System preferences freezes! Spinning beach ball.

My new MBP seems to be teasing me a bit. Whenever I want to change something in the system preferences, System preferences sort of freezes and the beachball starts to spin for up to 30 seconds. This mainly happens when I try to change screensaver or desktop image.
I migrated my account from a 3 year old MacBook.
Any ideas what might be wrong?

I figured it out
Thank you

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10.6.8 update won't install gets half way through then just freezes spinning beach ball for 4 hours any ideas y. Tried and restarted 3 times already does the same thing each time have to hold down the power button to restart

10.6.8 update won't install gets half way through then just freezes spinning beach ball for 4 hours any ideas y. Tried and restarted 3 times already does the same thing each time have to hold down the power button to restart. Anyone can help

Ok will check, as of right now I have 82.57gb free, that's plenty of space will check the disk though using disk utility. Also I am now downloading the update from the apple website instead of going through software update

Added user accounts all freeze (spinning beach ball)

Why do all user accounts (other than my main administrator account) freeze after logging in. The Finder freezes with the spinning beach ball just when the account seems to have logged in properly. I created new accounts (thinking that my old accounts were corrupted), but the new accounts did the same thing. My main user account is fine. I haven't used the other accounts for a while now, so why would they suddenly have problems now?! Is something corrupted in my system?!
It almost seems like the Finder is waiting for something to load, but it never gets loaded-so it gives me the beach ball while it waits. Is this what is happening? I can't even force the finder to quit. I have to force the computer to shut off by using the power switch.

Hi Paul
Try this.
Determine the Username for one of these other accounts.
Write down this chosen AccountUsername.
In your main admin account, Open Terminal, found in Applications/Utilities, and enter into terminal this command, (substitute the theAccountUsername with the actual account name you wrote down)
sudo rm /Users/theAccountUsername/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist
then type in your admin password. It will not appear as you type, then press Return, then type
exit
and quit Terminial.
Log out and log into that usernames's account that you just worked on.
See how that goes.
Note: if you need to Force Quit, try the four key press of Control + Option + Command + Escape to open the Force Quit Dialogue box and try and Force Quit Finder. That may give you a chance to exit normally.
Also by doing those hard shutdowns you may need to run Repair Disk from the boot Installation Disk just to check that the file structure is OK.
regards roam

Potential fix for frequent freezes - spinning beach ball - in all apps

I've had escalating difficulties over the past few weeks with frequent crashes. It started out that iTunes would pause suddenly in the middle of a song, and give me the spinning beach ball for 5-10 seconds before starting to play again; it then progressed to Safari doing the same thing when I tried to load process-heavy pages (I noticed it especially on pages with large animated ads). It got progressively worse, to the point where yesterday I had to force restart about fifteen times, and a couple of those were so bad that I'd have to re-restart five seconds after logging in.
Anyway, the upshot of all of this is that I tried various solutions I've seen around the boards - seems a bunch of folks are having similar difficulties - and so I tried a couple of the suggestions: repairing permissions; using Macaroni to do routine maintenance such as clearing logs & caches; running Disk Utility. I found that using a newly-created account got rid of the problem, so I figured there was some problem with my user account.
Well, I saw someone suggest in another thread dragging the Fonts folder to the desktop and restart; the next step in the process was to do the same with Preferences. I got into my library folder and found I had not one but two Fonts folders - seemingly identical in their contents (encodings.dir, fonts.dir, fonts.list, fonts.scale) and then a third folder with all the actual font files in it. Not sure how it happened that I had two Fonts folders, but I dragged both of them to the desktop and let the computer replace it upon restart.
And miracle of miracles, that seems to have solved the problem. Not sure if the computer was trying to look in the Library for fonts and getting confused by finding two identical files, or what, but hey, I can't complain.
So I thought I'd post this here in case it's helpful for anyone else!
~t.

I've had escalating difficulties over the past few weeks with frequent crashes. It started out that iTunes would pause suddenly in the middle of a song, and give me the spinning beach ball for 5-10 seconds before starting to play again; it then progressed to Safari doing the same thing when I tried to load process-heavy pages (I noticed it especially on pages with large animated ads). It got progressively worse, to the point where yesterday I had to force restart about fifteen times, and a couple of those were so bad that I'd have to re-restart five seconds after logging in.
Anyway, the upshot of all of this is that I tried various solutions I've seen around the boards - seems a bunch of folks are having similar difficulties - and so I tried a couple of the suggestions: repairing permissions; using Macaroni to do routine maintenance such as clearing logs & caches; running Disk Utility. I found that using a newly-created account got rid of the problem, so I figured there was some problem with my user account.
Well, I saw someone suggest in another thread dragging the Fonts folder to the desktop and restart; the next step in the process was to do the same with Preferences. I got into my library folder and found I had not one but two Fonts folders - seemingly identical in their contents (encodings.dir, fonts.dir, fonts.list, fonts.scale) and then a third folder with all the actual font files in it. Not sure how it happened that I had two Fonts folders, but I dragged both of them to the desktop and let the computer replace it upon restart.
And miracle of miracles, that seems to have solved the problem. Not sure if the computer was trying to look in the Library for fonts and getting confused by finding two identical files, or what, but hey, I can't complain.
So I thought I'd post this here in case it's helpful for anyone else!
~t.

Finder freezes (spinning beach ball) for minutes when in column view

Just in the last weeks, I get the spinning beach ball when I try to select an item in the column view. Doesnt happen with a folder, which just opens up another pane.
The beach ball continues for a couple of minutes, then it stops and the item is viewable.
This happens also when trying to open files from applications (in the column view)
Powermac G4, Dual 1.0ghz Mac OS X (10.4.3)

First, try using Disk Utility to repair your startup disk (hard drive) as shown in Dr.Smokes repair thread.
Doing the things in his link is a good start for a monthly maintenance program.
If that does'nt help, check out his Spinning Beachball link.
Cheers!
DALE

Mavericks mail hanging (spinning beach ball)

Since upgrading yesterday the Mail application is constantly freezing (spinning beach ball) and the only option is force-quit. Sometimes happend when I try to draft a new mail, sometimes when I read and email and sometimes on its own when I come back to my computer.
I can make it happen 100% of the time when I try toselect Mail > Preferences
The dialog never comes up and I get the spinning beach ball.
Date/Time:       2013-10-24 04:09:07 -0700
OS Version:      10.9 (Build 13A603)
Architecture:    x86_64
Report Version: 18
Command:         Mail
Path:            /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail
Version:         7.0 (1816)
Build Version:   1
Project Name:    Mail
Source Version: 1816000000000000
Parent:          launchd [233]
PID:             5822
Event:           hang
Duration:        15.48s
Steps:           15 (100ms sampling interval)

Same problem. Tried everything. I've looked a lot of places and tried a lot of things- and logged nearly 15 hours of time with the highest level of Apple support and got nowhere. Even had them harvest my data logs and uploaded all of that.
Then I found a post on another messageboard that did it for me. Take a look at your:
username/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Accounts.plist
Instead of being a few KB (as it should have been), mine was 40 MB with tens of thousands of duplicated Hotmail account entries.
I knew all of my mail settings, so I just trashed this file and relaunched the app, then manually added back all of my mail account settings via the mail interface.
Poof- no more issues. No Mail hang. No preference files launching and eating up enormous CPU and RAM. No problems whatsoever. Hope it helps you all too.
Note: this does not eliminate messages, only settings. So the fix takes all of 5 minutes if you remember your mail server settings.
Cheers.

I am having trouble with a LaCie 526 monitor working with my new Mac Pro. When I boot up, I see the sign-in screen for a second, then it disappears, reappears with some of the screen pixelated and the spinning beach ball -- and then freezes. Any thoughts

The LaCie is connected via DVI to thunderbolt adapter. It had been working, and then when I switched off the computer and restarted several days later, I see the signon screen flash quickly, followed by nothing, followed by the signon screen and spinning beach ball and it simply freezes. Any thoughts?

When you have kernel panics, the pertinent information is in the panic report.
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
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 and start typing the name.
In the Console window, select
DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION ▹ System Diagnostic Reports
(not Diagnostic and Usage Messages) from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
There is a disclosure triangle to the left of the list item. If the triangle is pointing to the right, click it so that it points down. You'll see a list of reports. A panic report has a name that begins with "Kernel" and ends in ".panic". Select the most recent one. The contents of the report will appear on the right. Use copy and paste to post the entire contents—the text, not a screenshot.
If you don't see any reports listed, but you know there was a panic, you may have chosen Diagnostic and Usage Messages from the log list. Choose DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION instead.
In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)
Please don’t post other kinds of diagnostic report.
I know the report is long, maybe several hundred lines. Please post all of it anyway.

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

Lots of Freezes and Spinning Beach Balls

Just recently my PowerBook G4 12" 1.42 began acting up. I can barely do anything without getting a screen freeze or spinning beach ball. I can't open folders, click or scroll, copy or paste, or almost anything without a very very long wait, up to several minutes of SWOD. Sometimes the screen won't do anything except move the mouse cursor.
I tried Disk Utility Repair Permissions, and it got hung up for about an hour and then the computer became unresponsive, and I had to shut down by holding the power button. I tried resetting PRAM with no luck.
I noticed the problem after the latest software update about 4 days ago. Up till then, all my software was updated pretty recently, within a few weeks.
Thanks for any ideas.

1. you have a 12" PB g4, which has been around since 10.2 or 10.3 Since then, how have you upgraded your OS? Was it an update, archive & install, or erase & install? if all your updates have been upgrades, it may be time to wipe your hard drive and start fresh. If there was any corruption with previous versions of OS X, they will be there when you upgrade.
From time to time, I completely erase my hard drive and reinstall everything. yes, it's a pain to do but i know that it will keep my computer running smoothly.
2. Your directory might be screwed up. You can try to fix it by rebooting your computer and when it's rebooting, hold down the Apple key (command) and the "S" key (command + S), which will boot you into Single User Mode. Type in "fsck -fy" (without quotes) at the prompt. This runs a file system check. If your directory is out of whack, this can fix it. You may have to run it a few times until it no longer reports any errors with the directory.
3. If your directory is really screwed up, I would suggest you buy Disk Warrior.
It sounds like your OS may be corrupted or your directory is screwed up.
Other things to check is to see how much available space is on your hard drive. If it's less than 2 gigs, this could explain why you are having problems.
hope this helps.

10.4.7 Runs Slow, Spinning Beach Ball, "kass" takes over system

To the helpful frequenters of this forum:
Since installing Tiger and updating to 10.4.7 recently, I have experienced some major system slow downs on my computer. I am running a Titanium Powerbook G4 with 512MB RAM and 12GB free (from a 60GB hard drive).
My problems seem to center on Mail 2 app, which runs very slowly when accessing the IMAP server (a problem I never experienced with Mail 1 in the days of Panther). However, it extends to other applications: when launching iTunes and Safari, I often get a spinning beach ball and a 10-20 second hang that I never had before. Sometimes closing programs can take a long time. Force quit often does not respond, but for some reason pressing my laptop power key (as if to turn off the computer) helps to get things jump-started.
In my Activity Monitor, there is a Process called "kass" that is eating up anywhere from 20-30% of my processor. I think that this is connected to some sort of Key Access software that might have been installed on my computer for my college access, but I am not sure. Here are the details from Activity Monitor:
/Library/KeyAccess/KeyAccess.app/Contents/SharedSupport/kass.app/Contents/MacOS/ kass
/System/Library/CoreServices/CharacterSets/CFUnicodeData-B.mapping
/System/Library/CoreServices/CharacterSets/CFCharacterSetBitmaps.bitmap
/Library/Caches/com.apple.IntlDataCache.sbdl.501
/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.fram ework/Versions/A/Resources/Extras.rsrc
/usr/lib/dyld
/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/A TS.framework/Versions/A/ATS
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/C oreGraphics.framework/Versions/A/CoreGraphics
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/A/CoreFoundation
/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CarbonCo re.framework/Versions/A/CarbonCore
/System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security
/System/Library/Frameworks/SystemConfiguration.framework/Versions/A/SystemConfig uration
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Q D.framework/Versions/A/QD
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/H IServices.framework/Versions/A/HIServices
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DesktopServicesPriv.framework/Versions/A/Deskt opServicesPriv
/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Versions/C/Foundation
/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.fram ework/Versions/A/HIToolbox
/dev/null
/dev/console
/dev/console
obj=0x018abb38
/tmp/ipc1801548659-5307728
/tmp/ipc1801548659-5307728
obj=0x01a2df08
/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.fram ework/Versions/A/Resources/Extras.rsrc
What I don't understand is why this is flaring up now, since the Key Access has always been there (on OS 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3 as I upgraded sequentially). Perhaps there is some sort of bad interaction with the 10.4.7 upgrade? I'm not really sure, but I was wondering how I would go about eliminating this hang up. It might be the source of so much slowing down on my computer!
Thank you very much,
Matthew

Thanks for your help, everyone.
I seem to have solved the problem. The "kass" function was linked to KeyAccess, an app made by Sassafrass. This app was installed on my computer by my University so that I could use certain programs (such as Adobe Photoshop) while on the school network by obtaining a key through the school Internet connection. For some reason this process started to take over my computer once I upgraded to 10.4.7, so I just removed the application from my computer all together. Now the hang-ups in other programs, as well as the IMAP email seem to be back to their old speediness.
Strange how these things work.
Matthew

Spinning Beach Ball and computer freeze

Tonight I continually receive the spinning beach ball. The computer freezes and I need to do a hard shutdown. I have run repair permissions several times. I do receive the modified and no repaire messages. I have traced message lines on the forum and it does not appear to be a serious issue. However, it does not change the fact I repeatedly get the spinning beach ball and after some period of time need to do a hard shutdown. At first this took place in Aperture only, but it did he same thing in other applications as well.
Any thoughts? What do I need to do to resolve the issue?
Thanks

Start with http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/sbbod.html

Spinning Beach Ball - Slow Running System

My wife has had a very annoying problem on her MDD 1.25 for some time now and we're finally irritated enough to post. All too often while running Photoshop CS, Illustrator CS2, Quark Xpress 6 and Suitcase fusion this machine gets the beach ball. This happens when she may be opening a document, moving a document, applying an action, or anything within those apps at that matter. Sometimes it's so bad that she has to force quit and relaunch a particular app. Even opening the HDD sometimes seems like a chore as it sits and thinks. Things just don't seem to be as snappy as they once were. Suggestions?
I've maxed it out on memory and have run Disc Utility, Onyx, and Diskwarrior. Could it be Suitcase bogging this machine down? Other?
Thanks for any help,
Tony

Hi,
To determine if the amount of RAM is the issue, bring up Terminal in /Applications/Utilities, or your favorite terminal emulator, and type top at the command prompt. You'll be able to monitor the amount of allocated and unallocated RAM available on the system as each application is brought up and used.
I've seen similar beach balls from other apps, mainly Microsoft Office apps such as Word and Excel. What's probably going on is that the load average is going up to maybe 2-4, instead of 1-1.8, as the app write's it's temp files. If you try to do something else, while waiting for the app to finish, the OSX window manager then displays a spinning beach ball to you to indicate that the system is currently busy processing the given app at the top of the stack. Hence you wait.
As a rule, before getting new hardware, I'd check each of the software vendor's websites for updates to the software you are running on OSX. There may be an update from Adobe (for example) that indeed solved a particular issue with that application.
Then check for updates from Apple on the OSX version you're running on that particular machine. If it's already at the latest version of Tiger, then of course you're good to go on that front.
Finally, I agree with an earlier post, the amount of free space on the drive that the app will "work" in is critical. Especially apps such as PhotoShop, since they will create rather large temp files while they process a given file. So, if all you have is one hard drive with only 4-5Gb free out of 160Gb (say), then a second drive is called for. You will be able, via top to see PhotoShop swapping out to disk as it works on a file if you don't have enough RAM. Try to shoot for 20-30% free space, at a minimum, on the drive the main apps you use will work on, so that you have enough room for the temp files they will create.
Ed

MacBook keeps freezing and/or encountering the infamous spinning beach ball of death

HI, in December 2010 I purchased a MacBook for my wife. She basically just uses it for school, internet browsing and uploading photo's from her phone. The only software installed on the computer since it was purchased was Office for Mac. This was installed early on without problems. She has been increasingly seeing the spinning beach ball and encountering freezing issues. Neither once of us are technical with computers, so any idiot-type instructions on how to resolve this issue would be appreciated. Thank you.

I recommend seeing this link for advice on making your Mac run faster:
http://www.cultofmac.com/how-to-greatly-increase-your-macs-speed-video-how-to/95 180

Endless spinning beach ball / system crash report

I am now getting the endless spinning beach ball for about 5 minutes every time I go from one application to another. It's often if I've been in Word or Photoshop, & I go back to Firefox to look at emails; it spins & spins before I can do anything. I also had some sort of a crash yesterday while I was out of the room, so I wasn't doing anything. I came back to find the attached long crash report; it means nothing to me. Is there anyone out there who can interpret this? I had to save it in several screenshots as it was very long (& this isn't even all of it). Thanks.

Banks everywhere seem to try to encourage customers to install it, but in my experience (3 bank accounts) they don't insist.
Unfortunately, as I said earlier, it just doesn't seem to work well for many users of OS X (there are numerous threads on here about it). A couple of years ago I installed it when my bank started pushing it but immediately started having kernel panics. Removing it fixed things immediately.
Occasionally someone from Trusteer has appeared on here offering to help, but generally soon disappear when they start getting flack .

IMac - spinning beach ball and freezing problems

I've had my white-screen Intel processor iMac for almost two years and its run incredibly well up until the last couple of weeks. Now whenever I switch applications, click on menus, play videos, etc the spinning beach ball appears on the screen for up to two minutes at a time. In some cases it gets so bad the computer needs to have a hard shut down.
This seems to happen in every application so its not only occurring when I'm doing certain tasks. When the beach ball appears it even pauses a song if its playing in iTunes.
I've already done a Command-S boot and also tried disk utility and both are telling me there aren't any hard drive problems.
Is anyone else having this kind of trouble? thanks

I'm having the same problem, but on my MacBook Pro... just started today. I'm even having a hard time filling out this web form.
I've run the UNIX maint scripts, repaired permissions, rebooted, everything simple... plenty of free ram, plenty of free HD space (53GB), no CPU usage (2-5% background stuff), no network traffic... just trying to use my Intel MacBook Pro...
Help!?

IBook freezing up during internet use and getting the spinning beach ball

I have a iBook 1.33 PowerPC G4 with 512 DDR SDRAM running 10.3.9. I just recently had the hard drive replaced due to it failing. The computer was bought, I believe, back in 2004 so the AppleCare has run out. We also had a new power supply sent to us by Apple because the power pack was over heating. Ever since the hard drive was replaced, it runs fine for about 15 to 20 minutes, then the spinning beach ball appears. It happens every time I'm running my wireless network. I'll be using Safari and the beach ball appears. The only way to shut the computer down is by physically pushing the power button to shut it off. I'm not able to force quit out of anything. Any suggestions? I hear that it's a software issue or a logic board issue or an airport issue or etc. It's frustrating and I don't know where to start. With the bad power pack would that have caused a problem?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

One place to start might be to run the Apple Hardware Test and see if anything shows up. Also, you could use disc utility to verify and repair permissions and the disc if necessary. I don't know if that would help, but it would at least serve to eliminate some potential factors.
Good luck!

System preferences freezes! Spinning beach ball.

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