Oh, the spinning wheel. Everyone who has ever owned a Mac computer knows about this and I’m sure you have let out a few curse words or been tempted to throw your computer across the room upon the sight of it. I personally refer to this symbol not-so-fondly as the ‘spinning beachball of doom’. That is probably too dire of a description of the thing but it reflects my mood when it appears as it’s usually synonymous with some sort of problem.
- Slow: I get the spinning wheel quite frequently. It took over 10 min to transfer 80mb from my desktop to an external hard drive, when it typically takes less than 2 min. I was uploading photos from my digital camera to my iphoto.
- How do you avoid Mac’s spinning rainbow wheel? First, you want to ensure your Mac has enough memory and enough free space. You might be surprised by how much memory is taken up by files you don’t need or operations you don’t run. Clean up your computer regularly with a program such as Clean My Mac 3.
- Outlook for Mac 2011, version 14.2.3 I went to a meeting and when I came back the spinning wheel of death had appeared. Katrina Tech Support Specialist: Daniel, Certified Technician replied 8 years ago.
A lot of the solutions are from long ago. Here’s an update with a more recent Mac system. Problem: The spinning wheel would show up about every 15-30 secs and Safari would stall for about 5 sec. I cruised lots of forums and there were lots of suggestions. The three steps that solved it for me were: 1. Clear Safari history.
If you have experience with the spinning wheel, you know that you want to get rid of it as quickly as possible. It’s a sign that things aren’t functioning quite right on your computer. This could be a small issue or a really large one, the spinning wheel doesn’t always reveal its secrets right away. This article will take a look at some things you can do to get rid of the spinning wheel on your Mac computer.
What is the Spinning Wheel?
The spinning wheel may be known by many different names but what it actually is a system indicator that is technically called a throbber. Yes, that’s right, a throbber. It sounds comical but if you have experience with one, you know that it means an issue might be lurking inside your computer. This is not a symbol unique to Mac computers, though their multi-colored wheel is well known among Apple users.
The spinning wheel indicates common issues such as when a program is performing some sort of action that is in progress, when demanding computing tasks are taking place, or when a Mac is frozen altogether. The wheel can appear when you are downloading something, trying to operate a program that is CPU intensive, or when your computer is working through an operation.
The spinning wheel is a broad indicator and you most likely won’t know the exact reason why it has popped up on your computer screen. Many times, the wheel is only up briefly while your computer figures things out on its own but sometimes the wheel can appear and cause your entire system to freeze up.
How to Get Rid of the Spinning Wheel
Unfortunately, there is no exact method of getting rid of the spinning wheel that works every time. The cause of the wheel can be a number of different things affecting your computer and therefore require a different solution to fix the problem. Try the solutions below if you experience the spinning wheel on your MacBook.
Force Quit
Oftentimes, the spinning wheel appears when a program becomes unresponsive. This can happen when a program is demanding and your computer can’t quite keep up. By force quitting the program, you can usually get rid of the spinning wheel.
To force quit:
- Go to the Apple menu at the top-left of your screen.
- Click Force Quit.
- Select the unresponsive program or app from the list.
- Click Force Quit.
Microsoft Outlook Spinning Wheel
You can also simply hit the Command, Option, and Escape keys at the same time to access the force quit menu and quit a non-responsive app or program.
Use Disk Utility
If you experience the spinning wheel often and you can’t seem to find an unresponsive program as the cause, you might be able to address the issue by using Disk Utility.
- Open the Finder on your computer.
- Select Applications.
- Click on the Disk Utility icon.
- Select your main hard drive.
- Click on the Repair Permissions button.
This small disk repair might fix your repeated spinning wheel issue.
Single User Reset
Another option you can try to use to fix repeated spinning wheel issues is to enter Single User mode on your computer upon reset to attempt to fix any small file errors that might be the cause of the problem.
- Restart your computer.
- Hold down the Command and S keys while restarting.
- Hold down these keys until you see the Apple logo appear on your screen.
- Release the keys and your screen will now appear black with some lines of data and an old-style computer prompt.
- Type fsck -y and be sure to include a space in between the k and the -y.
- Press Enter.
Bigger Issues
If you have an older Mac computer, your spinning wheel problems may be the result of bigger issues that don’t have an easy fix. The wheel can appear due to overworked CPU or insufficient RAM. If the cause of the spinning wheel is either one of these issues, there is no easy fix and you might have to get a new computer to keep up with the demands of modern apps and programs that are overworking your system and resulting in the the wheel appearing.
To check your CPU usage:
- Open your Finder.
- Go to Applications.
- Click on Utilities.
- Click on Activity Monitor.
- You can now see your CPU usage.
You will see a display here that will give you a graph and some data points on your CPU usage. If the number here is above 50 percent and you are not currently running any apps or programs, your processor is most likely not able to keep up with your system and it might be time for a new computer altogether.
Final Thoughts
If you happen to see the spinning wheel on your Mac, take a breath and reread this article. Usually, the wheel can be fixed by a simple force quit of a program that is unresponsive. If that doesn’t work, follow the other steps listed here to address the issue and get your computer working again. Nobody likes to see the spinning wheel but now you have the ability to address the problem and try to remedy the issue on your own.
Do you have a nickname for the spinning wheel? Does it happen on your computer often?
The problem of spinning wheel of death on Mac can be very annoying, that is why we bring you the solutions in this post. So, first, let us learn how to recognize the problem of the spinning wheel of death. You must not confuse it with the freezing applications on Mac, it is more than that as the Mac spinning wheel startup occurs as the processing is overloaded. The wheel of death Mac can be seen as the spinning ball on Mac which can stop any operations. This problem occurs due to various reasons and to your relief, this can be fixed. Let’s learn more on the Mac rainbow wheel and how to stop it.
Methods To Fix The Spinning Wheel Of Death –
The spinning pinwheel is the official name for this spinning rainbow wheel in Mac, and it can be fixed When an application calls for a lot of processing from the CPU that it sends Mac into the spinning wheel state. This can be very annoying for the user as they are stuck on Mac keeps freezing spinning wheel screens. We need to fix this for the better health of Mac as such conditions are going to make the system very unstable.
1. Force Quit Applications –
Force Quit application when you are staring at the screen for longer than a couple of minutes with the wheel of death on Mac. There are several ways to quit an application on Mac, here we use the most handy method.
Step 1: Open the Menu Bar by clicking the Apple icon on the desktop.
Now, click on the Force Quit option from this list. It will show you the names of the applications and you can select one which causes trouble.
Click on the name of the application and click on the Force Quit button. This will immediately end all the ongoing processes for that application and stop spinning wheel, Mac. If you don’t see the result after quitting one application, try closing other running applications.
Alternatively, you can use a mouse and keyboard to force quit an application in order to remove the Mac spinning wheel. On your keyboard press ALT key and right-click or CTRL-click on the application icon from the Dock. The option will show you Force Quit for the selected application. Press it to stop spinning the rainbow wheel on the Mac.
NOTE: If you right-click on the app icon on Dock without pressing the Alt key, the option only shows the Quit option.
Another method to force quit applications that will help you fix the spinning ball on Mac is to use the Activity Monitor.
- Open Activity Monitor from the Launchpad, and you will see the running process names on it.
- Go to the CPU tab and select the application which is responsible for displaying the wheel of death on Mac.
- “Are you sure you want to quit this process?“ message will appear as you click on the Cross button. Click on Force Quit
Method 2: Clean the disk on Mac-
It is important to have space on the disk for Mac to function correctly. If it is filled with all the unnecessary tasks running in the background, it tends to overload the processing unit. These conditions result in the Mac rainbow wheel on the screen while working. To avoid the inconvenience caused by the Mac spinning wheel, we suggest keeping your Mac clean. Avoid cluttering and remove unwanted junk files and programs.
We recommend using TuneupMyMac, which is a complete solution to this problem. It will fix your Mac in quick steps using the powerful modules on it. tuneupMyMac is a great way to save you from unstable Mac and related issues. To fix the Mac spinning wheel on startup, or while running an application, TuneupMyMac will play the role of the saviour. It will fix the slow speed of the Mac by clearing the unnecessary system and user logs.
Outlook For Mac Slow Spinning Wheel Balancer
Let’s start with downloading TuneupMyMac on your Mac from the link given below-
To complete the installation, run the setup file and enter the registration key to use it.
Let’s begin with cleaning the Mac to fix the spinning wheel of death issue.
1. Clear Cache On Mac Using TuneupMyMac-
Over time a lot of disk space is filled with cache files as cache is generated by the system, applications and user activity. To delete cache for each application manually can be little tiring, so we take help from the Cleaning tool on TuneupMyMac. It is capable of deleting multiple files at once and thus saving your time.
Run TuneupMyMac and click on Start System Scan from the home screen as TuneupMyMac will runs a full system scan to check the disk storage.
It then generates a list with the temporary and junk files showing in the different sections- System Cleaner, Logs Cleaner, Temp files, Unused languages.
Click on each one to get the detailed report on the different sections as the system cleaner consists of the cache files generated by system and user. Similarly the Logs Cleaner will remove the system and user-generated log files. The temporary files can be found in the Temp Fille section. At the same time, Unused languages will have a list of unused languages from different applications. All of it is unwanted junk files and cluttering Mac storage.
You can clean it all by clicking on Clean Now button and get your one-click solution by TuneupMyMac.
Confirm the dialog box and permit to clear the selected files. Enter the User ID and password to confirm the action.
2. Uninstall unnecessary applications-
TuneupMyMac has another useful tool called Uninstaller. It is located in the Optimization section and used to remove multiple applications at once quickly.
The best part of this tool is that it will altogether remove all the associated files along with the application. To use it, click on it and select the applications you want to remove from the Mac.
Click on the Uninstall button and get rid of the applications which are causing the spinning rainbow wheel on Mac.
3. Clean Duplicates-
Using TuneupMyMac, you can clear the unwanted duplicates taking up much space on the disk, click on Duplicates Finder in the Optimization section.
Now click on the Find Duplicate button, and the scan will run for all the duplicate files present on Mac.
As a result, shows up after a few minutes, you can select the duplicates you want to delete from your computer.
These are the effective ways to clean Mac and free it from constant issues such as the spinning wheel of death.
Conclusion-
Outlook For Mac Slow Spinning Wheel Balancer
If you consistently face the problem of the Mac rainbow wheel on your screen, use TuneupMyMac. It is the best maintenance software for Mac to keep it safe from any such errors. TuneupMyMac proves to be the correct tool for tuning up Mac with the cleaning, optimization, and uninstaller modules. No more problems such as Mac keeps freezing on the spinning wheel that occurs after its use.
Download it now from the link below-
We hope this article will be helpful to understand the process of how to stop spinning wheel in Mac. We would like to know your views on this post to make it more useful. Your suggestions and comments are welcome in the comment section below. Share the information with your friends and others by sharing the article on social media.
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