I get the spinning color wheel

My Mac seems lazy with most programs - It hates AOL, my B&W G3 seemed a lot faster, what causes the color wheel to appear? Thanks
Imac Mac OS X (10.4.7) Intel

First, back up your hard disk, not necessarily that there is any reason to suspect it is failing, but the behaviour you describe can presage an impending disk failure and you should have backups anyway.
Apple Support Communities contributor etresoft wrote a very useful app to quickly gather certain system information that may help point to a cause of this problem. Go to his website, download and run EtreCheck:
http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck
Etrecheck will be in your Downloads folder. Open it from there. You may see the following dialog box:
Click Open - etresoft contributes to this forum frequently and can be considered a trustworthy developer.
It will take a moment to run as it collects its data.
Copy and paste its output in a reply.
Do not be concerned about anything that says "Problem" or "failed".
EtreCheck was designed to remove any personal information (such as your computer's name and serial numbers) but if you see anything that looks like an email address or any other personal information that should not be divulged to others, please delete or obscure that information when you post the reply.
When you are finished with EtreCheck, quit the program. It occupies very little space, and you can keep it or drag it to the Trash as you wish.

Similar Messages

Performance is very slow, i continue to get the spinning color wheel whenever i try anything (email, browser, word, etc) any ideas

Performance is very slow.
I continue to get the spinning color wheel on whatever I try.
It doesnt matter if its an email, browser or document of any kind it takes several seconds for anything to happen.

Hello, see how many of these you can answer...
See if the Disk is issuing any S.M.A.R.T errors in Disk Utility...
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH7029
Open Activity Monitor in Applications>Utilities, select All Processes & sort on CPU%, any indications there?
How much RAM & free space do you have also, click on the Memory & Disk Usage Tabs.
Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.
In the Memory tab, are there a lot of Pageouts?

When I am in e-mail. I get the spinning color wheel. Then, when I check the activity montior, it notes high cpu usage (99%) for "Safari web content.". then I quit this process and cpu usage drops way done. but I have to log in again to my e-mail. what can

When I am in e-mail, I sometimes get the spinning color wheel, which lock up everything. when it doesn't go away, I see on the activity monitor, that CPU usage is very high (99%), for a process calles " Safari web content'. When I click on the proccess and quite, the CPUusage goes way down. Problem is that I have to then log back in to e-mail. What can I do to eliminate this proble. thanks

How much FREE RAM do you have when this occurs. It's easy to tell, when it beach balls open Activity Monitor (Applications - Utilities - Activity Monitor) click the System Memory tab and note how much FREE RAM is listed. If it's 500MB or less it's time for a RAM upgrade.

I tried to download some photos from a corrupted CD and now every time I try to open iPhoto the frame pops up but nothing will load. I just get the spinning color wheel. Any ideas???

I tried to download some photos from a corrupted CD and now every time I try to open iPhoto the frame pops up but nothing will load. I just get the spinning color wheel. Any ideas???

What version of iPhoto? Assuming 09 or later:
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .
Regards
TD

Calendar entry takes along time. I get the spinning color wheel after each tab.

Calendar entry takes along time. I get the spinning color wheel after each tab. How do I avoid this?

Launch the Console 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 Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard (command-C). Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

When I open iphoto, I only get the spinning color wheel

When I open iphoto, the window is blank and I just get the spinning color wheel. I have OSX 10.6.8. The last time I used iphoto I had deleted over 100GB of photos (they were backed up to an external hard drive). Now I just get the spinning wheel. I have to force quit to shut it down.

Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .
Regards
TD

I'm getting the spinning color wheel only on FCP

I'm getting the spinning colour wheel but only on FCP & not Logic or iMovie.

What version is your copy of FCP X and what OS? What year is your MBP?
When do you get the lag (what are you doing when it happens)? Does it hang so you have to force quit?
Does it happen regardless of what library you open?
Russ

My iMac 8,1 (early 2008) is running very slow. I continually get the spinning color wheel. The free space dropped from 133. GB to 87.86 GB in about 2 days. System memory is 2.00 GB with 1.25 GB free. kernel_task root 1.1 63 205.3 MB intel.

My Mac is running very slowly. After reading other posts I have attempted to gather more info for an easier more accurate response but not being computer savy am unsure what is helpful/necessary. The utilized space is 231.6 GB with 88.13 GB free. Memory is 2.00 GB w/ 1.25 GB free and 771.8 MB used. The kernel_task root 1.1 63 205.3 MB intel. What can I do to increase the speed and stop the spinning wheel? Thanks for all your help.

See:
Mac Maintenance Quick Assist,
Mac OS X speed FAQ,
Speeding up Macs,
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance,
Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up,
Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines,
Maintaining OS X,
Five Mac maintenance myths, and
Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X for information.

`I had to do a force quit to get the spinning color wheel off the screen for itunes, system preferences and finder. `now the screen is lit but it cannot find finder and the itunes icon just bounces up and down whenI click on it-whay should do?

I think my card reader was just taken out of the back of my mack pro without proper ejection. I had to use force quit on everything open to get rid of the color wheel. `itunes, system preferences, finder were open and not responding. `now the screen is lit but if `i click on itunes the symbol just bounces and for finder it says finder cannot be found 10810. What should I do next? Thanks-

Hi Janice,
You are posting in an iMac forum, you may want to repost in the Mac Pro forum.
Roger

What does the spinning color wheel mean?

Have been getting a spinning color wheel alot lately, is this a problem?

Launch the Activity Monitor 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, press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Activity Monitor in the page that opens.
Select the CPU tab. Select All Processes from the popup menu in the toolbar, if not already selected. Click the heading of the % CPU column in the process table to sort the entries by CPU usage. You may have to click it twice to get the highest value at the top. What is it, and what is the process? Also post the values for % User, % System, and % Idle at the bottom of the window.
Now select the System Memory tab. What values are shown in the bottom part of the window for Page outs and Swap used?

I keep getting a spinning color wheel when I start safari or mail and it holds up my iMac for several minutes. At times I need to do a hard reset as it freezes e everything ... I'm stumped! Software is up to date ... Help!

I keep getting a spinning color wheel when I start safari or mail and it holds up my iMac for several minutes. At times I need to do a hard reset as it freezes e everything ... I'm stumped! Software is up to date ... Help!

den.thed wrote:
John has suggested rebuilding the Mail mailboxes. Once Mail is open, go to: Mailbox on the menu bar and select Rebuild.
As for Safari, is it opening and working if you open it before Mail and what if any Extensions are you using?
OK ... so I just restarted and opened Safari first ... no spinning ball. And I opened mail after hitting the rebuild, well, I'm missing messages from Dec. 24 - now, but it opened right away. Most messages are FB feeds, so it's not like I've lost anything important. So, initial thoughts ... John was a tremendous help, BUT, we shall see what happens when I try to open mail again ... and I'll try it first with the next restart or wake up ... so appreiciate the walk-thru on all of this!

My 24" iMac seems to gets the spinning colored ball a lot, seems it is running slow a lot more than it did before any suggestion?

My 24” iMac seems to gets the spinning colored ball a lot, seems it is running slow a lot more than it did before any suggestion?

Open Activity Monitor in Applications>Utilities, select All Processes & sort on CPU%, any indications there?
How much RAM & free space do you have also, click on the Memory & Disk Usage Tabs.
In the Memory tab, are there a lot of Pageouts?

The spinning colored wheel wont stop and my word is open so i do not want to lose my paper

The spinning colored wheel wont stop and my word is open so i do not want to lose my paper. What do I do wihtout having to cut my computer off

Sbmills,
will it allow you to copy the text of your paper, paste it into TextEdit, and save it as a text document? You’d lose the formatting, but you’d still have the text.

I cannot seem to get the app to download and install. I get the spinning progress wheel.

I cannot seem to get the app to download and install. I get the spinning progress wheel.

Hi profoto3,
Are you trying to download and install the Creative Cloud apps? Which operating system are you using?
Here is a helpful network troubleshooting doc. Go thru the steps in this doc to ensure that you can download.
http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-network-issues.html
Free Creative Cloud | Download Adobe Creative Cloud free trial
Thanks
Scott

I get the revolving color wheel whenever I click on anything online.

I get the revolving color wheel whenever I click on anything online.

How much FREE RAM do you have when this occurs. It's easy to tell, when it beach balls open Activity Monitor (Applications - Utilities - Activity Monitor) click the System Memory tab and note how much FREE RAM is listed. If it's 500MB or less it's time for a RAM upgrade.

I get the spinning color wheel

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