When using iMac IOS Sequoia 15 I randomly get the spinning beachball of death. It takes over computer making access to my apps time consuming. I have spent time with Apple support techs who have no idea how to fix. It gives me reason to switch back to PC's when this iMac dies.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Spinning Wheel of Death
iMac 21.5″, macOS 15.7
Spinning beachball means the system is waiting on something slow, stuck, or corrupted, and on older iMacs running Sequoia, it’s usually disk-level lag, background agents misbehaving, or kernel extensions hanging the UI thread.
Safe Mode is the right first step because it strips out non-Apple login items and forces a directory check. If the issue disappears there, you’re dealing with third-party launch agents or old system tools. If it still happens, run an EtreCheck report and look for anything hitting the disk heavily or crashing repeatedly. Also make sure the drive’s SMART status is healthy, a failing HDD or fusion drive will trigger constant beachballs long before it dies outright. And yes, remove any antivirus, cleaners, or “optimizer” apps; they cause more UI freezes on macOS than they solve.
Spinning beachball means the system is waiting on something slow, stuck, or corrupted, and on older iMacs running Sequoia, it’s usually disk-level lag, background agents misbehaving, or kernel extensions hanging the UI thread.
Safe Mode is the right first step because it strips out non-Apple login items and forces a directory check. If the issue disappears there, you’re dealing with third-party launch agents or old system tools. If it still happens, run an EtreCheck report and look for anything hitting the disk heavily or crashing repeatedly. Also make sure the drive’s SMART status is healthy, a failing HDD or fusion drive will trigger constant beachballs long before it dies outright. And yes, remove any antivirus, cleaners, or “optimizer” apps; they cause more UI freezes on macOS than they solve.
I have spent time with Apple support techs who have no idea how to fix.
We have no way to know what they had you do unless you were to start from the beginning and explain.
First fundamental step that may obviate any others: Please determine if the same problems occur in "Safe Mode": Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support.
You may want to run Etrecheck and post a report here so we may see what is happening to it.
click here ➜ Using EtreCheck - Apple Community
Also, remove any Anti-virus, malware checkers and cleaning apps for starters, as those are known to have adverse effects on Macs' performance.
With that said, threats don't work here. This is a user to user forum, we don't work for Apple, and have no vested interest in your continued usage of Apple devices. If you wish to switch to Windows go right ahead no one will stop you.
John Galt wrote:
You are expending about as much effort toward solving your problem as Apple did. Safe mode first. EtreCheck next.
When posting the Etrecheck report follow this:
Copy the report
and after clicking on the Reply button use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.
Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine the cause of the problem.
You are expending about as much effort toward solving your problem as Apple did. Safe mode first. EtreCheck next.
I did screen share and all they did was check my CPU, memory, app file, and use a guest account to see if issue occurred there also. I have had problem for years with no resolution. How come the Apple "Geniuses" are unable to solve?
How to fix the 'Spinning Wheel of Death' on iMac with macOS Sequoia 15.7?
