OS X :: Ridiculous Finder Lag - Getting Spinning Wheel
Feb 19, 2010
In the past couple of weeks, Finder on my MacBook has been ridiculously laggy in doing just about anything. For instance, if I try to rename a file, I can usually count on having to wait anywhere from 3 to 10 seconds for the new name to appear on the Desktop. The same thing often occurs when moving files. Finder also constantly beachballs for ~5 seconds, which extends to things like save dialogs in other applications -- if I open up a Save as... dialog, the app usually hangs for awhile waiting for Finder to figure itself out. During these periods of lag, the computer is otherwise 100% responsive -- I can use other apps, I can open other apps via LaunchBar or the Dock (as long as I don't try to use Finder, which is busy beachballing), and my CPU usage sits at around 90% idle.
No problems at all except for Finder constantly beachballing and lagging. Performing disk tasks like moving and renaming files via Terminal complete instantaneously, so it doesn't look to be a problem with my disk. When I started writing this post, Finder was "Preparing to move" one file, and only just now finished. I don't recall exactly when these problems started, but it's possible it was around the time I upgraded from Leopard to Snow Leopard. I imagine that reinstalling Snow Leopard would fix these problems, but I'd rather not resort to that. I've got another computer running the same software as far as I can tell that doesn't exhibit any of these problems.
I am a novice Mac user. I think I was using Mountain Lion (i paid for it - about £20) but upgraded to Mavericks last year when prompted by my software update. I now understand from reading various online posts that this means I am now stuck with it. At first I had lots of problems with PDF files crashing but this has been fixed. Today I am not having a nightmare trying to use Finder. Any time I click on a file or folder the colour wheel spins for about 10-20 seconds. This happens for every command I make. I just tried to access my files directly from the desktop and the same thing happened. I am not sure what to do and I dont want to end up deleting something important!
In Mac OS X Lion the bottom finder window frame is gone. Consequently the spinning wheel status indicator in the lower right corner is also gone. How do I get the status wheel back so I can tell whether the window view is still loading or hung? In Mac OS X Lion the bottom finder window frame is missing. Consequently the spinning wheel status indicator is also gone. How do I get the status wheel back so I can tell that the window view is loading vs. hung.
Why my safari freezing on me daily? I am often opening new tabs and viewing 4 or 5 pages at once, and while they are loading it seems to be stuck on the annoying spinning rainbow wheel, ultimately leading me to end the program for not responding.
When I start up my iMac, it runs ok for a good 3-4 minutes, then all of a sudden when I try to click somewhere, I get the spinning wheel of death for about 2-3 minutes. Then when I click somewhere else I get another spinning wheel of death for another few minutes. This goes on and on and the computer is basically unusable, unless I want to wait 30 minutes to complete easy tasks that should take 2 minutes.
I tried resetting the ram by holding apple-option-P-R while restarting, but nothing is working. I have a good 15% free on my hard drive.
I can barely type this post or do anything on my mac book pro without a spinning wheel popping up. Any help would be appreciated. I have cleared Pram, ran disk utility fix permissions.
I'm currently using Win 7 on my partitioned drive since I can't get OS X to boot. Here's what I did to screw everything up: Installed SL awhile back without performing what people here are referring to as a "clean install" (I had lots of third party apps installed). Things seemed to be working fine, though Finder seemed to lag more in 10.6 than it did in 10.5. Today, however, I tried updating Parallels 4.0. It required that I reboot in order to finish the installation.
But, when the Apple logo appeared, that damned spinner just wouldn't stop. [Perhaps Parallels is "tainting" the kernel?] First, I tried reinstalling from the SL Install DVD. No luck there. I tried downgrading to 10.5 (archive and install). Still didn't boot. I even tried several volume repairs. Those didn't help either. So, now I've heard that some users are having luck booting in safe mode. But, if I try that, will I be able to transfer data to a backup drive?
My SL was working perfectly until yesterday. I got my late 08 UMBP back from AppleCare without any replacement (see post here). They just run a kind of apple test suit on an external OSX, I guess they booted from a firewire disk.
Anyway, now I getting very often a system hang with a spinning wheel. When I try to repair permissions in the Disk Utility, the progress it stays like 10 minutes on the same place at the very beginning, then spinning wheel again then the system doesn't react. I can move the mouse that's all.
I just got my imac 21.5 a week ago, and now already a problem. It was working fine until now.
I have been copying and pasting pictures and avatars from forums onto Microsoft office (office mac 2008). And tonight I got the dreadful color spinning wheel when I tried to copy more. I wouldn't go away after 10 minutes, so I restarted the computer. I reopened office, and it still had the wheel. It keeps saying it has to close. Why is this happening? Is it bad to copy and paste?
I have a brand new macbook pro, and whenever I use itunes, iphoto or firefox. I get the spinning "wheel of doom" about every ten minutes. It only lasts about 30 seconds, but happens even when I only have one application open.
I'm really stuck with this one. I have just purchased 2 Macs, an iMac and a Macbook (the white one). This problem only happens with one of them, the Macbook.
When I login using my windows account (DOMAINUser) on my iMac everything works fine. When I try the same on my Macbook however I type my password, hit Login, and then I get the spinning colorful wheel, and nothing else (I have waited a loooong time).
This is really frustrating because:
1. I can log in to a local account on the Macbook
2. the settings between both machines for Active Directory are exactly the same
The only 3rd party software I have installed on both machines is Office 2008 (the standard edition - not home & student).
This is what I have tried so far (remembering, I'm not a Mac expert, but am a PC expert):
1. Reboot
2. Removed the mobile account that was created when I logged into Active Directory, then logged in again
3. Typed a wrong password, this confirmed that the Macbook was talking to the Windows server (I can see network traffic as well)
4. Cleared the Library/Caches folder, and System/Library/Caches folder
I have a macbook 2.16mhz with 2gb ram mid 2007 model. It has started showing the spinning wheel for about 10-20 seconds for the last 3 months and it was getting worse and worse! and it came a time last week when almost every 5 clicks I was doing the wheel was appearing again!
First I thought I had a faulty ram and I ran memtest but everything was ok! then I reinstalled the system but still the problem exists not so ften though.
My computer stopped charging and turning on a short while after it was dropped.
I bought a new charger and my dad managed to fix it. (after i was told by a tech expert at a dodgy asian store the main processer had to be replaced) The only issue im having are. The spinny wheel apears in almost all tasks, internet , browsing flies , clicking top tab.
It only appears for about 30 seconds then goes away, sometimes freezing completely, It seems to happen less when the computer is stationary but still will happen quite often even just typing text. Logic Pro after reinstalling refuses to Open. Music sometimes freezes skips for 5-10 seconds.
I did some research and try a few things its not the CPU usage cause i been checking using that program that checks. Is there a way i can check what part is failing through software or maybe do a general clean up? since it was reformated.
Do i need to get a new computer or just a replacement part if i eliminate all other issues? Or could it be the start up drive?
Three seconds after iTunes starts, spinning wheel up and never disappear. We have thrownplist in preferences. We've reset the parameters (cmd + alt + p + r). We have reinstalled iTunes. The operating system is Leopard and iTunes is only used toplay songs and burning it. No iPhone synchronization.
So I'm aware I have to reformat my Mac.... That's not my biggest issue here. My issue is I lost my snow leopard OS X while I moved and want to know if I could buy the $30 disc cuz I have everything BUT my OS X disc unfortunately.
I have a Mac Pro from late 2008 which turns on, makes the startup sound, and remains on the spinning wheel for about 30 seconds before the wheel freezes. I have Windows 8 installed on another internal drive and I can't boot past their version of the spinning wheel, either. I've tried booting off of the install disc (Snow Leopard, which is what the machine is running) and off of a USB stick with a Snow Leopard .dmg on it, neither of which have worked.
I've done all the steps to fix a drive error, so I don't think it's that. I've read that it could be a graphics card error; Mine was a GeForce 7300, if I remember correctly.
I was away at a friend's yesterday and left my computer on and downloading a torrent (I have done this before and everything has been fine). When I came back today, I noticed that my computer was working very slowly so I restarted it. However, it would just stay at the grey screen with the wheel spinning forever instead of moving on to the blue screen.
I know that this has been reported many times before, even on this forum, but everything I tried does not work. I tried:
Holding down Command+S at startup and entering the command fsck -fy. Did not fix the problem Opening the Install Disc and going into Disk Utility. I repaired the permissions and verified that the HD has no problems but the problem persisted.
Going into Safe Mode. This actually works fine, but unfortunately offers an extremely limited functionality of my computer.
I have a new Mac Pro and have installed Transmission as a bittorrent client (not sure if this is related but it was open on all occasions the spinning wheel appeared). Just before the spinning wheel appears I notice that my internet connection drops to 0kbps up and down. Then if I click on a program (seems to be any program, ichat, itunes, safari, etc) sometimes the wheel appears and never goes away.
When I turn my MacBook on it does the white screen with the spinning wheel and then goes to the blue screen but it gets stuck on that screen for about a minute or two and goes to my login in screen any idea whats going on with it i have not changed anything but the other day I was turning it on and there was a bug on the keyboard and I went to kill it causing my to press some random buttons during the start up and its been doing this ever since.
All of a sudden I was restarting my Air and now, it just has the spinning wheel for a few seconds and then goes blank and shuts down. I have tried everything the 'guide trouble shoots' but nothing has worked. Even was able to test the hard drive and it came back with no trouble. I tried to 'return to factory setting' but no luck and also tried resetting the Parameter RAM.
I put in a samsung 500gb drive, and since yesterday this one is also doing strange. I was browsing the internet and it started launching itunes and going really slow although i wasn't doing anything, then it showed a force quit window telling me there was not enough memory on the startup disk for applications, althoug i still have roughly 340gb of free space. I just thought of restarting it maybe that solved the problem. But no, since then it doesn't startup in mac os x, bootcamp works fine with windows 7 installed. But starting snow leopard just gives me a grey screen like the safe boot screen with the progress bar and the spinning wheel. the progress bar dissapears after a while and the wheel etternaly spins.
Tried single user mode and fsck -fy but it only gives me some dislocations, it gets till the repairing Tree and then says that the volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired. Also tried to reset Pram but that neither. starting up with a bootable usb with the mac os x install dvd on it gives me the prohibitory sign after 2 minutes. I still have to try with my original disc, but that one is at home and I'm not gonna be there till next month.
I was loading some updates on a mac. The spinning wheel just kept spinning. I shut down the mac. Now when I start I get the apple and the circle loading. I tried apple+option+p+r. I got the load tone sound but nothing else. I have the tiger disk, but it will not open.
I have a macbook 2.1ghz with OSX 10.5.8 running with 4gb of 667mhz DDR2
Recently I have been getting spinning beach balls of death on a constant biases. They come when I try to open web pages such as [URL]... ANYTHING actually. They come when I try to open applications, they seem to come when I try to do almost anything. I cannot force quit when they come. I have tried waiting for them to go away, sometimes up to an hour and nothing happens. They have come when I try to open utilities to try to figure out what is wrong. They come in safe mode.
I freed up hard disk space, over 60 gigs of the 120 gig hard drive. NOTHING.
