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Kernel panics, beachballing, etc.

My iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019) running macOS 12.5.1 is becoming increasingly unusable due to frequent beachballing, kernel panics, apps becoming unresponsive and crashing. I frequently have to force-quit apps and restart to get the computer operational again. Sometimes it will go for hours without problems, sometimes they happen almost as soon as I start up but they always seem to recur. I have disconnected all external drives and uninstalled some old apps and extensions but the problem persists. I have thought about reinstalling the OS but haven't done so yet. Any suggestions on what to do next? I have attached my most recent EtreCheckPro report.


iMac

Posted on Aug 29, 2022 11:52 AM

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Posted on Aug 31, 2022 11:00 AM

I just looked at your report and it looks like you have a Windows partition:


disk0s3 - N********D (MS-DOS FAT12) 1.12 TB


I'm pretty darn sure the answer to your problem is to exclude BOOTCAMP from Spotlight. Go to System Preferences->Spotlight, Privacy tab, and add BOOTCAMP by dragging and dropping it from Finder.


I suffered through the same issues for a week and after excluding BOOTCAMP, my problem was immediately solved and my Mac has been fine since.


See my previous post for more info.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 31, 2022 11:00 AM in response to ScorpioX3

I just looked at your report and it looks like you have a Windows partition:


disk0s3 - N********D (MS-DOS FAT12) 1.12 TB


I'm pretty darn sure the answer to your problem is to exclude BOOTCAMP from Spotlight. Go to System Preferences->Spotlight, Privacy tab, and add BOOTCAMP by dragging and dropping it from Finder.


I suffered through the same issues for a week and after excluding BOOTCAMP, my problem was immediately solved and my Mac has been fine since.


See my previous post for more info.

Aug 30, 2022 2:33 PM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks for your response and your help, Barney-15E. I started up in and stayed in Safe Mode yesterday for most of the day and had no crashes or panics. Restarted this am normally and experienced beach-balling within an hour. I checked the panic log today and found 2 things that were recently related to kernel panics: AppleMobileDeviceHelper (BAD ACCESS/KERN_INVALID ADDRESS) and Safari (BAD ACCESS/KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE). Not sure what to do next. What do you suggest?

Sep 1, 2022 5:52 PM in response to ScorpioX3

Problem solved! I excluded Bootcamp from Spotlight yesterday afternoon and have had no further issues since doing so; things appear to be back to normal. Thanks for suggesting that, BobPioneer. I never would have made that connection or figured it out on my own. Thanks for your help as well, Barney-15E. Starting up in Safe Mode and having the problem disappear pointed me away from it being possibly a hardware problem and got me focused on the software.

Kernel panics, beachballing, etc.

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