Outlook For Mac Slow Spinning Wheel

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.

Outlook For Mac Slow Spinning Wheel Spinner

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.

Cleaning Up Mac’s Drive. This is yet another common reason why users face Mac is running slow issues. We all know that Mac’s hard drive gets filled quickly due to space issues, and with these, the temporary and junk files eat up even more space. To clean up Mac drive means optimizing the drive, which macOS Catalina can do it. The spinning wheel usually appears when an application freezes, or overloads your Mac’s processing power. Checking your Mac’s available storage space and RAM capacity can shed light on the potential causes of a frequent spinning wheel. Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

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:

  1. Go to the Apple menu at the top-left of your screen.
  2. Click Force Quit.
  3. Select the unresponsive program or app from the list.
  4. Click Force Quit.

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.

Outlook For Mac Slow Spinning Wheel 2020

Wheel

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.

  1. Open the Finder on your computer.
  2. Select Applications.
  3. Click on the Disk Utility icon.
  4. Select your main hard drive.
  5. 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.

  1. Restart your computer.
  2. Hold down the Command and S keys while restarting.
  3. Hold down these keys until you see the Apple logo appear on your screen.
  4. Release the keys and your screen will now appear black with some lines of data and an old-style computer prompt.
  5. Type fsck -y and be sure to include a space in between the k and the -y.
  6. 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:

  1. Open your Finder.
  2. Go to Applications.
  3. Click on Utilities.
  4. Click on Activity Monitor.
  5. 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.

Performance

Final Thoughts

Spinning

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.

Outlook For Mac Slow Spinning Wheel Balancer

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Mac Slow Internet Connection

Do you have a nickname for the spinning wheel? Does it happen on your computer often?