How To Stop The Spinning Wheel On Mac

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The spinning wheel or “spinning beach ball of death” is a frustrating symbol of a Mac working too hard. It indicates that your Mac is busy processing something and can cause delays in completing tasks. 

Let’s dive into some simple troubleshooting steps to stop the spinning cursor and improve performance.

Key Takeaways:

• The spinning rainbow wheel indicates your Mac is temporarily busy or struggling to respond. Give it time to catch up before force quitting apps.
• Force quit unresponsive apps using Command + Option + Escape if the wheel persists for over a minute. This usually fixes the issue.
• Repair disk permissions and clear storage space if you regularly get the spinning wheel. This maintains optimal performance.
• For older Macs, the spinning wheel could mean it’s time to upgrade hardware that can’t keep up with demands.
• Prevent issues by regularly clearing cache, updating software, avoiding overloading RAM, and moving files to external drives.

How To Stop The Spinning Wheel On Mac [Quick Answer]

The best way to stop spinning the wheel on Mac is to wait for a few seconds. If waiting doesn’t help, force quit the unresponsive app. In most cases, this fixes the issue. But if the problem persists, you can also try some advanced solutions that we’ll cover below.

What Is The Mac Spinning Wheel?

The Mac Spinning Wheel, also known as the “beach ball” and technically called a throbber, appears on Mac’s screen when an application or task takes longer than usual to complete. It indicates that the computer is busy processing information, and you should wait until the task is completed.

The wheel typically appears when launching, saving, or during complex operations. It can also appear when the computer performs demanding computing tasks, runs low on RAM or disk space, or when a Mac is frozen altogether.

The spinning wheel can be frustrating because it indicates the computer is not responding to your commands. But it is usually a temporary delay, and the computer will eventually complete the task and return to normal operation.

If the rainbow spinning wheel persists for an extended period, it may be a sign that there is a problem with the computer that needs to be addressed.

How to Stop the Spinning Wheel on Mac – Fix

Although no exact method works every time to stop the spinning wheel because the causes differ, there are different solutions for this issue. So, you can try the following solutions one by one, and it should fix the problem.

1. Wait A While

Well, this may sound like a no-brainer solution. But sometimes, the easiest way to fix a tech problem is to be patient.

The most common cause of a Mac spinning wheel is an application or service overusing system resources. In that case, the best solution is to give it some time and patience, and most likely, the issue will go away.

So, give it a minute, take a break, and come back to see if the spinning wheel has vanished.

2. Force Quit

Sometimes, the spinning wheel appears when an application becomes unresponsive. This can happen when the app demands resources to run, and your computer can’t quite keep up.

In this case, you can usually get rid of the spinning wheel by force quitting the unresponsive app.

Here’s how:

1. Go to the Apple menu at the top left of your screen and click Force Quit…

2. Select the unresponsive program or app from the list and tap the Force Quit button.

Alternatively, you can also simply hit the Command, Option, and Escape keys simultaneously to access the force quit menu and quit a non-responsive app or program.

3. Repair Disk Errors

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 repairing disk permission via Disk Utility.

1. Open Finder on your Mac.

2. In the Finder window, select Applications in the left sidebar and open the Utilities folder.

3. Double-click the Disk Utility icon in the Utilities folder.

4. Select your main hard drive and click the First Aid button in the top bar.

5. Tap Run on the prompt.

6. Tap Continue on the warning prompt.

The disk repair might fix your repeated spinning wheel issue.

4. Single User Reset

Single User Mode boots the Mac into a special troubleshooting mode. It provides command-line access to perform system maintenance and fix issues like the spinning wheel.

Tasks possible in this mode include resetting passwords, repairing disks, and deleting problematic files.

Here’s how to perform a Single User Reset on Mac:

1. Restart your Mac and hold down the Command and S keys while restarting.

2. Hold down these keys until the Apple logo appears on your screen.
3. Release the keys, and your screen will appear black with some lines of data and an old-style computer prompt. This indicates that you have successfully entered Single User Mode.
4. Once in Single User Mode, run a file system check by entering the following command and pressing Enter:

fsck -fy

5. After you have completed the scan, enter the command reboot to restart your Mac in normal mode.

Note: Only experienced users familiar with the command line should attempt Single User Reset, as incorrect commands can cause data loss. Carefully follow all instructions and double-check commands before running.

5. Clean Disk Storage

When your Mac’s hard drive is running low on disk space, it can cause the system to slow down and lead to the appearance of the spinning wheel. When the hard drive is nearly full, the system can become fragmented, and it struggles to access files quickly.

When you try to launch an application or perform a task, the system may have to spend time searching for the necessary files, which can cause the spinning wheel to appear.

Also, with limited space, managing temporary app files gets difficult, slowing things down more.

To clean up disk storage on a Mac, you can follow these tips:

1. Check “About This Mac > More Info > Storage Settings” to see which files and folders are taking up space on your hard drive.

2. Uninstall unused third-party apps, especially ones that automatically launch on startup. You can disable them or remove them once and for all.
3. Go through folders and delete unnecessary documents, downloads, etc., by dragging them to the Bin to free up space.

4. Clean unnecessary system files, duplicates, caches, and old downloads to regain storage space. You can use a Mac cleaner app for efficiency. CleanMyMac X is one that we use to clear out the cache and temporary files, and we highly recommend it.

5. Remove unused large files. You can use the Finder’s search feature to search for files larger than a certain size or sort files by size to identify which ones take up the most space.
6. Move less-used large files to external drives or cloud storage to free up internal space.

6. Upgrade Your Hardware

The spinning wheel problems on older MacBooks may result due to more serious underlying causes that don’t have an easy fix. For instance, the wheel can appear due to an overworked CPU or insufficient RAM.

If this is the case, you may have to upgrade hardware to keep up with the demands of modern apps and programs overworking your system.

To check your CPU usage:

1. Open your Finder.

2. Go to Applications and select Utilities.

3. Double-click Activity Monitor to launch it.

4. You can check your CPU usage in the %CPU column.
5. You can also see the CPU Load at the bottom, giving 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 cannot keep up with your system, and it may be time for a new computer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Thoughts

If you happen to see the spinning wheel on your Mac, you can usually fix it by simply force quitting the unresponsive application. If that doesn’t work, follow the other steps we have listed in this guide to address the issue and get your computer working again.

Nobody likes to see the spinning wheel, but now you know how to address the problem and remedy the issue on your own.

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