Disappearing Dock + Spinning Ball with 10.6.8
Only recently and now all the time, I'm losing my dock on my Macbook Pro, and getting the spinning ball while doing practically anything. At the same time as the ball appears, the harddrive runs like it's trying to do something. I have to reboot to get it back to half normal, and that doesn't always bring the dock back.
And, during the dock malfunction, has anyone else noticed a tiny white light in the bottom left corner flickering like a harddrive status LED?
Has Apple gone off it's rocker? Or is there a virus I'm not aware of?
If you have Parallels or VM Fusion installed you should upgrade to the newest version to fix the Dock problem.
If the above doesn't apply to you then try removing the /Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist file. Then open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder and paste the following at the command prompt:
killall Dock
Press RETURN.
Similar Messages
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I am having problems with my macbook pro and the dock. About every fourth time I start the computer, the dock flashes on and off, then goes completely off and all I get is the spinning ball with brief moments of the cursor. But the computer locks up.
Do you have Parallels installed by any chance? There is a known problem that causes symptoms similar to this. You do not need to actually be running Parallels at the time and nothing in ActivityMonitor would point to Parallels. An update corrects the problem:
http://kb.parallels.com/111541 -
HT201740 Spinning ball with Preview app
When I use the drop down menu to see the contact sheet I get the spinning ball. Finally it will give me the sheet, but then if I delete a page, I get the spinning ball and it takes forever for it to do it. This has been going on since I updated to 10.10.1. I deleted the preferences file but that didn't help. It is possible that I really didn't delete the correct one because I had a had time finding it. I even tried to download a new copy, but I can't find one anywhere. Please help, I use this feature a lot and it is really making me crazy. Also I have 8gb of memory not 4 that originally came with computer
Back up all data. Quit Preview if it's running.
Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. From the Library folder, delete the following items, if they exist:
Containers/com.apple.Preview
Group Containers/com.apple.Preview
Preferences/com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist
Preferences/com.apple.Preview.SandboxedPersistentURLs.LSSharedFileList.plist
Saved Application State/com.apple.Preview.savedState
Log out and log back in. Launch the application and test. -
Spinning ball with Preview in Yosemite
Every since update to 10.10.1 when try to open picture (.png or .jpg) with preview app, get spinning ball and never opens.
Do a backup.
Quit Preview.
Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Remove the following. You may not find them all.
Containers/com.apple.Preview
Preferences/com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist
Preferences/com.apple.Preview.SandboxedPersistentURLs.LSSharedFileList.plist
Saved Application State/com.apple.Preview.savedState
Credit Linc Davis for this solution. -
Powerpoint spinning ball with change from Tiger to Snow Leopard
I recently replaced my G4s with a MacMini and a MacBook Pro. My Microsoft Office 2004 (all updates installed) works just fine in Word and Excel, but to attempt to open PowerPoint on either machine results in a spinning ball and freezing the entire computer.
I have done everything that the Microsoft website suggests, and nothing changes. Is this a nefarious plot by Microsoft to force me to buy Office 2011, or is there something else I can do to make this work. Help!Uninstall Off '04 and reinstall it.
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Spinning ball with Lion 10.7.1?
Since installing 10.7.1 on a MacBook Pro and a MacBook I continually get spinning ball delays of 1-2 minutes. Any ideas?
Interesting, my spinning balls are also very annoying since Lion upgrade, worse it seems since 10.7.2
I would guess my 12Gb would be sufficient, as would my i7 be (0 bytes Page out, so it is enough).
It happens every few minutes, especially when switching tabs in safari. Internet down 120Mb and up 8Mb should also not be the problem (it is not on the windows 7 machine, it wasn't a problem on Snow leopard). The computer is doing nothing (cpu display of activity monitor), but the balls keep on spinning and the web pages stay white for 40-60 sec.
Really annoying -
Spinning Ball with Finder Problems.
Hey Everyone,
I have a iBook G4 (1.2GHz) running Mac OS X Tiger v 10.4.3 with a major finder issue. Every time I click on the hard drive, the curser becomes a color wheel and keeps spinning. After about 5 minutes, folders start to load in the Finder, but everything is unresponsive and I eventually have to do a hard restart. I even tried to do a clean install of OS X but to no avail. Does anyone have any options to try? I am open to any possibilities.
Thank you,
GregI've had multiple problems with Bluetooth, just unplugging the machine while hooked to an external monitor, and yes, Finder has been acting up, but it is not consistent. Not sure what Apple broke, but I was more stable on 10.6.5. Can't imagine that just adding the Mac App Store, and other slight enhancements, they would have messed up this much. I've already had to unload VMWare Fusion because it just wasn't work well at all and I have 8 GB of RAM. Could be that VMWare is just not compatible with this update.
I will continue to test like everyone else, but I hope Apple reads these and sees the problems we are having. -
Hi I am trying to import photos into iPhoto using two Panasonic cameras both Lumix (DMC TZ3 and DMC FZ30). Worked in the past no problem, I upgrade system when prompted and am running Mac OSX 10.6.8 with iPhoto 9.1.5. When I attach cable from camera to Mac with the DMC TZ3 I get the spinning ball and nothing else and have to force quite and restart to access iphoto again without the spinning ball, with the DMC FZ30, when I plus in the cable I get an icon on the desktop and can go into iphoto and import the photos that way. When the photos have been imported I get the spinning ball again and have to restart the Mac to access iphoto without the spinning ball. Photos do import though.
Can anyone help, a really stupid, non-techie person who has no idea what she is doing, please?
Thank youTry use a different cable.
Regards
TD -
Appleworks doesn't work on my Mac Mini - spinning ball loop
I get spinning ball, with activity monitor showing 99% cpu usage for appleworks. Problem occurres when clicking in area to switch to finder. Rest of system works but can't get spinning ball to stop. Have to force quit on Appleworks.
Mac mini - Intel (1 month old) OS 10.4.6 with latest updates applied, which included a firmware fix. Appleworks Version 6.2.9 (but same failure with 6.2.7)
As suggested by Peggy did file permission check/fix and removed preference file to force a clean new preference file. Doesn't help.
Appleworks V6.2.9 seems to work OK, at least with the limited usage, WP & SS, on my PowerPC G5.
Any suggestions?
ChuckWelcome to Apple Discussions Chuck
Obviously you found my user tip/posts on corrupt AppleWorks preferences although you said "preference file." There are four preference files in two different places. Take another look at my user tip, AppleWorks has stopped working correctly, for the file names & locations.
However, the spinning beach ball you see in AppleWorks has nothing to do with your Intel Mac or corrupt preferences but is the most complained about bug in AppleWorks 6 - known as the "Recent Items bug." The same problem will affect any Mac no matter what processor or OS. There are three user tips in the User Tips Library dealing with Recent Items.
Dale Gillard - AppleWorks slow? Spinning ball appears?
Dale Gillard - Recent items not visible/updated
Yvan Koenig - No More Recent Items -
Spinning ball of death after latest security update
Help;
I have an IMac (late 2009) , 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo , 8GiB 1067 MHz, OSX Yosemite 10.10.1
After installing the latest security update my computer is very slow. I am having the spinning ball with iPhoto, Mail, Safari, Firefox, Chrome. Before I rebuild my mailbox, can someone tell me if this is a known problem with the update?
Thanks, Merry ChristmasRestart the computer and also use Disk Utility (Applications - Utilities - Disk Utility) to Repair Disk Permissions and Verify the HD. Then retest the system.
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I have a word document that keeps stalling with the spinning ball sign - how can I stop this?
Have a 2009 Macbook Air. Never given me any trouble before. But I am working on a long word document (docx) - 200 pages of text - and after 5 minutes of working on it it starts to stall and the spinning ball comes up every time I try to type or edit. I have tried resaving it as a doc. I have transferred it to my main IMac where the same problem occurs. No other word documents are doing this. This document is a novel, three years in the making, which is due to go off to publishers in a few weeks time so I am rather worried that it is going to be unrescuable. any suggestions?
I have a time machine and so on so it is all backed up, but i want to be able to work on it!
Please help!?Try this.
Open the document and select and copy a few pages, say ten pages.
Open a new blank document and paste the pages you copied into that.
Save it with a new name.
Work on those new pages to see if the problem has disappeared.
If this helps, continue breaking up the large file in to smaller chunks and working on them
You can of course later reverse the process and merge the files into one new one.
This suggestion is based on my experiences with large Word files. Breaking it up in to smaller chunks does two things. First, if there is any corruption in the old file, the new copies might escape that. Second, the Mac is faster handling the smaller chunks. -
My MacPro is constantly frozen with the spinning ball
Can anyone please take a look at my system's configuration below, and maybe tell me why my system has slowed down and the dreaded spinning ball is a constant friend? Thanks for any help.
Hardware Information:
MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2008)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro4,1
1 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores
4 GB RAM
Video Information:
GeForce 8600M GT - VRAM: 256 MB
System Software:
OS X 10.8.4 (12E55) - Uptime: 0 days 8:35:24
Disk Information:
WDC WD3200BEKT-00PVMT0 disk0 : (320.07 GB)
disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Untitled (disk0s2) /: 319.21 GB (172.18 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
USB Information:
Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple, Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
FireWire Information:
Thunderbolt Information:
Kernel Extensions:
com.oxsemi.driver.OxsemiDeviceType00 (1.28.13)
Problem System Launch Daemons:
Problem System Launch Agents:
Launch Daemons:
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist
[loaded] com.binaryage.asepsis.daemon.plist
[loaded] com.bombich.ccc.plist
[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist
[loaded] com.informer.mac.daemon.plist
[loaded] com.intego.BackupAssistant.daemon.plist
[loaded] com.klieme.TimeMachineScheduler.plist
[loaded] com.lacie.desktopmanager.service.plist
[failed] com.machangout.glims.loader.plist
[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist
[loaded] com.sheepsystems.CocoaPrivilegedHelper.plist
[loaded] com.timesoftware.timemachineeditor.backup-auto.plist
[loaded] com.timesoftware.timemachineeditor.helper.plist
[failed] com.torch.update.agent.plist
[loaded] com.trusteer.rooks.rooksd.plist
[failed] com.vmware.launchd.vmware.plist
[failed] com.zeobit.MacKeeper.plugin.AntiTheft.daemon.plist
[loaded] net.sourceforge.MonolingualHelper.plist
[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist
[not loaded] us.pandamonia.Bark-Helper.plist
Launch Agents:
[loaded] com.binaryage.asepsis.updater.plist
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist
[failed] com.hp.devicemonitor.plist
[loaded] com.hp.messagecenter.launcher.plist
[loaded] com.intego.backupassistant.agent.plist
[loaded] com.lacie.eventsactions.launcher.agent.plist
[failed] com.machangout.glims.agent.plist
[loaded] com.trusteer.rapport.rapportd.plist
[loaded] net.culater.SIMBL.Agent.plist
[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist
User Launch Agents:
[loaded] ca.madefresh.BodegaAgent.plist
[failed] com.adobe.ARM.202f4087f2bbde52e3ac2df389f53a4f123223c9cc56a8fd83a6f 7ae.plist
[loaded] com.macupdate.desktop5.scanner.plist
[failed] com.mspot.aria.plist
[failed] com.spotify.webhelper.plist
[failed] com.yahoo.YahooContactSyncAgent.plist
User Login Items:
iTunesHelper
LDMStatusItem
TotalFinder
Android File Transfer Agent
3rd Party Preference Panes:
AppTrap
EyeConnect
Flash Player
Flip4Mac WMV
FUSE for OS X (OSXFUSE)
Launchpad-Control
Rapport
TimeMachineScheduler
Internet Plug-ins:
AmazonMP3DownloaderPlugin101750.plugin
Flash Player.plugin
FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin
iPhotoPhotocast.plugin
JavaAppletPlugin.plugin
nplastpass.plugin
QuickTime Plugin.plugin
SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin
Silverlight.plugin
User Internet Plug-ins:
BlueStacks Install Detector.plugin
Dashlane.plugin
Picasa.plugin
SheepSystemsNPAPIPlugin.plugin
Bad Fonts:
None
Top Processes by CPU:
4% WindowServer
2% WebProcess
2% EtreCheck
1% fontd
0% Safari
0% PluginProcess
0% mds
0% syslogd
0% SystemUIServer
0% Finder
Top Processes by Memory:
791 MB WebProcess
205 MB Safari
147 MB PluginProcess
98 MB rapportd
74 MB Finder
61 MB WindowServer
37 MB mds
37 MB Dock
33 MB coreservicesd
20 MB CalendarAgent
Virtual Memory Statistics
551 MB Free RAM
1.88 GB Active RAM
1.15 GB Inactive RAM
446 MB Wired RAM
595 MB Page-ins
0 B Page-outsPlease read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software — potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions — they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.
These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing.
Below are instructions to enter some UNIX shell commands. The commands are harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects.
Some of the commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then copy it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.
Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.
Step 1
Triple-click the line of text below on this page to select it:
kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/{printf "%s %s\n", $6, $7}' | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Then click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V). A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. You can then close the TextEdit window. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that. No typing is involved in this step.
Step 2
Repeat with this line:
{ sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix\.cron)|org\.(amav|apac|cups|isc|ntp|postf|x)/{print $3}'; echo; sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook; echo; sudo crontab -l; } 2> /dev/null | open -ef
This time you'll be prompted for your login password, which you do have to type. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. Type it carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. Heed that warning, but don't post it. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
Note: If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before taking this step. If that’s not possible, skip to the next step.
Step 3
{ launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|org\.(x|openbsd)/{print $3}'; echo; crontab -l 2> /dev/null; } | open -ef
Step 4
ls -A /e*/{cr,la,mach}* {,/}Lib*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta}* L*/Fonts .la* 2> /dev/null | open -ef
Important: If you formerly synchronized with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, anonymize it before posting.
Step 5
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get name of login items' | open -ef
Remember, steps 1-5 are all copy-and-paste — no typing, except your password. Also remember to post the output.
You can then quit Terminal. -
I have owned my MacBook Pro for several months without having any problems with it. Recently I am having trouble with my Yahoo Mail. I can open it fine, but 2 out of 3 times when I try to actually open a message, the spinning ball comes on the screen and does not stop. Sometimes, I can log out or force quit and come back in to my account and use it. Other times, I run into the same problem. Any suggestions?
Killerfinch wrote:
My new yahoo account nestles comfortably in iCloud on the mine iPad.
No, your Yahoo account is not in iCloud (which only handles iCloud mail), it is in Yahoo, and the Yahoo mail account is on your iPad.
But the MacBook Pro will have none of it! I write this question now as I fear that I will be totally demented very soon and unable to formulate my thoughts clearly!
Get the correct settings for your account from Yahoo and set it up manually.
By the way, I also find the "password" issue problematical. It seems Apple want my Apple password rather than my eMail password. All very confusing.
That would depend on what you are trying to do. -
I have a 2009 Macbook Pro with 1T hdd 8GB Ram and ran Maverick without problem...Yosemite installation has me completely frozen, nothing works but the spinning ball...I had to force shutdown last night, and haven't turned it on again...what do you advise? During installation emptied cache, etc. Backed up using time machine, fortunately.
Try these in order testing your system after each to see if it's back to normal:
1. a. Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
b. Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
2. Restart the computer in Safe Mode, then restart again, normally. If this doesn't help, then:
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the Utilities menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
3. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
4. Reinstall Yosemite: Reboot from the Recovery HD. Select Reinstall OS X from the Utilities menu, and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
because it is three times faster than wireless.
5. Reinstall Yosemite from Scratch:
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
How to Clean Install OS X Yosemite
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
because it is three times faster than wireless. -
I have a pretty new iMac with LOTS of storage (about 4TB with externals) that is experiencing a lot of "spinning balls of death" from time to time in almost any program that I might have open, but particularly MacMail, Google Chrome browsers, and Word. I took it to the Apple store to be checked out and it was really fast with no issues there. I brought it home and it was better at first but then it started happening again.
I have been having a lot of issues with Time Warner where my download speeds will dip really low, and all I can think of is that MacMail goes and tries to check for email and can't get out to the internet and it locks all the other resources up while it is doing it. It will also take a REALLY long time to even let you look at mail. The folder size is over 13GB (down from 22GB that I just cleared out from - I have a lot of MP3s etc in there) and I will try to get this down to under 10GB which might help, and the mail is on an external drive. I have been told that Verizon is not a shared network but a direct connection to their server, and if I can't fix this then I will try switching to them. If anyone has any direct knowledge on this stuff, I am all ears.We need to know more about your system, please download EtreCheck and run the report and please post it on your next reply. Then we can see how your system is configured, what apps are on it and look for anything obvious. We will look forward to seeing your report.
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