Why is the colored ball spinning on my Mac?

When you see the spinning colored beach ball, it means the Mac is slowing down due to low resources, such as memory, hard drive or processing power. It's telling you to wait while the computer chugs through its work. Sometimes, it means the app is “frozen” and unable to continue.
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How do I stop the spinning color wheel on my Mac?

How to Stop Spinning Wheel on Mac?
  1. Look at the top-left corner of the screen and click the Apple icon.
  2. Select Force Quit. Or you can also press Command + Alt + Esc .
  3. Select the application you want to force quit. In this case, it's the non-responsive app.
  4. Press Force Quit.
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What does the spinning rainbow wheel mean on a Mac?

Known as a rainbow wheel, spinning beach ball of death, or SBBOD, its official name is the Spinning Wait Cursor, and it's a system indicator signifying that macOS cannot handle all the tasks given to it at this moment. Usually, it's due to a specific app not responding that a spinning wheel is triggered.
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What does the spinning ball mean on my Mac?

The ball signifies that your Mac cannot handle all the tasks given to it at this moment. Every app on your Mac has a so-called window server. When an app receives more events than it can process, the window server automatically shows you the spinning ball.
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How do I get rid of the spinning globe on my Mac?

If you see the globe and alert symbol, try these solutions:
  1. Make sure that your Mac can connect to the internet. ...
  2. Press Command-R at startup to try using the built-in Recovery system instead of internet Recovery.
  3. Connect to the internet using Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi, or vice versa.
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Rainbow Spinning Pinwheel of Death - Explained! (Mac) [Spinning Beachball]



How do you fix the beach ball on a Mac?

Close the tab/program with the Spinning Beach Ball showing.

You can force quit any program by clicking the Apple logo in the top left of the screen and then force quit. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut: Option, Command and Esc (Escape).
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What does the Coloured spinning wheel mean?

The spinning rainbow wheel is a common macOS wait cursor. This wheel comes up when an application that you're running doesn't respond for a few moments.
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What happens when force quit doesn't work on Mac?

What to Do If Force Quit Isn't Working? If all the applications stop responding and you can't quit them using one of the methods described above, you can force your Mac to restart. To do so, press and hold the Control+Command+Power buttons.
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How do you get rid of colored ball on Mac?

You can resolve the problem by doing a Force Quit on the offending app:
  1. Click the Apple menu, and select Force Quit. The Mac displays a list of running apps.
  2. Click the name of the app that's having the problem.
  3. Click the Force Quit button to stop the offending app. The app will close quickly.
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How do you fix a frozen Mac?

How to unfreeze your Mac?
  1. Press Command- Esc-Option on your keyboard at the same time, then release them. ...
  2. Select the name of the frozen application from the menu's list and click Force Quit. ...
  3. If the Force Quit menu doesn't appear or the frozen program doesn't close, you'll need to restart your computer.
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How do you restart a frozen Mac?

If the OS is frozen but the mouse cursor still responds, click the Apple () symbol in the upper left corner of the screen and select Restart. Otherwise, try holding down the Control (Ctrl) key and pressing the power button. If the system shutdown dialog appears, select Restart from the available options.
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Why is my Mac not responding?

Click on the Apple menu at the top left of the screen, then select Restart and click Restart. If you cannot interact with the Apple menu (perhaps your mouse is unresponsive) try pressing Command-Control-Eject on a very old Mac or Control-Option-Command-Power button on a newer Mac.
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Why is my Mac stuck on loading screen?

If your Mac is stuck on this screen

On notebook computers that have Touch ID, press and hold Touch ID.) Turn your Mac back on. If the issue persists, press and hold the power button until your Mac turns off. Then unplug all accessories from your Mac, including printers, drives, USB hubs, and other nonessential devices.
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How do I fix my Mac that won't start up?

On a Mac laptop:
  1. Shut down the MacBook.
  2. Unplug and then reconnect the power cable.
  3. Press Shift + Ctrl + Option/Alt keys and the power button at the same time.
  4. Now release all those keys and the power button at the same time.
  5. You may see the light on the power cable flicker.
  6. Restart your MacBook.
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How do I force restart Mac?

To force shut down your Mac, press and hold the power button until the screen goes black. This might take 10 seconds or more; just keep holding the button. After your Mac shuts down, wait a few moments to let it cool off, then briefly press the power button again to restart it.
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How do you hard reset a Mac?

How to Hard Reset MacBook Air or MacBook Pro
  1. To force a restart your MacBook, you need to press and hold down the Command (⌘) button, the Control (Ctrl) key, and the power button at the same time.
  2. Hold these keys down until your MacBook's screen goes blank and the computer restarts itself.
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How do you Ctrl Alt Delete on a Mac?

The Mac equivalent of 'control alt delete' is 'Command+Option+Escape', which opens up the Force Quit menu so you can close down any apps that aren't responding.
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Why is my MacBook Pro frozen?

Main reasons a Mac can freeze: Too many apps running. Too many browser tabs open. Not enough hard drive space.
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