Death Wheel Mac OS
System cleanup in one click
Few things give Mac users that sinking feeling more than the sight of a spinning color wheel, rainbow wheel, spinning beach ball of death or SBBOD as it's also commonly known. It’s official name is the Spinning Wait Cursor, and it’s a system indicator. signifies that macOS cannot handle all the tasks given to it at this moment.
Why does it happen? It's a sign that an application is trying to deal with more processes than it can handle at any given time. Sometimes it will last only a few seconds and disappear, when processing cycles are freed up and the application is able to process all the tasks it needs to. Other times, the application will become persistently unresponsive and 'hang'. When that happens, the only solution is to force quit the app.
Patience may be a virtue, but in the case of Mac OS X's dreaded spinning pinwheel process indicator, even the most tranquil users can find themselves more than a tad anxious for the standard arrow.
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Quick ways to stop spinning wheel
To fix an application stuck with a spinning cursor:
- Apr 25, 2017 What is a spinning color wheel? Initially, it’s a system indicator. It’s official name is the Spinning Wait Cursor, not so official — the Spinning Beach Ball of Death or SBBOD. The ball signifies that your Mac cannot handle all the tasks given to it at this moment.
- Aug 08, 2011 The Spinning Pinwheel of Death (SPoD) is Mac OS X s version of Windows Blue Screen of Death (BSoD). Officially referred to as the “Spinning Wait Cursor” by Apple, the Pinwheel of Death occurs when the multicolored pinwheel mouse pointer that signifies an application has stopped responding to the system continues to spin without end.
- If and get rid of a spinning ballyou know which app is hanging, press Cmd-alt-escape and you'll see the Force Quit dialog box. The problematic app will be shown as 'not responding.'
- Select the app and press Force Quit. The app should now quit and the rainbow wheel will disappear.
- If the app refuses to force quit, or force quitting doesn't fix the problem, the next step is to restart your Mac.
How to stop the rainbow wheel issue
Getting rid of a spinning beachball is only part of the solution. As we said above, it's a symptom, not a cause of problems. Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to prevent it. The first is to identify which applications are putting the greatest strain on your Mac.
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iStatMenus, available in Setapp, is a powerful performance monitoring tools for your Mac. It sits in your Mac's Finder menu bar and allows you to easily check which apps are hogging processor cycles or RAM. And helps you see how well or badly your Mac is running. If you need more detailed information, or need to quit specific processes (rather than applications), you can launch Activity Monitor from within iStatMenus.
The combination of iStatMenus and Activity Monitor will lead you to the apps that are overloading your Mac. The next step is to uninstall them completely and reinstall them, making sure you remove all the temporary and preference files associated with it.
The easiest way to do that is to use CleanMyMac, also available in Setapp. Here's what you should do.
Uninstall apps and extensions
- Launch Setapp and search for CleanMyMac. Click install and wait for it to install and launch.
- Look in the sidebar for the Application section and click Uninstaller. The window on the right will fill up with all the apps you have installed on your Mac. Find the one you want to uninstall and click on the checkbox next to it. Click Uninstall at the bottom of the main window.
It's a good idea to remove any apps you don't use. You'll free up disk space and could prevent conflicts with other apps.
Re-index Spotlight
Spotlight is an incredibly useful tool for searching for files on your Mac, among many other things. In order to search your Mac, Spotlight needs to build and maintain an index. Occasionally that index can become corrupt and when that happens, the dreaded spinning color wheel is likely to appear. Here's how to fix it.
- In CleanMyMac, click on the Maintenance in the left sidebar.
- Click the checkbox next to Reindex Spotlight.
- Click Run.
Free up disk space
macOS uses your startup disk to host virtual RAM and then regularly reads and writes files to it. If you don't have enough free space (at least 10% of the disk's total capacity), your Mac will struggle noticeably and you'll see the spinning beachball more often.
To free up disk space, you can either manually trawl through your startup disk backing up important files and then deleting them, or use Get Backup Pro or ChronoSync Express to back up the disk and then use CleanMyMac to free up disk space. It's a good idea to use Disk Drill to analyse the disk and identify which files are taking up the most space. Disk Drill and ChronoSync Express are available in Setapp.
- In CleanMyMac, click on Smart Scan and then click Scan.
- Wait for it to finish, then click on each section in turn and click Review Details.
The results can be enlightening. For example, we found that cache files for the Photos app were taking up 8GB space on our Mac. Uncheck and items you don't want to remove and then click Clean. Repeat for the other categories.
For more information on how to free up space on your Mac, we prepare these quick tips.
Install more RAM
If none of the above, there is one final thing you can try. As we mentioned above, the spinning beachball can appear when your Mac is using virtual memory and storage space is limited. The more physical RAM you have, the less your Mac will need to resort to virtual memory.
So, installing more RAM will mean you see the spinning color wheel less often. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as it used to be to add more RAM to your Mac. You'll probably need to visit an Apple Store or an authorized service center and ask them to install it for you.
To prevent that from happening in the future, it's worth installing as much RAM as your Mac can take, or as much as you can afford when you first buy it. Money spent on RAM is never wasted and usually means your Mac will perform better for longer before you eventually need to replace it.
The good news is that replacing RAM is very much a last resort and that the other steps described above will, in many cases, solve the problem completely.
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You can call it ‘spinning wheel,’ you can call it ‘beach ball,’ you can call it ‘wheel of death’ or any other way you like. The thing is, whatever you name it, the result will be the same – a slower MacBook Pro or Air, iMac or Mac mini. A spinning wait cursor (an official name) can easily drive most of the users mad. Instead of breaking your Apple computer against the wall in rage, try to find out the main cause of the problem without losing your temper and then solve it ASAP.
For starters, we’ll remind that spinning wheel stands for an app trying to cope with more operations than it can at a time. It usually happens to different browsers like Safari, Google Chrome, or Mozilla. It is not necessarily the fault of weak/slow Internet connection.
If you’re lucky, you will observe the beachball for a minute or just several seconds. In other situations, it may show up over and over again. Sometimes, it gets endless so that a Mac owner has nothing else to do except for force quitting the hung app or restarting the device. Of course, the entire data is lost this way. That is why a spinning wheel is also dangerous in addition to being matchlessly irritating. In any case, a beach ball on your screen means that the software is closing the processing tasks to free up space and memory for the new commands. When the application becomes fully unresponsive, it hangs, making the user worried or sleepy. It depends on how urgent the tasks are.
Both Apple native utilities and third-party cleaners provide Mac maintenance. Basically, keeping your Mac clean and healthy is the only sure-fire way to get rid of the Spinning Beach Ball of Death (SBBOD). Many Mac owners treat it as the cause of some larger problem. But it is not actually true. The beach ball is a symptom of the “disease,” and you should know the primary cause(s) to fix it properly and on time.
Purchasing a new machine is the measure of last resort. A user may need it once the processor is dead, but it’s not the case with the beach ball.
There are plenty of reasons why Mac slows down, and its owner starts seeing the annoying spinning wheel of death on its screen – e.g., a huge number of startup items, resource-hungry apps running in the background or filled hard drive. Of course, some users can spend some money on new RAM or SSD, but what about people who do not want to start with extra expenses?
In the next section, take a closer look at the possible ways to fix problems associated with the beach ball.
First and Foremost Steps to Get Rid of the Spinning Color Wheel Issue
Are you stuck on Apple logo and spinning wheel? Both Mac OS X and macOS can experience problems associated with the rainbow-colored pinwheel/circle. Below you can find a list of the possible ways to fix problems that could lead to the never-ending turning spinning beach ball on your screen.
Method #1: Uninstall useless apps and extensions
You can do that by simply dragging and dropping them to Trash. Preferably, you also should clear out app-related stuff that may stay on your Mac even after you remove unneeded software. Usually, it lurks in the Library folder and contains the name or the acronym of the app or its developer in the title.
To speed up the process, you can make use of specially designed cleaning apps that will do the job in your place.
Method #2: Free up some disk space
Many ways to free up the disk space on Mac exist. With the help of Activity Monitor, search for the largest and outdated files on your Apple computer. You may also look for the duplicates with the help of the third-party cleaner of your choice. Other types of junk include temporary files, login items, startup items, cache, cookies, downloads, etc.
Method #3: Re-index Spotlight
Spotlight is something that allows searching for the files you store on your Mac. The utility creates and maintains the index. Sometimes, it appears to be corrupted. Thus, take the recommended steps to fix it:
- Select Apple menu and go to System Preferences. There you will find Spotlight.
- Pick the Privacy tab.
- Drag the target item you wish to index once more to the locations list that Spotlight cannot research. An alternative is to select a plus button and pick the desired folder/disk.
- From this list, pick the folder/disk you have added recently. After that, push the minus button to replace it.
- Shut down System Preferences. The spotlight will re-index the contents of the folder/disk.
Setting up a third-party cleaner might be an excellent solution for those who do not possess enough skills and experience to erase useless files or choose extra RAM/SSD/HDD. Working with utilities like Terminal may be risky for the newbies, so it is better to decide on the special cleaning tool.
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However, if you decide to buy extra RAM, be ready that only advanced users can install it properly. Otherwise, you’d better contact an Apple Store or an authorized service center to have RAM installed.
As far as Safari is the most popular browser among Mac owners being set by default, it would be useful to dedicate a separate block to solving the problem with its spinning wheel. After the upgrade to macOS Sierra or High Sierra, you may notice that the browser is hanging up too often. There is nothing left except for the Force Quit option.
Force Quit is not the best decision as the browser may finally fail. A smarter way out is to follow this step-by-step instruction for Mac users to test Safari’s work and fix the issue.
- Start with erasing caches.
- Shut down all windows and stop the apps.
- Push the Option key and pick Go in the Finder application.
- From the drop-down menu, choose Library. Go to Library → Caches →apple.Safari
- Right-click the com.apple.Safari and choose Move to Trash.
- Shut down the windows. Restart Safari.
- Eliminate com.apple.Safari.plist.
- Start with the backup with the help of TimeMachine, iCloud, or other available options.
- Pick Empty Trash.
- Stop all apps.
- Push the Option button and select Go in Finder window.
- Pick Library form the offered menu.
- Move this way: Library → Preferences →apple.Safari.plist
- Right-click and choose Move to Trash.
- Reboot the computer and restart the target browser. Pick Start Using Safari link.
- In case this method proves ineffective, restore com.apple.Safari.plist from Trash. To do so, take the following steps:
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- Right-click the Trash icon in the Dock. Choose Open.
- Right-click the com.apple.Safari.plist and pick Put Back.
- Select Replace.
- In case your preferred browser rejects loading a page/website or its items are not available, read Apple’s troubleshooting guides for Safari here and here.
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We hope, this article will help you resolve your issues, and you will be seeing the rainbow-colored ball on a sunny beach but not on the screen of your Mac!