IPhoto Unresponsive, Spinning Beach Ball

Whenever I attempt to open iPhoto, I get the spinning beach ball and have to force quit. This occurs every time. Any suggestions?

Try trash the com.apple.iPhoto.plist file from the HD/Users/ Your Name / library / preferences folder. (Remember you'll need to reset your User options afterwards. These include minor settings like the window colour and so on. Note: If you've moved your library you'll need to point iPhoto at it again.)
What's the plist file?
For new users: Every application on your Mac has an accompanying plist file. It records certain User choices. For instance, in your favourite Word Processor it remembers your choice of Default Font, on your Web Browser is remembers things like your choice of Home Page. It even recalls what windows you had open last if your app allows you to pick up from where you left off last. The iPhoto plist file remembers things like the location of the Library, your choice of background colour, whether you are running a Referenced or Managed Library, what preferences you have for autosplitting events and so on. Trashing the plist file forces the app to generate a new one on the next launch, and this restores things to the Factory Defaults. Hence, if you've changed any of these things you'll need to reset them. If you haven't, then no bother. Trashing the plist file is Mac troubleshooting 101.
If tht doesn't help:
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

Similar Messages

IPhoto MobileMe Spinning Beach Ball of Death

When in iPhoto going into the preferences then the MobileMe section. It hasn't updated since 11/1/08 and has the beach ball spinning. Any ideas?
AW

Give this basic remedy a try. Quit iPhoto and delete your iPhoto preferences. To do this, go to your username> library> preferences> com.apple.iphoto.plist. Delete this file. Then reopen iPhoto; it will create a new preference file with all of the default settings.
I hope this helps.

Spinning Beach Ball on Start Up of iPhoto 09'

I have suddenly started having problems with iPhoto '09. I have about 4500 photos in my library. I have a late 2009 i7 iMac running mountain lion with 12 gb of RAM.
When I start iPhoto, it opens quickly enough, but as soon as I move my cursor I get a spinning beach ball for about 20-30 seconds. Then everything seems to work OK. I have deleted my cache and plist files and rebuilt the thumbnails, etc. to no avail. I also turned off sharing and unclicked look for shared photos. I have "check for new published photos" set to manually.
Does anyone have any idea what the issue is or how to fix it?
Many thanks.

I went into the Console and when I open iPhoto I get the following messages. Does this mean anything to you?
Many thanks.
5/25/13 12:26:37.927 PM iPhoto[407]: This process is attempting to exclude an item from Time Machine by path without administrator privileges. This is not supported.
5/25/13 12:26:37.927 PM iPhoto[407]: This process is attempting to exclude an item from Time Machine by path without administrator privileges. This is not supported.
5/25/13 12:26:37.928 PM iPhoto[407]: This process is attempting to exclude an item from Time Machine by path without administrator privileges. This is not supported.
5/25/13 12:26:37.928 PM iPhoto[407]: This process is attempting to exclude an item from Time Machine by path without administrator privileges. This is not supported.
5/25/13 12:26:38.161 PM iPhoto[407]: CFURLGetFSRef was passed this URL which has no scheme (the URL may not work with other CFURL routines): /Applications/iPhoto.app
5/25/13 12:26:38.179 PM iPhoto[407]: CFURLGetFSRef was passed this URL which has no scheme (the URL may not work with other CFURL routines): /Applications/iPhoto.app
5/25/13 12:26:38.181 PM iPhoto[407]: CFURLGetFSRef was passed this URL which has no scheme (the URL may not work with other CFURL routines): /Applications/iPhoto.app
5/25/13 12:26:38.184 PM iPhoto[407]: CFURLGetFSRef was passed this URL which has no scheme (the URL may not work with other CFURL routines): /Applications/iPhoto.app

Solution to iPhoto spinning beach ball for Book projects with too many unplaced photos

A few days ago I discovered the solution to this problem for a client using iPhoto 9.5.1 in OS X Mavericks 10.9.4.
=====
TRIED ALL KNOWN SUGGESTIONS BUT NONE HELPED
My client had already tried repairing, rebuilding etc. the iPhoto Library, and I tried OS X's Disk Verify and Repair Permissions plus emptied the cache folder in system Library and in the hidden user Library folder (option-key "Go" menu, Library). None of this helped.
CLUE TO PROBLEM
I noticed several of her iPhoto Book projects each had thousands of "unplaced" photos. In each of those cases, each Book project only had 10-50 "placed" photos used to order the book but thousands of "unplaced" photos. In a Book project, clicking on the bottom-right corner's "Photo" icon-button caused an extremely long lasting spinning beach ball making iPhoto unusable for long periods.
I discovered the problem by clicking once on an existing Book project's name in the left column of iPhoto, then letting go of the mouse with its arrow cursor hovering over the selected Book project name. Within 1-7 seconds, a little pop-up appears listing the total number of photos (placed + unplaced) in that Book project. For many Book projects, the total number was just several more photos than the number of "placed" photos, e.g., a Book with 25 photos showed "(37)" in the pop-up info by the hovering stationary mouse, meaning 37 total photos (placed + unplaced) are associated with that Book project.
BUT...
...some projects listed over 5,000 (five thousand) photos associated with a single Book project that had only placed 20-40 photos in the final printed book. One Book project had 6,070 and several other small book projects showed over 1,000 photos. In each Book project with a mass of unplaced photos, clicking the bottom-right "Photo" icon-button caused a very long-lasting spinning beach ball, almost certainly because iPhoto struggled to build a huge list of thumbnails for the mass of unplaced photos.
My client didn't understand how to efficiently add photos to a new Book project and was clicking on the pull-down menu in the right column that appears after clicking the Photo icon-button within the Book project. From the menu she chose "Last import..." or other menu choice that added a mass of "unplaced" photos to the Book project.
She didn't realize that after creating a new Book project, she could simply drag an individual photo or multi-selected group of photos or an event or "faces" group from its respective library section and drop it onto the Book project's name in the left column, thereby adding only a small group of "unplaced" photos.
USER SOLUTIONS
=====Delete mass of "unplaced photos" within a Book project
This works best for cleaning up smaller number of unplaced photos from completed Book projects.
Problems with solution:
- if the number of unplaced photos is huge, e.g., 6,070, the list of unplaced photos won't appear for a long, long time if ever.
- even if the list of unplaced photos finally appears, there's no way to select more than one thumbnail at a time, i.e., command-a for Select All doesn't work, nor do shift-clicks and command-clicks for multi-item selecting. You must click one photo then tap the "delete" key on your keyboard repeatedly and fast for this to be practical (note: delete key presses are cached here (meaning accumulated until it catches up processing them later); tapping the delete key like mad then waiting for iPhoto to catch up takes lots of patience.
====Delete an entire existing Book project containing a mass association of unplaced photos
This is practical if you've already printed your Book project and no longer need it. My client chose this method for Book projects with a mega mass of unplaced photos.
Problem with solution:
- for incomplete Book projects in progress with a mass of unplaced photos, you'd have to start over after deleting the whole thing.
NEED FOR IMPROVED IPHOTO FEATURE(S)
(1) The existing "Clear Placed Photos" button within a Book project might be useful, but it'd be even better to also have a button to "Clear Unplaced Photos,” and this button should be available outside of the section that struggles to display thumbnails of large numbers of unplaced photos. Clicking "Clear Unplaced Photos" would do the trick.
(2) An additional iPhoto behavior might help: iPhoto should warn with an option to cancel when adding a mass of photos to the "unplaced photo" section if the number of photos exceeds ??? (400??).
(3) Add another choice to iPhoto’s special startup Administrative window (Repair, Rebuild, etc.): "Remove unplaced photos from existing projects. (Doesn't destroy any photos in Library)"
Whew!

Like I mentioned in the post, corruption was probably ruled out by running all the Admin features at iPhoto startup (e.g., Rebuild, etc.). I also stated in my post that I also ran a Disk Verify and Repaired Permissions in OSX (via Disk Utility). I also emptied system Library cache files as I stated in my post.
I was paid to figure out the solution and am not getting paid to troubleshoot for Apple. The more unplaced photos there are in a Book project, the longer it takes to build thumbnails. It's an old general problem in computing when building lists on the fly.
The delay happened for all Book projects with lots of unplaced photos (almost*** certainly more than Apple imagined a user would use), and the beach ball delay was proportional to the number unplaced photos, which super large numbers of photos.
I very much doubt photos are corrupt. But Apple will probably figure it out. It was EASILY reproducible. Try it with different number of unplaced photos known not be corrupt (they display fine elsewhere and iPhoto's and Disk Utlity's admin Verify, Repair etc features show no problems).
I'm done with this.
My client's iPhoto works well now and she knows how avoid placing exorbitant numbers of unplaced photos into her project. I'm not getting paid to answer all this, so good night.
=======
***"Science is the outcome of being prepared to live without certainty and therefore a mark of maturity. It embraces doubt and loose ends."
— A. C. Grayling

Transferring photos from camera or memory card causes iPhoto to hang up with the spinning beach ball - why

Transferring photos from camera or memory card causes iPhoto to hang up with the spinning beach ball - why? This happens only on a 5 year old iMac running 10.6.8. It is a recent developmemt. All other machines have no problen with the same card.

I click on the send feedback everytime it pops up with the force quit, so they'er getting it.
That sends a crash report. Its doubtful that these are ever seen by a human being, but more likely datamined. Sending feedback reaches an actual person.
My guess from yourdescription is that the portion of the OS (note, OS, not iPhoto) that manages the importing process is what's crashing.
Regards
TD

Iphoto stopped working,all i get now is spinning beach ball of death.help!

iphoto stopped working,all i get know is spinning beach ball of death.please help.

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

Very Strange iPhoto problem and lots of spinning beach balls!

Hi - been using iPhoto 08 since it came out. Never a problem. About a week ago things starting going weird. It would crash and I'd get the spinning beach ball a lot. This never happened ever. It got so bad I jumped on here, followed some advice and downloaded iphoto library manager. I rebuilt my library - no change. I would double click a photo to enlarge it and it would just stop with a spinning ball. Other programs worked fine, just iPhoto would ground to a halt. Then I noticed some pics I would double click to enlarge would be corrupt. Grey half way down or black completely? They use to be fine. So I got so frustrated that I reinstalled Leopard. Everything worked fine. I even downloaded a trial Lightroom and it worked fine too with a project of mine. Tonight I decided to test iPhoto and it is still playing up. My iMac is a 24 with all latest updates. 4 Gig ram. Hard drive has 250 gig available. my iPhoto library is on an external drive which has 140 gig available. Something went wrong in the last week or so. Is there a way to search out and find a corrupt file or whatever is causing my mac to struggle using iphoto? Thanks so very much for any help.
Rob

Have you tried to rebuild the library? Make a backup of it first and then launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. Select all the options.
If that doesn't clear up iPhoto's problems rebuild the library with iPhoto Library Manager as follows:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 -Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 -Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your User/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
3 - Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File->Rebuild Library menu option
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be untouched for further attempts at fixing or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory .
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier versions) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. There are versions that are compatible with iPhoto 5, 6, 7 and 8 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
NOTE: iPhoto 8's (09) new option in the library rebuild pane, "Rebuild the iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup" may make this tip obsolete. We'll know when users have occasion to use it and see if that's the case.

IPhoto 9 just sits there with a spinning beach ball of DEATH!

Hello. I upgraded my G5 power pc to OSX 10.5.8. I upgraded to iLife 9 (8.1.2). Since I did this iLife, iDVD & iMovie just sit there with the spinning beach ball of DEATH.
Before my upgrade I had 22 G of hard disk space. I’m now down to 4G of hard drive space. I cannot get into iPhoto to back up any of the pictures. I have run Tech Tool, Onyx, I did a hard wear test from my original Mac disks. Everything passed.
I reinstalled iLife 4 times so far. I have thrown out all the plists. So far nothing is working.
Any help would be wonderful.
Thanks.

That library may have been corrupted by having it on an over full disk.
Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and see if that will open it.
If not then 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, faces and places 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

IPhoto does not start - spinning beach ball of death

Hi
When I try to start iPhoto I get the spinning beach ball of death and the whole laptop freezes.
Cannot force quit, have to restart via power button.
I have tried starting iPhoto while holding the Option key - no difference.
Jenn

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, faces and places 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

IPhoto 09 and 11: spinning beach ball of death when accessing contextual menu.

Whenever I right click to access the contextual menu, iPhoto gives me the spinning beach ball of death. This happens only when I right click on a photo from the events in the iPhoto library. It freezes for a few seconds then the spinning ball appears.
This happened in iPhoto 09 so I upgraded to iPhoto 11, but the problem is still there. I have deleted all files from the previous version before installing iPhoto 11 but it didn't solve the problem. Those files were application support files, cache and preferences all in the library. I have even created a new library in iPhoto 11 and imported a few photos just to test it out, but the problem persisted. I just can't right click without having that spinning beach ball of death appear. The only solution is to force quit the application. This is very frustrating and I would appreciate any help.
I am running Mac OS X Mountain Lion.
Thanks

Try the following:
1 - delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your
User/Home/Library/ Preferences folder.
2 - delete iPhoto's cache file, Cache.db, that is located in your
User/Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto folder (Snow Leopard and Earlier).
or with Lion and Mt. Lion from the User/Library/Containers/com.apple.iPhoto/
Data/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto folder
3 - try to launch iPhoto and check for any improvements.
NOTE 1: If you're moved your library from its default location in your Home/Pictures folder you will have to point iPhoto to its new location when you next open iPhoto by holding down the Option key when launching iPhoto. You'll also have to reset the iPhoto's various preferences.
NOTE 2: In Lion and Mountain Lion the Library folder is now invisible. To make it permanently visible enter the following in the Terminal application window: chflags nohidden ~/Library and hit the Enter button - 10.7: Un-hide the User Library folder.

IPHOTO 11 causing spinning beach ball and freezing. help

I have a mid 2009 macbook with 2.3 dual core and 2 gb ram. i installed iPhoto 11 after a very successful 10.7.3 install. all was well then i began to import my photos from a thumb drive that i downloaded from a macbook pro onto a thumb drive. after few hiccups i realized i had a file that was stopping the import as it cam eup with the error message. so i deleted that and then about 3/4 of the way through the laptop just choked up and the spinning beach ball started and wouldnt stop. couldnt get it to force quit etc..
so after several days of attempts i gave up ended up having to do a safe reboot too many times and have now deleted iphoto and all its contents. my mac is working alebit is a bit sluggishly.
any help? is this due to just 2 gig of ram do i need more ram? i am at a loss and i really need to upload these photos but it just doesnt seems worth the hassle

That shoots that theory down. Try this: launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Import some photos and check to see if the same problem persists. If that library works without a problem your current library is suspect.
In that case if you have the space available on your hard drive and don't aready have a backup copy of the library make a temporary, backup copy (select the library and type Command+D) and apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.

Spinning beach ball for 45-60 seconds, then fine

For several months now, I've had the spinning beach ball issue on my Macbook Pro. Within the first 5 minutes after boot up, the spinning beach ball will occur, seemingly at random (no specific app or action), for 45-60 seconds. While this happens, the system becomes completely unresponsive. But after this occurrence within the first five minutes after startup, it never happens again and everything is fine - until I reboot of course.
I am running Snow Leopard and this problem was happening before I installed Snow Leopard, so that's not it. But one thing I did do, which I am semi-convinced is the culprit, is I replaced my hard drive with a Seagate 500 mb Momentus drive. The actual model # is SEAST9500420AS. I don't know for sure, but that's around the time this issue first started. I know there is/was a spinning beach ball problem with the newer Macbook Pros and they were attributing it to the hard drive which just so happens to be the same hard drive I now have in my Macbook Pro. There was recently an EFI update that seemed to fix the problem for the newer models, but mine is the first generation right when they went to Intel chips (bought mine in April, 2006). Problem is, if it is my drive, this new EFI update that fixes the issue on the new models won't install on mine.
I also did a verify disk and repair disk permissions, but that was no help. Another thing I found going through the discussion groups was that the problem could happen because both the Macbook Pro and the Seagate drive have anti-shock technology that could conflict with one another. So if you disabled the anti-shock on the Macbook Pro, it might solve the problem as it seemed to for some folks out there. But I did that and it didn't help either.
I'm thinking it's my hard drive, but don't know how to fix it. But it could be something I haven't looked at yet or thought of. I've been trying everything the last several months with no luck and it's been driving me batty! What's really strange is it only happens once and always within the first 5 minutes after start up. Anybody have any suggestions? Thanks.

I just finished doing lots of different tests to try to solve my problem. Didn't resolve it, but I did manage to eliminate some things and narrow it down further.
First I removed all my login items and restarted my computer. That didn't fix the problem.
So then I thought it might have something to do with Safari since that's one of the first things I open up when I start my computer and there are numerous reports in the discussions of spinning beach balls with Safari 4.0.3 which I have. So I purposely did not open Safari after startup. Problem still happened.
So then I thought maybe it has something to do with my internet connection. So I disconnected my internet connection and rebooted. Then I only opened programs that don't use online access. I leisurely opened up a program, did a few things in it, closed it, and then did the same thing with another program. Did some things with Finder. Purposely did not rush things. Waited 4-5 seconds after every operation's completion before executing another task. Never had more than one program open at any given time to eliminate any issue with two many resources open. You guessed it - the problem STILL happened. Not that it matters, but it happened when I hit Command-I on my hard drive icon to get the info pane. A fairly innocuous task. Froze up with the spinning beach ball for at least 45-50 seconds. Tried clicking a few other things while this was happening, but nothing. Once it freed up, a few things I clicked on previously suddenly became active and everything was fine again. Tried Command-I for a lot of different things with no problem. Response was instantaneous.
It pretty much happens 3-4 minutes into a session and then never happens again. And I think my test here eliminated several possibilities. Very frustrating. I hope this helps someone come up with a possible solution. Thanks.

Spinning beach ball FFv21, mac os 10.6.8, seizes control of my computer every 10 seconds - Im going mad!!

Duplicate see [/questions/960928]
Im going insane with the spinning beachball on mac when using Firefox v21.
It happens several times per minute with something as simple as choosing the next field on a page or even scrolling down the page using the scroller on the right hand of the page.
Im on a laptop which has os 10.6.8 installed and the laptop has 8gig of ram and a 2.8ghz intel core 2 duo processor.
On previous versions of Firefox I used to get "unresponsive script" warnings with the option to stop it. These warnings would pop up and never give the option to "always stop an unresponsive script AND never take total control of my computer trying to get the script to respond"
There is no option to block the script on the site its coming from.
I did have a block script plug in but no sites work properly if java script isnt enabled.
With Firefox21 I dont get these pop up warnings any more.
I have a lot of tabs open and when the spinning beach ball happens too often I quit firefox and open it again. It remembers my tabs but doesnt load till I click on the tab.
Despite this Firefox will start stalling and showing the beachball spinning only after a few new pages are opened.
It is enfuriating and I dont consider the software to be working properly.
Im wondering has something gottten corrupted in the System Library when firefox installs or if there is a compatability problem with versions of Firefox, my OS10.6.8, Java, Flash?
I can only look at one tab at a time - I WOULD LOVE IF THERE WAS AN OPTION TO
"NOT GIVE ANY RESOURCES TO OTHER TABS WHICH ARENT BEING VIEWED"
I used to use a plug in called Pause All Tabs which was brilliant and gave me back control of my computer. I cant get it for FF21
So what can I do? Use Chrome instead?

Locking as duplicate. Please see and continue with [/questions/960928]

Spinning Beach Ball - Network Issue?

Hi Folks,
I know there have been posts on this over time but my particular question does not appear to have been answered. My apologies if I missed a response somewhere else in the forums. I'll try to keep it short.
Basically, a month or so ago I started getting the spinning beach ball in any application at various points of time. There was no rhyme or reason it seemed. It could happen when I have one application open, 5 applications open, it could happen in 5 five minutes or 2 hours later. Once the beachball started spinning, it wouldn't go away and it prevented me from using other apps as well, compelling me to do a manual shut down. I typically use only iPhoto, Safari, iDvd, Numbers and Mail. It could happen in any of them.
I've tried everything. Apple tech support had me do an archive and install - didn't work. I got Disk Warrior 4.2. Nope. I deleted plug-ins and did some other maintenance tasks etc., etc. but nothing worked.
Activity Monitor didn't seem to show anything alarming. Same with Console. Apple suggested I bring it into a tech at the local Apple Store. I did that and after 4 days of running their diagnostics, they could not replicate the 'hang' on the applications. That is, they found no problems with the Macbook - hardware or software.
Now I'm wondering (not being a computer savvy person I don't know if this is possible) if this is a wireless internet issue. Could my home network be a source of the application 'hang' (spinning beach ball) that I've experienced? It's the only thing I can think of that is different from my home computer set-up to the store. My router/modem is a SMC Gateway.
Any thoughts are really appreciated. Thanks so much for your brains on this!
Andyman

Ok folks,
I've got the one from yesterday and another one today below it. This was running while I was trying to burn a DVD in iDVD. Nothing else was running as far as I know and Airport was turned 'off':
10-09-19 7:08:45 PM com.apple.launchd[1] * launchd[1] has started up. *
10-09-19 7:09:16 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[84] (com.apple.ReportCrash) Falling back to default Mach exception handler. Could not find: com.apple.ReportCrash.Self
10-09-19 7:09:26 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[84]
(com.apple.Kerberos.renew.plist[102]) Exited with exit code: 1
10-09-19 7:09:50 PM com.apple.WindowServer[62] Sun Sep 19 19:09:50 andrew-maneras-macbook.local WindowServer[62] <Error>: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.
10-09-19 7:33:47 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[84] ([0x0-0x11011].org.m0k.handbrake[131]) Exited: Terminated
10-09-19 8:09:29 PM com.apple.backupd-auto[229] Not starting scheduled Time Machine backup - time machine destination not resolvable.
10-09-19 8:17:32 PM SystemUIServer[89] It does not make sense to draw an image when [NSGraphicsContext currentContext] is nil. This is a programming error. Break on _NSWarnForDrawingImageWithNoCurrentContext to debug. This will be logged only once. This may break in the future.
10-09-19 8:22:02 PM [0x0-0x2c02c].backupd-helper[236] Not starting Time Machine backup after wake - failed to resolve alias to backup volume
10-09-19 9:47:00 PM com.apple.launchd[1] * launchd[1] has started up. *
10-09-19 9:48:48 PM com.apple.launchd[1] * launchd[1] has started up. *
10-09-19 9:49:39 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[82] (com.apple.ReportCrash) Falling back to default Mach exception handler. Could not find: com.apple.ReportCrash.Self
10-09-19 9:49:48 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[82] (com.apple.Kerberos.renew.plist[105]) Exited with exit code: 1
Here's another one today that occurred during a print attempt:
10-09-20 12:01:17 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[84] (com.apple.Kerberos.renew.plist[104]) Exited with exit code: 1
10-09-20 12:35:06 PM com.apple.launchd[1] * launchd[1] has started up. *
10-09-20 12:35:55 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[84] (com.apple.ReportCrash) Falling back to default Mach exception handler. Could not find: com.apple.ReportCrash.Self
10-09-20 12:35:57 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[84] (com.apple.Kerberos.renew.plist[103]) Exited with exit code: 1
10-09-20 5:14:12 PM [0x0-0x18018].backupd-helper[143] Not starting Time Machine backup after wake - failed to resolve alias to backup volume
10-09-20 5:17:02 PM [0x0-0x1c01c].com.apple.iWork.Keynote[165] objc[165]: Class SFXMeshAnimation is implemented in both /Applications/iWork '08/Keynote.app/Contents/Resources/Animations/Bolt.sfxplugin/Contents/MacOS/Bol t and /Applications/iWork '08/Keynote.app/Contents/Resources/Animations/Kiln.sfxplugin/Contents/MacOS/Kil n. One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
10-09-20 5:17:02 PM com.apple.WindowServer[63] Mon Sep 20 17:17:02 andrew-maneras-macbook.local WindowServer[63] <Error>: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.
10-09-20 5:17:14 PM Keynote[165] * WARNING: Method setDrawsGrid: in class BGOutlineView is deprecated. It will be removed in a future release and should no longer be used.

Why can't I download PDF files, and why does the "spinning beach ball" keep showing up?

I have a late 2008 iMac, 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, 500 Gig Hardrive, and I'm using OS X 10.6.8. In addition, there are three external drives - 750 G Maxtor, 1T Maxtor, and 1T LaCie for Time Machine. There are only 20 Gigs left of space on the internal hard drive. The two problems I continue to have are that PDF files are not visible when I click on the download link, and I keep seeing the "spinning beach ball" when I'm trying to work with photos in iPhoto '09 or Lightroom 4.1. Sometimes it seems like the system is waiting for the 750 G external drive to activate before the beach ball disappears. Can anyone tell me what's going on?

There are only 20 Gigs left of space on the internal hard drive.
That'll slow you down a bit.
See if disconnecting the LaCie helps.
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?

IPhoto Unresponsive, Spinning Beach Ball

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