What causes the spinning rainbow ball?

My MacBook Pro constantly freezes when I'm working in a Word document or while on the internet. What causes this and how can this be avoided? I have cleared the Download and Trash folders, but it didn't help.

There are any number of causes for example when the OS is writing to or reading from the hard drive, if you have run low on available RAM for the number of concurrently running applications, if the hard drive is full, if there is a crashed process, or if there is a problem with the OS itself. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on beachballing.

Similar Messages

Macbook Pro is freezing with the spinning rainbow ball of death constantly going. Can someone review my Etrecheck and tell me what to do?

My macbook pro is constantly freezing with the rainbow ball of death spinning all the time. I ran Etrecheck. Any help would be much appreciated!
Problem description:
Running slow; constant spinning rainbow ball
EtreCheck version: 2.0.11 (98)
Report generated November 12, 2014 at 2:08:28 PM CST
Hardware Information: ℹ️
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) (Verified)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1
1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core
4 GB RAM Upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 384 MB
Color LCD 1280 x 800
System Software: ℹ️
OS X 10.10 (14A389) - Uptime: 2:40:10
Disk Information: ℹ️
Hitachi HTS545032B9A302 disk0 : (320.07 GB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
Macintosh HD (disk1) / [Startup]: 318.84 GB (115.79 GB free)
Core Storage: disk0s2 319.21 GB Online
MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-8A8
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
Mac App Store and identified developers
Launch Agents: ℹ️
[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
[running] com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist Support
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support
[loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist Support
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
[invalid?] com.citrixonline.GoToMeeting.G2MUpdate.plist Support
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
[running] com.microsoft.LaunchAgent.SyncServicesAgent.plist Support
[invalid?] com.nero.HSMMonitor.plist Support
User Login Items: ℹ️
iTunesHelper UNKNOWNHidden (missing value)
Microsoft Database Daemon Application (/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office/Microsoft Database Daemon.app)
VMware Fusion Start Menu UNKNOWN (missing value)
„Google“ diskas Application (/Applications/Google Drive.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
AdobeAAMDetect: Version: AdobeAAMDetect 2.0.0.0 - SDK 10.7 Support
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.223 - SDK 10.6 Support
Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.223 - SDK 10.6 Support
CouponPrinter-FireFox_v2: Version: 1.1.10 - SDK 10.6 Support
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.5 - SDK 10.6 Support
DirectorShockwave: Version: 12.1.3r153 - SDK 10.6 Support
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 51 Check version
User Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: Version: 1.0.105 Support
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
Flash Player Support
Java Support
Time Machine: ℹ️
Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
      23% firefox
      9% Microsoft Outlook
      3% WindowServer
      1% mdworker32
      1% mds
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
258 MB firefox
155 MB mds_stores
137 MB Microsoft Outlook
133 MB softwareupdated
94 MB Microsoft Excel
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
169 MB Free RAM
1.38 GB Active RAM
1.19 GB Inactive RAM
1.15 GB Wired RAM
6.52 GB Page-ins
37 MB Page-outs

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.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen. Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then take one of the actions that you're having trouble with. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro, which has re-booting problems. Also what does the spinning beach-ball indicate?

Hi, I have an early 2008 Mac Pro which has re-booting problems.
Processor speed is: 2.8
Memory: 2GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
2 x 28GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon
I am running OSX Yosemite Version 10.10
My Mac Pro keeps re-booting. Last year I had to replace my graphics card. My original card was the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 255MB, and that is what I have now. At this precise moment my Mac Pro is running perfectly, except that it is slow and the spinning beach-ball keeps appearing. I have managed to do some work with the disk utilities, verifying, cleaning and partitioning. Some errors were found and when it was cleaned this seemed to help my Mac Pro to function properly. Although I am able to use my Mac Pro now, from day to day I still experience re-boot problems. Also quite unexpectedly my mac dictionary has an error, it closed itself down and will not open at all, I had the message to say that a report will be sent to Apple.
I have tried starting my computer with an external hard drive fitted via a USB cable, I use for back-ups. This worked and I was able to wipe my hard drive clear and replace all info from the back up I had done only a few days ago.
This worked for a few days and then the same problem started again.
I am beginning to wonder if I need to buy a new hard drive.
If there is anyone who has some answers to help me solve my problem, I would be most grateful.
Robert

When you have the beachball activity, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
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.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.
Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.
Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

What causes the spinning wheel to appear all of time with my mac mini

I've had my mac mini for a few years and within the last several months I constantly get the spinning wheel and a longer delay between actions. I even upgraded my internet connectivity speed. Any suggestions?

Linda Shank wrote:
I constantly get the spinning wheel
Troubleshoot the spinning beach ball

Spinning rainbow ball

So I'm waiting (again) on Final Cut to gets its act together. How long to you usually let the ball spin before force quitting and reopening, loosing any progress since the last save/autosave?

Ha, good point. The Toshiba is my personal machine, and Windows 7 is in the mail. For what it's worth I've found Vista more stable than OSX, but I'm not looking for a flame war or anything silly like that.
At work I'm using a MacPro Octo 3.2 (late 2008) with 16gb ram and FCS2 on Leopard 10.5.8. I think the video card is nVidia, I know it has 512mb on the video card, but that's what I remember off of the top of my head. As for hard drives we've got one system drive, and internal RAID array, an external RAID array, (LaCie) and two other external hard drives, one LaCie, one WD. I'm at home right now otherwise I would look the specs up.
I seem to have troubles when I drop .motn files or use Motion Templates on my timelines. I seem to spend about as much time waiting as I spend editing when I'm perfecting my graphics. The troubles with .motn files are when I open in editor, make a change in Motion, save, and go back to Final Cut. I can spend two minutes waiting to do anything between a save in Motion and returning to FCP and being able to do something on a short (4 minute or less) timeline and a 10-15 second clip from Motion. That's with the spinning rainbow ball mouse, not the Final Cut is working mouse.
I'm thinking back to the project before the one I'm working on now, I had a 15 minute timeline with about 10 instances of one Motion template, a lower 3rd with two text fields. If I would update the template I would be waiting about 8 minutes between saving in Motion and being able to do something in Final Cut, again with the spinning rainbow ball. One in five times FCP would just crash all together, so save, then Open in Editor became a routine part of my workflow.
I'm still a student and I've had similar issues putting .motn files on timelines using the school's computers, so I don't think I have a bad Apple at work. What is a normal waiting time?

Regually getting spinning rainbow ball

I've had my macbook since it was released last year and in recent months, when browsing the internet, I see the spinning rainbow ball thing so opening new pages is taking a few seconds longer than normal. It doesn't happen all the time but I'd say 70% of the time.
My wireless interent connection is always perfect (I'm always within a few meters of the modem) and always shows as full connectivity.
Someone said I need to do something with one of the disks that came with the computer. I'm pretty much a novice on Apples so please bare this in mind!! Thanks

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
If we could look at the websites giving you difficulty, maybe we can tell if the issue is something on the website which isn't quite compatible with your browser, or if it is likely an issue with how data is just passing over the net.
There are many reasons for slowing down, outlined in my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/Macosxspeed.html
If your data is backed up, we can examine them one by one*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Spinning rainbow ball when moving through a file

I'm on my macbook pro. Just got an Optoma projector. Just updated to Adobe Reader 8. When I am trying to move through a file window in Adobe, while my class is watching on the Optoma projector that is mirroring, I will click on the up or down arrows on the side of the window, and the computer will give me the spinning rainbow ball for several seconds before scrolling up or down. Is there some cache or file I need to be cleaning out to improve my computer's performance in Adobe Reader? Is it a problem with Adobe 8? or is the intervening variable that I have just started hooking up the computer to a projector? I have always had great answers posting and look forward to learning something else. Thanks.

Hi
Questions about Adobe Reader are best addressed in the Adobe Reader Forum, sponsored by Adobe. There, you'll find users who are knowledgeable about the product. Good Luck

I just downloaded the new Java update now Safari is slow and I'm getting the spinning beach ball of death.

Typing in Safari with the new Java update that I downloded today causes the spinning beach ball and slow loading of pages. As usual, Java is causing problems. Just once I would like to see things run without having to depend on Java.

24Golfer:
I think there's something more, because it keeps happening to me with the Finder where it says that it is not responding when I go to the Force Quit window.
Are you saying that the Finder is reported as not responding? If yes, try this:
Go to Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.finder.plist
Drag com.apple.finder.plist to desktop
Restart computer.
Monitor to see if anything changes, or Finder is still not responding.
Good luck.
cornelius

Upgraded and getting spinning rainbow ball constantly

I upgraded to Firefox 3.6.15 a few days ago. I also upgraded Flash. I'm getting the spinning rainbow ball almost every time I try to do something in Firefox now—when I type something, it stops after every 10 keystrokes and spins, when I scroll down a page it pauses to think, when I click on a dialogue box or to a field.
Also, whenever I try to save or print something, the dialogue box will pop up but then instantly disappear before I'm able to click anything.
I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.6. My Macbook is about two and a half years old; I'm wondering if this is just related to the age of my computer. I have plenty of memory available.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
If we could look at the websites giving you difficulty, maybe we can tell if the issue is something on the website which isn't quite compatible with your browser, or if it is likely an issue with how data is just passing over the net.
There are many reasons for slowing down, outlined in my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/Macosxspeed.html
If your data is backed up, we can examine them one by one*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

HT5675 This update, upon booting, has caused my disk space to fill up and my system freezes up. The same happens to my coworker's computer. We both watch the remaining disk space decrease and the "spinning rainbow appears" and we must restart. What do we

Software Update: Java for OS X 2013-002 1.0
This update, upon booting, has caused my disk space to fill up and my system freezes up. The same happens to my coworker's computer. We both watch the remaining disk space decrease and the "spinning rainbow appears" and we must restart. What do we do?

First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so.
Use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
Proceed further only if the problem hasn't been solved.
ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual.
Triple-click the line of text below to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means.
When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

My mac is running slow, the spinning beach ball constantly appears. it seems that when i am in the apple store with fast wifi its a bit better. genius at the apple store checked the hard drive, it's all fine. what can it be?

my mac is running slow, the spinning beach ball constantly appears. it seems that when i am in the apple store with fast wifi its a bit better. genius at the apple store checked the hard drive, it's all fine. what can it be? can it be a software issue with the wifi?
also i noted that it has only been doing this since quite recently, before it was fine
please help!

First, back up all data immediately, as your boot drive might be failing.
Step 1
This diagnostic procedure will query the log for messages that may indicate a system issue. It changes nothing, and therefore will not, in itself, solve your problem.
If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'GPU |hfs: Ru|I/O e|find tok|n Cause: -|NVDA\(|timed? ?o' | tail | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key.
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Normally the command will produce no output, and the window will be empty. If the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window) has anything in it, stop here and post it — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the TextEdit window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.
Step 2
There are a few other possible causes of generalized slow performance that you can rule out easily.
Disconnect all non-essential wired peripherals and remove aftermarket expansion cards, if any.
Reset the System Management Controller.
Run Software Update. If there's a firmware update, install it.
If you're booting from an aftermarket SSD, see whether there's a firmware update for it.
If you have a portable computer, check the cycle count of the battery. It may be due for replacement.
If you have many image or video files on the Desktop with preview icons, move them to another folder.
If applicable, uncheck all boxes in the iCloud preference pane. See whether there's any change.
Check your keychains in Keychain Access for excessively duplicated items.
Boot into Recovery mode, launch Disk Utility, and run Repair Disk.
If you have a MacBook Pro with dual graphics, disable automatic graphics switching in the Energy Saverpreference pane for better performance at the cost of shorter battery life.
Step 3
When you notice the 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, 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 Activity Monitor in the icon grid.
Select the CPU tab of the Activity Monitor window.
Select All Processes from the View menu or the 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.
Select the Memory tab. What value is shown in the bottom part of the window for Swap used?
Next, select the Disk tab. Post the approximate values shown for Reads in/sec and Writes out/sec (not Reads in andWrites out.)
Step 4
If you have more than one user account, you must be logged in as an administrator to carry out this step.
Launch the Console application in the same way you launched Activity Monitor. 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.
Select the 50 or so most recent entries in the log. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combinationcommand-C. Paste into a reply to this message (command-V). You're looking for entries at the end of the log, not at the beginning.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some personal information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting. That should be easy to do if your extract is not too long.

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

"spinning rainbow ball of doom" when I open the media inspector!

whenever I open the media inspector within iWeb I get the infamous "spinning rainbow ball of doom" and no matter how long I leave it the program has effectively crashed. I eventually have to force quit (the prompt tells me that iWeb is not responding). This happens every time and is highly annoying as I am forced to drag media from their host programs (iPhoto, iMovie etc). Can anyone help me?

Theres been some threads about this. I'll post the main solutions that can cause this.
If there are movies in your iPhoto, export them and delete from iPhoto.
Move the contents of your movie folders out.
If you notice iWeb works fine, import the movies back into the movie folder one at a time. After each import, launch iWeb, if it works great, if you notice you got 3 movies in and the fourth one caused the spinning ball, its that movie causing an issue.

My MacBook Pro mid 2012 laptop continuously lags on every web site and I get the spinning beach ball very often but when I log in as a guest, everything works fine. What should I do to fix this?

My MacBook Pro mid 2012 laptop continuously lags on every web site and I get the spinning beach ball very often but when I log in as a guest, everything works fine. What should I do to fix this?

From the Safari menu bar, select
Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Privacy ▹ Remove All Website Data
and confirm. Test.

What causes the rainbow swirling icon that locks a program such as address book?

What causes the rainbow swirling icon that locks a program such as address book? And how do I get out of it?

The Finder is just assigning the wrong kind and icon to what I presume are plist files. Often rebuilding the Launch Services will cure this, but sometimes Finder gets a strange bee in its bonnet about some particular combination of characteristics and what they mean, and it can't be dissuaded. Unless you are opening plist files, and get really annoyed when you double click one and Address Book launches and announces "wrong type of file" you can just ignore it. In my own ~/Library/Prefences folder plists are generally labeled correctly, probably because I have them assigned to open with Apple's own Property List Editor. But there are some other preferences that Finder has decided are something altogether different than what they are: WingNuts Prefs and Saved Games are both believed to be Eudora preferences; a whole batch of other prefs from a dozen differenct programs are described as TextWrangler preferences, and there's a another group thought to be Unix Executables. As long as the program they belong to isn't having a problem finding and writing to them, don't worry about it.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

What causes the spinning rainbow ball?

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