Mouse cursor keeps on having a beach ball

Is this a possible sign of a failing hard disk drive?

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
First of all, press Alt, Command and Space keys, so you should see the "Force Quit" window. Then, force quit all opened applications. If this doesn't work, hold the Power button until the Mac turns off

Similar Messages

HT1338 I cant upload photos to send as email i keep geeting the spinning beach ball that freezes

I cant upload photos to send as email i keep geeting the spinning beach ball that freezes the whole system can anybody tel me how to get ovet this problem please (explain for a dummy please)

Hi,
I have a Folder called "Pictures" (My Pictures seems a bit "Windowsy" to me)
I don't have a Media folder inside there.
It would help to know if this is actually within the iTunes Library
Having said that I tend to use Eric's Method.
Pic of My own Card in the Contacts list
It shows where I have used Faces (from iPhoto) and Defaults (Login pic choices for the Account pic).
My iChat/Messages pic is the same Signature pic as used here and is in the Recents Tab on show.
You can even use the Camera if one is attached (Mac Minis and Mac Pro require External Cameras).
Drag and Drop is my preferred method.
9:47 PM Saturday; December 22, 2012
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Mouse cursor keeps dissapearing ?

help. Mouse cursor keeps disapearing. Renders whole machine useless. Have to do hard re-boot to recover cursor

I have OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), & my cursor has just recently started disappearing!
This did´nt happen in Lion.
The cursor just goes invisable at random, but mostly when I switch between Tabs mostly when I´m in Safari.
I then swipe to another App (Like Finder or something), then back to Safari & there it is!
I don´t use a mouse but a Trackpad (Not that that should make a difference).
Also the cursor jumps to another position when typing without me even touching the Trackpad.
Any suggestions?

When I try to add a contact I keep getting the spinning beach ball

I have read instructions for adding new contact, but when I try to add name all I get is the spinning beach ball. Thanks for your help.

Hi,
I'm sorry you're having this problem with your contacts and Firefox. Can you tell me which email you are trying to use in Firefox, so I can research it and help you out?
Thanks,
Michelle

Mouse cursor keeps disappearing under 10.7

Ever since I've installed 10.7 I notice that the mouse cursor has a tendency to keep dissappearing in most apps, particularly Safari. For example, like when I click a text box to type an email in Hotmail. The cursor dissappears and only re-appears when I move the mouse to get the cursor out of the program app. But after it reappears, I got back to Safari it gets hidden again. This is very frustrating indeed as I have no idea where the mouse is on the page.
As a matter of fact, as I enter this question in the text box, the cursor has completely dissappeared and only reappears (but then quickly hides again) when I go inside and outside of the text block. I know normally the cursor would dissappear when I started typing, but this happens even when I'm not and I'm shaking the mouse to try to unhide it
However it seems to happen in other apps as well, but is most frequently happening in Safari probably mostly since that is my most common app.

The cursor dissappears whenever you type on the keyboard. It just always happens globally.

Mouse cursor keeps disappearing in 10.9

Several times my mouse cursor has just danced off the screen totally, like it has a mind of it's own. Then the screen is frozen, I can't use shortcuts to save and I'm forced to hit the power button to shut down since the keyboard shortcuts won't work. Then when I restart the computer my external drive doesn't show up, so I have to use the the disk utility to repair permissions on my main drive. This iMac is only 2 months old. What is going on with the gremlin cursor. I have the plug-in keyboard and mouse. Don't have a trackpad.

The cursor dissappears whenever you type on the keyboard. It just always happens globally.

I'm the IT manager for a newspaper in Owensboro, Ky and we have been having hangup (beach ball effect) on our iMacs that have auto-updated for version 24.

Hello, I'm an IT Manager for the Messenger Inquirer newspaper in Owensboro, Ky and we been experiencing a lot of hangs (or we call the beach balling) on our iMacs (mix of 10.6 and 10.7) since version 24 came out. We usually have to force quit the app to get it going again. I've been installing Chrome as a workaround but some of our web based apps don't function correctly in Chrome so I was wanting to report this and see if you have any suggestions. I've cleared everything in history and made sure Java and Flash are current. Any help would be appreciated.

Does this happen on multiple computers?
Can you disable hardware acceleration as a first try.
Then perform these steps:
*Click the orange Firefox button at the top left, then select the "Options" button, or, if there is no Firefox button at the top, go to Tools > Options.
*In the Firefox options window click the ''Advanced'' tab, then select "General".
*In the settings list, you should find the ''Use hardware acceleration when available'' checkbox. Uncheck this checkbox.
*Now, restart Firefox and see if the problems persist.
Additionally, please check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in the following Knowledge base articles:
* [[Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems]]
* [[Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL]]

My mouse cursor keep blinking - Please Help

I am using a Lenovo laptop since 2008. I like this product as my pet. But recently due to a problem I am not able to do any kind of work using this.
Product: 3000 G410 2049
Operating system: Windows 7
The mouse start blinking during boot and it stop for few minutes if I press any key and then again start this problem again.
I scan my laptop again and again and even reinstall the operating system but not able to fix it
kind regards,
Solved!
Go to Solution.

when you see lenovo logo, press f2 for bios, set default setting or just make a boot order for your device:
first device > hdd, second device >dvd.
or just remove the disk from dvdrom.

Mouse cursor turned into beach ball

Within my son's user account, the mouse cursor has turned into the beach ball. It doesn't spin and he can use it normally as a cursor (both with apps and with the Finder), but it's annoying (and too big for a cursor tip).
Who can help me out?
Thanks a lot
Peter

As far as I know, mighty mouse software (in System Preferences If I am not mistaken) allows one to bring customisations to the cursor used.
There is a "haxie" program also called "Mighty Mouse" that does this, hyphen. Its not the same thing as the Mighty Mouse System Prefs panel, though.
THe Universal Access System Prefs will let you change the SIZE of the cursor, but not the shape.
This has got to be a .plist issue in the User's Library Prefs folder of some kind I would think.
Cheers
Rod

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?

The beach ball will not go away. It is acting as the cursor in all open programs. I know summer starts this week but this is ridiculous!

The beach ball will not go away. It is acting as the cursor in all open programs. I know summer starts this week but this is ridiculous!
thanks Denise

This just happened here twice to. Was working in Photoshop CC on my Cintiq HD24 Touch when the cursor turned into a static beach ball. First time i ended up rebooting (really annoiying). Second time i opened Chrome to google this bug. Somewhere in the process of searching information my cursor changed back to an arrow???
Using Mavericks on a rMBP mid 2012, Photoshop CC and a Wacom Cintiq HD24 Touch. Did not experience this before working on the Cintiq.
Just letting you know.

Mouse cursor snaps to point on screen

I posted this two days ago in the Mac Pro forum, but after searching for a solution since then, I've come to two conclusions: 1) the problem is not a hardware one and 2) using OS X without a mouse is horrendous. Forgive me for copying and editing my own original postings. First, here is a digest:
- the cursor snaps back to its starting point on the screen after ca. 1/2 sec of movement, I can hardly move the cursor to halfway the screen before it snaps back
- not a hardware problem, appears with Kensington Expert Trackball, Magic Trackpad, Apple Magic Mouse and keyboard used as mouse
- not connected with a single user account, appears in the login screen, main user account and system operator account
- the snap-to position differs in the login screen and user accounts
- turning of the computer, unplugging does not work
- resetting PRAM does not work
- unplugging + replugging trackball USB-cable does not work
- the problem appeared suddenly in mid of normal use.I had not changed in settings before the problem
Any ideas? Is it possible to contact someone at Apple directly?
Below my original messages:
I started having a strange problem with the mouse cursor. I started the computer, the mouse worked fine as always. Suddenly the cursor started fixating on a point on the lower right portion of the screen. I would move the cursor, it would move maybe halfway across the screen for a split second and then snap right back to the starting position.
I tried shutting down the computer and restarting. Didn't help. The cursor behaves the same way in the login screen too. The only difference is that now the "homing position" is somewhere in the upper right part of the screen.
I have a Kensington Expert trackball and a Magic Trackpad. I've removed the trackpad, in case it had started interfering with the trackball (never done that before though). Didn't help. I've unplugged and replugged the trackball USB-cable, no help.
I had the Mac Pro unplugged for over a day as I was travelling and the Kensington Expert Mouse too. Behaved exactly the same when I switched on the computer again. I tried resetting the PRAM. Didn't help.
I don't know where the problem lies. The mouse cursor keeps snapping to a position in both the login screen and my user screen. The snap-back position is different in the different screens. The cursor returns to its position when both the Magic Trackpad and the Expert Mouse are connected or when only one of them is. I can move the cursor half a screen, then it snaps back. Clicking functions, but I never have any time to click anything when the cursor bounces back to its spot.
My final remedy would be reinstalling Snow Leopard, but before I try that I would like tro try something less radical. I would also delete the mouse .plist file, but I don't know where it is. I guess that probably would not help, as the cursor behaves crazy even in the login screen, so the user setting should not be the problem.
I've come to the conclusion, that the problem is not a hardware one. The mouse cursor snaps to point on the screen when I use: 1) a Kensington Expert Mouse, 2) a Magic Trackpad, 3) the Magic Mouse that arrived with my computer and when I turned on 4) use keyboard as mouse. The problem also is not tied to a certain user because it appears 1) in the login screen, 2) my user account and 3) the sysop account. I can't figure out where to look for the problem or fix it.

I give up.
I've tried everything I can think of, to fix the behavior of the mouse cursor. I've zapped the pram, I've fixed file permissions, I've removed all startup items, I've tried starting the computer in Safe Mode. No can do.
The mouse cursor snaps back to a position on the screen when I try to move it. This happens within a second, so I might be able to move the cursor half-way across the screen, but that's it. It doesn't matter how fast I move the mouse. The cursor is dysfunctional in the normal user account, the administrator account and in the login screen. It works perfectly fine in Safe Mode.
The mouse cursor misbehaves when using a USB track-ball, the Magic Trackpad or the keyboard with accessibility settings.
After advise received at this site, I tried booting up in Safe Mode and after that the cursor worked for a month or so, but the problem returned. I see no rhyme or reason why the problem appeared for the first place, or why it reappeared. I had originally had two pointing devices the track-ball and the Trackpad connected to my Mac Pro at the same time. After the problem first appeared, I removed the Trackpad. I returned it to use a day before the problem reappeared, but I don't know if that is the cause of the problem. The computer had worked perfectly fine for some months with two pointing devices before the problem appeared.
I've noticed that some other people have had the same problem. One had a feline related fix, which doesn't help me since I don't have a cat. Another fixed the problem by switching off the Internet, but that didn't help me.
What I now would like is to make an official bug-report, so that the problem could be fixed someday. I hope Apple is listening. I also plan to reinstall Snow Leopard (I have 10.6.7) next weekend. I had hoped to install a new OS only when Lion got out, but I don't seem to have much choice not. I can either simply reinstall or make a clean reinstall by erasing the disk in the process. I'd like to avoid reinstalling my programs, but I feel it is safer to wipe everything and start from scratch. Even then, I have no assurance this doesn't happen again.

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

Setting mouse cursor from script (JS, CS2, CS3)

I'm working on scripts for Mac users. What I'd like to know is if there is a way to change the mouse pointer from within a script. Can one do this?
The reason I need to do this is that when a script runs the cursor changes to the spinning beach ball. I display a dialog asking for information and may users think the script has hung InDesign because of the beach ball. People also don't know where the hotspot is on the beach ball so it's hard to click things accurately.
Any tips?

I have often noticed that spinning beachball and found it distasteful when working with a dialog, but there's not much choice, I'm afraid. ScriptUI might be a way out in CS3, but not in CS2. If you want the same script to work in both, then I think you're stuck with the beachball.
Dave

Going to 'Sent' gets me spinning beach ball

When I go to check my 'Sent' folder in Mail, I keep getting the spinning beach ball and I end up having to force quit Mail.
Any idea what's going on?
Thanks

This is also happening when I have an AOL account installed now for some reason. I have to go into Preferences real quickly to delete it and that takes care of the beach ball problem.
So basically, AOL account is causing my Mail problems.

Mouse cursor keeps on having a beach ball

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