The dreaded beachball

The best antivirus, cleaning app, and overall maintenance app for Mac OS is Mac OS itself. All you need to do with Mac OS to keep it secure and running well is to keep it up-to-date and do periodic (about 1x per week) restarts. Other than that, leave it alone. Adding third party antivirus, cleaning, security and other types of maintenance apps to Mac OS adds no additional level of security. The only thing these apps do is have the opposite affect users want. They make Mac OS slow, unstable, generate odd behavior (much like you are experiencing) and make Mac OS appear buggy.

Please locate the developers uninstall instructions for BitDefender and any other AV apps or cleaning apps and follow to the letter. Then restart in Safe Mode per the directions in Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac  and then restart normally.

Hi Ian,

Thanks for contacting Apple Support Communities!

We understand that when you're attempting to save files from GarageBand, the performance isn't what you'd expect.

We'd like to work with you to help isolate this behavior further.

Are you saving your files directly to the external drive or do you save them to the iMac them move them to your external drive?

We would suggest that you use Activity Monitor to check the processes and memory as outlined here: Check if your Mac needs more RAM in Activity Monitor

You may also consider checking the available space on your startup disk: Free up storage space on your Mac

You can also create a new user account to test with. This will let us know if this behavior is system wide or isolated to your one account.

To create a new user account, you can go to the Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Users & Groups.

Click the lock icon, then enter an administrator name and password.

Click the add button (+) below the list of users.

Complete the fields shown for an Administrator account, then click Create Account (or OK).

Once you’ve created the new account, go to the Apple menu  > Log Out, then log in with the new account and attempt to export a file from GarageBand.

You can also run a diagnostic test on your Mac to verify this behavior isn't hardware related: Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac

Let us know how it goes.

Cheers!

ijenkins99,

Thanks for following up. Moving files to iCloud Drive or using an external drive are both great options to save space on your Mac.

If you're still experiencing an issue with GarageBand performance, we recommend testing in safe mode. Starting in safe mode allows your Mac to run certain checks, remove caches, and prevent login items from automatically launching. This can isolate possible third party issues. Use the steps and information in the following resource for assistance with safe mode: How to use safe mode on your Mac

Keep us posted.

I would encourage you to uninstall all antivirus apps and any cleanup apps as they are notorious for causing issues.

Macs have built-in security and in addition there are no Mac viruses in the wild. The only thing you need to do is be vigilant to avoid installing malware from the internet.

You are not alone, many Windows switchers make the same mistakes. Once you eradicate your system of Bit Defender, you may want to post a fresh EtreCheck report for us to look over. Sometimes left over pieces of these apps are left behind and although they can be gotten rid of it takes some work.

Also, keeping some data on your iCloud storage is just fine, that is what it is designed for. Particularly if you want to have them available when using your iPad, iPhone or even another computer. I do this all the time. I recently travelled to Hawaii and kept all my COVID docs on my iPad and just brought up the file to show security my proof of vaccination and getting the booster. This was much more simple than dragging along hard copies.

Pretty sure I maxed out my 24" and I'm getting beach balls on the daily.... even on the most simple test like opening iMessages. I do run Adobe Lightroom and PSD but the lag time is shocking for a brand new computer. I'm SO SO disappointed but didn't get it set up until a couple months after purchase due to my busy season of work so no return option at this point. It does seem to work smoother with my external detached but still even when I dismount it, I still get beach ball. I'm beside myself... biggest regret so far purchasing this b/c of a friends advice over the standard iMacs I was looking at purchasing.

24-inch Blue iMac with 4.5K Retina displayWith the following configuration:

Apple M1 chip with 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, 8-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine

16GB unified memory

2TB SSD storage

Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports

Two USB 3 ports

Gigabit Ethernet

+1 Julie,

Please start your own thread, posting your issue can only confuse the original poster's message. This way we can spend the time needed to solve your problem and not get confused with another problem.

It will help if you post your own EtreCheck report too.

+1 to rkaufmann87

Also, regarding iCloud, I store every single file I have in iCloud, and it's always worked out excellent!

Jack

Hi Julie,

If you could, please start a new thread here on Apple Support Communities. That way, your issue gets the attention it deserves.

Jack