed all the database problems. The true culprit was one of the libraries I had updated to support the new database. I've since switched to a different database that doesn't require library updates, which allows me to focus on identifying which specific library caused the site slowdown. I'm relieved to have resolved this issue and can now return to my main goals: optimizing the app and reducing hosting costs.